Updating to MacOs Sonoma Stuck at 5 minutes

maydemillenium wrote:

Sure, what a great idea. Amazing! Uhmmm, just one small question: And what about those who don't have S. in the trash bin?

I think there are multiple issues causing some of these stalled updates. Some occurred where emptying the bin fixed it clearly had something "live" in the trash that was impeding the update. However my experience has been that sometimes people are too impatient and when they interrupt the update it may impede the next try even worse because the killed off process may not terminate cleanly.

My experience with this update (with two MacBook Pros and one iMac) was that leaving it alone is always best. Both of the MacBook Pros took much longer than 5 minutes when that indicator came on, in one case nearly an hour, but the other was just about 15 minutes. The iMac, which is newer and faster, was very fast.

I would let it run overnight before concluding that it will never complete. At that point I would boot into safe mode and try to update from there. If that fails I would boot into recovery and run Disk First Aid.

If all these things fail, I would make sure that I have two viable backups (e.g. Time Machine) and then follow Apple's instructions for preparing the Mac for sale, which basically wipes it clean followed by a fresh OS install. Then I would, upon first boot up, create one Admin user, it could be named Admin. Then update the MacOS to the latest version. This will work unless there is a hardware problem, as the Mac is a vanilla Mac configured like a brand new computer, with nothing but its MacOS (and Apple supplied programs). Then, when fully updated, run Migration Assistant and migrate over only files and user accounts, but no settings or Applications or other miscellaneous items. Then one has to reinstall third party software. This sounds like a lot of effort but it really only takes a few hours, possibly less time than cycling repeatedly to the stalled MacOS update. I have done this on an older Mac that hung like this on a security update. It did fix the problem in that instance.

needhelpdespo wrote:

I'm trying to update my device to MacOs Sonoma.

Device machine and basic specs:

M2 Macbook Air running Ventura 13.6

Was prompted for a software update and hence did so. But it's been stuck at this 5 minute timer for more than hour.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/e5c6c1ac-afd3-47ea-8a6a-ecf4bc14b4cc

Have restarted device to no avail.

restarted and what... your stuck in a loop(?)

Try a SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

If any of the previous tips don’t work (they didn’t for me) try this:

* Go here: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

* Click the App Store link for Sonoma.

* Click Get

It should restart the download, and longer be stuck on preparing afterwards. Worked for me!

This is a common issue that many users have faced. The update process may take longer than expected, even when it says “About 5 minutes remaining”. This is because the update is not only downloading the content, but also preparing and installing the OS.

Some possible solutions that you can try are:

• Wait patiently. The update may eventually complete, even if it takes more than an hour. Do not restart your Mac or use it while the update is in progress.
• Empty your trash bin. Some of my friends recommended that this helped them speed up the update process.
• Install the update from Safe Mode. This can help you troubleshoot if there is a software problem that is causing the update to fail. To do this, you need to shut down your Mac, turn it on and then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window. Then, you can install the update from the System Preferences app. After the update is done, you can restart your Mac normally.

I hope this helps you resolve your issue. If not, you may need to check try more troubleshooting steps like here I found this, in which this issue is explained in detail and the provided 8 ways to fix macOS Sonoma stuck at 5 minutes remaining.

I just installed Sonoma yesterday, on a 14" M1 Pro. It also sat at the 5 min mark for at least half an hour, but it eventually completed. This mismatch between the promised time to install and the real time has happened with almost every new OS installation I've done (mostly on a 2013 MBP), so I wasn't worried.

Had the same problem today going to 14.3 and after reading this thread decided to wait it out. After about 15 mins it moved forward and prompted for a restart but that process was wonky as well.

Now it seems to have worked but this was a pretty bad upgrade process. Atypical of Apple in my experience. Hopefully they get it right in the future.

arganto wrote:

And you really think, that so many users, who have exactly the same symptoms with the same update starting the day before yesterday have now all hardware as reason of the problem? Don't think so.

The earlier posts were for 14.0, and some users were updating from Big Sur while others were coming from Ventura and more recently others from earlier versions of Sonoma. And the images posted show varying progress with the update with some "preparing" and others stuck at finishing. Some emptied their trash and then the update finished. Others tried that but it did not help everyone. In some cases it is UPDATE to Sonoma while others had the problem UPGRADING from an earlier MacOS. Without understanding a user's specific configuration, it's hard for third parties reading to make a diagnosis. Sometimes these issues are a result of specific configurations on a Mac or things that have been installed. Some of the culprits in the past include anti-virus, security tools, and "cleaner" utilities.

My employer just mandated all Macs (we have more than 3000 Macs in use here) update in April to the latest version of Sonoma. This includes some Macs on Big Sur but most are either on Ventura or a lower version of Sonoma. We have a Slack channel for problems to be reported and I have seen ... none ... so far in April, although some posters did complain about how long the update took to complete. I'm not questioning the reality of the issue being reported in this thread, but there may be multiple causes and in the past, at least some of these have been traced to user-installed items. And I do stick by my suggestion that hardware should be investigated if the update freezes on a BRAND NEW Mac with nothing installed nor migrated from a previous setup, factory fresh, as there are scores and scores of Macs being sold every day and the first thing all those users do is update to 14.4.1, sometimes while still in the Apple Store. All the new Macs at my place of work are updated to 14.4.1 the day they are delivered (I am getting one this coming week and expect to do that first thing).

Emptying the trash worked for me. Still hit the stall with "about 5 min left" but it was less than 10 min before the update started.

I had exactly the same thing. I got to this page and read that I needed to empty my bin. As soon as I did that, my Mac kicked in to gear! Give that a go!

My 2019 i5 MacBook Air updated no problem but my new M2 MacMini got hung on that 5 minute mark as well. It did finally move on after about 20 minutes of just sitting there, mocking me.

empty the bin - worked straight away for me!

My apple m1 ventura 13.5 also got stuck at "About 5 minutes remaining"; but it completed the download after ~1.5 hours and prompted to do the actual update (my network is at ~550mbps on my apple devices and upwards of 900mbps for devices with ethernet, not sure why this download took so long). It then got stuck at "5 minutes remaining" again on the actual update, this time it only took ~50 minutes to complete.

I don't think it has to do with downloading. When I watch the network traffic on Activity Monitor, that usually goes pretty quick: the traffic is high and then drops to virtually nothing in a few minutes. The installer must be actually "preparing" the OS. Why that takes so long is a mystery for Apple's software folks to explain.

Same here on a Macbook Air M1.