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macOS Big Sur Installation Failed: 'An Error Occurred While Installing the Selected Updates'

Here you are Magic. First the boring bits.

Imac 2020 21.5" 8Gb Ram 250Gb SSD. Catalina OS.
Network speed - average on ethernet. 11.85 MB/s Download. 1.0 MB/s Upload

Spoke to an Apple adviser after a 40 minute wait. Went through a sequence.

1. Checked I was the only user in Users and Groups.

2. Checked there was no information in the column on the right next to the user's name.

3. Checked there was no Big Sur installation in the applications folder.

4. Checked the keyboard was connected via Bluetooth.

5. Told to press Command-Option and R keys together and then press start button.

6. A very long wait.

7. Examining volumes.

8. Re-Installing Big Sur - lol. It wasn't installed in the first place!

9. Various screens are then displayed including asking which disk to mount Big Sur on, agree to licence, log in etc.

10. Screen: "Big Sur will be installed on the disc Macintosh HD."

11. Gave a time of 2 hours 30 minutes. Image shows Big Sur in a circle with a progress bar below.

12. Screen goes black a few times - be patient - and is followed by the usual Apple black screen progress bar - quite a few times.

13. Updates a further 29.0 Apple minutes. Not unlike the iPhone updates - black screen with progress bar.

14. Screen switches on and off and repeats progress bar on each new screen.

15. Fan kicks in - first time I have heard it do that!

16. Garish hippy Rainbow screen shows and asks for name and login.

17. Pop up in right corner says it is optimising and may be a little slow for a while. Really?!

I can't remember anything else as it has left me drained. Two five hour failures and this working update was started at 15:00 hrs and finished at 18:15 hours.

I just knew I should have stuck with a Dell XPS with Linux OS - lol.

Tip - if like me you are on a slow connection it might be best to reset-the router in case it slowed down after previous usage. Absolutely use ethernet.

Hope you get a good install. Take care and Keep Safe.

p. s. My original apps and and mail are still there despite not having backed them up.

:)
 
yalag said:
Honestly apple software has gone to complete **** over the years. I don't get why people are tolerating this, no other giant tech is like this. Google, microsoft, amazon etc....
Click to expand...
Well, there's not much we can do until they do. And software is much more complex with more frequent updates with more types of devices and in much larger numbers. So this is the future - forever and always in my opinion. Don't get so upset. You can still use your machine, right?
 
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yalag said:
Honestly apple software has gone to complete **** over the years. I don't get why people are tolerating this, no other giant tech is like this. Google, microsoft, amazon etc....
Click to expand...

No, it has not. A large number of people were anxious to get the update just as soon as it was released, and they overwhelmed the servers for a few hours. A handful of people have had installation issues.

My installation had zero problems once I had downloaded the software. I could have been more patient and waited a couple of days and then the download would probably have been trouble free as well.
 
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Reactions: Babygotfont
marcobob said:
Hi guys, so basically I still can't install it.
The same error occurs.
But I noticed that it just doesn't download it anymore since the first error at day one.

It just quickly goes to 12.18GB in about 3-4 minutes, and then it gives an install error. The same install error.

Can I solve it or it will solve by itself?
I fear my download bugged, corrupted in some way. So I don't know what to do to update.
Click to expand...
I would remove the bugged downloaded 12.6 GB installer and download another copy from the App Store.
 
I finally was able to download and install Big Sur on my 2017 iMac. It took over three hours with many "Installation Failed" interruptions. My 2014 rMPB had Big Sur beta installed and 11.0.1 installed without any problems. My 2017 iMac was so slow on Catalina and Big Sur fixed this. My iMac is now back to normal thanks to Big Sur.
 
I could be alone but I find it to be ugly. The icons, especially Safari and Music, are uglier. I also don't like how everything flows together without differentiation on the toolbar on top for the Desktop and Safari.The text is also smaller.
To me, this looks more like something Microsoft would design, not Apple.
 
Whatever Apple did, after the 7 or 8 times I tried to download, between two MacBook Pro's, I haven't had a hiccup since. Even the post upgrade updates of Apple apps. I had a heck of a time downloading the latest pre-Big Sur update for XCode. I think it took me 5 times to download it on my main MacBook Pro. Today? I updated three systems with all the updates in the App Store, and not a one had a problem. Weird. Actually freaky...
 
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steve333 said:
I could be alone but I find it to be ugly. The icons, especially Safari and Music, are uglier. I also don't like how everything flows together without differentiation on the toolbar on top for the Desktop and Safari.The text is also smaller.
To me, this looks more like something Microsoft would design, not Apple.
Click to expand...

I've already confused two windows that were layered on top of each other. It's hard to tell which one is on top, and where the separation between them are.

I think the whole thing looks like 'Comic Sans' in Windows, to me. Too cartoonish. Some of the icons look 'too simplistic'? Trying to decide how to describe them. Cartoonish... I'm sure that's never been said of post upgrade of macOS before.
 
Last edited:
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ChitChat said:
Here you are Magic. First the boring bits.

Imac 2020 21.5" 8Gb Ram 250Gb SSD. Catalina OS.
Network speed - average on ethernet. 11.85 MB/s Download. 1.0 MB/s Upload

Spoke to an Apple adviser after a 40 minute wait. Went through a sequence.

1. Checked I was the only user in Users and Groups.

2. Checked there was no information in the column on the right next to the user's name.

3. Checked there was no Big Sur installation in the applications folder.

4. Checked the keyboard was connected via Bluetooth.

5. Told to press Command-Option and R keys together and then press start button.

6. A very long wait.

7. Examining volumes.

8. Re-Installing Big Sur - lol. It wasn't installed in the first place!

9. Various screens are then displayed including asking which disk to mount Big Sur on, agree to licence, log in etc.

10. Screen: "Big Sur will be installed on the disc Macintosh HD."

11. Gave a time of 2 hours 30 minutes. Image shows Big Sur in a circle with a progress bar below.

12. Screen goes black a few times - be patient - and is followed by the usual Apple black screen progress bar - quite a few times.

13. Updates a further 29.0 Apple minutes. Not unlike the iPhone updates - black screen with progress bar.

14. Screen switches on and off and repeats progress bar on each new screen.

15. Fan kicks in - first time I have heard it do that!

16. Garish hippy Rainbow screen shows and asks for name and login.

17. Pop up in right corner says it is optimising and may be a little slow for a while. Really?!

I can't remember anything else as it has left me drained. Two five hour failures and this working update was started at 15:00 hrs and finished at 18:15 hours.

I just knew I should have stuck with a Dell XPS with Linux OS - lol.

Tip - if like me you are on a slow connection it might be best to reset-the router in case it slowed down after previous usage. Absolutely use ethernet.

Hope you get a good install. Take care and Keep Safe.

p. s. My original apps and and mail are still there despite not having backed them up.

:)
Click to expand...

But it worked!

I can't remember what upgrade it was, but I had a hell of a time getting it running. I actually had a system that was half upgraded. It was not very stable either. I posted here, and another site I was on, and no one had a problem like mine. I called Apple, and had to wipe the drive and reinstall. Glad I backed that thing up. Now, I do two backups. One, a new epoch on TimeMachine, and another, a fresh iCloud one. Just in case. No problems since that one... Weird.
 
FIXED!!

This is for those who managed to get it downloaded, started the process and then kept getting stuck on the apple logo with the loading bar.

Here's what I did:

Turn off your Mac

Hold CMND + OPTION + R and then hit the power button.

DON'T LET GO OF CMND + OPTION + R

A black and white animation of the world will appear and say entering internet recovery mode. You can now let go of the keys.

It will now take you to a menu with 4 options.

Select "Reinstall a new version of macOS Big Sur

Let it do it's thing and you should be good to go!!

Good Luck!!!
 
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PinkyMacGodess said:
I've already confused two windows that were layered on top of each other. It's hard to tell which one is on top, and where the separation between them are.

I thing is, the whole thing looks like 'Comic Sans' in Windows, to me. Too cartoonish. Some of the icons look 'too simplistic'? Trying to decide how to describe them. Cartoonish... I'm sure that's never been said of post upgrade of macOS before.
Click to expand...
Cartoonish and child like are good descriptions, I don't like it at all. Wish they would give a choice on the look of the OS
 
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steve333 said:
Cartoonish and child like are good descriptions, I don't like it at all. Wish they would give a choice on the look of the OS
Click to expand...

