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MacOS Sierra slow download

Add me to the list of the affected. The first 1.5GB screamed last night and then nearly stood still. I left it sit through the day and returned home to find a failed 4.2GB download. It's crawling again as I struggle to get it to restart.
 
Tried for over 24hrs & it maybe made it halfway through before it failed, I tried pausing it more than once and it didn't help. On a 300mbps connection(technically gigapower)
 
I downloaded it in the wee hours last night and it only took about 20 mins. Then it left an install icon on my desktop. I installed it today and it took about 30 mins. I did not do a fresh install. This is on my 13 in Macbook Pro late 2011
 
Mlrollin91 said:
I downloaded it at 8PM last night, and it took 12 minutes on my 300Mbps connection. Have you all tried changing your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4. Sometimes that will help jump it.
Click to expand...

I think you nailed it. This appears to be a CDN issue, which I was able to fix by changing my DNS configuration to use 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3.
 
RabidMacFan said:
I think you nailed it. This appears to be a CDN issue, which I was able to fix by changing my DNS configuration to use 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3.
Click to expand...

This fixed the issue for me, as soon as i changed my DNS to the above, Sierra downloaded in 5 minutes.
 
MacRafy said:
This fixed the issue for me, as soon as i changed my DNS to the above, Sierra downloaded in 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

This made no difference for me.

My wife updated her MacBook Air in 10 minutes at the same time and on the same network. My MacBook Pro 13" late-2013 will not download more than 1 GB before I get the unhelpful and abstruse, 'an has error occurred.'
 
Last edited:
Don't know how helpful this may be or whether it is even a contributing factor, but one thing I do when downloading something major like this is to stay off all of my other devices and not go online at all while one machine is busy downloading a new version of the OS or some other big file. I read a book while one of my machines was downloading Sierra, I did some household tasks while my machine was downloading Sierra, I just stayed off all my devices while that one computer was busy. Whether or not this actually makes a difference I'm not sure but I like to think that it might. Another consideration might be how much RAM a machine has in it.....Seems to me that as the machine is working for hours and hours to download something that this would have some impact on RAM, and if someone has a machine with only 4 GB RAM or even 8 GB, that could be a factor, too, in how well it handles downloading large files during very busy times. Just some thoughts here.....
 
Clix Pix said:
Don't know how helpful this may be or whether it is even a contributing factor, but one thing I do when downloading something major like this is to stay off all of my other devices.....
Click to expand...

Good advice all around. However, I let the download run overnight while sleeping and it still crapped out.

I have tried every suggested workaround on the internet for dealing with App Store download issues but none have any effect. For whatever reason, I simply cannot download this OS update. Guess I'll just stick with El Capitan.
 
JPRIESTLY said:
Good advice all around. However, I let the download run overnight while sleeping and it still crapped out.

I have tried every suggested workaround on the internet for dealing with App Store download issues but none have any effect. For whatever reason, I simply cannot download this OS update. Guess I'll just stick with El Capitan.
Click to expand...
You are not alone. The DNS changes did not yield any improvements for me.
 
MacRafy said:
This fixed the issue for me, as soon as i changed my DNS to the above, Sierra downloaded in 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

Yes! Thank you for posting this. After multiple failed attempts the past two days, I changed my DNS to 4.2.2.2 and the update downloaded in 5 minutes. It had been driving me crazy!
 
Mlrollin91 said:
I downloaded it at 8PM last night, and it took 12 minutes on my 300Mbps connection. Have you all tried changing your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4. Sometimes that will help jump it.
Click to expand...

This is the answer!! I changed my DNS, cycled the WIFI connection to flush DNS cache and 2 days turned into 12 minutes......great tip!!
 
Well, I guess for solidarity, I'm chiming in too.

I have gigabit connection (about 400Mbps over wifi, right now) and I've been trying to download this friggin' update for the past day. Last night I got an error, so I tried again and went to bed. This morning? Nothing. Got home from work.. still nothing! Tried again and it's less than 50% after an hour and a half and it says 7 hours left. I have a feeling I will go to bed and in the morning I'll have another error message.
 
To be honest, the DNS fix doesn't make sense to me. DNS is resolved at the initial connection. Once that is made, DNS isn't referenced any more. I can make the connection and start the download without a problem...
 
Mlrollin91 said:
I downloaded it at 8PM last night, and it took 12 minutes on my 300Mbps connection. Have you all tried changing your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4. Sometimes that will help jump it.
Click to expand...
This worked! Downloaded on my rMBP but wanted to also download on my wife Apple ID. Had been taking days!
[doublepost=1474518245][/doublepost]
Spink10 said:
This worked! Downloaded on my rMBP but wanted to also download on my wife Apple ID. Had been taking days!
Click to expand...
Well scratch that...
 
Spink10 said:
Well scratch that...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the DNS "fix" is a red herring. I bet people are just trying a bunch of times and randomly hitting the server at an ideal time or something. I wish it were a true fix.

Again, I don't think DNS has anything to do with maintaining a connection.
 
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JPRIESTLY said:
Yeah, I think the DNS "fix" is a red herring. I bet people are just trying a bunch of times and randomly hitting the server at an ideal time or something. I wish it were a true fix.

Again, I don't think DNS has anything to do with maintaining a connection.
Click to expand...
SO annoying and so wide spread. This is ridiculous for the worlds largest company.
 
RabidMacFan said:
I think you nailed it. This appears to be a CDN issue, which I was able to fix by changing my DNS configuration to use 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3.
Click to expand...

twanj said:
DNS change worked for me.

FWIW I'm on Comcast cable in Ft Lauderdale, FL.
Click to expand...

matgra said:
This is the answer!! I changed my DNS, cycled the WIFI connection to flush DNS cache and 2 days turned into 12 minutes......great tip!!
Click to expand...

Spink10 said:
This worked! Downloaded on my rMBP but wanted to also download on my wife Apple ID. Had been taking days!
[doublepost=1474518245][/doublepost]
Well scratch that...
Click to expand...

giodelgado said:
Thanks, this helps!
Click to expand...

Glad it helped!
[doublepost=1474520206][/doublepost]
JPRIESTLY said:
Yeah, I think the DNS "fix" is a red herring. I bet people are just trying a bunch of times and randomly hitting the server at an ideal time or something. I wish it were a true fix.

Again, I don't think DNS has anything to do with maintaining a connection.
Click to expand...

Its not a red herring and Apple themselves will have you change DNS for troubleshooting slow downloads. It works rather well for most people, and the evidence here shows that. You need to go to your network settings and remove all DNS servers, then only add 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Then turn off wifi and turn it back on. It will register to the new DNS servers and the download speed should increase.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
Glad it helped!
[doublepost=1474520206][/doublepost]

Its not a red herring and Apple themselves will have you change DNS for troubleshooting slow downloads. It works rather well for most people, and the evidence here shows that. You need to go to your network settings and remove all DNS servers, then only add 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Then turn off wifi and turn it back on. It will register to the new DNS servers and the download speed should increase.
Click to expand...
I thought it worked... 🙁
 
Mlrollin91 said:
Glad it helped!
[doublepost=1474520206][/doublepost]

Its not a red herring and Apple themselves will have you change DNS for troubleshooting slow downloads.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the additional information. I've done exactly these steps about 15 times now, and it has zero effect.

Besides, my issue isn't slowness really. I get to about 1 GB at a fairly normal pace, but then it stalls and eventually gives me a generic 'download failed' error.
 
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