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iMac keeps hanging when updating OS

T

tiger2

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 8, 2012
77
17
Hi,

I have a late 2015 5k iMac. When I attempted to update it to 10.14.6 a month or so ago it hung up. After many recovery mode attempted reboots, calls to Apple suport, etc, I was able to install a Backup from Time Machine (took 12 hours) and it was fine. Until today, when I tried to update to Catalina. Same problem, it hangs when trying to install the updated OS.

currently it is installing the latest backup. Another 12 hours of waiting.

what could be causing this?

thanks!
 
Last edited:
tiger2 said:
Hi,

I have a late 2015 5k iMac. When I attempted to update it to 10.14.6 a month or so ago it hung up. After many recovery mode attempted reboots, calls to Apple suport, etc, I was able to install a Backup from Time Machine (took 12 hours) and it was fine. Until today, when I tried to update to Catalina. Same problem, it hangs when trying to install the updated OS.

currently it is installing the latest backup. Another 12 hours of waiting.

what could the causing this?

thanks!
Click to expand...
If were you, I will not upgrade to Catalina as of yet, I did it and I had to restore back to Mojave.
 
So, after the time machine backup took 12 hours to load and the computer restarted it now shows a folder with a flashing question mark.
 
Wow, that must be incredibly frustrating. Unfortunately I can't tell you what's causing it. I have the same machine as you and the upgrade to 10.14.6 worked ok for me (haven't tried Catalina).

Hopefully you can still boot from the recovery partition and/or Internet recovery. I'd suggest doing that and re-installing macOS Mojave. After booting into the newly-installed Mojave, you can use Migration Assistant to copy all the users, settings, files, etc from your Time Machine backup to your fresh installation. You should end up where you started (or very close, depending upon your choices during migration).

See this page about which startup key(s) to use -- apparently what you pick will affect which version of macOS is installed after picking Reinstall macOS:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
 
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tiger2 said:
Hi,

I have a late 2015 5k iMac. When I attempted to update it to 10.14.6 a month or so ago it hung up. After many recovery mode attempted reboots, calls to Apple suport, etc, I was able to install a Backup from Time Machine (took 12 hours) and it was fine. Until today, when I tried to update to Catalina. Same problem, it hangs when trying to install the updated OS.

currently it is installing the latest backup. Another 12 hours of waiting.

what could be causing this?

thanks!
Click to expand...

Maybe the boot drive in the computer is failing. Does the computer have a spinner or SSD drive?

Is it possible for you to restart while pressing the D-key? Not sure if that will work but if it does it will run diagnostics.
 
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Should have updated this a long time ago. Thanks for all the replies. I took it to Apple end of Oct, 2019. They said the logic board needed to be replaced. Cost of logic board < new iMac, so had it replaced and it's been fine since. They said they damaged the display while working on it, so they replaced that at no cost.

Glad I had backups on Time Machine.
 
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tiger2 said:
Should have updated this a long time ago. Thanks for all the replies. I took it to Apple end of Oct, 2019. They said the logic board needed to be replaced. Cost of logic board < new iMac, so had it replaced and it's been fine since. They said they damaged the display while working on it, so they replaced that at no cost.

Glad I had backups on Time Machine.
Click to expand...
Glad it has been sorted out. :)So they should if they damaged the display while working on it. It wasn,t your fault that they damaged the display.
 
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tiger2 said:
Should have updated this a long time ago. Thanks for all the replies. I took it to Apple end of Oct, 2019. They said the logic board needed to be replaced. Cost of logic board < new iMac, so had it replaced and it's been fine since. They said they damaged the display while working on it, so they replaced that at no cost.

Glad I had backups on Time Machine.
Click to expand...


Interesting, I just tried to update my 2017 iMac from 10.19.4 --> 19.5, and the installed got hung on initializing upgrade. Had to work with apple support 2 days later to do a fresh install of MacOS. 3 days later, my iMac is dead -- doesn't power one. Took it to the Apple Store and told that the logic board needs to be replaced. $600 to repair --ugh.
 
GMan212 said:
Interesting, I just tried to update my 2017 iMac from 10.19.4 --> 19.5, and the installed got hung on initializing upgrade. Had to work with apple support 2 days later to do a fresh install of MacOS. 3 days later, my iMac is dead -- doesn't power one. Took it to the Apple Store and told that the logic board needs to be replaced. $600 to repair --ugh.
Click to expand...

Did they give any explanation?
 
komatsu said:
Did they give any explanation?
Click to expand...

Nope, they just said logic board failed. I haven't signed off on replacing it yet. Doing my research to see if this is a problem other people experienced as well. Its less than 3 years old, but I don't have AppleCare so will be an OOP repair.
 
Did they say what part of the logicboard failed?

Did you ask them about any relationship between the new OS install and this problem?

I'm not the complaining type but I would really hold their feet to the fire over this. I mean 3 year old system which was probably very expensive and now this.
 
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