I remember when the Windows toolkit came out, that allowed users to choose what their windows would look like, and I ran into a client who had an employee that set their computer to a really hideous combination of colors and wallpaper. They wanted, somewhat tongue in cheek I took, that I should stop people from doing that to their computers. It was actually a shared computer, although not actively shared, and others were reportedly being sickened by the settings. I laughed, and after being urged to check it out, went for a look. WOW! Yeah. Instant eye pain. YIKES!

Be careful what you wish for? Eww...🤢🤢🤢
 
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I managed to update my MacBookPro16 this morning. But my MacMini that still runs on Mojave (because of
a 32bit App) does not even want to download BigSur (I get a "OS version not found" error - Message is in German so
the real English error message might vary).
It tries however to get Catalina and fails with that as well.
No idea what to do - maybe waiting a couple of days will cure that.
From what I understood Mojave can be directly upgraded to Big Sur - is that right or do I have to hop through Catalina to get there?
Advice would be appreciated ...
 
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joecomo said:
I managed to update my MacBookPro16 this morning. But my MacMini that still runs on Mojave (because of
a 32bit App) does not even want to download BigSur (I get a "OS version not found" error - Message is in German so
the real English error message might vary).
It tries however to get Catalina and fails with that as well.
No idea what to do - maybe waiting a couple of days will cure that.
From what I understood Mojave can be directly upgraded to Big Sur - is that right or do I have to hop through Catalina to get there?
Advice would be appreciated ...
Click to expand...
What exact Mac Mini model do you have?

And while you can upgrade directly from Mojave to Big Sur, you are skipping over Catalina, which entails some risks. Also, you need to look at third party software compatibility.
 
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I'm not sure if this will be helpful to anyone but at the suggestion of an earlier poster I used a hotspot internet connection to download the upgrade. Afterwards I restarted my computer and ran the installer - worked perfectly and finally got past the error message.
 
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honestone33 said:
What exact Mac Mini model do you have?

And while you can upgrade directly from Mojave to Big Sur, you are skipping over Catalina, which entails some risks. Also, you need to look at third party software compatibility.
Click to expand...
I actually have the late 2012 - i7 version. So it should update to Catalina but not to Big Sur (at least not without any tricks) - unfortunately it does not even install Catalina, it always gets interrupted with a network error.

The i7 still has enough power for a media center (which is what I am using it for) - but it might make sense to get the new Mac mini for the reduced Energy consumption.

On the other hand there is probably not a lot of risk to trick it into installing Big Sur (or is there any hardware-component that wouldn't run).
 
steve333 said:
I could be alone but I find it to be ugly. The icons, especially Safari and Music, are uglier. I also don't like how everything flows together without differentiation on the toolbar on top for the Desktop and Safari.The text is also smaller.
To me, this looks more like something Microsoft would design, not Apple.
Click to expand...
I'm hesitant to upgrade for the same reason. It's just not aesthetically pleasing. I don't want my Mac OS to look more like a mobile OS. Who in the world would ask for something like that?
 
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joecomo said:
I actually have the late 2012 - i7 version. So it should update to Catalina but not to Big Sur (at least not without any tricks) - unfortunately it does not even install Catalina, it always gets interrupted with a network error.

The i7 still has enough power for a media center (which is what I am using it for) - but it might make sense to get the new Mac mini for the reduced Energy consumption.

On the other hand there is probably not a lot of risk to trick it into installing Big Sur (or is there any hardware-component that wouldn't run).
Click to expand...
Yes, your late 2012 Mac Mini can be upgraded to Catalina (I used to have one until February, when I purchased a late 2018 model). But when I moved from Mojave to Catalina, I did a clean, fresh installation. Maybe you should consider doing that.
 
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Jonas07 said:
Copy paste on Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0 && killall Dock

If you want the badge again:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 1 && killall Dock
Click to expand...
Thank you, I don't feel comfortable doing that, but why would Apple feel the need to put a red flag on something that's supposed to be voluntary? Apple is getting away from being Apple, IMO
 
honestone33 said:
Yes, your late 2012 Mac Mini can be upgraded to Catalina (I used to have one until February, when I purchased a late 2018 model). But when I moved from Mojave to Catalina, I did a clean, fresh installation. Maybe you should consider doing that.
Click to expand...
Yes - I am considering that. I actually have my whole Fusion Disk full with Update history files - so it is time for a clean slate (And if do a new install, I could as well trick it into accepting Big Sur). It is either that or a new machine.
 
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