Catalina installation stuck

I'm on a 2017 IMac using normally speedy wifi. It took approximately 12 - 14hours to download and then another 14 hours to install. I bought a 3 year service plan with this computer so called Apple Care to see what was going on. I was told that Catalina upgrades to 64 bit - on some IMacs a slow process. Once it finally finished everything was fine.

After about two hours of seemingly no progress, I restarted. I don't really consider this a good thing to do during a system installation but this seemed to get things going. At least a message came up saying 32 minutes remaining – although it still took over an hour after that.

I think Apple needs to put a more senior developer on the install process to reassure the user that things are working and give progress.

Many of us have successfully restarted the computer and the installation process picks up where it left off.

It may work for you too.

It's been well over 24 hours and NO progress. I have been stuck with progress bar filled to approx. 98%. After being stuck at this spot for 14 hrs, I tried a reboot into safe mode. Still the same thing... Just a blank screen with a progress bar filled to approximately 98% capacity. It's not an internet issue. It has been plugged in and on our broadband network. I'm at a loss. The next step is taking it in to a genius bar if no one has any suggestions.

I started the installation on Tuesday evening at around 6:00pm. It’s still on the Apple logo installation screen with white bar at around 90% now (which it has been since 9:00pm on Tuesday). It’s just a ridiculous amount of time.

I started installing on Jan 4 early afternoon. It’s now Jan 10 and I’m still stuck at the exact same spot I was on the morning of the 5th. I’m now contacting Apple support to talk to a technician. I’m thinking 6 days is a bit excessive.

so I spoke to the technician. Evidently they are just as much at a loss as we are. The response I got was “give it a bit longer and if the issue doesn’t resolve on its own you can schedule an appt” I asked her how much longer is a ‘bit’ longer, given the fact that it’s been 6 days already and my internet connection is strong and my Mac isn’t old. She said that’s entirely up to me but then hinted that I should just go ahead and schedule or the appt

Mine is running on 3 hours now

It say's 25 minutes remaining, half an hour ago it was 26 minutes remaining, but at least it's not the "calculating time" progress bar, anymore.

Meanwhile AAPL at an all time high

Hey i m stuck after installing catalina. Now i m unable to proceed to my homepage. on switching on my macbook pro , just page for password entry appears nd than processing signs appear for few minutes nd than shutdown itself. What shall i do?

I started the install on my iMac 5k at 09:38 it is now 18:30 and the bar has only just started moving - from about 10% to 75% in the last 30minutes.. My MacBook pro took about an hour..

I suspect (with no evidence at all) that this is the crappy fusion drive in the iMac..

Just to report my experience -- after leaving my Mac at "calculating time remaining" for 5 hours, i went to bed. Woke up 7 hours later to find a nice, happy Catalina login screen. So be patient and your upgrade will probably go OK.

And to answer my own question, hopefully without angering Allan Eckert, when the upgrader appears to be stuck for hours and Control + L doesn't work, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has hung. I couldn't get supplemental info on the upgrade by doing Control + L but the upgrade still completed. Hopefully that is useful yo people in their long wait for the upgrade to complete.

**** Allen your a Jack-*** too just like another dude I had to check like I’m doing to you now. Loose the I am superior to all attitude and instead of waisting time heckling folks for asking a simple any one out there have knowledge and can give insight attitude ya got bud. How bout being nice and help cause we all know dam well no apple solution person will jump in and help that’s why this is called COMMUNITY SUPPORT.

This was resolved 2 months ago. It was just a super slow installation.

A restart didn’t work for me and it’s been well over 72 hours of waiting now. Exactly HOW slow is this installation???

Mine took 4 days!