macOS Sierra Airport Time Capsule Time Machine backup is stuck in "Calculating time remaining..." after backing up 1GB of 60GB. No backups since macOS Sierra upgrade.

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RikeshC Author

Level 1

9 points

macOS Sierra Airport Time Capsule Time Machine backup is stuck in "Calculating time remaining..." after backing up 1GB of 60GB. No backups since macOS Sierra upgrade.

Laptop Spec:

OS Version: macOS Sierra 10.12

Product Name: MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

Storage: 212 GB of 512 GB available

Airport Time Capsule Spec:

Storage: 2 TB of 3 TB available.

Software Version: 7.7.7

Issue:

After upgrading to macOS Sierra, Time Machine backups to an Airport Time Capsule no longer complete successfully. Sophos Antivirus was in use, this was uninstalled, after reading various posts about Sophos Antivirus and Time Machine issues and backups being stuck in "preparing backup".

I strongly believe in the use of additional antivirus software for enhanced protection, so I purchased Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, which includes Time Machine protection, which implies Time Machine compatibility. However, time machine backups still do not complete, and they get stuck in "Calculating time remaining..." after just 1GB gets backed of about 60GB. It remains in this stuck state for hours. Disabling antivirus altogether doesn't appear to help. Leaving a backup to try and complete over night just results in a message in the morning saying that the network connection was interrupted and the backup couldn't complete. As far as I can see, very little actually gets backed up.

I have tried rebooting my mac book.

I have tried restarting the Time Capsule via the airport utility to trigger a verification of the disk.

I have disabled Antivirus software.

I have ensured that the the Airport Time Capsule has a strong network connection and is located very close to the Laptop.

I'm pretty stuck for ideas at this stage and concerned that many people report a similar issue but Apple don't appear to be doing anything about it. An official troubleshooting guide would be helpful to make sure that I've tried everything.

Any help is most appreciated in getting this working again.

Many thanks

Rik

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12), 3TB Airport Time Capsule (7.7.7)

Posted on Oct 8, 2016 5:58 AM

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Answer 1

RikeshC Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 9, 2016 4:43 AM in response to RikeshC

I figured out that this must be because El Capitain and macOS Sierra are so different, that the Time Machine Backup just gets confused - the time machine backup itself might be different or there's a bug that's confusing it in someway when comparing an existing archive to the current state of the computer. I decided to try and backup the Airport Time Capsule itself, then erase it!

I connected a new empty drive (with 1 TB free) to the Airport Time Capsule and used the Airport Utility disk archive feature. On the Airport utility, select the Airport Time Capsule, click "Edit" then click over to Disks, then you'll see the archive feature.

The archiving took a long time, but it worked and made a backup of my Airport Time Capsule itself. I was then ready to Erase it. After doing a quick erase of the Airport Time Capsule, and then removing the disk from my existing Time Machine setup, then adding it back again, the Airport Time Capsule was ready for its first backup. When I started the backup, it was in the "preparing backup" for only a short time and then started... it passed the 1 GB mark and continued, giving me an estimated time of 16 Hours, but hey at least it works an it should only take that long the first time!

Problem resolved! :-) Hope this helps others who are battling with this problem.

Message to Apple: You guys really need to get on top of this and automatically suggest within the software, if it appears to take too long to at least direct the user to a helpful trouble shooting page with various tips and solutions to common problems. Users understand that sometimes things go wrong, but it's nice to have solutions to hand, rather than ignoring the problem even exists.

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Answer 2

RikeshC Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 9, 2016 4:41 PM in response to RikeshC

ok turns out that TM still gets stuck.... :-( getting pretty stuck on ideas at this point....

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Answer 3

walk0080

Level 1

31 points

Oct 15, 2016 6:02 AM in response to RikeshC

I have two TM backups. One is always in the drive enclosure. That one is still working.

Then I have second TM backup that I insert into the drive enclosure every week or so and then remove/bring into office.

That second "off-site" TM is failing. I tried the same thing. New blank disk, new TM backup and it gets stuck at 1.18TB, 11hrs remaining. Tried twice so far.

I also had Sophos A/V installed with MacOS Sierra. So far have tried removing Sophos A/V and using a new blank TM backup, but so far has not helped.

You should contact Apple for support directly as they don't monitor these forums... However I strongly suspect this is a Sophos A/V support. I have a call w/ Apple this morning for an iCloud issue, maybe I can ask them about this as well.

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Answer 4

walk0080

Level 1

31 points

Oct 15, 2016 6:15 AM in response to walk0080

EDIT: I see TM was stuck at 1.18TB since last night, but as of just now, that changed to 1.20TB completed. There is in fact progress. Perhaps removing Sophos did help in the end... now to find a Mac A/V software that doesn't screw up Time Machine.

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Answer 5

RikeshC Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 15, 2016 7:34 AM in response to RikeshC

I solved this finally by also completing the first backup with a hard wired connection. I purchased an Ethernet to thunderbolt connector and used that.

subsequent backups are small and appear to complete OK with wireless.

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