[Solved] MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Max encountering Time Machine Backup Hanging on ‘Preparing Backup’ after update (macOS Sonoma 14.7)

[Susan Reyes]

Diagnostic Hardware Specs: MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Max | OS Version: macOS Sonoma 14.7 | Archive Source: Apple Support Community #256376318

I am running into a persistent issue on my MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Max running macOS Sonoma 14.7.
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 M2 Max (32GB) | EIZO ColorEdge CG279X | Wacom Intuos Pro | Gothenburg, SE

Commercial Photographer & Digitech | "Verified Apple Discussions Archive"

[Kelly Werner]

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 14″ M4 (32GB) | Studio Display | YubiKey 5C NFC | Raleigh, NC

Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Enterprise Mac Sysadmin & Jamf Pro Architect

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