Security Update 2018-003 10.13.6-Total O/S failure requiring reinstall

Hi everyone!

Here's my workaround:

1. When after restart you see the crash log go to Utilities menu (at the top) and select your usual startup disk. You'll be able to boot without failures after that.
2. Then you may try to install that update again using App Store or using this link: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1984?locale=en_US

I downloaded it using the link and installed manually and everything works fine now.

I was looking at the Apple downloads page (https://support.apple.com/downloads) and noticed that if one selects

"Downloads in other languages" (right top corner) and chooses different languages, there is quite a few languages where the update 2018-003 is not available. I don’t know if there usually is a delay in the release of updates in various languages (due to translation or other), or if this maybe can be related to problems with this update.

Hi everyone,

I would just like to share my last experience with this troublesome update (High Sierra 10.13.6 security update 2018-003). After doing a clean install of High Sierra and disconnecting from the Internet, I – apparently – achieved a successfull installation of the security update 2018-003 (after several unsuccessful update attempts).

I downloaded and ran the update from https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos (not the App store). First I tried to install the update after booting in safe mode (in the cloning program SuperDuper!’s "sandbox" clone). This was unsuccessful (and running First aid in Disk Utility showed the sandbox’ drive needing repair – due to the safe boot, it seemed (?)). However, booting normally (not in safe mode) seemed to render a successful installation (both in the sandbox and, afterwards, in my main drive). Puh!

I would, however, recommend everyone to be cautious with this update (make backups!) before attempting to install it, as it seems to be affecting different people (and my own attempts) in slightly different ways.

I’m on a Macbook pro mid 2010, btw.

Cheers :)

I finally followed the advice here in the board and downloaded the Security Update from the Apple page

"Download Security Update 2018-003 (High Sierra)"

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1984?locale=de_DE

to my computer. The update worked.

So, this seems to be a working installing-procedure.

Hope this helps everybody

Same problem, both for the December update and the one back around the end of October. Searching the internet, the same problem has occurred for some users since at least MACOS 10.13.3. While I use Carbon Copy Cloner, and thus could erase Macintosh HD and copy the clone from an external USB disk, I found that a simpler solution is as follows:

1. Reboot, holding down the option key after the screen goes black.
2. This should stop the booting at a screen with a couple of icons that represent the possible boot options.
3. When I did this I saw the expected Macintosh HD plus an unexpected installer. The installer was highlighted, meaning that it was the default.
4. Select Macintosh HD, then click the arrow-like symbol under it. That should cause the MAC to boot normally.
5. Login to an administrator's account, then go to the Apple Store and look for updates.
6. In my case, I saw that the Safari update had been installed, but that the security update had not.
7. I asked for the security update to be installed. It re-downloaded the whole 1.8 Gig, then spent several minutes installing.
8. Once it came back to the login screen, everything was normal. Just to be sure, I re-re-booted a few times, plus did a power off/on.

My best guess is that the installer should have automatically rebooted after the Safari installation was complete, and then installed the security update. But, for some reason (unknown to me) it failed to do that. Worse, from the error log, some/all of the installer's files might have been erased.

I had exactly the same problem having installed the hefty (about 1.8GB I think) 2018-003 security update on High Sierra. I was able to boot up using a carbon copy cloner USB backup which whilst very slow allowed me to run diagnostics which proved that the machine and the SSD were all fine. So it seemed highly likely that this recent update had caused a sotware issue. Luckily, I spotted that Apple very quickly released a second update which was showing in the App Store. I was able to boot the machine in safe mode (ie. without using the carbon copy backup usb disk) and from there was able to apply the new update to the system in the hope that this was released to fix the problem. It worked! I have (hopefully) attached a screen capture which shows the original and the new update shown as 'Security Update 2018-003 10.13.6'. I shall be a bit more wary about applying system updates too quickly in the future and will probably leave it a week or so so that any problems can be found and sorted!

Hi. Well I don't have that much info to go on other than I had what was a serious no boot problem as a result of what seemed to be a recent bad update. Perhaps the attached screen capture of the current (issue resolved) recent updates might help. Given the dates of the updates, it would seem that it was in fact the Safari V12.0.2 update that caused the problem and that the Security Update 2018-003 (installed in safe mode as I had no choice) that fixed it! I can see your logic in thinking that it was installing in safe mode that helped overcome the problem, but maybe just installing update 2018-003 10.13.6 by any means would have fixed the problem. The info at https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201222 doesn't (currently) mention any issues, but it does list that both these updates were released on 5th Dec 2018. Perhaps we will get more info from Apple (or from this forum) in due course to totally explain what actually happened as this seems to have caused a serious issue for many people (like me) who just install updates as soon as they are released, without delay!!

Same here. A big fail for Apple. Installed the HS system update, and then the security update after the first restart. Then it shows an error log, with many many fail points. I am so over Apple at this point. They push out crappy, untested software, and only care about sales.

I almost called tech support. I had a similar issue two months ago, where a brand new MacBook Pro was completely borked by installing Mojave. A call to support and 24 hours did not solve the issue. Long story short, it took a trip to the Genius Bar and another call to escalate the issue, before sending the machine to Apple for a complete motherboard replacement. The SSD had gone south. It took over a month of pain and two full reinstalls. And my Time Machine backup was also borked. There is no easy way to verify a TM backup that I have been able to find. So my faith in Apple phone support, and their “Geniuses” is less than 100%.

Apple does not care. They don’t monitor these forums. And their design choices are poor as it relates to U/X. The many ways you can restore a system flummox me, even though I’ve been using their product for over 30 years.

I resolved the issue in the end by reinstalling a fresh version of the current system using Command-R. The recovery partition in my case was still stable. I am not confident in Time Machines ability to remain stable over time and I don’t have a current clone of this machine. My bad. Reinstalling the OS appears to have replaced whatever corrupted file was installed by the security patch.

My machine would not boot into Safe Mode. It hung at the very end of the progress bar for close to an hour before I aborted it. I was able to boot using Internet Revovery, but that led to a Mojave install, which I am not willing to commit to on this machine just yet. So all told, about three hours wasted trying to reboot and recover. At least the machine was not permanently borked.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make bootable backups. I just don’t have one for this computer. Probably time to wipe the drive and install everything fresh. I’ve been putting it off. I’ve heard good things about Super Duper.

TM is good for keeping a historical record and versioning older, archived files. With a big enough drive, a lot of files can be accessed. I was able to pull a lot of files off a corrupted TM backup manually when the MBP had its drive failure. So they both have their uses.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make bootable backups. I just don’t have one for this computer. Probably time to wipe the drive and install everything fresh. I’ve been putting it off. I’ve heard good things about Super Duper.

TM is good for keeping a historical record and versioning older, archived files. With a big enough drive, a lot of files can be accessed. I was able to pull a lot of files off a corrupted TM backup manually when the MBP had its drive failure. So they both have their uses.

Same here. My life would have turned into a nightmare if I hadn't taken the Time Machine backup.

Download and install from this address.

Download Security Update 2018-003 (High Sierra)

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1984?locale=en_US