MacOs Monterey stuck at 2 hours and 57 minutes

Hi there rosslongos,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. You're in the right place for help if you've been unable to install macOS Monterey. Restarting your Mac was a great starting point for troubleshooting.

Has the install made any progress since posting here?

If not, we recommend booting your Mac into macOS Recovery mode and then running First Aid on your startup disk. This link has the steps on How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility. After you run First Aid, make sure to disconnect any peripherals such as external hard drives, printers, and hubs. Then, click Apple menu () > Restart, and see how it goes.

Take care.

I had exactly the same problem updating to macOS Monterey on a new M1 24" iMac (that shipped with Big Sur), with the progress bar starting at 2 hours 57 minutes and then increasing up to 54 hours. This happened repeatedly even after using Disk First Aid (no problems reported) and starting in Safe Mode.

I deleted Install macOS Monterey.app and downloaded a fresh copy.

Then, for good measure, I quit all apps and ejected and disconnected all peripherals.

This time, the installer reported 57 minutes to install. The install actually finished in about 35 or 40 minutes, with the progress bar behaving normally.

I'm not sure disconnecting peripherals had any effect, but was worried that the installer might be trying to check all 32 terabytes of external storage.

sauceuke,

Did you try deleting Install macOS Monterey.app and redownloading it?

Next step would probably be to reinstall macOS in Recovery mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

You might then need to upgrade to macOS Monterey.

Recovery mode would also show you if the startup drive is damaged.

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/repair-a-storage-device-dskutl1040/mac

Yes. Finally I was able to install it. Try to erase the Macintosh HD Volume again and then try. Be patient, In my case it was showing 3 hours and 40 minutes remaining but then suddenly it showed 2 minutes remaining.

I think installing in recovery won't update the OS. It'll just offer to reinstall what's already there or what your mac came with.

If your download of Install macOS Monterey.app seems good, and your update to macOS Monterey went OK, you can use these instructions to return your mac to factory-fresh settings and content. Make sure you have an iron-clad backup first. (Better yet, have two.)

https://www.macworld.com/article/547496/macos-monterey-clean-install-erase-all-contents-and-settings.html

I’m facing exactly the same issue with a brand new MacBook Pro 14’’ (M1). I was stuck at 2 hours 57 minutes for a long time and the progress was very slow until it errored. I’ve checked my wifi etc. and everything else is working as expected.

Haven’t found a workaround yet.

It didn’t work. I had bought a new MacBook Pro 13’ 2020 and it seems the startup disk was deleted, so now when I try to install MacOS Monterey it gets stuck at 2hr and 57minutes. Should I take it to an apple store? The laptop is basically useless if I can’t get it to install

Did you find a solution to this? I just erased my startup disk and tried to reinstall Monterey, but stuck at 2 hours 57 minutes every time.

Terminal won’t delete/can’t find the Install macOS Monterey.app others mentioned.

Tried first aid on all volumes and containers.

All combos I’ve tried still get me stuck at the 2’57”, very frustrating!

Sorry to be a little off-topic. But, I'd like to ask, is there any way to solve the same problem while resetting the MacBook Air M1 to factory settings?

macOS Monterey.app would be in the system Applications folder, not in your user Applications folder.

I can’t access either, the disk has been erased and I’m in Recovery mode.

Hi pattybeesh, just wondering if you managed to solve the issue. I am also stuck in recovery mode and Monterey installation is forever at 2 hours 57 mins.

It failed a number of times and then after restarting again one time, nothing changed, it just went through.

I see thank you. I will give it a few more try then.

I have the same issue. I am resetting my macbook air M1 to factory but reinstalling macos Monterey stucks at 2 hours and 57 minutes. Nothing works tried lots of time.