Time Capsule stuck on Preparing Backup

I was having problems with my computer and called Apple who told me to reinstall the OS, which I did and it worked. I brought the computer home (from work) where my TC is and thought it would back up as normal - this was about 8pm last night. I noticed that it said Preparing backup for a while but didn't think anything of it. I got up at 5am and say that it said 2.65 of 18.75 gb backed up and it was taking a long time. I just restarted the computer and TC and deleted the "in progress" file and backed up again and it's been on Preparing Backup for about 15 mins. Is this normal?

Yes that is normal.
You have re-installed the OS so TM needs a new full backup again.
For that it needs to make an inventory of all files to back up ( preparing backup )
I assume you are doing wireless back up so you need to be patient and let TM finish what it started.
Interrupting the process is useless as it will start all over again.

For more detail on what TM is doing, open the console.app and look at the log entries and things will be a lot clearer.

Cheers ... McBie

joeg679, that is not really normal behavior. Whenever I install a new (or reinstall an old) OSX I erase the old TM backup drive and do a new fresh backup.
I would suggest you do the same. There will be differences between the previous OSX (you said you were having problems) and the current one that may cause TM to stall on Preparing Backup.
In any case I would not advise restoring anything back to a previous TM backup because you may reintroduce your problem.
So you wont be losing anything useful.
Use Disk Utility to erase the TM volume. Reselect it in TM preferences as the location for TM backups then backup as usual. It will take a while because it will be a full backup but just let it run till complete.

Rod Sprague said:

joeg679, that is not really normal behavior. Whenever I install a new (or reinstall an old) OSX I erase the old TM backup drive and do a new fresh backup.
I would suggest you do the same. There will be differences between the previous OSX (you said you were having problems) and the current one that may cause TM to stall on Preparing Backup.
In any case I would not advise restoring anything back to a previous TM backup because you may reintroduce your problem.
So you wont be losing anything useful.
Use Disk Utility to erase the TM volume. Reselect it in TM preferences as the location for TM backups then backup as usual. It will take a while because it will be a full backup but just let it run till complete.

Click to expand...

Ok, so you're saying it's not normal and someone else is saying it is.... I went into disk utility and attached a screenshot and I'm not sure what to do.

McBie said:

Yes that is normal.
You have re-installed the OS so TM needs a new full backup again.
For that it needs to make an inventory of all files to back up ( preparing backup )
I assume you are doing wireless back up so you need to be patient and let TM finish what it started.
Interrupting the process is useless as it will start all over again.

For more detail on what TM is doing, open the console.app and look at the log entries and things will be a lot clearer.

Cheers ... McBie

Click to expand...

I'm on wifi, but my speed is 85 mbps. Should I just plug right into the TM?

I am only saying that backup over Wifi is slow.
But at the same time it is convenient.

Have a look at the console.app and the messages in the log file related to the TM backup.
It will take TM a long time to " prepare " on a full backup and it will take some time to back up over wifi.
You may have 85 mbps on Wifi, but that speed will be influenced by a number of things, so I would not count on it.

Cheers ... McBie

McBie said:

I am only saying that backup over Wifi is slow.
But at the same time it is convenient.

Have a look at the console.app and the messages in the log file related to the TM backup.
It will take TM a long time to " prepare " on a full backup and it will take some time to back up over wifi.
You may have 85 mbps on Wifi, but that speed will be influenced by a number of things, so I would not count on it.

Cheers ... McBie

Click to expand...

OK, thanks. I'll plug the computer directly into the TC later. Currently I have a wire from the router to the input on the TC. I guess I just have to run an ethernet cable from one of the open ports to the computer?

That should work. I ran mine that way for a long time. If it doesn't the configuration change is minor.

Slydude said:

That should work. I ran mine that way for a long time. If it doesn't the configuration change is minor.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by The Configuration Change?

If you are already connecting well there probably won't be a need to do any changes.

When I set up to connect via ethernet we made some other network changes at the same time. I borked something up in the process and both the Time Capsule and a router that is also on the network were trying to hand out IP addresses. The problem was easily fixed by putting the TC into bridge mode.

