Im trying to install Big Sur on my macbook pro mid 2015 and it stuck at "Less than a minute remaining..." for about 2 hours now.. Should I just wait or is there something I can do?! Thanks
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14
I was having this same problem and I want to share what helped me because I haven’t seen this fix proposed anywhere else. None of the options like turning on/off, using internet Recovery, or MacOS Recovery were working. I turned it on and off again several times and it kept getting stuck on less than a minute remaining. When I finally decided to let it set on that screen and leave it overnight, when I came back in the morning it had an error saying “an error occurred preparing the software update.” Using First Aid from Disk Utility on Recovery also did not fix it.
When I tried to use the option “Reinstall Big Sur” from Recovery it would tell me there was not enough room on the disc to do it. So I was effectively stuck on the install screen.
I called Apple and they were helpful. I was working with them on the phone on a different WiFi than I usually use as I was not at home when I tried calling them. Just to give an idea of what we tried, when I would use Recovery (turn off, turn on, hold command +R or hold command + R + P) and go to “reinstall Big Sur” from there it wouldn’t connect to WiFi and gave me an error that “Keychain ‘System’ cannot be found to store [my wifi username].” We hit cancel to get out of that (don’t choose “reset to defaults” if you get this error or else your keychain passwords on the computer will be deleted; if you save them in iCloud it may not matter if you do).
What ended up working was turning the machine off, then holding Option while it was off, and it came on with a screen to select my Macintosh disc and connect to WiFi. It let me connect to WiFi there. This took me to my desktop login screen and I was able to log in and get back to my regular desktop! Thank goodness.
From there we investigated and turns out I did not have enough space left on my disc to do the Big Sur install— the agent told me it takes 35 gigabytes, and I only had about 33 gig available (checked by going to Apple in top left corner > about this Mac > storage). Luckily I had an old iPhone backup I could delete to free up a lot of space.
The Apple agent told me not to turn my laptop off/restart it, or it would probably put be back onto the install screen. If I have to in the meantime, she said to follow the steps I described as working above to get back to the desktop.
She put notes on my case and I am supposed to call them back once I’m back on my regular home WiFi and we can restart and they will guide me through the reinstall through Recovery. I will update once we’ve attempted that. But for now, luckily my computer is actually working and not stuck on the install screen! I hope this helps someone else who is still having issues where the other proposed solutions aren’t working.
Hi, I have Mac Book Pro mid 2014 it was working fine till now. I just downloaded BigSur to update it and installation process started well but now its stacked with the same problem tan you :'Less than a minute remaining..' in a black background and no way back to the former MacOs. How did you fix it?
Thanks in advance
Norma
Not sure what to suggest if the Option / ALT key doesn't work, as that was critical for me to get this going. Alternatively, you could investigate installation onto an external drive, then once into your OS; clean up space, rinse and repeat back onto your Mac HD?
I had this same problem on my MacBook Air where my computer was stuck in the “less than one minute left” black hole. Recovery mode was no help as it was not recognizing my password. I took it to the Apple store and they had to wipe it completely. I’d recommend staying away from Big Sur until they figure this out as at least in my case they had no idea how to fix it.
I have encountered the same problem. First phone conversation with Apple said to let the installation process proceed on its own. Tried that and got an error message. Second phone conversation was 2 hours long with a tech. She told me that the disk to put the OS on is not there anymore and there must be a glitch in the matrix which has caused this. I am waiting for a phone call back as she consults her techno wizard friends. I’ll update this later.
After 4 days of trying every possible solution including a second MacBook in TDM.... nothing worked for me. I was running Catalina on my 2015 MacBook Pro when I started the Big Sur upgrade and File Vault was enabled, which apparently was the kiss of death for me. Anyway, I just wanted to wish everyone the best of luck saving your data. Hopefully your outcome is better than mine. However, now my MacBook has been completely erased and Big Sur downloaded and everything is working as it should and all of the files I had saved in iCloud have been restored. So it wasn’t a total loss.
Just adding my anecdote to this thread. I tried upgrading my mid-2014 MacBook Pro and it also got stuck on this screen. After reading this thread I decided to power it down... and then never got it back up! Even within recovery mode (following a lot of the directions on this thread), it seemed to think there was no OS installed on the device. I ended up taking it to an Apple Store where they did a factory reset and installed Big Sur for me. Luckily most everything was backed up to iCloud so not a big deal for me!
Hey again. I don’t have all the details on your case, as they seem they could differ from the original post, but worst case scenario, you may have to wipe your hard drive to get it working again. Hopefully you either had a backup before updating, or start backing up from here on out. It’s not the answer anyone wants to hear, but may prevent data loss in the future, as keeping a backup is the best practice, especially before updating an OS, etc. better safe than sorry. Good luck.
Same problem here. Left it in this '1 min remaining' for hours. Restarted and get the folder icon with a ?. Which isn't good. Then did an internet recovery to reinstall the OS and then got the Globe icon with a hazard sign on it and -2100F error. So apparently that didn't work. Then did a cmd R, connected to ethernet as well this time and just picked the Install Big Sur option. Now it appears to be again stuck at 1 min remaining.
Thankfully I have a new Time Machine backup (bought a new portable drive to get a fresh backup) and also used another drive to clone the mac using SuperDuper (awesome little app) and was able to boot into that just to check. I guess my last option is to I think create a bootable Big Sur install disk and wipe it out. I can't tell you how many times in the last 5 years I've had to do this. It's such a pain in A since I THINK(?) all my apps will need to be reinstalled and deal with license keys...
Luckily this is just a mac mini I use as a file server in the house but I'd imagine that if you don't upgrade every year and let a couple of OS's go by, you're in a world of hurt trying to get on a new OS. Next time, I think I'll just upgrade one OS at a time.
Trying to install Big Sur keep getting stalled with one minute remaining than after hours error occrs
I am having the same issue, Can anyone help ? My Macbook is dead from past 3 days.
I googled the problem and found the answer on YouTube to get out of that “1 minute” to go.
Haven’t tried to upgrade again. When is apple going to fix this glitch?
Similar problem. On MacMini late-2014, trying to install on external WD drive, 1TB. Drive checked out okay.
Had almost same problem installing on Seagate external drive a month or two ago. Took ten or 15 tries but it finally finished, once.
Am trying again tho because that first drive failed (just like the internal drive failed a week or two before that). Run of bad luck??
Thank you GanJah!!!! Laptop was stuck
on 1 minute to reboot for Big Sur forever. Followed your advice and rebooted. I’m back with Catalina and now gun shy to update.
However, I’m good to go and that’s what counts!!
😃
I tried to upload big sur on a 2013 mac book pro. Stuck at less than 1 minute remaining screen. Tried safe mode start up with no success. Have rebooted a dozen or so times. No success. Had Sierra OS and no indication this would fail. HELP please. Have time machine backup.
Hi! Thanks for sharing the information! However I got one question, how did You access the internal drive (whole system in on external) and erased files? I can’t access the HD even while disc utility shows its full
Big Sur installation stuck at "Less than a minute remaining..."
