MacOS Download & Install

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Level 1

4 points

MacOS Download & Install

Hello,

the latest MacOS automatically attempted installing and updating the night after I had accidentally pressed on the ‘try tomorrow’ option on the update notification. I woke up the next day with it stuck 2/5 of the bar full and wouldn’t budge. I left it, for hours, but no progress.

So, I did some research and my best option to get my MacBook up and running again was to reinstall my original MacOS which was Catalina, but it would do the same and wouldn’t budge after 50%.

I called apple and they said it is currently installing, it just takes a while (a few hours). I left my Mac overnight, it had been 12 hours and still hadn’t installed.

Please help. This was a gift and I would be devastated to find out a software issue had made my Mac unusable.

P.S. The ‘download’ of the MacOS is no issue, the ‘installation’ is the problem. I also have 60Mbps wifi give or take a bit + fiber optic so decent connection.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 9, 2023 5:18 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

61,160 points

Mar 9, 2023 8:35 PM in response to Kadar_

What is the exact model of this Mac?

What version of macOS was installed before the unplanned upgrade? What version of macOS was accidentally being installed?

If you are downgrading the OS, then you will need to perform a clean install of macOS by first erasing the whole physical drive. Keep in mind erasing the drive will destroy all data on the drive. It may be possible to create another APFS volume or re-partition the drive (the latter is risky, but the former may have its own issues as well).

If this is a 2018 Mac and you have access to another Mac running macOS 10.15+, then you can "Restore" the firmware of this Mac which will reset the T2 security chip and push a clean OS onto the internal SSD destroying all data on it.

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Answer 2

Kadar_ Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 9, 2023 10:53 PM in response to HWTech

It is a 13 inch Retina display. The model number is A2179.

The version the Mac was in before the unplanned update was Catalina.

The one it was updating to was, I’m assuming the latest. There is no way for me to know.

The update from the original Catalina up to whatever it was updating to didn’t finish. Will I still need to do a clean install?

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Answer 3

Kadar_ Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 10, 2023 8:12 AM in response to HWTech

I have just done your second advice and it worked within 45 mins!! Thank you so much, I genuinely thought I’d have to buy a new MacBook. I did lose all my data, but thankfully many services keep data of their customers so most of the things I lost can be regained. Nevertheless, you were amazing help, and once again, thank you so much.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

61,160 points

Mar 10, 2023 9:38 AM in response to Kadar_

Take this as a lesson to always have frequent and regular backups of the computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. Apple provides the Time Machine app with macOS for easily backing up your data, but you can also use third party apps & services, or perform manual backups (just make sure to do it often and grab everything important...best to be used with a more automated methods).

Keep in mind you just discovered one of the many new ways of losing data with these newer computers where data recovery is impossible in most situations unless there are backups.

Thanks for following up. Glad it worked.

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MacOS Download & Install

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