hoakley November 13, 2020 Macs, Technology, Updates

Still getting errors trying to upgrade to Big Sur?

This morning, Apple has reinstated Big Sur upgrades on its software update service. However, users may still encounter errors if you try using the Software Update pane to obtain it.

There are two issues which complicate this. First, Apple has also pushed updates to XProtect and MRT, to Safari bring it to 14.0.1, and Pro Video formats 2.2.0; given yesterday’s problems downloading Big Sur, those appear exceedingly ill-timed. When your servers are in a deep hole, perhaps it’s time to stop making your hole deeper by releasing even more updates?

The other issue is easily worked around. If looking for the upgrade in Software Update reports incorrectly that an internet connection can’t be established, close that pane and locate the Big Sur upgrade in the App Store app. Oddly, this isn’t yet on its front page, but has to be searched for. Click on the Get button, and that should open Software Update, which can now find the upgrade and offer it to you. Download speeds now seem more normal than they were yesterday.

I wish you success.

23Comments

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1

EcleX on November 13, 2020 at 12:18 pm

Thanks. Another possible issue is that the macOS 11.0.1 (20B29) Big Sur installer “Install macOS Big Sur.app ” apparently downloads OK, yet gets stuck at 50% (or whatever) while installig. Trying again does not fix it, but downloading the installer again fixed it.

Apple should check the MD5 or SHA-1 hash values of all their installers, to prevent such issues. Or at least show such values, so that the user could check them before installing.

BTW, an article about how to check such values in Terminal and GUI applications could be useful. Just a suggestion for your consideration.

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- 2
  
  hoakley on November 13, 2020 at 2:29 pm
  
  Thank you.
  I had always thought that installers self-verified before installing. Unless Apple provides a checksum or hash, I’m not sure how a user could verify them.
  Howard.
  
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  - 3
    
    EcleX on November 13, 2020 at 10:22 pm
    
    Yes that is what I meant and thought. I have never experienced a problem like that in the past. The “File – Get Info” of the downloaded “Install macOS Big Sur.app” was identical in size (to the bytes number) for the first downloaded on 12th November that stalled at 50% and the second downloaded next day (today) that installed OK (12.21 GB). I guess that the problem could be due to the hectic and problematic time that the Apple servers had.
    
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4

Alex on November 13, 2020 at 2:59 pm

Patience is a virtue. Wait until Apple brings out the first update to the OS

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5

artiste212 on November 13, 2020 at 3:14 pm

Thanks for the info. As a user of a computer that has just fallen off the upgrade list (late 2012 Mac mini), I noticed a related, but of course, lesser issue: The App store now shows updates available for 2 apps that can’t be installed on Catalina. That wouldn’t be a biggie, except that one of the apps is Garage Band.

Oh well.

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6

Myob on November 15, 2020 at 9:39 pm

I’ve not looked for supporting info about this elsewhere but if you have a 2013 or 2014 Macbook Pro, you might want to delay upgrading to Big Sur. At the least, read the MacRumors article, which includes links to other sources, before deciding. Several reports of “bricked” machines..
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-big-sur-update-bricking-some-older-macbook-pro-models.2268438/

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- 7
  
  hoakley on November 15, 2020 at 10:00 pm
  
  Thank you.
  There’s an excellent compilation by Mr Macintosh, which deals more generally with Big Sur installation problems. If anyone does experience problems, Apple Support should be your first call.
  Howard.
  
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  - 8
    
    Myob on November 15, 2020 at 11:05 pm
    
    Thank you for the reminder regarding Mr Macintosh. He’s done and doing some fine work—hats off to him. I didn’t know of him till several months ago.
    
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- 9
  
  EcleX on November 16, 2020 at 10:21 am
  
  Since the Mac bricking is only arising for some users using the very same Mac machines, perhaps it is due to some problem in the macOS system that applications like Disk Utility could repair before trying the update or upgrade.
  
  Otherwise, I wonder if DiskWarrior 6 could repair such issue once released. It would be great if Rusty Little (Alsoft/DiskWarrior Project Manager) could share something about that, without breaking the NDA with Apple, of course. Alsoft said in twitter that DiskWarrior 6 will be released within 3 to 6 months once Time Machine 2 is released. The new Time Machine in macOS 11 Big Sur should be mature enough for that, since it can save backups into APFS disks.
  
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  - 10
    
    hoakley on November 16, 2020 at 6:16 pm
    
    Thank you.
    Bricking like this is normally due to a firmware problem, such as a firmware update which gets stuck. It’s good practice always to check and repair your boot disk before performing any macOS update, particularly a major version upgrade. However, I have no idea whether those whose Macs have become bricked might have had a file system problem.
    Howard.
    
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11

The Old Coot on November 18, 2020 at 4:28 am

Howard, you made mention of how to “repair your boot disk” the correct way in an article recently. Can you paste it here since I can not find it?

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- 12
  
  hoakley on November 18, 2020 at 8:13 am
  
  It’s very straightforward: restart your Mac from a different boot disk. If you don’t have another boot disk which is running exactly the same version of macOS, then make that Recovery mode. There, open Disk Utility, then select the disk you wish to check and repair, and click on First Aid.
  You should perform First Aid at the level at which you suspect the problem. In most cases, that means the container containing the boot volumes, which should in turn check and repair the volumes within it. If that doesn’t for any reason, then select the System and Data volumes individually and apply First Aid to each in turn.
  Once they’re complete and you’re happy your boot disk is healthy, restart in normal mode.
  Howard.
  
