Time Machine has many tricks to ensure flawless backups and backups that take as little time as possible to complete. But in some cases, these two goals can cause Time Machine to take a long time to prepare a backup. If you are seeing a very long preparation phase or if Time Machine seems stuck in the preparation process, this guide should help you fix the problem.

Normally, unless you've made significant changes or added a bunch of new files to your drive, the "preparing for backup" process is quick. It's so quick that most Time Machine users don't even notice it, except for the first Time Machine backup, where the preparing phase takes a long time.

If the preparation process takes a long time, you can do the following to see if it is stuck:

Since Time Machine seems to be stuck in the preparation process, go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences.