How To Start Time Machine Backup

As every MacOS user may know, Time Machine is the simplest tool to backup a Mac. In general, Time Machine creates backups automatically; they start and finish without your interference. However, in certain cases, this tool can get frozen or stuck. It is needless to mention that 'Time Machine stuck on preparing backup' is an exceptionally annoying issue for any MacOS user. This Time Machine freezing issue can occur on MacOS versions such as Sierra, Yosemite and El Capitan and other versions. This error tends to appear at the preparing backup stage; if it takes too long, that can be the start of Time Machine freezing.

• How To Start Time Machine Backup Automatically
• How To Start Time Machine Backup
• How To Start Time Machine Backup New Hard Drive

Now, you should restart the Mac. Make sure the Time Machine drive is connected to your Mac. This is a pretty simple process. Click on the Apple menu and select 'Restart'. The Mac will boot now and wait for the Spotlight to run. Phrase 4: Initiate a Backup. Go to the Time Machine icon and select 'Back Up Now' option. Start up your Mac and immediately hold down Command + R. Continue holding both keys until you see the Apple logo or a spinning globe. When you see the Utilities window choose Restore from Time.

If Time Machine stuck on preparing backup, you shouldn't feel helpless. The purpose of this article is to explain how to fix Time Machine not backing up issue.

Part 1: How Long Will Time Machine Preparing Backup Take?

The duration Time Machine takes to backup your Mac depends on a couple of aspects: the amount of disk space and the frequency of the backup. However, in general, Time Machine preparing backup doesn't take that long. Due to following reasons, however, this process may take somewhat longer than usual.

• The capacity of your hard drive is exceptionally large.
• Your Mac hasn't backed up for a long time (or you have never backed up it).
• You have done significant changes to the hard drive or added large number of new files since the last backup.

If none of the above is the case, Time Machine preparing backup shouldn't take that long.

Part 2: Check Whether the Preparation Process is Stuck

By following the below-mentioned topics, you can easily see if the preparation of backup is stuck.

1. Go to System Preferences (you can either click on the Dock icon or go to 'System Preferences' located in the Apple menu).
2. Now, you should open Time Machine preference pane. You can do this simply by clicking on the 'System'.
3. Now, you will be able to see a message called 'Scanning (#) items', Preparing (#) items or 'Preparing backup'. In fact, this message can vary depending on the OS X version you are using.
4. Gradually, the number of items will increase no matter even if the process operates pretty slowly. However, if the number of items within the message stay same for more than half an hour, that can be a Time Machine stuck on preparing backup. As long as the digits are changing, there is no issue with Time Machine.
5. If you can notice that the number of items is increasing, you shouldn't do anything; just be patient and let the process go on. So, whenever you believe that the Time Machine stuck on preparing backup, it is recommended to wait for another 30 minutes and be sure about the issue.

Note: Obviously, the duration the Time Machine would take should vary based on facts like the amount of information stored, the overall size of the backup and the connection speed (between backup device and Mac).

However, the time it takes to prepare your backup can take longer due to following reasons.

• An interruption occurred during the last Time Machine backup.
• You didn't shutdown your Mac properly last time.
• You have disconnected a disk without ejecting it.
• A recently updated software.

In addition to that, some antivirus programs too can delay the backing up process. To avoid this, you can make sure that the backup folder is exempted from scanning with the virus guard.

Part 3: How to fix Time Machine Stuck on 'Preparing Backup'

Now, let's see how to fix Time Machine Stuck on 'Preparing Backup' stage.

Phase 1: Stop the Frozen Backup Progress

1. To do this, you should open the 'Time Machine' settings and go to System Preferences.
2. Then, you should click on the small ‘X' mark and stop the ongoing process.
3. If the backup progress bar disappears and you don't see 'Preparing backup' option anymore, you can go to the next step.

Phase 2: Find and Remove the 'inProgress' File

1. After getting the backup process stopped, you should remove ‘inProgess' file.
2. To do this, you should open the Time Machine drive within the Finder. Then, go to the folder called 'Backups.backupd'.
3. Open the subfolder within this folder and put it into 'List View' mode.
4. You can sort the directory by 'Date Modified'. Now, locate the file that has .inProgress extension. The file name starts with digits that represent a date in the format of YYYY-MM-DD. You can simply delete it.

