Delete the “xxxx-xx-xx-xxxxxx.inProgress” file.Put this directory into “List View” and sort by ‘Date Modified’, or just search the folder for a file with a “.inProgress” file extension.

Open the folder within Backups.backupd that is the name of the current Mac which is stuck on preparing.Open the Time Machine drive in the Finder and navigate to the “Backups.backupd” folder.Now that the backup is stopped, the first thing to do is trash the Time Machine placeholder file found on the backup drive: When the progress bar disappears and it no longer says “Preparing backup…” you’re good to begin the troubleshooting process outlined below. Click the little (x) icon until the backup attempt stops.Open the “Time Machine” settings panel within System Preferences (get there from the  Apple menu or Time machine menu).The first thing you need to do is cease the currently failed backup attempt while it is stuck on “preparing backup”, this is easy enough: Let’s begin: Stop the Currently Failing Backup Attempt Before Beginning We’ll go through a multi-step troubleshooting process to resolve the preparing backup problem and get Time Machine working in Mac OS X again. How to Fix a Stuck “Preparing Backup” Issue in Time Machine for Mac Anyway, having consistent and reliable backups is important, so lets fix this specific Time Machine issue in OS X.

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