Time capsule appears to be blocked in "Preparing backup"

My time capsule (almost 2 yrs old and always fine) now appears to be stuck in "preparing backup" - it's been working there for a couple of hours now, the icon is spinning and the disk sounds active.
Has anyone had this experience and/or any advice out there? I checked that I have the latest software, and nothing else seems buggy. Not sure if this is more likely a software or a hardware problem.
Thanks!

Forum expert Pondini's "Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule" and "Time Machine - Troubleshooting" are the best resources available anywhere...better than Apple's....so you might want to bookmark both of these links.
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html
Check D1 in the Troubleshooting guide for info on the "Preparing" issue.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2296894

Similar Messages

Time Capsule appears twice in Airport drop down menu

Menu Bar > Airport drop-down menu: My Time Capsule's wireless name shows up twice in my list of wifi sources. Once in the group with all the other routers and again in a group called "Devices".
Long story short…
I start with a perfectly functional, WPA/WPA2 password-protected Time Capsule: Over a year old. Two MbP's using it for Time Machine backup. Connected to a 1.5TB MyBook external HD via usb. Doubles as my wifi router. Everything's connected to it, including my wifi-enabled printer. Works great. No issues.
I get this idea in my head that I need to hide my wifi signal. I figure it out and ¡Viola! Hidden. Then I try to add my wifi-enabled printer to the list of allowed devices in "Access Control". I hit a big snag and can't figure out how to get it to connect (btw, don't buy a Brother printer. Pure crap). So, I give up and revert permissions back to visible, password-protected state.
Skipping irrelevant issues that I already resolved, I now have the wireless name of my Time Capsule appearing twice in the airport drop down menu. It appears with all the other wifi sources my machine detects AND appears at the bottom under a new category called "Devices".
All I want is to have things back the way they were and this anomaly in the drop down menu is a constant reminder that I #1 failed and #2 bought a crap printer.
(Long story long, I guess. Sorry.) How do I delete this "Devices" group from the airport drop down menu?

Stilts McCoy wrote:
Menu Bar > Airport drop-down menu: My Time Capsule's wireless name shows up twice in my list of wifi sources. Once in the group with all the other routers and again in a group called "Devices".
You might find useful advice in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12156248
If you want to post a reply, please do so to this thread, not the other one.

Time capsule appeared on Finder on both "shared" and "device". now i can't see it on devices

time capsule appeared on Finder on both "shared" and "device".now i can't see it on devices

It will only appear in devices if you mount the drive. This should happen automatically when Time Machine starts.. but you can manually mount the share by just clicking it.

Time capsule appears twice on time machine

Hi, since a few days my time machine keeps getting confused because time capsule appears twice. It is the same time capsule and the same backup data but occasionally time machine postpones the backup because it can not connect to the disk. When I hover my pointer over these two icons I see the addresses: The top one appears as afp://xxxx-xxxxx-Time-Capsule.local/Data whine the bottom one (with the wifi icon) appears as afp://xxxx%20;AUTH=SPRxxx%20xxxx%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data. Time machine behavior is erratic, sometimes it refuses to connect to the second instance while in other times it does. And this happens also with another Mac backing up on the same time capsule. Any ideas?

Yes please relocate to 10.9 I did not pay attention to the OS version. Now I am using an Apple Time capsule over my home network as I am backing two Macs in it and it has been working flawlessly for almost two years. Having said that it is now working fine switching from one to the other instance (no clue of what drives the selection, I made these two screen captures at a few seconds interval as I was writing this post)
As you can see the "available" disks has changed.
I went back to Time Machine Buddy and pulled up one of the failure reports:
couldn't determine volume-uuid of mount point: /Volumes/Data-1, error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "The file “Data-1” doesn’t exist." UserInfo=0x7fdd42714030 {NSURL=file:///Volumes/Data-1, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Data-1}
Failed to get UUID for destination: /Volumes/Data-1
[SnapshotUtilities volumeRefForPath:] FSPathMakeRef failed and returned OSStatus: -43 for path /Volumes/Data-1
Backup failed because the network destination disk was ejected or disconnected unexpectedly!
Backup failed with error 26: The connection to the server was interrupted.

