time machine hangs after Lion installed

I'm having the same problem after upgrading to Lion, it simply says "Preparing backup..." and never continues.

i've got the same problem. first time after installing lion it wanted to backup 8gb. after 1 hour it started backing up but after 2 hours (6gb) it ended. then i tried again. this time after 1 hour it backed up only 376 kb. that isn't normal. i hope they will bring an update.

Tried to upgrade to Lion, but was told my disk needed to be Journaled first. Couldn't get it to switch, so I performed a clean install. Then, Time Machine seemed to work fine, but hours later, it was still hanging with less than a minute to go. Rebooted, but my user file couldn't be found.

Just wiped the hard drive clean and re-installed Lion. Time Machine is currently restoring Applications, User Files and Setting. I doubt if the outcome will be different, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Same problem. On my machine Time Machine keeps "preparing" but never starts.

Same here too. And I've tried to run Disk Utility (check ou repair) but keeps running forever.

Same problem after installing Lion.

Time Machine has been stuck on "preparing backup" for over two hours now.

Console constantly giving me;

"waiting for index to be ready (100)"

my console giving me this:

21.07.11 17:12:48,481 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup

21.07.11 17:12:48,754 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups/Backups.backupdb

21.07.11 17:12:49,000 kernel: nspace-handler-set-snapshot-time: 1311261170

21.07.11 17:12:50,903 com.apple.backupd: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

21.07.11 17:12:53,101 com.apple.backupd: Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

what do you think. how long does it take for bringing a bugfix for that. at the moment i can not back up my data.

same for me.

Since upgrading to Lion yesterday time machine backups get stuck with the "indexing backup" part.

Lots of "Waiting for index to be ready (100)" entries.

Definitely seems Lion related.

This also heats up my CPU and significantly decreases my batterie time.

@ Apple: please fix this

I was able to fix this (finally) by:

1. Quit Time Machine

2. Delete the .inprogress file (last file) in Time Machine

3. Run Disk Utility, repair Time Machine

4. Restart Time Machine

It took a *long* time again to prepare the backup (~45 minutes), but it finally broke out of "prepare" mode and the backup started.

Good luck!

Greg Schueler wrote:

I'm having the same problem after upgrading to Lion, it simply says "Preparing backup..." and never continues.

For some reason, Apple dropped the "Scanning xxxx items" from Snow Leopard; instead you just get "Preparing". That will take a long time under some circumstances, such as after a major update. See #D1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

thanks, I let it run, and it took about ~1hr before it finally decided to start copying files. now in the middle of backup, but it is taking quite a while

Also if you have Sophos installed, disable the On-Access Scanner. This seems to cause problems with Time Machine hangs.

I was able to fix this issue by following these instructions: http://appletoolbox.com/2010/08/time-machine-backup-stuck-on-waiting-for-index-t o-be-ready/

Well, I didn't follow these instructions literally. I did something like this:

1. Disable Time Machine in System Preferences.
2. Delete the file .Spotlight-V100 from your startup drive and the destination disk (the one to which your Time Machine files are backed up). On the command line do something like this: cd /Volumes/Macintosh HD; rm -r .Spotlight-V100. Be careful! I have Time Capsule, so to delete this file from /Volumes/Time Machine-securitycopies (or whatever it is called in English OS), I had to start backup and interrupt it to get the volume mounted. I don't know if this is strictly necessary, but that's what worked for me.
3. Allow the Spotlight index to rebuild. I had to restart my Mac to do this.
4. Turn Time Machine back on.

Well, waiting was the key. After about three hours on "preparing" it finally progressed and started backing up 35.36GB. Why it wanted to back up such a large amount of data I don't know, but I figured since it was the first time making a backup in Lion, that it had just cause. After finishing, it immediately started the "preparing"-phase again. This goes on repeatedly, as soon as it finishes one backup, it immediately starts a new one spending approx two hours each time,( Preparing, backing up, indexing backup). Last time I checked it backed up 40MB, a process that used to be over in minutes. It has now been stuck on "indexing backup" for over an hour. I have about 50GB of free space on my 1TB Time Capsule that I use for Time Machine. This has never been an issue with Snow Leopard....

It's possible, as larshold says, that the index on your backup drive is damaged.

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.