Q: The update to 10.11.1 is hanging after about 3/4 of the installation - what can I do???

it is a big mess by Apple, I cannot imagine that the company grown to big as they did and start (some time ago) to decline in quality of their delieved products. it is a big quention that started to roll in our minds, should we stop the OS X updatings? Yosemite was clearly the missing part of the Marverics and El Capitain is to complete the iOS adaptation of the OS X, they brought some new features YES, they brought also better performance YES, but the big question is, do we really need this? and when put it on the balance, is their value good enough for the troubles (hours lost and patience) they are causing?

until now I say yes, the updates until now deserve all the lost hours, but future updates? I am honastly thinking stopping right here on the 10.11.1 and thats it.

for this actual problem, be patient, the download file from the App Store is ok, make a duplicate of it on other location so that you don't have to re-download it. mostly important is that you backup your system before you start the update.

If your system hangs on the ± 3/4 of the progress status, don't panic,

1. turn of the computer, start in recovery mode (Apple+R) and recover your older system.

2. then advice, while running the older system, fo to Disk Utilities and do the First Aid to chack and repair your startup disk permissions.

3. re-install the update from the downloaded file and cross your fingers, if it works

if it not works, then next and best possibility is to do a clean install. build a 8GB USB stick with a installation 10.11.1 version. google it how to do it.

format your startup disk and install a fresh copy of the 10.11.1.

Of course, the main point on all these try-outs they will work IF YOU HAVE A BACKUP of your system, if not you are "dead".

Patience and persistence are also man righteous and necessery for reaching our personal life targets, but Apple be careful because the those virtues have limits

Yes, I see that. Thanks. I am relieve that many people are complaining. Hopefully Apple will fix the update soon.

Create a bootable installer for OS X - Apple Support

cajun,

I believe "3/4 of boot process" is the most usual scenario, though both are possible. And, AFAIK, there's been no real solution yet. It seems to be a problem with the update being incompatible with something on our Macs, something which, apparently, many of us have, which was never a problem before.

My advice for now: don't try 10.11.1 any longer, wait for 10.11.2, which will hopefully fix the problem.

In my case I just had to wait over half an hour after manually rebooting. The progress bar did not move, but eventually the machine restarted and completed the install. It might have been closer to an hour, I got distracted with something else.

See this related thread for more information: <Re: El Capitan 10.11.1 Install Problems>

My story is very similar. I downloaded 10.11.1 and it hung on startup. I downloaded it again via the recovery volume, same thing- this time I waited overnight.

The applications that finally showed up in the Finder after 15 minutes wouldn't start up: they were said to be damaged or incomplete. However, this isn't true, because I was able to run some of them by using a different startup disk.

I was able to get to the login screen with a safe boot (shift key), but the only account that didn't hang when I tried to log in was a managed account with parental controls. This is an old account that wouldn't allow me to get to many (innocuous) web pages, so I made a new "17+" managed account that works pretty normally (I used one a not-currently-working username to supply an admin password).

I set up the new managed account to log in automatically, and now the Mac Pro starts up all the way without Safe Mode. Not great, but I'm running 10.11.1, and I'm hoping for a new version from Apple that isn't broken, so I can return to normal.

I thought I would add to my post above that I've been able to create a Standard and an Admin account, both of which I can successfully log into, but the other two older admin accounts are still not usable.

The oldest account (three years or so) is the one with the apparently nearly empty Apps folder,  and the less old one, created this month, hangs after I enter the password.

In summary,  after the 10.11.1 update my original account was unusably slow and could execute no apps, but because I was lucky enough to have created an unprivileged account in the past, I was able to create some new user accounts that allow me to run 10.11.1 normally.

I also tossed a few 3rd-party kernel extensions, but that seemed to have little or no effect.

I'm including all these details in the hope that someone with more knowledge might be able to figure out what's going on.

