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Monterey update/iMac/won't reboot

After receiving notice that Monterey was available, I confirmed that it was appropriate for my iMac Intel 27 in 5G late 2015. Though I once had a horrible problem with an OS update on my MacBook Pro, I went ahead and downloaded and began installing the Monterey update on my desktop. And so I set in motion the baffling cycle of frozen reboots. As others have described, I would get part way through the phony 28-minutes left notices (does that actually mean anything at all?) and get down to "less than a minute left though the progress bar had hardly moved after the first third of the way. After hours of waiting for the "less than a minute," I tried rebooting, tried rebooting in safe mode (the machine just kept trying to restart again and again), tried rebooting in recovery mode (my cursor was frozen so I couldn't choose any of the options), tried resetting SMC and NVRAM to fix the cursor, tried each of these possibilities several times...nothing.


Right now, my desktop is trying to reboot itself in the other room. Every few minutes I hear it restart. Clearly, there's something very wrong with the install.


So, I'm at a loss as to how I go about getting back to some semblance of a normal, functional computer. I don't care if I ever get to use Monterey, but just get me back my machine running Big Sur like I had at the beginning of this. Is that even a possibility?


Help.

iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 19, 2022 3:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2022 1:07 AM

First do you have a USB mouse? Maybe your wireless mouse is not connecting in Recovery. If you have a USB mouse the try booting to Recovery and repairing/First AId the startup disk and try a normal restart.


Next, if mouse worked and still problem boot to Recovery and reinstall the macOS version offered in Recovery.


Next, if mouse worked and still problem boot to Recovery, erase the startup disk and reinstall the macOS version offered in Recovery.


Next, do you have access to a Mac that can run Big Sur or Monterey? If so download the Big Sur or Monterey installer. Then make a bootable installer.

How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support

How to create a bootable installer USB flash drive (16GB+)

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


Boot from that USB installer, If your wireless mouse does not work then you need a USB mouse. and start fro the beginning above.

Similar questions

12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 20, 2022 1:07 AM in response to tccroc

First do you have a USB mouse? Maybe your wireless mouse is not connecting in Recovery. If you have a USB mouse the try booting to Recovery and repairing/First AId the startup disk and try a normal restart.


Next, if mouse worked and still problem boot to Recovery and reinstall the macOS version offered in Recovery.


Next, if mouse worked and still problem boot to Recovery, erase the startup disk and reinstall the macOS version offered in Recovery.


Next, do you have access to a Mac that can run Big Sur or Monterey? If so download the Big Sur or Monterey installer. Then make a bootable installer.

How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support

How to create a bootable installer USB flash drive (16GB+)

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


Boot from that USB installer, If your wireless mouse does not work then you need a USB mouse. and start fro the beginning above.

Feb 21, 2022 11:59 AM in response to tccroc

Here's what I've done as a backup and for updating the system. I got the following bare SSD and adaptor



and cloned my internal boot drive to it with Carbon Copy Cloner. It's cheaper than getting a external SSD in it's own housing. I have several. Then I can boot from the external SSD if the install goes haywire to fix the boot drive and continue working if needed.



Feb 20, 2022 11:35 AM in response to lllaass

Thanks for this advice. The idea of the USB mouse occurred to me overnight, so I was happy to have your confirmation. Using it, I was able to run disk first aid. But a regular restart did not work. So I rebooted in recovery mode, selected restore OS, and then the system said when I clicked continue on OS Sierra, "To download and restore macOS, your computer's eligibility will be verified by Apple." When I accept that, then I'm still at the OS Sierra install page, and when I click continue, I get that notice again. So far, nothing seems to happen.


I should also note that I have a Time Machine backup from before any of this happened. Should I try restoring from it before erasing the startup disk and reinstalling?

Feb 21, 2022 8:37 AM in response to lllaass

Okay, so the Time Machine restore seems to have worked just fine (YAY!) So now what I have to study on is whether any updating of the OS is really worth it, and if it's worth it, how to get it to work better next time. The machine is running El Capitan 10.11.6, has over 1TB of space on it, but is mainly used as an internet-access device (mail, Web, streaming) these days for the most part.

Monterey update/iMac/won't reboot

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