macOS 11.1 update hanging

I am having the same problem. I tried the Option/Command R restart and it brings me to a screen with option to reinstall the operation system or Disk repair, but the mouse becomes disabled and I can't move it to select the Disk repair. How do I get around this?

No go on my Reset, Shut-Down and Repair attempts as well. It looks like Apple has to put some effort into why this update is not installing in its brand new latest Macs. Still hangs at 15 minutes.

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,1

Processor Name: 8-Core Intel Core i9

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 8

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 16 MB

Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled

Memory: 32 GB

System Firmware Version: 1554.50.3.0.0 (iBridge: 18.16.12561.0.0,0)

Serial Number (system): C02ZMBFLMD6X

Hardware UUID: 19724726-58EA-5624-9AD6-442C5ABCD9D3

Provisioning UDID: 19724726-58EA-5624-9AD6-442C5ABCD9D3

Activation Lock Status: Disabled

I have tried all the advice on this string. Booting in safe mode takes me briefly back to the installation but then to the recovery page with the four options

Restore from Time Machine

Reinstall Big Sur

Safari

Disk Utility

But I cannot select any of these because the cursor arrow is frozen at the very top right of the screen. I am stuck. Help please from anyone?

I fully backed up my mac on an external drive before commencing the upgrade to Big Sur which then failed but I cannot wipe my hard drive because there is no way now of getting to it despite trying everything recommended on this string. How did you manage?

Brand new out of box M1 Mac Air and all went well until the Big Sur 11.1 update. Not sure the above is going to work for me. he air is stuck actually installing the update. Progress bar is sitting at 4/5 full for the last 1/2 an hour. Hope this is not going to wind up being a big pain. Please advise.

What is the year and computer you are trying to install it on as well as RAM configuration?

Hi gadams-cr,

I have tried everything too. Could you show me the steps you did in order to do the update please?

Thanks.

Max

I’m having the same issue with the preparing Mac OS at 10 minutes also. This is a brand new MacBook Pro M1 2020 computer. It Hass to be in the update that’s having a problem.

I have exactly the same problem as described in my post. Waiting for help from someone!

Thanks for that, Jeffdoehring. I was having the exact same problem as Jan Weiss, on my 2019 16" MacBook Pro. I followed your advice on recovering from the Internet using Option-Command-R and this worked flawlessly. I did not need to use Disk Utility following the recovery as the OS 11.1 update was included in the Big Sur recovery download. So, thank you, I certainly appreciate your input.

This is the first time I saw it go from 10 minutes to 6 to 5minutes. It stayed on five minutes probably about 30 minutes. But then it told me that it was going to reboot. It has been installing. So we will see. What a long process

I've had exactly the same problem on 2 out of 3 Macs. Late 2014 27" iMac and 2020 MacBook Air (Intel) both failed. Early 2015 MacBook update without problems. The MacBook Air was migrated from the MacBook earlier this year so they are essentially identical in terms of apps and data. A friends 2020 MacBook Air (Intel) updated automatically without incident. In the two that failed to update I had the symptoms described above - freezing late in the upgrade process. In both cases booting into Recovery and installing the OS again (while retaining data) DID NOT fix the issue. After the installation both systems rebooted back into what looked like an update process and hung again. In both cases I WAS able to boot in Safe Mode but was unable to get either to boot in normal mode. In both cases I had to format the boot disk, install Big Sur from recovery and then restore settings and data from backup. That fixed both problematic machines and they are both now running 11.1 . This is quite a significant issue if you don't have good backups.

I was able to get my MacBook Pro to update, but I had to do it by taking to my work, and logging onto our network there. It went flawlessly the first time. Tried it a home last night with my iMac and still have the same problem. I'm loathe to trying any of the suggested fixes like booting to recovery mode, etc. This is an OS update and one shouldn't have to jump through hoops to install it. First time I've ever had this type of problem with an update.