Time Machine Just Hangs Up?

Question

Does anyone have any solution for the fact that Time Machine will just "hang up" from time to time? My iMac is brand new (literally, 4 days) and from time to time the back up icon in the status bar at the top of the screen will indicate that Time Machine is running, but, this goes on and on and on and the backup never completes. This same issue was encountered on the 2003-vintage iMac that I just replaced. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.....KV

Answer 1

There are a lot of similar threads on this.
Many are after doing an OSX update. As that adds/changes many thousands of files, there will be a long "preparing" phase. Within reason, that's to be expected.
Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. If you see something there that seems suspicious, copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
See item 7 in the +Frequently Asked Questions+ post at the top of this forum for details.
Otherwise, here are the usual suspects:
If it's your initial backup, the most common cause is the TM drive not being formatted correctly (even, on occasion, if TM formatted it!). Use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to verify:
Select the top line, with the make and size. Towards the bottom, the *Partition Map Scheme* should be GUID for an Intel Mac, +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
Select the line for the TM partition (with the name). Towards the bottom, the Format should be +Max OS Exended (Journaled).+
If either is wrong, you need to stop TM and reformat the drive. See instructions in item 5 of the +Frequently Asked Questions+ post at the top of this forum.
_*Other common causes/fixes:*_
1. Exclude your TM disk/partition from any anti-virus scanning.
2. Exclude it, at least temporarily, from Spotlight (System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy).
_*If backing up to a Time Capsule or External Disk connected to an Airport Extreme:*_
1. Check your System Name via System Preferences > Sharing. It it's blank, that's likely the problem. If it's over 26 characters long, trim it. If it has any unusual characters, try removing them.
2. Try moving the TC and Mac closer together.
3. Look for interference with another wireless device. Turn anything else off, or move it farther away.
4. Try repairing the Sparse Bundle on the TC with Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Mount the TC, then drag it into the Disk Utility sidebar, then use Repair Disk (not permissions).
_*If backing up to an External hard drive:*_
1. At least temporarily, de-select +Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ...+ in System Preferences > Energy Saver.
2. Be sure it's connected directly to your Mac (no hubs, and not the USB port on keyboard).
3. Try different port(s), cable(s).
4. See if your drive has an automatic sleep or "spin down" feature you can disable.
If the problem persists after all this, post back with the Make, model, size and type (FireWire/USB) of your drive.