Time Machine is stuck on "Preparing Backup"

Question

graham123 Author

Level 1

6 points

Time Machine is stuck on "Preparing Backup"

My Backups have not worked for about a month.....and have been in a perpetual "preparing" state.

I have Imac with OS version is 10.7.5, Build is 11G63

Have got this from console logs if it help shine any light on the nature of my issues, and how to fix?

Sep 8 19:10:27 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Sep 8 19:11:28 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Sep 8 19:12:30 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Sep 8 19:13:31 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)

Sep 8 19:24:44 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

Sep 8 19:25:21 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

Sep 8 19:25:23 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Sep 8 19:26:23 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)

Thanks in advance

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Sep 8, 2013 11:39 AM

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Answer 1

AnaMusic

Level 9

57,562 points

Sep 8, 2013 11:43 AM in response to graham123

Try here > http://pondini.org/TM/D1.html

From Pondini's Excellent information here...

http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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Answer 2

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Sep 9, 2013 6:00 AM in response to graham123

Does your computer have a name in System Preferences > Sharing? If not, that may be at least part of the problem. Give it one -- make it short, and use only numbers and letters -- no punctuation.

Then cancel the backup and try again.

It sounds more like a problem with the index, so if that doesn't help, cancel the backup and try to repair them per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

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Answer 3

graham123 Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 16, 2013 1:00 PM in response to graham123

Thanks for your help, i managed to solve. Pondini, your information is awesome.

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Answer 4

Hiranori

Level 1

4 points

Jul 6, 2014 10:23 AM in response to graham123

I had this problem backing up my Mac Book Pro to an external HD. It turned out I needed to reset the SMC. It was easy and worked like a charm.

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Answer 5

madisel

Level 1

0 points

Feb 3, 2015 11:43 AM in response to graham123

None of this has ever worked for me. The only thing that has worked is completely reformatting the external hard drive, deleting of course anything I had backed up before, and starting over. I don't get the magical time machine but my files are presumably backed up.

This always happens after it hasn't backed up in a few weeks. With a macbook pro I am not able to keep it plugged in all the time.

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