macbook stuck on preparing to restore macintosh screen

I had the exactly same issue as you faced. When I contacted the Apple customer service to ask about this issue, the rep. said I need to wait until the whole process finishes. Thus, I waited for several hours, but I could not see any change on the screen at all. I felt something is wrong since "preparing to restore" doesn't mean the actual restoring process. After several tests, I successfully restored my previous backup from my external SSD having Time Machine full backups. I would like to share my experience.

My case:

My device is MacBook Pro 16inch 2019 (Installed OS: Catalina). I upgraded macOS from Catalina to Monterey for the Logic 10.7. However, the Logic 10.7 has sluggish loading issues and I decided to go back to Catalina again with my time machine full backup.

When I tried to restore my backup, the macOS recovery initially showed an error that the backup could not be restored into the main SSD and thus I exited the restoration process and ran it again without rebooting. After selecting the restoration target drive, the restore button didn't work at all. So I did rebooting and I could see the restore button and run it. Unfortunately, it was stuck on preparing to restore Macintosh HD... for several hours.

Problem:

I think this issue comes from a version conflict between the macOS recovery firmware pre-installed when the MBP was shipped and the backup data. When you enter the macOS recovery, if you cannot see the 2D rotating earth globe with the title "internet recovery", it may be a pre-installed recovery firmware. This firmware doesn't allow you to install the original OS version. I could see Monterey reinstallation option, not the original Catalina reinstallation.

Solution:

What you need before these steps:

• your external time machine backup drive (should be connected to the MBP before entering the recovery firmware)
• the internet connection.

1. Erase the main Macintosh HD in your main SSD. In the macOS recovery, select the Disk Utility and erase the main Macintosh HD. Then exit the disk utility and turn off your MBP. Don't be afraid, you will be fine. This step will erase the pre-installed recovery firmware.
2. Turn on your MBP while pressing cmd+r until the apple logo pops up.
3. Now you can see the internet recovery with the 2D rotating earth globe (I had never seen this before erasing the main drive). Select your WiFi router and make the internet connection. It requires apple login with your Apple ID and PWD for authentication. Then it will automatically download the new recovery firmware. There is a progress bar under the logo, but it doesn't show the actual size and takes several minutes. In the middle of downloading, if you face an error like me, don't worry. Just reboot it and it will automatically continue the downloading after the end of previous downloading.
4. After success of automatic downloading, you will see the macOS recovery options with slightly different design. Now you can reinstall the your original OS (my case is Catalina, not Monterey). Select the restoration option and select the backup source drive and the target drive and finally press the restore button. The step of "preparing to restore Macintosh HD..." takes only several minutes and then it starts the actual restoring process showing restoring data size and estimated time. Less than 1 hour, my full backup restoration (~300GB) was done!

I hope you can restore your backup soon. Good luck!

Shame on you, Apple customer service! You guys should provide the solution for this issue, not by customers!

First off - Hats off to MuzeTiK's post from Feb 11, 2022 above. Lifesaver.

While I used most of the Solution from the above post, I had one issue, which I see another user (whodiini2) also mentions, during restore my internal disk was not available as a destination disk.

Also, I wanted to mention that my original problem was the upgrade to Monterey seemed to have bricked my computer. As part of the upgrade, I was stuck on a black screen with the apple logo and progress bar for a long time. On hard rebooting the computer, I would get to the login screen - but as soon as I login, it would go back to the black screen and sit there.

So, I decided, I have a time machine - let me restore. Which brought me to this problem. I was splitting hairs till MuzeTiK's solution (with a slight twist).

So, I am mostly repeating MuzeTiK's solution, with what I had to do to move ahead.

1. Disconnect any external peripherals (including the Time machine external drive).
2. Start your MacBook and immediately press the CMD-R till you get to the recovery options screen. (Note: For Non-intel MacBooks, the keystroke combination is different than CMD-R. Google it.)
3. Select Disk Utility. Select you main hard drive (should be the first entry on the left) and select the option to "Erase". As MuzeTiK said "Don't be afraid, you will be fine".
4. Shutdown your computer.
5. Connect your Time Machine external disk.
6. Start the computer and again press the "CMD-R" (although this may not be needed - since you erased the disk). This time, you will enter the "Internet Recovery mode with the rotating Apple Logo".
7. You will be prompted to select your WiFi. Make sure you connect to the WiFi successfully (I don't know if you can even move forward without this step being successful).
8. MuzeTiK indicated you may be prompted for your AppleID and password. I wasn't - so your mileage may wary here.
9. Now, you can first try to Restore from Time Machine. If you don't have any disk option as the destination (like me), then you need the next step. If you already see your Disk (like I believe MuzeTik did, just go ahead and restore).
   1. Go back to the main Restore Screen and select Disk Utility again.
   2. Select your internal disk (again, should be the first entry on the left)
   3. Select the option to "Make Partition". Call this partition "Macintosh HD".
   4. Shutdown and re-enter in the recovery mode (CMD-R).
10. Now, you can (again) try to "Restore from Time Machine". This time, you should see your Macintosh HD as a destination to choose and Time Machine should start chugging away.

