Why is my Time Capsule always stuck at "preparing"?

My Time Capsule has been stuck for a long time now. It used to work, but a few months ago it stopped. Whenever I try to backup, it just sits there. The Internet works fine. Any suggestions?

Can you access the TC using airport utility?
Have you reset TM?
http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html
Have you loaded the widget to find the actual error?
http://pondini.org/TM/A1.html
Did you verify the disks?
http://pondini.org/TM/A5.html
As far as I can see you did a reset.. that is not sufficient in your case.. you need to dig deeper.
Welcome to Lion.. !!
Edit :
Specific pointers here as to why.
http://pondini.org/TM/D1.html

Similar Messages

  • Time Capsule gets stuck at "Preparing Backup..." every time.

    This has been happening for about two months now. I was sure 10.5.5 would fix the problem, but it still occurs. My Time Capsule seems to not work any more - it gets stuck "Preparing Backup..." permanently. I have left it running for two days straight and it makes no visible progress. Any ideas? I don't even know where to start.

    Jeffrey,
    Consider these factors regarding an extended period of "Preparing...":
    *Recent Crash or Other Major System Event* (Deep Traversal)
    The reasons for this process are described in an article by George Schreyer. “During the preparation step it checks the FSEvents log for consistency. If it determines that something isn't quite right it has to rescan the whole disk. This can take quite awhile. A full rescan is always triggered by a crash, an unplanned shut down event or by booting from some other bootable disk between backups…. After a crash, Time Machine must scan the whole disk to determine what it has to do because it cannot trust the information that it left behind. Connected via an Ethernet connection, this phase would typically take 20 minutes on an older PowerBook. Being connected wirelessly stretches this phase out to over 3 hours.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
    According to the following KB article it can sometimes take a very long time if Time Machine begins this “deep traversal” and has to compare data inventories. This may apply to your situation, particularly if many Gigs of data are involved. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Software Updates*
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can created major changes in the structure of your directories. Time Machine will backup every file that has changed since the installation.
    *Anti-Virus Software*
    Running anti-virus software can interfere with the backup process. Either disable it altogether, or try the suggestion outlined here, “If you use third-party anti-virus scanning software and have issues, make sure your Time Machine back up folder (Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine disk) is excluded from virus scanning.” (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1516)
    *Stalled .inProgress Files:*
    It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
    Open your Time Machine drive.
    Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
    Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
    (For Time Capsule Users)
    Select the TC in the SideBar of the Finder window.
    Click "Connect as...". Enter your TCs password.
    Double click the blue folder that appears in the finder window. The sparsebundle should now be visible.
    Double click the sparsebundle and then click “Skip” in the checksum message.
    Once “Backup of (Users Computer)” mounts in the Sidebar, click on it and open the “.backupdb” folder. Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
    Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them.
    Unmount the sparsebundle, then unmount the TC, and try backing up again.
    Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped.

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  • Why did my time capsule stopped backing up?

    Why would my time capsule stop backing up, it is set to delet when the drive is full?

    LaPastenague wrote:
    Many people report that TM no longer deletes old backups as it should.
    That does happen sometimes, but for many different reasons.
    TM should never run out of space
    Yes, it can.  First, remember that it deletes entire backups, not the backups of individual files.  Second, it won't ever delete the last remaining backup.  
    So if it needs to do a very large backup, there needs to be room for the last remaining backup, plus the new one, plus some workspace.  That's why we recommend that the TM drive be 3-4 times the size of the data it's backing-up.  If it's much less than that, and there's a need for a large or full backup, there may not be enough room.
    as i understand how it works, it should simply give a warning that the old backups need to be deleted.
    That's how it worked on Leopard, if you had the "Warn when old backups are deleted" option checked -- the backup would fail if there wasn't room.  All you had to do then was remove the check, but many folks didn't understand that. 
    So, effective with Snow Leopard, the option is now "Notify after old backups are deleted," and that's what happens -- old backups are deleted automatically when necessary, and a notice is sent only after the new backup completes.
    It seems that after an upgrade install of the OS.. TM ceases to have the ability to delete old backups.. it simply runs out of space and refuses to backup.
    Normally not.  Some have turned out to be users who actually did a "clean install," erasing their internal HD.  If you do that, and don't use either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to put your data back (and transfer Computer Settings), the erased drive is treated as a different one.  In that case, TM will do a full backup, so requires a lot space.
    However, effective with Mountain Lion, TM does add more space for "padding" than before, sometimes quite a bit more, so a drive that was barely large enough on Lion or earlier may be too small now.
    EDIT:  A good way to figure out what's going on is to look at the log messages, either by using Console and filtering for backupd, or via the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting
    Message was edited by: Pondini

  • Why is my time capsule blinking yellow?

    why is my time capsule blinking yellow?

    The Time Capsule is complaining about something.
    Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
    Click on the amber dot and another window will open to explain what the Time Capsule is whining about....along with suggested actions to remedy the situation.

  • Time Capsule cannot get past "Preparing"

    I have tried to back up my files several times today using time capsule; however, the time capsule status stays at "Preparing" and it does not progress to copy the files. This is not my first backup. I have stopped the process twice already after waiting for about an hour. After restarting my computer and trying the backup again, it is still in preparing mode. Any suggestions? Thanks.

