Time Machine stuck on 'Preparing Backup'

[Wintermountain]

Hello,

I use the My Cloud Home drive for Time Machine back ups.
I updated to Catalina two days ago and I have noticed that my time machine gets stuck on ‘Preparing Back’ for hours. Yesterday, I paused it a few times but it would remain on 'Preparing Backup.
I called Apple Support and they suggested updating to Big Slur.
Yesterday, I updated to Big Slur but I am still experiencing the same problem. Time Machine was showing ‘Preparing Backup’ at 10.26pm and this morning at 7.37am, it was still showing ‘Preparing Backup’.

The details of system are as follows:

OS - Mac OS Version 11.6
Computer - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
WD Discovery - v.4.3.336
My Cloud Desktop - v.2.1.0.484
External Hard Drive - My Cloud Home

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Neha_07]

Hi,

Please refer to the following KB article: How to Use macOS Time Machine Backups to WD Network Attached Storage (NAS)

[tekram]

@Wintermountain

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

MCH does not support the Time Machine backup over SMB either and the AFP backup seems to be failing. You may be better off using a USB HDD.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251315897?answerId=252540065022#252540065022

Apr 28, 2020 8:37 AM in response to Davaz71

NAS devices are notoriously inadequate Time Machine storage devices. You might happily bebop along seeing it dutifully back up, but then when it comes time to restore, it doesn’t work.

They didn’t work because they used a hack of Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) to qualify as a Time Machine destination. While the hack worked for regular file sharing, it failed at hosting a Time Machine destination. Time Machine was never supported when using a NAS that used that hack.

There is a new, supported specification for Time Machine over SMB, so that might provide a functional backup to a NAS.