Hope this helps. Once again, Kudo's to MuzeTiK for the original discovery of this solution, and hugely disappointed with Apple support for not providing better guidance. I would presume at this time, this should be classified as a "known problem" and some better guidance provided to the Apple users.

FWIW, my experience, frustration, and then solution rolling back from Monterey to Mojave on a 2018 Intel Mini:

1) 2018 Intel Mac running Mojave backing up to external drive

2) Upgraded to Monterey. Some buyer's regret. (Some older Logic Pro X projects were corrupted / crashed in Monterey.)

3) Figured I would restore my Mojave Time Machine backup to an external drive so I could dual-boot, sometimes booting back into old Mojave to at least export stems from my old tracks.

4) Command-R booted, asked to restore my Time Machine to my external drive

5) Grr. Stuck on "Preparing to restore" for hours and hours, several tries.

6) SOLUTION: Rebooted this time doing Command-Option-R for Internet recovery

7) Now I was allowed to restore my Mojave Time Machine backup to an external drive. Got a progress bar within a couple minutes.

Fingers crossed that my backup works!

Useful, but didnt quite work for me. I erased the drive as you said, shut down and then restarted command-R. saw the spinning globe, booted up. But it did not see the internal drive. Went to disk utility and the internal drive wasnt there. Rebooted, and it still wasnt recognized. So I booted up with a USB install drive of the version I wanted to reinstall - Mojave. Then the internal drive showed up, but it now had 2 partitiions, with an extra "Update" partition. So I deleted the internal drive again. Then went to restore and the restore went fine. One more issue I had - my time machine is on another mac. So when restoring, it asks for a username and password for the machine the backup is located. No matter what I typed, it would not get past that. Turns out the fix is to go into the machine where the backup is located, go to sharing and file sharing options and turn on SMB. After that I could log on and restore my machine. Couldnt find that solution online either!

My fix was to restart with Option key and choose your TimeMachine back up! It will bring you directly to restore.

do not use Command R on start up

This solution worked for me as well! Thank you so much, MuzeTIK!

My parents' iMac was supposed to be able to run Monterey, so I made a huge upgrade from Sierra to Monterey (5 version jump). Their machine ran horribly slow after the upgrade; pretty much unusable.

When trying the recovery from Time Machine backup, the iMac sat in the 'preparing for restore' limbo for 14 hours. I quit the restore and shut down the iMac for a few minutes. When I booted back into Recovery Mode (Cmd+ R) the recovery mode immediately looked older; no dark mode and the icons looked like previous versions. After selecting my recovery options, the recovery from Time Machine starting immediately. The machine is now back to it's old-old Sierra install and runs fine.

I may try an incremental upgrade to High Sierra or Mojave, but I'm nervous to push the older machine too far. I have been upset with Apple for the past week because they listed this iMac as able to run Monterey, but it did not work out. If you are in the lower end of the 'able to upgrade' list, I would consider carefully if you want to risk it. Be sure you have a clean backup and a back out plan if it doesn't go well.

This worked for me but with the added step of needing to erase the internal SSD one additional time after the internet recovery stage. 2017 13" MBP with Catalina backups before upgrading to Monterey.

The Monterey disk utility added an "Update" volume that was listed as the same capacity as the Macintosh HD partition, and when attempting to install to the Macintosh HD partition, the restore failed saying it couldn't be erased.

Quitting the Time Machine System Restore and erasing it once more with the disk utility app (in the now Catalina recovery mode), solved the additional problem and removed the no longer needed "Update" partition.

Another grateful Mac owner! Many thanks to MuzeTiK and Whodiini2!

Upgrade to Monterey failed for unexplained reasons, I had problems like the others and following MuzeTiK + Whodiini2 instructions I could do a full recovery from a mechanical (non SSD) external drive Time Machine backup I'd done just before attempting the upgrade - it took a couple of hours for 250gb; thus I went back to the previous status quo, and to Mojave OS.