    I am having the same problem. I "erased" the disk and started all over again. I am trying to back up my iMac Desktop using system 10.6 and TC 7.4.2
    The "Time Machine" screen under "Next Backup" says "making backup disk available" and in the "Menu" it says "preparing backup". Its been doing this for nearly 3 hours now. I have 115 GB to backup.
    Before doing the latest that still running, I erased the disk, deleted the apple.com.timemachine preference file and restarted my computer and still does not work. I do not use any anti virus programs.
    I have Macbook Pro that I have backed up using Time Machine and it worked fine but it won't do it from my desktop.
    Frustrated!

  • Can't backup to my Time Capsule -- always hangs

    So, tonight I bought a Time Capsule to back up my MacBook Air to. I've been using AirPort Base Stations for years, so I'm pretty familiar with troubleshooting them at this point.
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    So I thought maybe the "connection interrupted" error could indicate a bad ethernet cable. So, I swapped it out for another, but it hasn't fixed the problem.
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  • My time capsule is stuck on "indexing."

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    I finallyl gave up and paid Apple Support to help. They found a conflict in my running Symantec Anti-virus. Once I shut it down, my backups began working. Its a shame I have to turn off software that protects my Mac, so that I can back up my Mac for protection.

  • Why does my Time Capsule want to do COMPLETE backups every time?

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    tool wrote:
    Now i just got this Time Capsule, and i am under the impression that i don't need to partition anything? I can't anyway, as it is a .sparseimage file. But i should be able to back up all my macs to the same Time Capsule HD.
    Correct.  Time Machine will make a separate sparse bundle for each Mac.
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    Are you saying that both Macs' initial, full backups to the Time Capsule were completed, but subsequent ones are full backups again?  If so, see #D7 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

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    Why does the The Time Capsule of my neighbour appears and not mine?  I tried everything.
    Can I use the Capsule as merely a back up without making use of Wifi?  By connecting by cable to the computer?

    Why does the The Time Capsule of my neighbour appears and not mine?  I tried everything.
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  • 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?
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    You need to verify the backup.
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    I have a first generation, 1TB Time Capsule. For a long time now the TC has shown an amount of 'available space' that never varies -- 338GB. I have five machines that use this TC for backup:
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    I have a first generation, 1TB Time Capsule. For a long time now the TC has shown an amount of 'available space' that never varies -- 338GB. I have five machines that use this TC for backup:
    - 1 wired-in Mac that does automated backups and is shown as taking up 452GB of TC space.
    - 3 other wired-in Macs that get backed up manually on occasion and together are shown taking 98GB on the TC.
    - 1 wireless Mac that's manually backed up occasionally that's taken about 100GB of TC space.
    In addition, I'd created a 10GB disk image on the TC when I first got it, thinking I might want a small amount of space to put files on the network. I've never really used it, but the .dmg is taking up 10GB on the TC.
    As far as I can tell there really is 300+ GB of space on the TC that's not being utilized. I bought the TC over 18 months ago and the oldest backup shown is 12 months old, so it looks like older backups have been deleted. But the amount of free space never varies up or down -- it's always shown as 338GB.
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  • Time Machine backup to Time Capsule gets stuck

    Hi all,
    I'm backing up my MBP via ethernet to a Time Capsule. The incremental backups take forever and are driving me nuts. The backups seem to be getting stuck midway. The disk sounds like it's spinning but the progress bar doesn't move. Also, it seems to be copying over too many files every hour, like >60000 or so (log below). I doubt that so many files get modified every hour.
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    11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
    11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Error: (-39) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
    11/27/08 10:15:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Copied 1067 files (10.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
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    11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Backup completed successfully.
    11/27/08 10:15:26 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine network volume.

    Hi all,
    I'm backing up my MBP via ethernet to a Time Capsule. The incremental backups take forever and are driving me nuts. The backups seem to be getting stuck midway. The disk sounds like it's spinning but the progress bar doesn't move. Also, it seems to be copying over too many files every hour, like >60000 or so (log below). I doubt that so many files get modified every hour.
    I've tried everything (I could think of and find on the discussion boards) like deleting the sparsebundle, deleting the entire backup drive, playing with the backup frequency, nothing works.
    Please help!!
    Thanks,
    DB
    11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Starting standard backup
    11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Network mountpoint /Volumes/TC Backup Disk not owned by backupd... remounting
    11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/TC Backup Disk-1
    11/27/08 10:03:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Disk image /Volumes/TC Backup Disk-1/Dhiren's MBP_002332d43774.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Dhiren's MBP
    11/27/08 10:03:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Dhiren's MBP/Backups.backupdb
    11/27/08 10:04:39 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 No pre-backup thinning needed: 570.5 MB requested (including padding), 426.79 GB available
    11/27/08 10:14:44 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 _*Copied 87124 files (20.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.*_
    11/27/08 10:14:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 No pre-backup thinning needed: 559.1 MB requested (including padding), 426.69 GB available
    11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
    11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Error: (-39) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
    11/27/08 10:15:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Copied 1067 files (10.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Starting post-backup thinning
    11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Backup completed successfully.
    11/27/08 10:15:26 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd7045 Ejected Time Machine network volume.

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