Time Capsule Appears as PC

I have a network with two Macs, a PC, a bunch of iPod Touch and iPhone devices, a wireless HP printer, and a Time Capsule on it.
The Time Capsule appears fine as a Time Capsule in the Finder side bar, however, it does on occasion, as it is now, appears also as a PC named "time-capsule". The Time Capsule's name is just "Time Capsule". I can access the HDD just fine through the "time-capsule".
It's not really anything major or bad, it's just a rather annoying problem that I personally don't think I should be having with an Apple product.
Anybody know why it appears like this, or how to fix it?

Have some of the laptops changed to Lion? I think there is an issue with Lion and the TC. But it could affect the TC and all the computers.
Not sure what else could affect it but I suspect the issue could just be age. Since it is a fairly vital piece of hardware to your business, do you have other backup strategies in place? Perhaps it would be worth taking the TC into apple genius and see if they can figure out the issue, although it seems to not be immediate which makes it hard to discover. You should have apple care on it with all those laptops.. i hope.

Under Snow Leopard I used a WD My World NAS to back up my Mac Pro (Mid 2010). When I upgraded to Lion I am unable to access the backup because the NAS does not yet support AFP. I have now bought a Time Capsule and want to transfer the old backup onto it.

Under Snow Leopard I used a WD My World NAS to back up my Mac Pro (Mid 2010). When I upgraded to Lion I am unable to access the backup because the NAS does not yet support AFP. I have now bought a Time Capsule and want to transfer the old backup onto it.
How can I recover the NAS back up to put on my new Time Machine.
Talking to Apple Support Adviser was a waste of time on case number 239647273
Any thoughts or pointers?

Keep the old OS around and just kick the tires and test new OS. Apple has a history and habit of breaking support in things like this.
You can use TimeMachine as one level of backup, and even there there were changes with Lion, I would always recommend foremost backup clones of every volume. And clone (SuperDuper etc) can be stored on something like HP NAS Media Server which also was supporting TimeMachine, iTunes - until Apple made that harder and more their own proprietary format.
Apple AirPort Time Capsule Support
Lion Communities
Cloning as a Backup Strategy
Rather than "upgrade" I would clone the system, and do a clean install, then allow Setup Assistant to import your files.
Others who are asking the same question:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=mac+os+x+lion+WD+My+World+NAS

When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kent's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kent’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

Restart the Time Capsule.

Time Capsule (OSStatus error -6602.) Cannot choose backup disk

I have no idea what to do next. The wireless connection on my 500 GB Time Capsule works fine. However, a few days ago, I noticed that it was no longer backing up. I tried the usual things (resetting Time Capsule, unplugging Time Capsule, changing my disk name) and even did a full erase. Every single time I try to turn on my Time Machine and select the backup disk, it gives me this error when I enter my password:
Operation could not be completed
(OSStatus error -6602.)
I know I am entering the correct password. I tried to run disk utility but even though I can see my Time Capsule, I cannot verify it. Any thoughts?

I've had this problem since August. Every once in a while I do searches and try different things, but so far nothing has worked. Would love to find the answer to this. I can no longer backup anything even though I've reset the capsule and even wiped out my data and tried to start from scratch.
I finally sprung the $9.99/month for drop box just to have backups. It's ridiculous.
This is about the 5th time I've had issues with the time capsule and had to wipe out my backups.

After resetting Time Capsule, how do I access my previous backups?

After re-setting Time Capsule, how do I access my previous backups?

Access it to do what??
You can migrate the data.. see Pondini instructions for migrate. (or from apple).
His instructions are a little out of date.. but still more useful than the over generalised stuff Apple give you.
http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html
OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks
If you wanted to continue using the backup with TM.. no you cannot inherit a backup from a different machine.
To simply access the backup .. then open the sparsebundle from finder or TM..
See the instructions in Pondini.. Q15-17 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
If you want to do something else you need to tell us what it is??

Time Capsule full, no longer deleting deleting old backups automatically

Hi, My Time Capsule needs to backup 18.32 GB, but ther'e only 15.20 GB left on it, so it tells me that it couldn't complete the backup. It used to delete old backups automatically when it ran out of space, but, for whatever reason, it isn't doing that anymore.
Can anyone help, please?

Unfortunately, the Time Capsule cannot delete enough information to be able to make room for the new backup.
It would take forever to try to manually delete backups...and might not be successful....so you really are faced with a decison on whether you want to:
1) Add a new Time Capsule and start with a new "master" backup and move forward from there. You can keep the old Time Capsule connected and go back to browse backups there if you need to do so.
2) Erase the Time Capsule and start over with a new "master" backup and move forward from there.
If you really don't need all the old backups from months ago, and you don't mind starting over again, this makes sense for a lot of users. I usually start over about every 6 months or so, but your needs may vary.

