Q: How long should El Captain take to download.  Been spinning all day!!

Shouldn't take more than 1-1/2 to 2 hours on a broadband connection.

Restart your Mac then try again.

That would depend on how fast your connection is. The download is just over 6GBs, so you can estimate based on that. But if you have been waiting on it all day, then most likely it has failed so I would quit the download and try again. For some users here is a possible fix:

[From a reply by quizhelper (to staceybeee)}

 

Greetings staceybeee,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you're having an issue with downloading OS X El Capitan. I was actually able to resolve this issue.

 

I opened up the console and received an error command about a file being found in /var/folders/rz/XXXXX-XXXXXX/C/com.apple.appstore/

 

I opened up Finder > Go > Go to Folder and typed in /var/folders/ and went into RZ went into the file name which was replaced by X and I took that com.apple.appstore folder and pushed it into the trash can. I was immediately able to use the App Store and download OS X El Capitan.

When you get back onto the App Store you should first look on your Purchases page to find the actual download order. You should be able to re-download there.

Raybie,

This seems unlikely to be a broadband issue as it should not take all day to download. I currently have a 80/20 fibre broadband service with Swift Communications and it took me roughly 10 minutes to fully download, even a basic ADSL service should be finished within two hours. This makes me believe that there is either a software or connection related. 

Connection

Are you running any programs similar to Little Snitch? This program is a firewall program that may be blocking the connection. I would also check your host file has not been modified to block apple app store connection. This article will explain how to access and check your host file (https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/edit-hosts-file-mac-os-x/). Finally, in case you are trying from behind a corporate network your network administrator may be blocking address to the apple app store at network level. If this is the case have you tried it from home?

That should rule out any connection issues, let's look at software side;-

Software

Presuming you have done the simple things like restarting. Going forward from that level, you mentioned that you were getting a spinning ring when try to update, try opening Activity Monitor from a spotlight search.Check if any programs are using a large amount of CPU or RAM percentage. This may give an indication as to what program may be conflicting.

Let me know if you are still struggling.

Definitely a connection issue, but I am convinced it is an apple issue.  I have 8 machines that are all trying to download.

• 3 within our company in Ottawa, Canada on a 300/300 connection
• 1 just outside Ottawa on a 250/25 connection
• 1 just south of Ottawa on a 100/10 connection
• 1 using a major US datacenter on the Eastern seaboard.
• 1 in a major datacenter in Montral, Canada

All are currently downloading anywhere from 0kB/s to 180 kB/s (yes, you read that correctly - kilobits!!!).  This has been consistent for the past 3 days.  On two of the machines have been downloading for 2 straight days (with the exception of several reboots and several cancel and restarts).  This is NOT a client issue, this is an issue on Apple's end.

Apple, please look at your metrics and help us diagnose the problem!

Thanks,

Jarret

Apple, please look at your metrics and help us diagnose the problem!

Unfortunately, you are not addressing Apple here - these are user to user tech support forums.