I just realized that there is no place to plug the ethernet cable into on the new macbook pro, so I can't connect directly to the TM

Then it will have to be wireless
Or buy a thunderbolt to RJ45 adapter

Cheers ... McBie

McBie said:

Then it will have to be wireless
Or buy a thunderbolt to RJ45 adapter

Cheers ... McBie

Click to expand...

Thanks, I didn't realize they sold those.

I see McBie beat me to it. Here's a link to it from the Apple Store. It may be available elsewhere for less.

Slydude said:

I see McBie beat me to it. Here's a link to it from the Apple Store. It may be available elsewhere for less.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Hi joeg679, I did not mean to give you the wrong impression as you can see opinions differ between members of the forum especially over what is "normal" performance.
The information given in regard to improving data transfer speeds will no doubt improve performance however, you have stated:

You have reinstalled the OS so I assume you had a serious problem.

You attempted to backup at home and thought it would backup as normal.

You gave it 9 hrs to backup but in that time it only backed up 2.65Gb of 18.75Gb.

So what was your problem (that prompted you to ring Apple and reinstall your OS)?

What do you define as normal based on when you performed a backup in the past?

It does not appear as though it is performing a new full backup because I think that would be significantly more than 18.75 Gb, TM does not backup the operating system any way and even at your WiFi speed it should not take that long to update files.

The acid test will be the result of the process. Do you end up with a viable backup or not at the end of the process (no matter how long it takes)?

If you are dependant on this as your only backup I personally would be inclined to erase the TM partition and start with a new full backup UNLESS there is information on your backup that is not on your computer that you think you might need in the future.
For example, previous versions of documents or records or anything that you have deleted that may be needed at a later time.
Below is the window in Disk Utility you should see in order to erase the TM volume.

Rod Sprague said:

Hi joeg679, I did not mean to give you the wrong impression as you can see opinions differ between members of the forum especially over what is "normal" performance.
The information given in regard to improving data transfer speeds will no doubt improve performance however, you have stated:

You have reinstalled the OS so I assume you had a serious problem.

You attempted to backup at home and thought it would backup as normal.

You gave it 9 hrs to backup but in that time it only backed up 2.65Gb of 18.75Gb.

So what was your problem?

What do you define as normal based on when you performed a backup in the past?

It does not appear as though it is performing a new full backup because I think that would be significantly more than 18.75 Gb, TM does not backup the operating system any way and even at your WiFi speed it should not take that long to update files.

The acid test will be the result of the process. Do you end up with a viable backup or not at the end of the process (no matter how long it takes)?

If you are dependant on this as your only backup I personally would be inclined to erase the TM partition and start with a new full backup UNLESS there is information on your backup that is not on your computer that you think you might need in the future.
For example, previous versions of documents or records or anything that you have deleted that may be needed at a later time.
Below is the window in Disk Utility you should see in order to erase the TM volume.

Click to expand...

No problem at all and I appreciate your help. I don't need any old stuff and I can start a new backup from today. So, all I have to do is click on erase. Then click on backup, once the erasing is complete?

Do I have to reformat the TC or configure it in any way after I erase it?

If you dont change anything then it should be erased and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It should not take long. Then you will have an empty partition with the same name as before (unless you decided to change the name). Double clicking on it after in the Finder should show an empty drive.
Next go to Time Machine Preferences from the toolbar icon or from System Preferences if you don''t have it displayed on the tool bar and click on Select Disk. It may look like the same disk but select it again just to be sure. Then select Backup now or whenever you want, it will take some hours to complete a full backup but at least you will be able to rely on it should you ever really need it.

Rod Sprague said:

If you dont change anything then it should be erased and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It should not take long. Then you will have an empty partition with the same name as before (unless you decided to change the name). Double clicking on it after in the Finder should show an empty drive.
Next go to Time Machine Preferences from the toolbar icon or from System Preferences if you don''t have it displayed on the tool bar and click on Select Disk. It may look like the same disk but select it again just to be sure. Then select Backup now or whenever you want, it will take some hours to complete a full backup but at least you will be able to rely on it should you ever really need it.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I did just that and it worked. I appreciate your help.

Rod Sprague said:

CLIP... TM does not backup the operating system any way ...CLIP

Click to expand...

Not true. TM does back up the OS, but it's not bootable. I, too, have made that mistake and was disabused of that misconception right here in this forum!