Trouble initiating Time Machine backup?

[iUseMacBooks]

Hey all,

I'm having trouble with Time Machine on my MacBook Air and I'm not sure what to do. I plugged my Western Digital external HDD into my MacBook Air, and after a few seconds, it popped up on the desktop. But usually when doing a backup, it kicks into Time Machine right away. Tonight, it hasn't, which is OK. I clicked the Time Machine logo in the menu bar, and clicked Back Up Now. It began the process, but it's been stuck. For about 20 minutes now, as of writing this, it's been stuck on "Preparing backup" with the bar fully filled. Is this concerning? I'm just gonna wait it out, but I've never experienced this before. I've also been having problems with Safari, when I try to close a tab, it gets stuck and the whole system freezes. That's actually what prompted me to do this backup, as I was worried my MBA may have a problem. Maybe I'm just being paranoid lol but I've never had trouble with Time Machine before. Anyone experienced this before? Thanks in advance.

 

[comics addict]

Hey all,

I'm having trouble with Time Machine on my MacBook Air and I'm not sure what to do. I plugged my Western Digital external HDD into my MacBook Air, and after a few seconds, it popped up on the desktop. But usually when doing a backup, it kicks into Time Machine right away. Tonight, it hasn't, which is OK. I clicked the Time Machine logo in the menu bar, and clicked Back Up Now. It began the process, but it's been stuck. For about 20 minutes now, as of writing this, it's been stuck on "Preparing backup" with the bar fully filled. Is this concerning? I'm just gonna wait it out, but I've never experienced this before. I've also been having problems with Safari, when I try to close a tab, it gets stuck and the whole system freezes. That's actually what prompted me to do this backup, as I was worried my MBA may have a problem. Maybe I'm just being paranoid lol but I've never had trouble with Time Machine before. Anyone experienced this before? Thanks in advance.

Sometimes it may take a long time because you made a big change like updating your operating system or that it's been a long time since your last backup. The reason it does this is because it goes to trough all the listed changes and compares it to your last good backup before it precedes to backup.

 

[komatsu]

If problem persists, you can navigate to
backups.backupd folder
and delete the .inprogress file.

http://www.maintain.se/blog/fix-time-machine-when-stuck-on-preparing-backup/