Time Machine stuck on Preparing Back up

[gazzared]

Hi All

My MacBook Pro has failed its back up to my Time Capsule for a few days with Time Machine saying it is "Preparing Backup", but getting no further. I've looked online but the solutions I've found all appear to assume that the back up drive is attached, and you can delete the InProgress file. Except I don't appear to be able to access the drive in the time capsule that gives me access to that file.

What options do I have?

Thanks

 

[JohnDS]

First of all, connect to the Time Capsule by ethernet not wireless. That will speed up the process.

Turn off any antivirus software and exclude the TimeCapsule for Spotlight searches in the privacy tab of the Spotlight preferences pane.

Then read:

http://pondini.org/TM/D1.html and http://pondini.org/TM/D2.html

 

[Mystic Eddy]

I had this issue with El Cap and Sierra. Thought it was an OS issue until I disabled Sophos' On Access Scanner and it completes perfectly fine now.

 

[chabig]

Also, try restarting the Time Capsule.

 

[gazzared]

well nothing seems to work until I deleted my earlier back ups and started again. Always a bit worried when there are no previous backups but all good now.