Time Machine Locks up at "Preparing backup..."

Using a 1 TB Time Capsule for Time Machine Backup of my MAcBook Pro (MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 8GB Ram, 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 1TB). Occasionally, it stops backing up properly. In Time Machine Preferences, it finds the disk but seems to get hung up "Preparing backup..."
In the past when this happened, I rebooted my cable modem and then rebooted my Time Capsule and the next backup started working fine. That no longer seems to work. It just keeps "Preparing backup...."
Any suggestions?

Do a verify of the backup.. it could be stuck with inprogress file from previous failed backup.
A5 and A10 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Load the widget.. A1 to get the logs from the TM so you actually know why it is stalling.

Similar Messages

My Time Capsule/Time Machine has been showing Preparing Backup for past 48 hours continuously!

My Time Capsule reported Full the other day. I now have only 26.8MB of 497.96 GB available. Since then it seems to backing up continuously. The Time machine preferences window shows "Preparing Backup" andnothing else, and it has been doing so for at least past 48 hours. Any ideas as to the problem?
Stuartyboy

Yes, the problem is the drive is full.
If you have other files or TM back from other computers, TM on your computer having issues will not be able to delete enough to get sufficient space to backup.
Read how to clean up and delete parts of backups.. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Not a good idea though.
Solution.
1. Buy a new bigger TC.. cheaper (Than the original 500GB at least), faster and now the smallest is 2TB.
2. Plug in a USB drive.. archive the TC.. then erase it and start a fresh set of backups.. April 1st great day to do it.
3. Open up your old TC.. remove the 500GB drive and install a 2TB (if Gen1 a 3TB might even work). Google for how to do a hard disk upgrade.
Problem.. old power supply could die the day after and then the total cost would approach 1. Better to backup, wipe the 500GB and sell it on ebay and buy a new TC with 2 or even 3TB (2TB is better value IMHO).
4. Plug in a USB drive .. formatted to HFS+ and use that as the target.
Very slow. much slower than the same drive plugged into your computer.

Time Machine wont go past "Preparing Backup"

For some reason today the time machine is stuck on "preparing backup" I've read some other posts and tried their solutions but noting yet. This is ridiculous. I have an important paper to write and I cant afford to lose it due to a computer crash and an unresponsive Time Machine. The computer itself has been acting up too much. This is off topic but does anyone notice if you have AIM for your computer if you put more than one finger on the trackpad it crashes the program. Also if you insert a long web address in microsoft word then hit enter it also crashes the program. Is it just mine or anyone else having these problems. But anyways I need to focus on Time Machine
Thanks

Ok I just let it run for 10 to 15 minutes and it ended up backing up and now its fine. Problem solved!

Since upgrading to Mavericks, my Time Machine is stuck on "Preparing Backup".

Since upgrading to Mavericks, every time I attempt to run a Time Machine backup, I can only get it to go as far as "Preparing Backup". I've left it like that for hours just to see if it's slow. I've also stopped and restarted Time Machine multiple times to no avail....it just gets stuck at that point. Please help.

Since upgrading to Mavericks, every time I attempt to run a Time Machine backup, I can only get it to go as far as "Preparing Backup". I've left it like that for hours just to see if it's slow. I've also stopped and restarted Time Machine multiple times to no avail....it just gets stuck at that point. Please help.

Time Machine is stuck on "Preparing Backup"

My Backups have not worked for about a month.....and have been in a perpetual "preparing" state.
I have Imac with OS version is 10.7.5, Build is 11G63
Have got this from console logs if it help shine any light on the nature of my issues, and how to fix?
Sep 8 19:10:27 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Sep 8 19:11:28 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Sep 8 19:12:30 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Sep 8 19:13:31 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[211]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Sep 8 19:24:44 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Sep 8 19:25:21 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Sep 8 19:25:23 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 8 19:26:23 unknown-d4:9a:20:ed:4a:c6 com.apple.backupd[4061]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Thanks in advance

Does your computer have a name in System Preferences > Sharing? If not, that may be at least part of the problem. Give it one -- make it short, and use only numbers and letters -- no punctuation.
Then cancel the backup and try again.
It sounds more like a problem with the index, so if that doesn't help, cancel the backup and try to repair them per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time machine locks up when browsing backups.

