11.2.1 Download Failed

just to add to my rreply. the issue was my antivirus. i had web cam and website tracking blocked. After I chatted with apple tech support and we did a bunch of safe mode stuff that didn't help at all. everytime I returned back the updater was still there asking me to instal it. then I tried again and again, until I saw that my antivirus keep popping up on notification center, telling webcam blocked; website tracking blocked. so I was like ok, let me unblock them. and guess what. it downloaded and installed easily. but not after I saw my storage reduced by 8 gigs. which I'm furious about.

There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community   

So, if you already haven't done so, uninstall all A/V, cleaning, optimizing or speedup apps according to the developer's instructions.

Failed twice. The same error message at the very end of downloading. Then I rebooted machine and tried again. It worked this time. And I closed all other running apps, just to be a bit more cautious.

Be careful because if you don't have enough free space on your boot drive you could fall victim to what's described in this article: PSA: Upgrading a Mac to macOS Big Sur without enough space can result in data loss

Ok, I’ve finally downloaded it and it’s installing now. You can try and do what I’ve done. Go into the AppStore and download it from there. It worked for me that way.

going into settings and updating did NOT work at all for me.

Batfink1983 wrote:

I know that previously people have suggested booting into "Safe Mode" or reinstalling the system, could fix this, I don't want to dedicate time doing this unless it is guaranteed to work.

The reason to try "Safe Mode" is so third-party apps you may have installed don't interfere with installing the update. There are no guaranties.

Does anyone know a different workaround?

There are none.

On Friday, I updated my 2018 MacBook Pro's OSx and when it was finished I had ZERO access to ALL of my installed applications (Adobe Creative Cloud, MS 365, git, MS Visual Code and so on). The problem was permissions. I called customer service and they recommended:

/ % diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

It didn't crash my Macbook but it didn't work. So I spent another 8 hours figuring out what went wrong. Here is what I suggest.

Apple no longer allows the username and password on your Mac to be the same username and password as the iCloud account. When you change Mac password there will be a disconnect with the 3rd party software and things like MS365, git or Creative Cloud will not open. You'll need to back up from Time Machine and start over.

OR

You can backup to Time Machine (just in case), change your device password BEFORE you install 11.2.1 and everything will be groovy.

This was the first clue that the permissions were jacked.

BOINC ownership or permissions are not set properly; please reinstall BOINC.

(Error code -1202 at /Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/projects/www.worldcommunitygrid.org/arp1_image29_1527.tga)

Ok, I’ll mine then... because yesterday I had the same issue... 11 times.

Try what did... read below

please read my latest replies at the bottom.

i did safe mode same issue. read my latest replies.

ok. so how long have you had your system. and do you use it for school, like using a flash-drvie/thumb-drive like me. where you have to put it in windows computers and then bring back to your mac?

also, I had 196gigs free, a new MacBook and all. just 2 weeks old. now after attempting so many update downloads. now it's at 187. how do I find that used up space of attempted downloads?