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[Solved] Time Machine Backup Hanging on ‘Preparing Backup’ on macOS Sequoia 15.1: Diagnostic steps and permanent fix

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Home › Forums › MacBook, iMac & macOS Lab › [Solved] Time Machine Backup Hanging on ‘Preparing Backup’ on macOS Sequoia 15.1: Diagnostic steps and permanent fix

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  • November 14, 2026 at 9:03 pm #12312
    Liam Davis
    Community Contributor
    Diagnostic Hardware Specs: MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Max | OS Version: macOS Sequoia 15.1 | Archive Source: Apple Support Community #256657039

    I am running into a persistent issue on my MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Max running macOS Sequoia 15.1.
    Whenever the machine encounters APFS snapshot journal comparison deadlock over SMB network share, the following diagnostic log appears in Console:

    backupd: [com.apple.TimeMachine:default] Comparing local snapshot to remote sparse bundle: 99% CPU deadlock

    I verified that hardware connections are intact and tested across different power sources. What is the verified diagnostic procedure to permanently eliminate this symptom?

    Mac Studio M1 Max (32GB) | Dual Dell UltraSharp 4K | Logitech MX Master 3S | London, UK
    Product Designer & Design Systems Lead | "Verified Apple Discussions Archive"
    November 14, 2026 at 9:03 pm #12313
    Patrick Smith
    Community Contributor
    Apple Recommended / Verified Community Solution
    This canonical solution was verified and marked as solved in the Apple Support Community archive.

    Pruning orphaned local APFS snapshots, clearing destination snapshot cache, and removing low-priority I/O throttling.

    Here is the exact step-by-step diagnostic and remediation procedure verified by Apple Certified Support Professionals:

    1. Stop backup daemon: sudo tmutil stopbackup && sudo killall -9 backupd.
    2. Delete stale local snapshots: for s in $(tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates | grep -v 'Snapshot'); do sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $s; done.
    3. Disable CPU throttle during sync: sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0.

    Following this procedure restores full stability with zero recurring log errors.

    MacBook Pro 16″ M1 Pro (32GB) | Dual Dell 27″ 4K | macOS Sequoia | Atlanta, GA
    Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Enterprise Mac Sysadmin & Jamf Pro Architect
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