Trying to update MacOS - User Interaction Required

[spaceballl]

Hey there!

We have a new Mac Mini for the family on Christmas Day. I have a base model, but it's booting from the TB4 drive.

The migration from our 2013 iMac went mostly well, BUT I can't seem to get it to update. It says "User interaction required" but I don't have more context about how to update. See the screenshot below. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[ChrisA]

Hey there!

We have a new Mac Mini for the family on Christmas Day. I have a base model, but it's booting from the TB4 drive.

The migration from our 2013 iMac went mostly well, BUT I can't seem to get it to update. It says "User interaction required" but I don't have more context about how to update. See the screenshot below. Any advice? Thanks!

View attachment 2465749

Did you install the OS on a removable drive? It is best not to do that. Put the OS on the internal and then if you have a lot of data, place THAT on an external drive.

Note that you will need a second external drive or a network share to set up Time MCHINE.

 

[spaceballl]

UPDATE: I was able to get the update to work by forcing it via command line with the following command: "sudo softwareupdate -i -a -R"

The trick for me was that the update would appear to freeze at 60%. It would never progress to 100%. I killed the process a few times. The final time, I just waited longer, the machine rebooted, and updated.

Did you install the OS on a removable drive? It is best not to do that. Put the OS on the internal and then if you have a lot of data, place THAT on an external drive.

Note that you will need a second external drive or a network share to set up Time MCHINE.

"It is best not to do that" is subjective. Booting via external media is fully supported in MacOS. I don't care that Apple Intelligence isn't supported. Meanwhile, sym links and other tricks aren't fully supported. I prefer a clean environment on an external TB4 drive, skipping the internal drive.

 

[dsemf]

UPDATE: I was able to get the update to work by forcing it via command line with the following command: "sudo softwareupdate -i -a -R"

The trick for me was that the update would appear to freeze at 60%. It would never progress to 100%. I killed the process a few times. The final time, I just waited longer, the machine rebooted, and updated.



"It is best not to do that" is subjective. Booting via external media is fully supported in MacOS. I don't care that Apple Intelligence isn't supported. Meanwhile, sym links and other tricks aren't fully supported. I prefer a clean environment on an external TB4 drive, skipping the internal drive.

You are not skipping the internal drive. The boot process always starts from the internal drive. Part way through the boot process, disk access transitions from the internal drive to the external drive.

 

[spaceballl]

You are not skipping the internal drive. The boot process always starts from the internal drive. Part way through the boot process, disk access transitions from the internal drive to the external drive.

I get how the boot process works, but in steady state mode, the internal drive is not used, i.e. skipped.

 

[Sumo999]

"clean environment" for a sealed read-only OS snapshot?