arizonadonn

Q: Sierra and Time Machine

Hi.

 

So I upgraded to Sierra yesterday morning.

 

Time Machine has been stuck since.

 

It's stuck on 'Preparing Backup'.

 

It's been about 18 hours.

 

At what point should I worry? And suggestions on a fix?

 

Don

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 6:21 PM

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Q: Sierra and Time Machine

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  • by judge2001,

    judge2001 judge2001 Sep 26, 2016 1:16 PM in response to michaelfromhatfield
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Sep 26, 2016 1:16 PM in response to michaelfromhatfield

    Thanks, worked for me. TM started running the second I turned off Sophos.

  • by mikewak,

    mikewak mikewak Sep 26, 2016 9:12 PM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 26, 2016 9:12 PM in response to arizonadonn

    I had all sorts of problems slow, not able to connect to time capsule, wouldn't recognise time capsule (even though using it for the network). I've tried all the reset suggestions, tried deleting Plists suggested. None of that seemed to work.

     

    I finally resolved by adding another TM backup disk connected directly to my MBP and Mac mini, and asked it to back to both. Suddenly everything started to connect correctly. Still slow in backup but getting faster better and I've now disconnected to new TM back up disk and is working only on the time capsule.

  • by Mauricio Fernandez Rosi?ol,

    Mauricio Fernandez Rosi?ol Mauricio Fernandez Rosi?ol Sep 27, 2016 1:05 PM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 1:05 PM in response to arizonadonn

    I don't have antivirus running on Sierra but I have the same problem here with Time Machine. Even Sierra is not behaving as responsive when Time Machine is active. I even thru out a good external Hard Drive thinking this was the issue. I hope for an update for this, I feel very insecure without my time machine backups. I'm trying again Time Machine in a new HD and it has been stuck with 10K of 37.21GB for half an hour.

    All information is greatly appreciated.

     

    My Mac: MacBook Pro (late 2011) / QuadCore 2.5Ghz i7 / 16GB RAM

  • by auster120,

    auster120 auster120 Sep 27, 2016 8:57 PM in response to Mauricio Fernandez Rosi?ol
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 8:57 PM in response to Mauricio Fernandez Rosi?ol

    I have done everything and I am fed up of wasting my time trying to debug Apple's software for free

     

    I have bought two 4Tbytes USB disks (120 € each) plus Data Backup Software (45 €), and since yesterday my antivirus and Spotlight are running again. I have gone back 5 years, but at least I have backups, hourly if I want to.

     

    I have disconnected one Time Capsule, while the other is used as a 200 $ switch

     

    Thanks, Apple! We all miss Steve

  • by dynavox2012,

    dynavox2012 dynavox2012 Sep 28, 2016 3:54 AM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 28, 2016 3:54 AM in response to arizonadonn

    Hi,

     

    one quick question, does anyone use a USV connected to the mac via usb,  when time machine stops running?

    I had the problem last year and now after the new sierra update again, it seems to me that the usb from (my) USV does the "trick" at least for me, since i disconnected my USV from the mac with sierra running, time machine seems to run as expected.

    Maybe the iMAC "thinks" -- ups we are running in Bat-Power, so i stop doing backups .....

     

    Greets

     

    (and sorry for my bad bad english) 

  • by Al.Net,

    Al.Net Al.Net Sep 28, 2016 3:58 AM in response to michaelfromhatfield
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 28, 2016 3:58 AM in response to michaelfromhatfield

    I had the same issue with Avira

  • by Mort In The Midlands,

    Mort In The Midlands Mort In The Midlands Sep 28, 2016 11:47 PM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Sep 28, 2016 11:47 PM in response to arizonadonn

    I had this problem too; stuck on 'Preparing backup' or eventually running extremely slowly.

     

    I wondered if it was related to MacOS Sierra's new "optimise mac storage' feature that uses iCloud to save disk space, and it seems that may have been the case.

     

    Note there are 2 settings to change:

    1. Settings | iCloud | iCloud Drive | (options) | Optimize Mac Storage (uncheck the box)
    2. About This Mac (small apple logo in top left corner) | Storage | Manage | Deselect ' Store in iCloud'

     

    As soon as I disabled these, it ran through a backup as quickly as before the Sierra upgrade.

     

    I couldn't definitively swear that this is what fixed it, but none of the other Apple suggestions had made any difference and now it's fine.