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  - 13
    
    The Old Coot on November 18, 2020 at 12:19 pm
    
    Thank you.
    
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14

Paul Brown on November 23, 2020 at 9:51 pm

Hi Howard

– I’ve had the call from a relative today. Macbook 5 years old, tried to auto update yesterday, stalled, then threw a screen error before crashing / re-starting and asking for a recovery / re-install. OS looks to be corrupted on the face of it. Unfortunately the Macbook was ‘set up’ for her by a box seller store in Guernsey who don’t want to know now, and guess what – no backup set up despite an iCloud account. Not really the users fault and she is in her 60s and didn’t understand / it was never explained that she could have an auto-backup on the cloud.

Anyway, I will begin by trying to boot from a remote drive as you mention, running utilities. If that doesn’t work I will recover her user folder to the external (if I can) before a clean re-install.

Wish me luck.

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- 15
  
  hoakley on November 23, 2020 at 9:57 pm
  
  I’m sorry to hear that. Which model of MacBook, and which version of macOS?
  I wish you success.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  - 16
    
    Paul on November 24, 2020 at 5:50 pm
    
    Hi Howard
    
    I am going tonight. It is a 2015 MacBook 12″ with the single ‘C’ type port (I have an adapter to USB standard) and the OS I don’t know – I believe it shipped with El Capitan but likely it had been updated since then. I will report back in any respect – appears to have stalled mid update on the face of the telephone conversation but maybe not.
    
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    - 17
      
      hoakley on November 24, 2020 at 8:19 pm
      
      I wish you success.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
18

Paul Brown on November 25, 2020 at 12:54 am

Just back in and all sorted and running again.

MacBook 2015 12″ (single C port), previously running El Capitan (I believe). Circumstances – asked for permission to update OS last weekend, commenced, crashed at some point with a locked screen. A reboot on the power button eventually went to the Recovery partition and screen with options including Restore from a TM Backup and Install Mac OS. There was no TM backup available locally and the install suggested all data on the internal drive would be lost which we clearly didn’t want.

***

In Recovery mode, Disc Utility came up clean (green lights) but then Start Up disc gave no option (No OS found). I booted from a remote drive in 10.11 which the laptop accepted, operating fine over the port. I ran disc utility again from this OS and it reported that the internal storage (drive) had File Vault enabled and had NO users assigned. Before the update it had one Admin user.

I managed to bypass FV by running a system installer package and pointing to the internal drive as recipient (allowed me to input the original keychain password which unlocked it). Quitting the installer and back on the remote boot I accessed the internal storage and the root folder – there was no system folder at all. Visible folders = Recovered Items / private / OS X Install Data / Users.

From this I concluded that whatever update process was engaged at the time, it had reached a point where it was preparing the internal drive for the new OS (?) deleting the previous. The user folder appeared to be intact running at 123 GB (thank goodness). I cloned the entire internal partition off to the external as a disc image using CCC and then tested the integrity of that on completion. OK for user files at least.

I launched a High Sierra 10.13 stand alone installer from the external drive – the one you can find inside your apps folder (I copy every variant I get access to – they can time date but there are ways around that). The installer ran OK taking about 40 mins (I appreciate they still check / download files from Apple’s servers).

Once completed there were a couple of reboot screens before the login panel with the original User account intact (success!) – couple of welcome set up screens and then we were on the desktop / finder. Couple of odd things initially – the C port stopped connecting at this point – manual removal of the adapter cable and re-connection cured that (charging and external drive now working). Connection to email server initially failed in Mail, iCloud connection failed. The laptop was on WiFi and I think this was possibly the final elements of the re-install / first boot settling down.

System Preferences / WiFi account settings were fine and indicated connected, Safari launched and web access OK. I used the iCloud prefs panel to request a login – which sent the two factor code to iPhone and this input fine. iCloud confirmed signed in and up. A return to Mail and the email account was now up. Get / send email worked fine. Documents, photos etc all appear intact.

At this point with midnight approaching I have stepped back. I will run system updates, security patching through Silent Knight etc tomorrow when I add an external drive and set up TM and iCloud (fine tuning) for my sister 🙂 I think we were very lucky this time around to have an intact User folder on the internal storage despite no bootable OS / user profile – without careful recovery this could have easily been wiped in a poorly considered re-install.

I used your various guides and troubleshooting notes to help me Howard – so many thanks again. Hope this report provides a little enlightenment for others.

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- 19
  
  hoakley on November 25, 2020 at 9:45 am
  
  Wow! Well done – a real dockyard job, then.
  Howard.
  
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20

Katy Pepper on December 22, 2020 at 7:32 pm

I have a MacBookPro mid 2014 Retina, 15 inch. Each time I try to load Big Sur I get erroer message: Storage system verify or repair failed: – (69716) What do I do?

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- 21
  
  hoakley on December 22, 2020 at 7:43 pm
  
  I’m sorry to hear that. I suggest you contact Apple Support. I’m presuming that you’re trying the 11.1 installer, and that your Mac’s internal storage is original and hasn’t been replaced?
  Howard
  
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  - 22
    
    Katypepper on December 22, 2020 at 7:47 pm
    
    Mac’s storage is certainly the original and I guess that I’m using the 11.1 installer ( but I’m not sure). On the Apple Help it says you have to re install from scratch. I have no idea what that means and wouldn’t be brave enough to spit myself anyway
    
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    - 23
      
      hoakley on December 22, 2020 at 9:58 pm
      
      I think that you would benefit from Apple Support talking you through this.
      Howard.
      
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