I have just started using time machine. It did a full back up 3 days ago and is ow doing hourly backups. My problem is browsing the backups, the TM window opens full screen and the time line on the right animates, I can click on a date which then comes to the front but if I click on anything, TM locks upand wont respond, None of the buttons work,no spinning 'wait' icon and the only way out is to force quit. I did see another thread suggesting that virus barrier could be the problem, but I uninstalled virus barrier some time ago after the trial subscription ran out.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks
Ian

Diana1138 wrote:
I've tried repairing permissions on both externals drives and Disk Utility always says nothing needs to be repaired.
You can't repair permissions on a non-OSX volume. It sounds like something on one of them, probably the iTunes drive, is corrupted. +*Repair Disk+* instead.
When I try to stop the backup, it won't stop and I'm forced to shutdown my mac using the power button because nothing else seems to work
See #D6 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). If it's locking up that badly, have the Activity Monitor window visible and ready before starting a backup.
I'm a bit nervous that my 500 GB drive is failing.
Quite possible.
All of my media is there and I'm concerned I'll lose it all. Could it be anything else though?
Sure. If +*Repair Disk+* says it "appears to be ok," and the problem persists, exclude it from backups temporarily, per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If the problem stops, you know it's something to do with that drive.
If not, Verify your internal HD and, while you're at it, Repair the Time Machine drive, too.
If it does appear to be the iTunes drive, check all the connections; try different port(s) and cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).
Also check the power connections, if the drive has it's own power supply. And be sure it's plugged-in to a known good outlet: better, a good-quality surge protector; best, the same U.P.S. system that your iMac is on.

What to do when time machine seems stuck on "Preparing Backup"

This issue is happenning on my macbook pro, mid 2010. My drive setup is that I have a partition which I dedicated to time machine backups. The total size of my drive is 500GB, and I partitioned about 100GB for time machine. The reason for that is I only needed a few space since I setup time machine to include only the system and the apps, and NONE of the libraries such as itunes or photos. This means that the only backup will be for the system, profiles, and the app. I have been running this for a few months andhas been doing OK until up to now.
My problem is that my time machine seems to get stuck on "Preparing Backup". The latest backup was done last Nov 8, 2011, whcih is about 11 days from now. I am also aware that the time machine drive has only about 200 mb space left, but I am not worried at all because I've always TM to delete the oldest backup to free up space. My oldest backup was still Sept 8, and I'm ok if that will be deleted.
So I'd like to find out why it still stuck on "Preparing backup" ,and I am wondering if deleting a backup can solve it. Can it? what do I do to solve this?
Also, I use my computer alot , so it is basically running for about 18 hours a day, but still time machine didn't quite work well. I have tried reparing the disk using disk utility, but that didn't help.

