The Time Machine (TM) fail to start to backup and it is always "preparing backup....." for more than an hour. This happen right after upgrade to MacOS Sierra.
Another weird thing happen to the toolbar of the Mac Mail. The Junk button is replaced by another button. trying to put it back, but that button become a Delete button.
Please help with the backup problem mentioned above. Thank you very much in advance.
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)
How long have you waited? After a new install it takes a fair while even with an SSD to prepare the first backup due to the number of changed files.
Make sure the TM drive is in the list of items excluded from Spotlight indexing. Log out of iCloud and other cloud services.
(sorry click too fast into Helpful button, how do I unclick now?)
I have waited for more than an hour. I cam back from lunch and I shutdown the Mac. Started it and kick start the TM and log a case with the Apple community.
I will wait for the TM for the next 10 hours and see if it will complete. I have no issues with the TM backup for the last many many months. The device is attached to my iMac USB port (not Wifi) and definitely not using Time Capsule.
As @trevoz told you, any Time Machine backup that occurs immediately after a major operating system upgrade is going to take a very long time - much longer than a standard backup. Think of it as Time Machine creating a baseline copy of your system after it has been upgraded - many gigabytes of data must be not only backed up but assessed as needing backup, logged, etc.
Also make sure you don't have any anti-virus software also running - especially Sophos which has caused TM backup problems for others with Sierra.
You can also check the Apple Support Article:
macOS Sierra: If Time Machine remains in the “preparing” stage
The back up finally complete (62GB) took about 3 hours. Thank you.
Time Machine not working after upgrade to Sierra
