"Indexing Time Machine Backups" - What does this mean?

Your backups must be indexed to work properly. It sounds like something has happened to that set of backups, to cause them to be re-indexed, but take that 29 hour estimate with a very large grain of salt.

Have the backups to that Mac been completing normally?

smitty195 wrote:

. . .

What am I missing here? Something must be up....is there any way I can diagnose or fix it?

If the backups do complete normally (eventually), a clue may be lurking in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.

You might also want to take a look at #B2 in that link, especially the green box.

Click and drag over the messages in the Time Machine Buddy window to highlight them, then hold down the command key while you tap the C key on your keyboard to copy the text

Come back to the Support area and click the reply window and then hold down the command key while you tap the V key on your keyboard to paste the text that you copied from Time Machine Buddy

smitty195 wrote:

. . .

Copied 0 bytes of 57.0 MB, 0 of 339 items

Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!

All normal to that point.

As odd as it sounds, the problem might be the name of your Time Capsule. See #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

If that doesn't help, something (probabaly an I/O error) caused TM to fail and force-eject the sparse bundle containing your backups.

Try to repair them, per #A5 in the Troubleshooting link.

smitty195 wrote:

. . .

My question regarding step #C9 is this: Why is there no name in the box? Is this something that my computer automatically fills in because it grabs it from somewhere else?

A default name is usually put there when you first set up your Mac; if you transfer your stuff from an old one, it will transfer the name from the old one unless you un-check the box for it. The name is only used for networking.

Just put something in there, like "Smittys Mac" and press Return. The name under it should be filled-in automaticatlly, if it isn't, click the Edit button and append ".local" to it.

Also check the name of your Time Capsule, via Airport Utility > Manual Setup > Base Station, and your network, via Airport Utility > Manual Setup > Wireless.

My time machine is getting stuck on "indexing backup". Does anybody know what this means? I haven't been able to successfully backup in a few days. I downloaded the time machine log widget and here is what it says:

Starting standard backup

Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Steve Macdonald's Time Caps

QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

Disk image /Volumes/Steve Macdonald's Time Caps/StevesComputer.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index

Any idea as to what is happenning?

Cheers

Steve

See #D2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.