As In Whodiini2's case, the HD did not show up when I got to the point of being asked to which drive to do the recovery. But instead of creating a new partition as s/he did, I went back to the Utility Disk option and erased the main MBP HD (top in the left hand list) again - thought it would not hurt as I'd done it once before. THIS time (but not the previous time) it asked me to give a name to the reformatted drive (I also gave Macintosh HD) - in fact the previous erase did not ask for formatting specs, so not sure what happened there - after which it did appear at the right moment, and everything now seems to have gone back to normal.

Great relief! I'll also be updating my backups to newer SSDs now... though keeping the old faithful drives for occasional backups too. Sometimes the old stuff works better than the new, as just demonstrated!

THANKS A LOT for your help, guys!!!

i had exactly the same problem and this worked for me with several tweaks. I had to access disk utility from the safe start-up with cmd+r and then i could erase the ssd. Once erased and shut down again i got the globe and could connect to wifi. I had to shut down and restart the computer a few times before the ssd (macintosh hd) disk was recognised as a back-up destination. With the ssd wiped there was no longer any need to hold cmd+r on start-up and it went directly to the restore menu. Monterey was a complete disaster for my intel mac, but new features of adobe creative cloud require this update.

Hello CCartel,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. We see that Time Machine is stuck preparing to restore on your MacBook Pro. We're happy to look into this with you.

We recommend that you restart your Mac and try again. Restarting is a simple step that can resolve many unexpected behaviors.

Shut down or restart your Mac

If the issue persists, the remaining steps in the resource below can help:

If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine

Let us know the results. Be sure to include specific error messages and any other troubleshooting steps that you may have tried.

Have a great day!

This saved me! Thanks for the great explanation. What I’ve found that might help others, is that there are 2 different shortcuts to rebooting in recovery. When I followed apple support and held “option, cmd and r” it would boot up with Monterey listed as the default res install OSX. When I hold only the “cmd, r” on reboot, it gives me the systems original OSX (Sierra in this case) instead as the default reinstall OSX. Maybe I imagined this, but if you’re someone as stuck for answers as I was, with such dedicated but time wasting apple support, then worth a shot! I too, erased my Mac Start up disk, rebooted with “cmd, r” but then chose install from Time machine, which I had on an external hard drive plugged in the whole time. Long wait for the restore (900GB) but at least I had a status bar and could see something was actually happening! Thanks again for sharing your experience as it helped me a lot.

It worked! As soon I restarted the system it entered in the utility with the last installed macOS (the same version as that of Time Machine restore) and bang the time machine restore works.

Poor customer support team probably didn’t think about this simple solution.

I think you don't need to use any eternal bootable drive for erasing the main ssd.

Without any eternal botable drive attached, just get in the recovery mode with cmd+r. Then erase the main ssd by disk utility in the recovery mode. Then try to follow the same steps I have described above.

Good luck!

Exactly.

My computer came with Mojave installed.

So I performed the following steps:

Reboot from my Mojave external disk (fortunately I had one).

Completely erase main internal SSD.

Shut down.

Disconnect my Mojave external disk.

Boot holding Cmd+R (but it doesn't matter)

It starts "Internet Recovery".

When "Internet Recovery" progress bar reaches 100%, computer reboots.

After reboot it shows the black Monterey theme and offers to re-install Monterey or Restore from Time Machine, etc.

Trying to restore as expected brings to "Preparing to restore..." endless wait.

Before trying to erase main SSD from Mojave, I've tried to erase it from the recovery utility (as suggested) with the same result.

Thank you so much MuzeTiK

I was having the exact same problem as the open poster (except my case was with an iMac i9. I faced a production crossroad so I installed Monterey to check possible options -having a handy Catalina backup in Time Machine).

I've spent around one hour watching the "Preparing" screen, even with the disk erased (but with the difference that I never restarted the computer) . I was guessing the same thing you explained; so using a Mid 2011 iMac tried to download a Catalina install disk to make a bootable usb to reinstall Catalina and restore the Time Machine backup from there. I could not guess that a simple restart would do the job.

Of course!

Hopefully I browsed this wonder post and bingo! just restart!! That made it. Thanks for sharing!

And after all it makes all the sense. Might be because Apple must warrant that -in a limit scenario- the computer can be cleanly booted -at least- with the original system shipped with the product? Anyway... Restoring all my system now.

Hats off sir