Problems installing Big Sur 11.2 update

Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and and try downloading and installing from there..

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

This worked perfectly for me. Try it: Go directly to the App Store and download Big Sur 11.2 from there. On my dock, the App Store icon is a blue square with a white A figure. It took an hour to download. You will be asked to restart the Mac. Wait 1 - 2 hours and it will be done. I watched TV until it was ready. No errors. No warnings.

I had spent days trying to update to 11.2 using the link from the reminder that pops up. It failed 12 - 15 times in normal and safe mode. The first time I tried from the App store it worked. Perfectly.

I called Apple Support and told them to recommend this to all who are failing to update 11.2.

What finally worked for me after failures to update in regular and safe mode was App Store. Ignore that 11.2 update notice completely. Open the App Store and do the update 11.2 Big Sur from there. 1 hour to download. 1 - 2 hours to install, I started the download and went to watch TV. In an hour my iMac said I should reboot to install. I did that and played with my iPad for 2 hours. When I looked at iMac 11.2 was installed without errors. I tried 11 - 12 times unsuccessfully with the “normal” update notice approach. Wasted a week.

I measured my internet connection each time the 11.4 update failed. My speed was between 45mbps/17mbps and 96mbps/20mbps on every failed attempt. I tried and failed with only Ethernet, only WiFi and both. I tried in Safe Mode and in normal mode unsuccessfully, with all varieties of internet connection. I have 3 separate WiFi networks and I tried them all unsuccessfully. All these failures happened when I tried the 11.2 update by following the link in the pop-up notice that appears in the top right corner of the screen when an update is available from Apple.

SUCCESS was easy when I simply went directly to the App Store on my iMac and downloaded the Big Sur 11.2 package directly. It took an hour to download and then I simply followed the prompts to restart the iMac. I went off for two hours and returned to a nice clean Big Sur 11.2 update without errors or warnings.

Lesson learned. I shall do updates from the App Store in future.

Restarting and installing in safe mode fixed that for me.

I have had the same issue where after I start the update I got the exact same message saying the download had failed. For reference I live in South Africa and what worked for me was when I connected to a vpn server in the United States (I use Express VPN). Once connected to a vpn in the United States the download completed and installed with no issues. Not sure why this would solve this issue as I have never had any issues with previous MacOS updates in the past.

I had the same problem. This fixed it for me.

I connected my MacBook to the power rather than run on battery.

I turned off WiFi and connected my MacBook to the Ethernet via my ThunderBolt/Ethernet adapter.

I went into System Preferences -> Battery -> Power Adapter and set "Turn display of after:" to Never

I went into System Preferences -> Software Update and kicked off the upgrade.

After the upgraded completed I went into System Preferences -> Battery -> Power Adapter and selected "Restore Defaults"

I had the same issue.

11.2 installed without problem on my MacBook Pro but when I tried to update my wife's MacBook Air it got stuck at 15 minutes when preparing the downloaded file. It did this a couple of times. Then I restarted in Safe Mode. It seemed to get stuck at 10 minutes during the preparation stage. It stayed like that for 20 minutes or so. Just as I was preparing to go into Restore Mode, it resumed preparation. The only strange thing was, as the Mac was counting down to restart itself for installation, the update started to download again. However, the installation then went ahead properly. So, in a nutshell, Safe Mode worked for me but it took longer than it should.

I was able to update to 11.2 finally by using the App Store. From there download 11.2. It will take an hour or so. You will be asked to restart when the download finishes. That worked perfectly for me after many many failures to update from the 11.2 update notice. Ignore that and update directly from App Store.

So along comes update 11.2.1.  

I tried to install it by clicking on “Update Now” in Software Update. The download seemed to be fine. The installation got to the last 5 minutes and it said it failed.

So I used the same procedure that I posted on page 2 of this topic and turned off wifi and connected my 2015 MacBook to my home network using an ethernet connection. Success.

When it got to the 5 minutes remaining part of the installation I watched the MacBook’s network connection on the router and there was a burst of network activity and then it completed that part of the installation. During the restarts of the MacBook as part of completing the installation there was further network activity from the MacBook.

So for me the installation of Big Sur and the subsequent updates to Big Sur have all failed when I used my home’s wifi network connection but all worked when I used an ethernet connection to the network.

I’ve used 3 different routers and 2 different broadband suppliers, so don’t think it’s that!!!!

Only way I found was to start in recovery mode.

Use disk utility to double check hd,

then install OS.

Had similar issues in downloading Big Sur 11.2. Was stopping and displaying 10 Mts to go. Started in safe Mode and completed the Software Update though took almost an hour

Downloading the full version from the App Store solved it for me. It's a big download (12+ Gb). But then again, it is done in the background and you can continue to work on your computer right?

freeing up additional disk space up to 14GB solved the problem. Previously, I had the same problem with the Catalina upgrade