macOS Big Sur update problem

you're welcome. if this is your first time doing an upgrade, i understand the confusion. and even if you've done upgrades in the past, this one is putting WAY MORE stuff into the macOS this time around. it's going to take a lot longer than you're used to. and as you may or may not know, the apple logo can show up and disappear a couple of times during the upgrade install. the screen can even go black or turn off entirely. you will know when it's done when you see the login screen.

it can take a long time to install the Big Sur upgrade. it's almost totally changing the macOS. are you sure you've waited long enough. i have an 8-core, 64GB ram and all-flash storage and the install took ~50 minutes, not including the download time.