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112). How can I repair it?

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112).
How can I fix it?

You might want to take a look at Pondini's excellent support document......Time Machine Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
See # C17

HT3275 I just brought a New Macbook Pro and was successful in transfering data from my old macbook. However when I try to back up to my time capsule I receive this message. "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Salvatore Totino's Time Cap/Lorraine's MacBook Pr

I just brought a New Macbook Pro and was successful in transfering data from my old macbook. However when I try to back up to my time capsule I receive this message. "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Salvatore Totino's Time Cap/Lorraine’s MacBook Pro.spars

You may need to reset TM and start with a fresh full backup.
For the particular error see
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Why doesn't Time Capsule appear in Disk Utility anymore?

Time Machine gave me a msg that it was unable to back up yesterday due to a problem with an image on my iMac (21.5") drive. It said to repair the external drive I'm using with Disk Utility. I tried the Time Capsule I'm using and which is hooked up and has worked fine for months does not appear. Why?
Also got a msg today saying: "backup cannot be complete due to unexpected error. Code -6584" Never had such a problem before Mt. Lion.
I see no forum category for Time Machine or Time Capsule.

You need to verify the backup.
Hold the option key while clicking the Time Machine icon on the top right menu area.
But reboot the TC beforehand.. maybe the whole network.
The error is well known.. see
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3123920?tstart=0

Why doesn't time capsule appear in airport utility?

I have the 3TB time capsule just bought last year. It has been working perfectly fine for all of this time when suddenly my internet connection was slowed to a snails pace. I reset the modem, the time capsule, etc. and nothing worked. I called comcast and the guy says the modem is out of sync and he reset it and everything was perfect. Later that day, it slowed again. When I called Comcast he said everything is good from the cable side it must be the router (in this case the time capsule). I opened the airport utility and I was connected to wifi but the time capsule doesnt appear. It says it cant find any base stations.
I googled the web and tried many things including hard reset, updating IPv6 to link-local only, etc. When I am connected hard wire to the modem it works fine but as soon as i disconnect and go wireless it no longer can find the base station. The wireless network and speed work fine I just cant connect to the base station for time machine backups, access my drive etc.
HELP!

Do a full factory reset.. this is different to hard reset and is recommended when you run into issues.
Mountain Lion does have a bug with the TC in lossing it. The latest firmware was supposed to fix the problem but I doubt it is working.. ie 7.6.4 ..
I would do the following.
1. Take the firmware back to 7.6.1
You simply hold the option key whilst clicking the number of the version in the airport utility. Select the firmware you want.. and it will do the downgrade.
2. Factory reset.
The Factory Reset Gen1-4.
Unplug your TC. Hold in reset. and power the TC back on.. without releasing reset for about 10sec. When the status light flashes rapidly; release it.
Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.
TC will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.
No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
3. Redo the setup with a completely clean set of names.. which are SMB standard.. ie short, 2-20 characters, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Set wireless 5ghz to a different name.
Set security to WPA2 personal with 8-20 character pure alphanumeric password.
Set wireless channels manually .. use 11, 6, 1 for 2.4ghz try each in turn in that order.
Use around 40 and around 150 for 5ghz.
4. Test with ethernet.. wireless is never a great test. You never know if the issue is somewhere else. Ethernet is more reliable.

Time Capsule stuck in Backing up ___"preparing...''___

TC has been trying to backup for two days now..
it has been backing up flawlessly since March..==although the "Preparing..." always seemed to take longer than really necessary for 50-100MB of data to back up
Starting two days ago the Backing up progress bar which says "Preparing..."
spins for hours and doesn't ever change to the real data transfer numbers...
iF i close the laptop it goes to sleep and stops.. openning starts it up again---more hours of "Preparing..."
restarting the computer doesn'T help either...
internet works.
aux hrd drive connected through the TC works fine...

I had the same problem. It never backed up for 4days. And sometimes it gave the error the back up volume couldnt be mounted. I restarted the laptop, restarted the timecapsule. erased the timecapsule using airport utility. Than go into the prefs of timecapsul and gave it a new name (it was Eray's Time Capsule changed it to Eray Time Capsule) and change the back up volume from TM prefs. and click the back up now. It works now.

Time capsule appears to be blocked in "Preparing backup"

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for