Time Machine stuck in preparing backup...

I tried everything except for re-installing OSX Lion (I had recently done that, but successfully backed up since). I can't seem to find any previous backup attempts in the Buddy Widget for some reason (although I've tried many times recently).

This all started when a backup failed mid-way through because the disk ran out of space. I had downloaded a HUGE file and didn't have space for ths backup. Since that failure, it's been all downhill.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The widget hasn't updated, but at the top of my screen in the menu bar, it now says "finishing backup..." Is that a good thing?

Another update:

Just got the "Your backup disk is almost full" dialogue box popup:

When the backup disk is full, Time Machine will delete old backups to make room for new ones.

If you prefer to keep all your old backups, open Time Machine preferences to select a new backup disk.

But it looks like my backup has finally been successful!!!

Thanks for your help!

Teriffic (and a bit surprising -- I'd expected not enough room, and the hassles that follow).

Glad it's sorted out. 🙂

But keep an eye on the backups for a while; if you continue to get lots of indexing messages, very slow backups, or anything else strange, investigate sooner, not later.

I'm having similar problems with significant delays backing up both my 2011 iMac and my 2012 MBA. I recently installed an aftermarket SSD in my iMac to go along with the existing 1TB HDD from Apple. I created a fusion drive from the two (see many posts on how to do so). Then I had to restore my entire system (iMac only) and everything worked fine -- the iMac was much much faster than it had been previously. At some point, I had to re-install OSX 10.8.2 (can't recall exactly why).

After all this, I noticed the incredible delays in backing up to Time Machine (via WiFi). I would've thought it was due to my iMac upgrades/changes, but now I notice that my MBA takes a very long time to back up also.

I followed the directions in this post and the following is the latest log from Time Machine Buddy:

Starting manual backup

Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://John;AUTH=SRP@JK-Time-Capsule.local/Data

Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://John;AUTH=SRP@JK-Time-Capsule.local/Data

Disk image /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.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 (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

Finished scan

Found 330351 files (11.87 GB) needing backup

16.57 GB required (including padding), 371.15 GB available

Copied 5.5 MB of 11.87 GB, 160797 of 330351 items

Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data

Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Disk image /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Copied 14.3 MB of 11.87 GB, 307668 of 330351 items

Copied 1.37 GB of 11.87 GB, 353413 of 353413 items

Copied 1.58 GB of 11.87 GB, 370198 of 370198 items

Does any of this seem normal? Should I simply wait this out and once the backup has completed, TM should backup quickly again going forward?

Any help greatly appreciated.

kentrj99 wrote:

. . .

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

That's seen after some sort of problem, such as a system crash or failed backup. It means Time Machine isn't sure the previous backup completed properly. See the blue box in #A6 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.

Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

Finished scan

A result of the earlier message, and also covered in the blue box.

Found 330351 files (11.87 GB) needing backup

Does that make sense, considering what you've done since the previous successful backup?

Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data

Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Disk image /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

That looks like you were browsing the backups via the "Star Wars" display while the new backup was running. If so, those messages are normal.

Copied 14.3 MB of 11.87 GB, 307668 of 330351 items

Copied 1.37 GB of 11.87 GB, 353413 of 353413 items

Copied 1.58 GB of 11.87 GB, 370198 of 370198 items

That's terribly slow, even for WIFI (those messages are sent hourly). 😟

I'd be inclined to cancel that backup (looks like it may take several hours to complete), and turn TM OFF on one Mac temporarily, so they don't both try to back up at once. Connect the other via an Ethernet cable, start a backup, and see how it behaves (the deep scan will be repeated if the previous backup for that Mac was cancelled).

If there's no significant improvement, see the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Thanks for your quick reply Pondini.

In response to your questions above:

Pondini wrote:

kentrj99 wrote:

. . .

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

That's seen after some sort of problem, such as a system crash or failed backup. It means Time Machine isn't sure the previous backup completed properly. See the blue box in #A6 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.