Comments inline below.
Pondini wrote:
joshua raphael wrote:
This issue is happenning on my macbook pro, mid 2010. My drive setup is that I have a partition which I dedicated to time machine backups. The total size of my drive is 500GB, and I partitioned about 100GB for time machine. The reason for that is I only needed a few space since I setup time machine to include only the system and the apps, and NONE of the libraries such as itunes or photos.
You may want to revisit that strategy:
A backup on the same drive isn't very secure -- when (not if) the HD fails, you risk losing everything.
In most cases, if there's a problem with OSX the best way to fix it is to just install a fresh version. But you can't do that from that backup.
Indeed!
Backing-up apps that way will also be useless in some cases. 3rd-party apps that came with their own installers put other files in other places (and sometimes "helper" apps as well). Unless you know what and where they all are, and restore them, too, the restored app won't work properly, if at all.
I think you're confusing each other with terminology. iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are NOT "Libraries", which has a specific meaning when it comes to OS X. "Libraries", in OS X normally refers to /Libraries and ~/Libraries folders. This is not where iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are stored. iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are stored within ~/Music and ~/Pictures, respectively.
I have tried reparing the disk using disk utility, but that didn't help.
Disk Utility changed a bit in Lion. When you select an entire disk, it only repairs the partition map, not all the volumes. You must repair each one separately.
Wow, good to know. (What a stupid change to make, for backwards compatibility, if for no other reason!)
See #D1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to figure out why the backups are hanging.
Whew. This editor makes it so hard to make comments inline. The key thing when time machine seems stuck is patience. Sometimes it needs to be left to run overnight. Unfortunately, it doesn't log or report it's progress very well.
Opening Time Machine settings in Preferences plus a command like this left running in Terminal.app is how I monitor progress. And even so, there is very little logging indicating progress.
sudo tail -f /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/My\ Computer/2012-07-11-133352.inProgress/.Backup.363731632.496216.log
The parts in italics will need to be adjusted. Tab completion makes this easy, e.g type
sudo tail -f /Volumes/
and hit tab, type the first few letters of the relevant volume name, hit tab...
Also, I have a hypothesis which needs testing.
I know that Time Machine gets confused if one deletes large files from a backup - specifically, Time Machine doesn't recognize that the size of the backup has changed.
I know because this made restoring a thinned out time machine backup ("thinned out" by deleting files from within the GUI while inside the Time Machine) to a small SSD harder than it should have been. I had to restore to a big disk and then clone that volume to the SSD - even though the SSD had enough space, Time Machine didn't think so; it didn't "understand" that it had been thinned.
My hypothesis is that Time Machine also gets confused if the Time Machine partition is resized. I shrunk a Time Machine partition (no it wasn't on my main disk!) and about that time, Time Machine stopped working. After thinning the volume, it started working again.

Upgraded from 10.6 to 10.8 and time machine is stuck on 'preparing backup'

I am running a MBP, purchased in 2011. I upgraded on Sunday from 10.6 to 10.8 and everything seemed to be working fine. Thought I would do a backup but the drive has just been stuck on 'preparing backup' for ages. Does anybody have any ideas of what I can do?
Thanks.

I was going to suggest a restart - glad that I didn't. When upgrading OS's, there's usually a lot of data to back up, but I'm surprised that it took 'ages'!
Clinton

Time Machine locking up on initial backup

I'm running TM on a G5 XServe, backing up networked student folders. It was working at the beginning of the year, however it has been giving me trouble lately. TM is backing up to a 1TB iSCSI networked SAN unit. Over Xmas, the SAN lost two hard drives and crashed. This is when the trouble started.
We rebuilt the SAN unit and I got another 1TB iSCSI drive configured for TM. Three times I've tried to get it running and it'll always crash on the second backup (one hour after the initial backup).
This last time the initial backup was pretty big (462GB I think) and it crashed on the second backup an hour later. But there shouldn't have been any new data as that second backup was at 12:13 a.m. (nobody around).
Any ideas as to why TM wants to crash?
Thanks

Alan Carroll1 wrote:
Okay... TimeMachineBuddy's last entry was ". . . node requires deep traversal:/" it lists a reason, but I can't get a copy/paste of it.
Click in the message area (that will outline it in blue), press Cmd+A to select all, then Cmd+C to copy everything to your clipboard; then paste it here.
This message was last after three UUID's don't match for all three internal drives (but that supposed to be normal for a first backup).
Correct. So is the "deep traversal" message. Since TM isn't sure what's on the disks with the UUID problems, it has to do the deep traversal, comparing every directory (folder) on your system with it's backups. That is, of course, a lengthy procedure, and the message is not an error message -- it's just to let you know the Preparing phase will be a long one. See #7 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum, for details.

