Time Machine Seems To Stall

[mrbrightside623]

Hey all, I been using TM for some time now and have been noticing that every so often TM gets stuck on the "Preparing Backup" message and stays that way without commencing the backup. Leading me to format the drive with Disc Utility and redoing the backup but with whatever is current on my laptop. How do I fix this?

Thanks In Advance.

-Tony

 

[misterredman]

Check the console for backupd entries. That could help determine what TimeMachine is doing.

 

[MacManiac76]

The only time I've had this happen is after a big update like 10.5.7. I recall it taking around an hour or so being on "Preparing Backup". This is due to Time Machine reindexing the drive to determine what has changed and needs to be backed up after the big update.

 

[macgrl]

This happens to me some times to. I did some research and it seems that it can happen when TC needs to re-index everything (as is said above). It can happen when TC thinks that there is a problem and that there is an error / or a big change with the current indexing so it does it again. It can take a long time to do, depending on how much date you have.

 

[mrbrightside623]

I guess it is reindexing then. But I have experienced this even with 10.5.6. Also, I don't have much dating on my TM backup because of it stalling out I usually format it and just backup from that period so there isn't much on there. So thats why it confuses me to see it "Preparing Backup" for so long.

Thanks for the response

-Tony