diff --git a/docs/release-notes.md b/docs/release-notes.md
index 2b7d1545..b425112d 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes.md
+++ b/docs/release-notes.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ These changes have not been released yet.
     * Now ignores metadata files/folders like `__MACOSX` and `__folder_managed_by_vortex`.
     * Now ignores content files like `.txt` or `.png`, which avoids missing-manifest errors in some common cases.
     * Now detects XNB mods more accurately, and consolidates multi-folder XNB mods.
+  * Save Backup now works in the background, to avoid affecting startup time for players with a large number of saves.
   * Duplicate-mod errors now show the mod version in each folder.
   * Updated mod compatibility list.
   * Fixed mods needing to load custom `Map` assets before the game accesses them (SMAPI will now do so automatically).
diff --git a/src/SMAPI.Mods.SaveBackup/ModEntry.cs b/src/SMAPI.Mods.SaveBackup/ModEntry.cs
index 33adf76d..845df453 100644
--- a/src/SMAPI.Mods.SaveBackup/ModEntry.cs
+++ b/src/SMAPI.Mods.SaveBackup/ModEntry.cs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ using System.IO;
 using System.IO.Compression;
 using System.Linq;
 using System.Reflection;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using StardewValley;
 
 namespace StardewModdingAPI.Mods.SaveBackup
@@ -40,9 +41,10 @@ namespace StardewModdingAPI.Mods.SaveBackup
                 DirectoryInfo backupFolder = new DirectoryInfo(this.BackupFolder);
                 backupFolder.Create();
 
-                // back up saves
-                this.CreateBackup(backupFolder);
-                this.PruneBackups(backupFolder, this.BackupsToKeep);
+                // back up & prune saves
+                Task
+                    .Run(() => this.CreateBackup(backupFolder))
+                    .ContinueWith(backupTask => this.PruneBackups(backupFolder, this.BackupsToKeep));
             }
             catch (Exception ex)
             {
@@ -68,7 +70,7 @@ namespace StardewModdingAPI.Mods.SaveBackup
 
                 // create zip
                 // due to limitations with the bundled Mono on Mac, we can't reference System.IO.Compression.
-                this.Monitor.Log($"Adding {targetFile.Name}...", LogLevel.Trace);
+                this.Monitor.Log($"Backing up saves to {targetFile.FullName}...", LogLevel.Trace);
                 switch (Constants.TargetPlatform)
                 {
                     case GamePlatform.Linux:
@@ -108,6 +110,7 @@ namespace StardewModdingAPI.Mods.SaveBackup
                         }
                         break;
                 }
+                this.Monitor.Log("Backup done!", LogLevel.Trace);
             }
             catch (Exception ex)
             {