Phase 3: Restart Your Mac

1. Now, you should restart the Mac. Make sure the Time Machine drive is connected to your Mac. This is a pretty simple process.
2. Click on the Apple menu and select 'Restart'.
3. The Mac will boot now and wait for the Spotlight to run.

Phrase 4: Initiate a Backup

1. Go to the Time Machine icon and select 'Back Up Now' option.
2. Now, you will get the 'Preparing Backup' message, which will disappear soon.

Related Tips You May Concern

1. If all of the above options fail, you should contact Apple Support or contact an authorized person.

2. In the event of a stuck iPhone, you should try the tool called iMyFone iOS System Recovery tool and overcome it.

Main Features of iMyFone iOS System Recovery

• It is compatible with all the iOS versions like iOS 12/11/10/9/8 and devices including the latest versions
• It can fix many iOS-related issues at home
• It can fix iOS issues without experiencing data loss
• It is a really user-friendly software

iMyFone iOS System Recovery is already trusted by many MacOS users across the globe.

If Time Machine stuck on preparing backup, you know what to do now. We thoroughly believe that you can overcome the iOS related issues and enjoy the stability of Mac OS. We really appreciate if you can leave us a comment about your overall experience with the methods we mentioned in this article.

Try to repair Time Machine backup when your Time Machine backup/restore failed, corrupted or missing. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is helpful to recover a missing or deleted Time Machine backup or disk image on your Mac.

Time Machine Backup/Restore Failed

Mac users, who're currently running macOS Catalina or Mojave, report that they got an issue with Time Machine. Mainly, it's about Time Machine backup failed to back up the scheduled files to the configured backup disks, let it be the Time Capsule drive or third-party drive. Hence, how to repair Time Machine backup becomes the topic we're going to discuss here.

You can read on or jump to the issue & solution you're most concerned about.

Issue 1. Can't Backup or Restore Your Mac Using Time Machine

One phenomenon to get Time Machine backup failed is that you can't back up or access an existing Time Machine backup, or restore from an earlier backup won't work. According to Apple's official instructions (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204157), when you have a problem with Time Machine, check these things if you see an alert that Time Machine is unable to back up your data, or if you can't select your backup disk in Time Machine preferences.

Fix 1. Check Time Machine System Requirements

• External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac
• Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network
• External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac) on your network

Fix 2. Check Your Mac

• Make sure that your Mac software is up to date.
• Restart your Mac and see if the issue continues.

Fix 3. Check your AirPort Base Station

• If you're using an AirPort Time Capsule or a drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your AirPort firmware is up to date.
• Restart your base station and see if the issue continues. To restart, unplug the base station from AC power for 5 seconds, then plug it back in.

Fix 4. Check Your Network Connection

If you back up to a server, AirPort Time Capsule, or drive connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your Mac is connected to the same network as your backup drive. You can select your wireless network from the Wi-Fi status menu.

Fix 5. Check Your Backup

If you back up to a server, AirPort Time Capsule, or drive connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that your current Time Machine backup doesn't have any issues that could prevent further backups:

• While holding down the Option key on your keyboard, click the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, then choose Verify Backups.
• If Time Machine finds an issue with your backup, it displays a message with details. Follow the onscreen instructions.

Fix 6. Check Your Drives

• If you're using a drive connected to a port on your Mac or AirPort Extreme Base Station, make sure that the drive is turned on.
• If you're using a USB hub or a similar device, try connecting the drive directly to your Mac or base station.
• If you're backing up to an external third-party drive, check with the drive manufacturer to make sure the drive's firmware is up to date.
• If you're backing up to an external drive, check the formatting of the drive. Time Machine requires that an external drive be formatted like a Mac startup disk: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table (GPT). If you select a differently formatted drive for use with Time Machine, your Mac automatically prompts you to erase it for Time Machine.
• Reformatting a disk erases all data stored on the disk, so you might want to move important files to another disk first.

If your drive is already formatted correctly, turn off Time Machine, then check it for problems:

• To check the drive of an AirPort Time Capsule, follow the steps to verify an AirPort Time Capsule drive.
• To check an external drive connected to your Mac, open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Then use the First Aid feature in Disk Utility to verify your disk. Do this for your startup disk as well.
• You can turn Time Machine back on after your drives are verified or repaired successfully.