     

    Hope that's helpful.

  • by gvde,

    gvde gvde Sep 29, 2016 12:09 AM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 29, 2016 12:09 AM in response to arizonadonn

    For me it wasn't "stuck" on "Preparing backup...". It just took a while for the first backup after the upgrade. The upgrade modified a lot of files and I guess during "Preparing" it collects all the information on files which have been modified. On my old 2011 iMac the first backup after the upgrade was extremely long. First it was "Preparing" for many hours and after that the backups also ran for many hours. I think in total it took more than 24 hours but I didn't monitor closely.

     

    After that backups are all back to normal and as fast as they have always been.

     

    On my newer iMac it was also slow but I let it run through the night and the next morning it was back to the normal backup schedule.

     

    So maybe it's just that the first backup after the upgrade takes much longer then usual. I also found some log messages in console which suggest that Sierra does some "migration" on the backups which may require additional time.

     

    Completely new backups to new drives are much faster as it simply backs up everything and it doesn't have to handle the old backups either... But otherwise, patience is maybe what it required for the first incremental backup after the upgrade.

  • by Al.Net,

    Al.Net Al.Net Sep 29, 2016 1:32 AM in response to gvde
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 29, 2016 1:32 AM in response to gvde

    good it worked in your case - i have a fast machine and it was stuck backing up for 4 days and it never completed it.

    I tried all of the mumbo jumbo of resetting the machine, formatting the external hard drive - nothing worked except uninstalling the antivirus (in my case Avira). after that everything was back to normal - nut now I'm stuck without an antivirus

  • by peterpot,

    peterpot peterpot Sep 30, 2016 1:27 AM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 30, 2016 1:27 AM in response to arizonadonn

    Encountered the same 'preparing backup' message without any apparent action.

    Tried an earlier suggestion of [option]_Time machine icon in menu to do a'verify backup' and after that completed, tried to do 'backup now'

    Did the 'preparing backup' and finally after around 5 mins started the back albeit very slowly suggesting it would take 5 hours but now showing 3 hours. So expecting that while it will take some time, it will do the backup.

  • by bcrsr,

    bcrsr bcrsr Sep 30, 2016 2:06 PM in response to arizonadonn
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2016 2:06 PM in response to arizonadonn

    I just installed macOS and noticed the same exact behavior - slow Time Machine backup. I turned off optimize storage in iCloud. This made some improvement. But, when I paused iCloud Photo upload from the Photos application, I believe that this made Time Machine backup as quickly as it did in previous OS's.

     

    It kind of makes some sense after reading this KB from Apple.

     

    "Time Machine is designed so that it doesn’t interfere with the regular operation of your computer. If your Mac is busy, hot, or the battery is running low (portables only), Time Machine slows until your Mac is idle, cool, or charged."

  • by braveheart1,

    braveheart1 braveheart1 Sep 30, 2016 2:26 PM in response to bcrsr
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 30, 2016 2:26 PM in response to bcrsr

    For those interested...

     

    I have problems with "preparing backup", MBP running hot and very slow data transfer to my Time Capsule after upgrading to Sierra.

     

    Tonight I have removed the old backup file which was 1Tb and now a new backup is running at normal speed, just like it used to do before the upgrade. Problem solved...

  • by langejonathan,

    langejonathan langejonathan Oct 1, 2016 5:12 AM in response to Mort In The Midlands
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 1, 2016 5:12 AM in response to Mort In The Midlands

    This one fixed it for me! Deactivate "Optimize Mac-Storage"! Thank you so much!!

  • by Kaalass,

    Kaalass Kaalass Oct 1, 2016 11:32 AM in response to langejonathan
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2016 11:32 AM in response to langejonathan

    I have tried pretty much everything on this forum.  Preparing back is still taking a long time but not as long as before.  Now when it backs up, it goes well then it stops at some point and simply hangs there.  Once it stops it will not start again, not matter what I do.  It is incredible that Apple would put out such a major upgrade without making sure that it was compatible with Time Machine.  If you are reading this Apple, get your act together and produce and update that will solve this.  I will go back and redo everything and see if I can actually get one full back up. 

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 1, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Kaalass
    Level 8 (49,642 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Kaalass

    Kaalass wrote:

     

    I have tried pretty much everything on this forum.

     

    Including starting your own Discussion? If you already did that, I can't find it.

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