Summary

• Best Backup Hard Drive For Mac Time Machine
• Macos Disk Creator
• Time Machine Backup To Hard Drive
• Macos Time Machine Restore

What to do when the time machine is stuck in preparing backup for macOS 10.15 - OS X 10.6? Here we are going to talk about how long Time Machine preparing backup take and how to fix Time Machine stuck issues in macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra or some other Mac versions.

This page unveils the solution to resolve the Time Machine stuck issue and offers a reliable data recovery software to help you bring lost files back with ease. If you are suffering from this issue, follow the provided process to make Time Machine work again:

Many users have an unpleasant experience of Time Machine stuck in preparing backup in macOS Catalina, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra or some other Mac versions. Time Machine is a simple and convenient backup tool for mac. Generally, it creates backups automatically - It starts and finishes without your interference. However, in certain cases, this tool can get frozen or stuck.

How to Back Up Your Computer with Time Machine. Mac macOS (10.5 and above) has an excellent built-in backup tool called Time Machine. Once you plug in a hard drive and set up Time Machine, it will work automatically in the background, continuously saving copies of all your files, applications, and system files (i.e., most everything except for the stuff you likely don’t need to back up, such. The only other consideration is this: If you have other hard disks connected to your Mac, you should click the Options button to reveal the Do Not Back Up list, which tells Time Machine which volumes (disks) not to back up. To add a volume to this list, click the little + button; to remove a volume from the list, select the volume and then click the – button.

If Time Machine gets stuck, you shouldn’t feel helpless. The purpose of this article is to explain how to judge if Time Machine stuck in preparing the backup process or not and how to fix the issue.

Does Your Time Machine Really Get Stuck

Before you start the process of fixing Time Machine, you’ll need to make sure that something is actually wrong. A number of things can make Time Machine take longer than usual. Generally, the preparing backup process is very quick. But some special situations will force Time Machine to take a long time preparing for a backup to begin.

1. The size of the data is too big.

• You have a really large hard drive to backup. For example, you have to back up terabytes of data.
• You've made major changes or added a number of new files to your drive.

2. There is something wrong with your device.

• The hard drive is very old.
• The device is too slow, you need to speed up the Mac.
• The virus attacked your Mac.

3. Haven't backed up data for a long time.

• It is the very first Time Machine backup or you haven't backed up a Mac in a while, say a few months.

Best Backup Hard Drive For Mac Time Machine

In all the cases mentioned above, the Time Machine backup preparation phase does indeed take a long time. But if the Preparing Backup stage takes 12-24 hours, getting stuck in that stage overnight or all day long with no reason, it's not normal. At most times, it suggests that Time Machine has been stuck at preparing the backup.

If you are one of the victims, this guide should help you fix the problem and get Time Machine working on Mac again.

What to Do If Time Machine Is Stuck in the 'Preparing Backup' Process

We’ll go through a multi-step troubleshooting process to resolve the preparing backup problem and get Time Machine working on Mac OS X or macOS again. Before you take any actions, back up Mac as soon as possible.

Step 1. Stop the currently failing Time Machine backup attempt

• Open the 'Time Machine' settings panel within System Preferences (get there from the Apple menu or Time Machine menu).
• Click the little (x) icon until the backup attempt stops.

When the progress bar disappears and it no longer says 'preparing backup', it means that you have successfully stopped the currently failed Time Machine backup attempt. Then, you can move to the next step to troubleshooting Time Machine stuck in preparing backup issue.

Step 2. Remove the .inProgress File

When Time Machine backup is stopped and stuck, the first thing to do is trash the Time Machine placeholder file, at most times the .inProgress file found on the backup drive.

• Open the Time Machine drive in the Finder and navigate to the 'Backups. backup' folder.
• Open the folder within Backups. backup that is the name of the current Mac which is stuck on preparing.
• Put this directory into 'List View' and sort by 'Date Modified', or just search the folder for a file with a '.inProgress' file extension.
• Delete the 'xxxx-xx-xx-xxxxxx.inProgress' file.

Step 3. Prevent Spotlight from Indexing the Time Machine Backup

Spotlight can interfere with the Time Machine preparation process if it's performing an index of the Time Machine backup volume. You can prevent Spotlight from indexing the Time Machine backup volume by adding it to the Privacy tab of the Spotlight preference pane as follows:

• Launch System Preferences by clicking its Dock icon, or selecting System Preferences from the Apple menu.
• Open the Spotlight preference pane by clicking its icon in the Personal Area of the System Preferences window.
• Click the Privacy tab.

Either drag-and-drop your Time Machine backup volume to the list of locations that will not be indexed, or use the Add (+) button to browse to your backup folder and add it to the list.

Macos Disk Creator

Step 4. Reboot Mac and Initiate a Backup Again

Once the .inProgress file is removed, you can reboot your Mac computer with the Time Machine drive connected and turn Time Machine back on to initiate a backup as usual. If this doesn't work, you can use a third-party backup utility - EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac which can back up Mac with just 3 simple steps.

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Best Data Recovery Software for Mac (Compatible With Catalina)

One of the most depressing challenges for Mac users must be Mac data recovery. Here EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard could do you a favor. No matter whether you lose a single Office file or terabytes of photos, EaseUS Mac data recovery software can help.

• Recover deleted, formatted, and inaccessible data in different data loss situations.
• Recover photos, audio, music, and emails from any storage effectively, safely and completely.
• Recover data from the Trash, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorder.

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 Recover Now button to have them back.

You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore files from your backup if the original files are ever deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.

Create a Time Machine backup

Time Machine Backup To Hard Drive

To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.

Connect an external storage device

Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.

• External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire drive
• External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule
• AirPort Time Capsule
• Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
• Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB

Macos Time Machine Restore

Select your storage device as the backup disk

When you connect an external drive directly to your Mac, you might be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Select Encrypt Backup Disk (recommended), then click Use as Backup Disk.

An encrypted backup is accessible only to users with the password. Learn more about keeping your backup disk secure.

If Time Machine doesn't ask to use your drive, follow these steps to add it manually:

1. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
2. Click Select Backup Disk (or Select Disk, or Add or Remove Backup Disk):
   
3. Select your external drive from the list of available disks. Then select ”Encrypt backups” (recommended) and click Use Disk:
   

If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk.

Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups

After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.

To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.

Learn more

• If you back up to multiple disks, you can switch disks before entering Time Machine. Press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
• To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the Add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the Remove (–) button.
• If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
• In OS X Lion v10.7.3 or later, you can start up from your Time Machine disk, if necessary. Press and hold Option as your Mac starts up. When you see the Startup Manager screen, choose “EFI Boot” as the startup disk.