With (relatively) so many problems, ranging from minor to catastrophe, b/o this update, I'd suggest skipping it, and waiting until Apple sorts out the problems they have caused. I believe it's clearly a software, not hardware, problem, and I don't think most of us are capable of determining the cause, let alone fixing it.

Wow! So you also saw the empty Applications directory?! I actually took a picture of it to make sure that really happened. And then the applications started showing up sporadically in the Applications directory but I still couldn't run them (damaged executable). Clearly it wasn't a hardware issue and if someone at the Genius bar had checked it out that day I wouldn't have returned the iMac.

To find out that this weirdness is related to a specific login account is quite a bit of progress. I hope someone can get to the bottom of this.

be patient, i installed it....dont worry.....it will install....

Yes, many of us have had the same issue. Here is the very strange solution. But it works! And it is easy to do.

resetting the SMC should enable you to boot once more (but the problem will come back next time you shut down) . this is how  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Once you have booted:

1) Open Terminal

2) Enter "system_profiler SPExtensionsDataType > ~/Desktop/kextList.txt" without the quotes and hit return(this will take a while to run).

3) There should now be a kextList.txt file on your desktop, open it and press both the "Apple(Command)" and "F" keys to bring up the find.

4) In the find field insert "Obtained from: Not Signed" Copy the destination to the .kext file to a list for use later. (Click next to cycle through all of them.) Example: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext

5) Browse your drive to /System/Library/Extensions and remove any of the unsigned kext files.

6) Reboot and you should be all set. one last SMC reset might be needed.

The problem is that el capitan 's installer does not properly clean up your extensions folder of pesky .kext files left over from applications you no longer have and some are incompatible with el capitan's boot up process. You have to do it yourself.

Good luck. This should solve your problem!

if the sms reset doe snot help you boot, get another mac for a few hours: start up yours in target mode (press T as you start up) with the two computers connected to each other via firewire or thunderbolt and make a clone of your hard disk onto an external hard disk with carbon copy cloner . then restart your mac via internet recovery (command option R) and reinstall your original system, then download el capitan again and reinstall it. then use the clone you mad of your hard disc to ,migrate all your settings and data and apps using Migration assistant. Then you still have to do the stuff described above 

it takes a while but you will have lost nothing.

best

NOt dead.  There is a way faster and easier fix than reinstalling.  I am reposting it here

Yes, many of us have had the same issue. Here is the very strange solution. But it works! And it is easy to do.

resetting the SMC should enable you to boot once more (but the problem will come back next time you shut down) . this is how  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Once you have booted:

1) Open Terminal

2) Enter "system_profiler SPExtensionsDataType > ~/Desktop/kextList.txt" without the quotes and hit return(this will take a while to run).

3) There should now be a kextList.txt file on your desktop, open it and press both the "Apple(Command)" and "F" keys to bring up the find.

4) In the find field insert "Obtained from: Not Signed" Copy the destination to the .kext file to a list for use later. (Click next to cycle through all of them.) Example: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext

5) Browse your drive to /System/Library/Extensions and remove any of the unsigned kext files.

6) Reboot and you should be all set. one last SMC reset might be needed.

The problem is that el capitan 's installer does not properly clean up your extensions folder of pesky .kext files left over from applications you no longer have and some are incompatible with el capitan's boot up process. You have to do it yourself.

Good luck. This should solve your problem!

if the sms reset doe snot help you boot, get another mac for a few hours: start up yours in target mode (press T as you start up) with the two computers connected to each other via firewire or thunderbolt and make a clone of your hard disk onto an external hard disk with carbon copy cloner . then restart your mac via internet recovery (command option R) and reinstall your original system, then download el capitan again and reinstall it. then use the clone you mad of your hard disc to ,migrate all your settings and data and apps using Migration assistant. Then you still have to do the stuff described above 

it takes a while but you will have lost nothing.

best

Thanks Francisco, I just followed your process and my machine is now running El Capitan and rebooting happily.

Ian