Issue 2. Time Machine Backup Is Corrupted

What's a corrupted Time Machine backup? Below are some backup corruption symptoms.

• Fail to complete Time Machine backup
• can't access time machine backups
• Time Machine keeps asking to create new backups
• Searching for time machine backups taking forever
• Time Machine disk or external device becomes unrecognized

How to repair a corrupted Time Machine backup? According to some experienced users and professional geeks, when Time Machine corrupted, it can be fixed by the following four troubleshooting methods.

Fix 1. Create New Backup

If Time Machine keeps asking you to create new backups, click Create new backup to start the new backup then. So that it can work smoothly later.

Fix 2. Restart Time Machine

Restart Time Machine several times may also help. You may need to switch Time Machine to On-Off-On and then reboot the Time Machine again.

Fix 3. Swap out The Hard Drive

Another solution to repair Time Machine is to set up a new external hard drive with Time Machine as a backup drive.

Fix 4. Repair Corrupted Time Machine with Terminal command

If Time Machine stops responding or even not working on Mac, to repair the corrupted Time Machine becomes tough yet still resolvable with Terminal command.

• Step 1: Open Terminal on Mac and type: $ sudo su - and hit Return.
• Step 2: Type: $ chflags -R nouchg '/Volumes/.sparsebundle' and hit Return.
• If you don't know the TM name, go to Time Machine Prefernces and check out. Or type: $ ls '/Volumes/ and hit Return.
• Step 3: Type: $ hdiutil attach -nomount -readwrite -noverify -noautofsck '/Volumes/.sparsebundle' and hit Return.
• Step 4: Type the below command and hit Return each time:
  /dev/disk5 GUID_partition_scheme
  /dev/disk5s1 EFI
  /dev/disk5s2 Apple_HFS
• Step 5: Type: $ fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/diskxs2 and hit Return. After this, if you receive 'The volume was repaired successfully', congratulations.
  But if Terminal warns you 'The volume could not be repaired', relax and continue with next command.
• Step 6: Type: $ fsck_hfs -p /dev/diskxs2 and hit Return.
• Step 7: Type: $ fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/diskxs2 and hit Return. Wait for the process to complete.
• Step 8: Type: $ vi '/Volumes//.sparsebundle/com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist' and hit Return.
  Change the value of integer from 2 to 0 within that file.

Issue 3. Time Machine Backups Missing

When you cannot access to Time Machine or Time Machine corrupted, you are highly recommended to get backup data back first. How?

Fix 1. Recover Missing Backup Image with Software

If the Time Machine backup disk can be opened but nothing appears, the best way is to scan and restore all lost Time Machines' Backups.backupdb files. Here we'd like to recommend you try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac which supports users to restore all lost data from different situations within only 3 steps. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac and restore Time Machine backups now:

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover Now' button to have them back.

What's more, if you lost files on Mac or external storage devices, you can also apply EaseUS Mac data recovery software to easily recover files on Mac without Time Machine backup.

Fix 2. Repair Unrecognized Time Machine Drive

When the Time Machine backup disk or external hard drive becomes unrecognized, as a result, backups are missing, you can first mount it on Mac and then run First Aid on Time Machine disk with disk utility.

Step 1: Connect the Time Machine backup external hard drive to Mac. Launch Disk Utility, check external hard drive at the left panel.

You'll see that the external hard drive is greyed out, marked as untitled. (Untitled means unmounted on Mac computer.)

Step 2: Select the untitled external hard drive and click the 'Mount' button from the Disk Utility bar.

How To Start Time Machine Backup Automatically

Step 3: Select Time Machine drive at drive level on the left panel of Disk Utility and run First Aid.

Step 4: Select Time Machine drive at volume level and run First Aid.

How To Start Time Machine Backup

Wait for the process completes, check if Mac computer can recognize your backup disk and open it in Time Machine again. How to pokemon game download.

Conclusion

How To Start Time Machine Backup New Hard Drive

Regarding the topic 'Time Machine backup failed' and 'how to repair Time Machine backup', we gathered all feasible solutions to help you resolve the various issues with Time Machine on your Mac. If you have further Time Machine problems, click for more Time Machine guidelines from the following collection.