It's been a week so far and Time Machine is still preparing to copy. So far "Preparing to copy 40 million items. Next time, I will just start a new Time Machine Disk and save the old one as backup. I am letting this process run out of curiosity more than anything else. Meanwhile Time Machine is not backing up my new data.
iMac, macOS 10.13
alansf wrote:
It's been a week so far and Time Machine is still preparing to copy. So far "Preparing to copy 40 million items. Next time, I will just start a new Time Machine Disk and save the old one as backup. I am letting this process run out of curiosity more than anything else. Meanwhile Time Machine is not backing up my new data.
You must have the patience of a Saint....
"Time Machine has completed a new backup for you, or get a message saying it can't create the backup,"
or “failed to complete the backup, ” or “Preparing backup”
This message reappears most likely the TimeMachine disk is operating in a state of failure and will continue to fail with increasing frequency, in this case replace the drive.
Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine —https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202784
Hi alansf,
It sounds like you are experiencing some issues with your Time Machine backup taking longer than expected. We can get you pointed in the right direction for support.
If you haven't already, we'd recommend reviewing this resource first: If a Time Machine backup takes longer than you expect
If you're unable to complete the backup, we'd recommend following the steps here: If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine
We hope this helps.
Cheers!
alansf wrote:
Next time, I will just start a new Time Machine Disk and save the old one as backup.
That's what I normally do.
Thanks for your response. My Time Machine disk is almost four years old and works fine. I periodically run First Aid on it to check. I was just concerned because all disks fail eventually. I have other backups. What I decided to do is start another Time Machine disk from scratch and keep the old Time Machine "just in case". The cost of a new external drive is cheap enough. I would advise others to do the same.
How long should Time Machine backup take?Time machine copy - More than a week and not finished yet!
