Updating to MacOs Sonoma Stuck at 5 minutes

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.

Well, it seems they haven't been able to fix that bug yet, it's Dec. 11th and I'm still having the same problem here...

Empty the trash bin and continue...it worked within minutes!

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.

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.

Same here on a Macbook Air M1.

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.

Even better, It's almost 2 months later and I'm getting the same issue

Currently going on two hours here. Had to force restart and now I’m back to square one with the download page saying ‘52 mins remaining…’

This has been the worst/slowest update process yet and has me reconsidering my choice to use a Mac computer. Thank god Black Friday is soon…

My Mac screen says it has been "Preparing macOS Sonoma 14.1/About 20 minutes remaining" for over 12 hours.

I did that too. After more than 1.5 hrs I went to sleep. This morning it seemed completed but I tried to sign in but still waiting for browser to stop churning. Help!!!!

Imposaible updating to latest Sonoma 14.0…

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).

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