My Time Machine is suddenly sticking on "preparing Backup" and goes no further - HELP

This can occur if you have recently performed an operating system update or added a lot of new data to your Mac that needs to be backed up.

If you are backing up using wireless, locate the Mac near the Time Capsule. Better yet, use an Ethernet cable if possible from your Mac to one of the three LAN <--> for a faster connection.

"Preparing" might continue for a few hours. Let it run. If you stop the process, it will start all over again the next time that you try to back up and "Preparing" will appear for even longer.

Time Machine detected a problem on your backup set and started over again with a new "master" backup. Depending on how serious the problem might have been, your old backups may or may not have been erased.

If you saw a message that looks like the example below, Time Machine detected that your backups were corrupted and could not repair them so they were erased prior to starting a new backup.

If you did NOT see this message, then your old backups might still be on the Time Capsule. To find out if your previous backups are still there.......

Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon

Click Browse Other Backup Disks

Select your disk and click Use Selected Disk