Time Machine stopped backing up, "preparing"

Hi,
I recently moved and backed up an imac I left behind as well as my macbook using Time Machine.
Everything was fine until Feb 27 when I was hit by a car and spent the next several weeks away from the computer. When I did get the laptop back, I didn't have the backup drive. Until a few days ago.
So I reconnect and the backup starts with no problem until it finally tells me that I am out of space on the drive. I decided that I should just dump the imac time machine folder since I had a duplicate on another drive. That was much more complicated than I expected but I finally reclaimed a lot of space.
The problem is that now when I connect time machine, it just says preparing backup. I can enter time machine and see my last date before the accident, even going back into last year. But it won't back up any more.
I've looked at the forums and on one suggestion deleted the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file after disconnecting the drive and then reconnecting everything but to no avail.
Here is the message on the Time Machine Widget buddy
Starting standard backup
Backup requested by user
Backing up to: /Volumes/2TB BB/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
My first thought would be that the backup I trashed was the one for the macbook and not the imac but the last saved dates would all be wrong and it wouldn't explain my ability to enter time machine and look back at my computer's history.
Anyway, At this point I really want to just have a complete back up that I can use to wipe my drive and reinstall everything. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
bb

Bruce Bridges wrote:
Starting standard backup
Backup requested by user
Backing up to: /Volumes/2TB BB/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Those are all normal. The last two mean that TM has to compare everything on your Mac to the backups, to figure out what's changed and needs to be backed-up. That takes longer than a normal backup, but shouldn't take hours, unelss there's a problem with one of the drives, or the port, cable, etc.
I'd recommend Verifying the internal HD, and Repairing the TM drive, per #6 in Using Disk Utility.

How does one get Time Machine out of a "Preparing to Backup" loop to actually doing a backup? thanks, AR

How does one get Time Machine out of a "Preparing to Backup" loop to actually doing a backup? thanks, AR

Hi..
Thanks for the reply..
My original I Phone 5 was running IOS 6.12
My I phone 5S currently runs IOS 8..When I upgraded it, it had IOS 7 on it which made the I Photo app compatible with everything below IOS 8...( which the photo app is not compatible with ) so I just connected the I Phone 5S to my computer and thinking the new phone had IOS 7 on it that these was nothing to worry about..I thought all 900 + pictures in the photo stream would transfer but somewhere in the process, I Tunes decides to just go and install IOS 8 which requires that you run a " Photo Migration App" to transfer photos from IOS 7 & below. The problem was is that I didn't want IOS 8 on my new 5S so I thought I wouldn't have to do that part..
Anyway the phone emerged with IOS 8 on it and the only photos that remained were the ones that were actually on the phone..The 900 + I had in the stream didn't transfer because the Photos that works on IOS 7 and below isn't compatible with IOS 8..I guess you have to use the photo migration app that comes with IOS 8 & I phone 6..But I didn't ask to upgrade to IOS 8...It just did it on it's own!
I still have the I Phone 5 Back up that I did just before giving it back to Verizon but if I try to restore the I Phone 5S running IOS 8 those photos in the stream will not go back on the phone because IOS 8 isn't compatible with the I Photos" that ran on IOS 7 and below..
So I have an I Pad mini that runs IOS 7..should I try and erase it...and put that I Phone 5 backup on it and pray the photos that were in the stream come back on it so I can transfer them back to my computer...then erase the I pad mini again and restore it using it's original backup that I have on the computer and the in the cloud?
I know this sounds confusing but I'm at a loss as to what to do..This is what I found ...http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201386
but it doesn't help me..
Steve

Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem." Tried suggestions I've seen on the forum.

Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem." I've tried various suggestions I've seen on the forum but nothing has worked. TIme Machine worked fine for the last two years and just suddenly started having this problem every time. The only thing that was a little different is that the computer was off for a week while on vacation and then I added a large amount (20 GB) of photos. Now the requested backup size is 82GB, which is large, and process proceeds very slowly for 2-3 hours before failing with the message mentioned. I have more than enough available backup storage space for it. Before failing, Time Machine has backed up no more than 12GB or so of the backup. It fails during different files each time.
I've turned off the computer sleep feature, and I've checked that the NAS is set to never automatically power down. I normally backup over Wi-Fi, but I've also tried connecting to Ethernet and it still has the same problem. It's odd because I also have a MacBook Pro that is still backing up fine to the same NAS using the MacBook's Time Machine.
I am using an iMac with OS X 10.6.8 and an Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS.
I have system logs that I can share if helpful. The logged messages vary a bit from run to run, but here are some messages that I've been seeing:
I always get this message near the beginning of the backup:
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
I've gotten this messsage a number of times:
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
One Day
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Another day
1/7/12 10:44:20 AM
mDNSResponder[18]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -112916, (server penaltyTime -1132397006, timenow -1132284090) resetting the penalty
1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x1106be94
1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
Another Day
1/6/12 8:03:22 AM
Google Chrome[164]
Cannot find function pointer CMPluginInFactory for factory 3487BB5A-3E66-11D5-A64E-003065B300BC in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x16f99e20 </Users/smarmer/Library/Contextual Menu Items/Google Notifier Quick Add CM Plugin.plugin> (not loaded)
1/6/12 8:04:02 AM
com.apple.backupd[193]
Copied 7.5 GB of 67.0 GB, 8866 of 8866 items
1/6/12 8:06:58 AM
/System/Library/CoreServices/CCacheServer.app/Contents/MacOS/CCacheServer[1013]
No valid tickets, timing out
1/6/12 8:29:44 AM
mDNSResponder[19]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -148702, (server penaltyTime 2056822773, timenow 2056971475) resetting the penalty
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa5ac380
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: doing reconnect on /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: soft mounted and hidden volume so do not notify KEA for /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Max reconnect time: 30 secs, Connect timeout: 15 secs for /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: connect to the server /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP asp_SetTCPQoS: sock_settclassopt got error 57
Another day
1/5/12 3:48:55 PM
mdworker[2128]
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
1/5/12 4:24:54 PM
mDNSResponder[19]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -42698, (server penaltyTime 1148718961, timenow 1148761659) resetting the penalty
1/5/12 4:29:58 PM
com.apple.backupd[2074]
Copied 586.4 MB of 67.0 GB, 9891 of 9891 items
1/5/12 4:39:00 PM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa1c0380

bokon0n wrote:
1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support TM Lock Stealing
1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support Server Reply Cache
Those indicate that your NAS is not fully compatible with Snow Leopard.
1/11/12 8:53:35 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: replay_journal: from: 67182592 to: 78680064 (joffset 0xa7b8000)
1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: examining extra transactions starting @ 78680064 / 0x4b09000
1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: Extra txn replay stopped @ 79056896 / 0x4b65000
1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: journal replay done.
1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
fseventsd[41]
event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (253512 14 253512)
1/11/12 8:53:50 AM
kernel
hfs: Removed 1 orphaned / unlinked files and 0 directories
That looks like a problem was found with the file system (data) on the TM disk. I don't know the details, but OSX tried to recover it from the journal, and found extra data on the drive. Likely a result of the incompatibility mentioned above.
1/11/12 9:47:40 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
That's a problem writing to the NAS drive.
But the backup continued after all this.
1/11/12 1:25:07 PM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x9d00b44
Something caused a disconnect. Can't tell from the log what it was.
I doubt it's a problem with something in OSX being damaged or corrupted, but reinstalling OSX isn't a major hassle, so might be worth a try.
To be incompatible with Snow Leopard, this NAS must be at least a couple of years old. It may be beginning to fail.
Contact the maker. See if there's an update to make it compatible with Snow Leopard. If so, that might fix it.
If not, or if that doesn't fix it, see if they have any diagnostics that will shed any light.

Time Machine Error "Unable to complete backup"

I have not backed up my hard drive for about 30 days. When I plug my external hard drive in, Time Machine "prepares backup" for a while, then gives me the following message:
*Time Machine Error*
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
I tried unplugging and re-plugging, rebooting my computer, trashing the ".inprogress" backup file and restarting. It did not help. While it time machine is preparing the backup, my computer runs crazy slow, with the rainbow pinwheel spinning for about 5-10 seconds just about every time I click the mouse, in any program.
Per someone's suggestion, I put "sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log" into terminal, and this is what came up:
"No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.98 GB requested (including padding), 70.16 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12 for: /Applications/iChat.app, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/My Computer (2)/2011-01-13-113417.inProgress/CB0D491E-EF04-48A0-9AE9-32AE43E9209C/Macintosh HD/Applications/iChat.app
Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Stopping backup."
This time, it was apparently iChat, but in each of the three times I've tried to backup and gotten this error message, a different file has been the culprit for the indexing error.
Any suggestions?

