You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Upgrade from High Sierra to Big Sur fails to install

I have a 2017 Mac Book Pro running High Sierra with over 100GB of storage space available. I'm trying to upgrade to Big Sur.

  1. I go into the App Store and select "macOS Big Sur" (12GB) and click on download.
  2. It says downloading and then calculating and appears to finish after about 30 seconds and then presents an open button.
  3. I click on the "open" button and the window just flashes but does not do anything.
  4. I've done several reboots but nothing seems to change the behavior. There are not errors or warnings anywhere that I can see.


What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 27, 2021 1:24 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 27, 2021 6:02 PM

Try booting into Safe Mode in case you have some third party software installed that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


If this does not work, then delete the "Install macOS Big Sur" installer app from the "Applications" folder and empty the Trash. Then try downloading the Big Sur installer again.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 27, 2021 6:02 PM in response to bvsaker

Try booting into Safe Mode in case you have some third party software installed that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


If this does not work, then delete the "Install macOS Big Sur" installer app from the "Applications" folder and empty the Trash. Then try downloading the Big Sur installer again.


Upgrade from High Sierra to Big Sur fails to install

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.