My TM backups keep failing in the preparation stage. I've gotten a larger destination disk because some said that it needed more room to store my backups.
I've cleared out space on my HD because some said it needed room to run.
Even after all that, my backups keep throwing up an error that it can't begin without explaining what the heck is wrong.
Please help.
iMac 21.5″
The "preparation" failure with no explanation almost always means the actual error is being swallowed by the UI. Open Console.app, start a TM backup attempt, and filter by "Backup" — the real error code will be right there. That alone should end the guessing.
The 638 GB on the destination is the other thing worth addressing. If that's not a prior Time Machine backup set, that's almost certainly where the preparation stage is choking. TM tries to create or locate its backup bundle during prep — if it finds unrelated data at the root level of the drive, it can fail silently without explaining why.
At this point the cleanest move is: run First Aid on the destination in Disk Utility, then erase it completely (APFS, GUID Partition Map), and let TM start from a genuinely blank drive. Two weeks of troubleshooting against a disk with 638 GB of unknown contents isn't a clean test.
The "preparation" failure with no explanation almost always means the actual error is being swallowed by the UI. Open Console.app, start a TM backup attempt, and filter by "Backup" — the real error code will be right there. That alone should end the guessing.
The 638 GB on the destination is the other thing worth addressing. If that's not a prior Time Machine backup set, that's almost certainly where the preparation stage is choking. TM tries to create or locate its backup bundle during prep — if it finds unrelated data at the root level of the drive, it can fail silently without explaining why.
At this point the cleanest move is: run First Aid on the destination in Disk Utility, then erase it completely (APFS, GUID Partition Map), and let TM start from a genuinely blank drive. Two weeks of troubleshooting against a disk with 638 GB of unknown contents isn't a clean test.
What a nuisance and frustrating for you.
Lets take some grabs in the dark.
The disk has/had previously 638.45 GB on it already can you either afford to loose whatever it is or can you move that data some where else?
If so then erase the drive again and reformat it so hopefully you have a clean 2TB disk.
Then try setting it up again as a time machine backup drive.
If you really need to keep that 638GB of data and no where else to put it created a new volume on “Crash’s Time machine” using disk utility. Then choose that new volume as your time machine backup.
TM works fine if you create another volume for it but you might be then running out of space.
Just out of interest how much data will you be transferring from Mac SSD initially (not the same as the drive size of 1TB hopefully)?
Does a Time Machine verify report any issues?
If you’re trying to store anything other than Time Machine on the same device, Time Machine wants the whole thing.
Does DriveDx report any errors for the archive device?
Time Machine may be choking on old “in-progress” data. Can you find this folder ".inProgress" from Backups.backupdb on the new backup drive?
Hi Crash041
You say it is a brand new drive.
I would expect TimeMachine to reformat the drive to APFS before it started to backup but perhaps it didn’t.
If you didn’t erase and format the drive to APFS before running TM you might try that and see how it goes.
It would be interesting to know if you have already found a solution.
crash041 wrote:
I am still having trouble with my Time Machine. It's telling me it can't back up without telling me what's wrong.
I’ll assume that the ~640 GB shown is an existing Time Machine backup, and not some other usage unrelated to Time Machine. Time Machine doesn’t like to share.
Is your disk failing? See if DriveDx reports any errors.
If your protected storage is 1 TB or more, that target disk is (much) too small.
crash041 wrote:
I am still having trouble with my Time Machine. It's telling me it can't back up without telling me what's wrong.
Work thru the Time Machine troubleshooting steps.
Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac - Apple Support
So, Time Machine finally gave me a reason why it wasn't backing up. It was a corrupted file in my Discord app's cache files. I've deleted the offending folder and now my Time Machine is working again (YAY!)
But NOW, the cache file won't delete...
I've started in Safe Mode, run Terminal, and done every other way to try to delete the folder, but no joy...
Anyone have any suggestions??
Remove Discord app, restart macOS, check for the folder, and re-install?
crash041 wrote:
The archive device is brand new with no errors or partitions.
Okay, so both Verify and DriveDx report no issues.
How big is the archive device? Usual would be 2.5 to 3 times the aggregate size of the source storage, or more.
The archive device is brand new with no errors or partitions.
My HD is 1TB. The new destination drive is 2TB.
No, I cannot
No, I have not...
My drive is already formatted in APFS.
I am still having trouble with my Time Machine. It's telling me it can't back up without telling me what's wrong.
What's wrong with Time Machine?