orchestr wrote:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12
see [this_|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/C3.html] user tip by Pondini.
JGG

Time Machine locked disk

Connected a WD My Book pro to my G5 PM running OS 10.5.1. After a few minutes into the first backup it failed the backup with the message: Time Machine Error - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory.
Tried deleting the "in-progress" file, but the disk is locked and will not unlock. Cannot unmount, repair or erase with DU, and cannot unlock.
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting power to the backup disk, now the computer hangs trying to connect to the backup disk.
Appreciate any suggestions

Try shutting down and resetting the PRAM.
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
See if you can now unlock the disk. If you can, reformat the drive using the directions in this article. People with PPC Macs should substitute Apple Partition Map for GUID when following the directions.

Time machine couldn't complete the backup...

Hi,
My TC backs up three Macs. All of them run 10.8 and are up-to-date. My MBA is unable to perform scheduled backups. A minute or so after Time Machine starts a new backup it pops-up a dialog 'Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Mike's Time Capsule". The backup disk could not be found.'
My Time Capsule is visible in Finder. If I click Open Time Machine Preferences... the window shows the Time Capsule disk and that it has 89GB of 998GB available.
If I then click Select Disk... a new window opens. In the Backup Disks section my Time Capsule is listed as Data on "Mike's Time Capsule". Below that in the Available Disks section there is Data on "Mike's Time Capsule" and Other Time Capsule Set up a Time Capsule that is not listed here.
If I click Data on "Mike's Time Capsule" in the Available Disks section and then Use Disk, the same error dialog reappears immediately.
I've tried removing the disk from the Backup Disks section, turning off Time Machine and then adding the disk again, the error pops up again.
Turning on Time Machine without selecting a disk automatically selects the Time Capsule as a backup, I am asked for the Time Capsule's password and the countdown to the backup starts. After a long period preparing the backup, the first backup will complete normally as will any manual backups, but timed backups all fail with the error that the disk can't be found.
I've turned off Time Machine, deleted the two plist files from Library and tried again. Same problem recurs.
I've even tried turning off Time Machine, removing the whole backup file from the Time Capsule and restarting with no luck.
My other two machines work just fine.
There have been no significant changes to any of my machines or networks recently.
Time Machine Buddy says:
Starting manual backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Mike%20Richards;[email protected]/Data
NAConnectToServerSync failed with error: 64 for url: afp://Mike%20Richards;[email protected]/Data
Backup failed with error: 18
The Time Capsule is acting as a router for my wireless network which is used by the MBA and my phone and tablet - no problems connecting to the Internet. Airport Setup shows no problems with the Time Capsule as a router and it is up to date.
So any ideas appreciated - thanks!
Mike.

My Time Capsule is visible in Finder. If I click Open Time Machine Preferences... the window shows the Time Capsule disk and that it has 89GB of 998GB available.
You have done most of what we normally suggest people do..
89GB is the backup size. that is very large for an incremental or is this backup of the full disk again, having been deleted by you on the TC?
Did you happen to upgrade install Mountain Lion onto the Air or is it a clean install?
I would suggest wireless is part of the problem. As a route around the problem, go and buy the USB to ethernet dongle (cheap) or the Thunderbolt to ethernet (fast but expensive), so you can plug the computer into the TC.
Redo the setup of the TC.. even from a full factory reset.
If you are on 7.6.3 firmware be a bit dubious about it.. especially if issues started recently after the upgrade. I would even suggest go back to 7.6.1 before you factory reset.. although that loses the info on which is the cause.
Use naming convention of short, no spaces pure alphanumeric for everything. TCname Wireless name and hard disk share name (already correct with data).
See C9 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
This might be one of the more obscure ones, but I think it isn't helping using names that have spaces and special characters.

Time Machine Locks up at "Preparing backup..."

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