The initial backup after the upgrade was successful, though it took prob 24 hours. Then the backup began again one day later, and was so slow that I stopped it midway through. I don't recall a failed backup other than my stopping it.

Pondini wrote:

Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

Finished scan

A result of the earlier message, and also covered in the blue box

Ok. Will check the blue box.

Pondini wrote:

Found 330351 files (11.87 GB) needing backup

Does that make sense, considering what you've done since the previous successful backup?

Given that I did have one successful backup post my upgrade, I think a small backup like this does make sense.

Pondini wrote:

Copied 14.3 MB of 11.87 GB, 307668 of 330351 items

Copied 1.37 GB of 11.87 GB, 353413 of 353413 items

Copied 1.58 GB of 11.87 GB, 370198 of 370198 items

That's terribly slow, even for WIFI (those messages are sent hourly). 😟

I'd be inclined to cancel that backup (looks like it may take several hours to complete), and turn TM OFF on one Mac temporarily, so they don't both try to back up at once. Connect the other via an Ethernet cable, start a backup, and see how it behaves (the deep scan will be repeated if the previous backup for that Mac was cancelled).

Immediately after receiving this response (about 1:45pm ET), I went back to my iMac, and the backup was completed and indicated it was "Cleaning up...". It's now nearly two hours later, and that message has not changed.

The new log from TM Buddy is as follows:

Starting manual backup

Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://John;AUTH=SRP@JK-Time-Capsule.local/Data

Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://John;AUTH=SRP@JK-Time-Capsule.local/Data

Disk image /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.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 (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

Finished scan

Found 330351 files (11.87 GB) needing backup

16.57 GB required (including padding), 371.15 GB available

Copied 5.5 MB of 11.87 GB, 160797 of 330351 items

Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data

Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Disk image /Volumes/Data/John and Em’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Copied 14.3 MB of 11.87 GB, 307668 of 330351 items

Copied 1.37 GB of 11.87 GB, 353413 of 353413 items

Copied 1.58 GB of 11.87 GB, 370198 of 370198 items

Copied 1.68 GB of 11.87 GB, 381209 of 381209 items

Copied 383124 files (1.69 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.

Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD

Will copy (471.1 MB) from Macintosh HD

Found 19096 files (614.1 MB) needing backup

3.6 GB required (including padding), 361.83 GB available

Copied 26720 files (508.5 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

Created new backup: 2013-02-14-133818

kentrj99 wrote:

. . .

the backup began again one day later, and was so slow that I stopped it midway through.

That'll do it -- you'll get the UUID mismatch and deep scan until a backup completes successfully.

Found 330351 files (11.87 GB) needing backup

Does that make sense, considering what you've done since the previoussuccessful backup?

Given that I did have one successful backup post my upgrade, I think a small backup like this does make sense.

11.87 GB, and 330,351 files is pretty large. More than an OSX update, even.

Immediately after receiving this response (about 1:45pm ET), I went back to my iMac, and the backup was completed and indicated it was "Cleaning up...". It's now nearly two hours later, and that message has not changed.

Copied 1.68 GB of 11.87 GB, 381209 of 381209 items

Copied 383124 files (1.69 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.

The first "pass" completed.

Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD

Will copy (471.1 MB) from Macintosh HD

Found 19096 files (614.1 MB) needing backup

3.6 GB required (including padding), 361.83 GB available

Copied 26720 files (508.5 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.

The second "pass" (files changed during the first pass) completed.

Created new backup: 2013-02-14-133818

That's the end of the actual backup; next should be a message about "Starting post-backup thinning" but that ought to be nearly immediately after the "Created new backup" message.

That "thinning" is the "Cleaning up" phase, ordinarily a few minutes at most. There should be one or more messages about deleted backups, then ejecting the sparse bundle, etc., and it's finally done.

All I get is:

2/23/13 5:31:35.490 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Over and over and over again. Been doing this for almost 12 hours. Suggestions?

Yup. Either the drive is failing, or the index is damaged.

See the pink box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.