MacBook Pro Catalina to Tahoe update failing

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Level 1

22 points

MacBook Pro Catalina to Tahoe update failing

My late 2020 MBP with Catalina is not letting me update to Tahoe yet Tahoe is the only option offered in Software Update, no other OS offered. My mac is having a lot of problems with compatibility with other apps and web functions, although it's usable, it just isn't compatible. Is there anything i can do? I tried updating to Tahoe twice today. The first time, it said it was updating but the update went really fast. In about this mac, it still says Catalina and urges me to update to Tahoe. I tried it again. That time it had a fairly slower update time, maybe over an hour, and it said the number of minutes left, which got lower and lower but now that it's apparently done, without any error message, it still has Catalina and urges me to update to Tahoe.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 4, 2026 6:20 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

34,223 points

Feb 4, 2026 8:08 PM in response to jaw444

Start up your Mac in safe mode and try upgrading the OS while booted in that mode . Safe mode will often correct weird software behavior by forcing the OS to clear caches, do disk repair and other self-maintenance and housekeeping and temporarily disables third-party mods.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

You can exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally, then reevaluate the problem.

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Answer 2

Feb 5, 2026 10:17 AM in response to jaw444

If your Mac is compatible with both Catalina and Tahoe, then you could also upgrade it to any intermediate version by clicking on the appropriate App Store link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support .

Sonoma, Sequoia, and Tahoe are the "most recent three." So you probably don't want to install Big Sur, Monterey, or Ventura – except, perhaps, as a intermediate jump before installing a later version.

These days, you can also search in the App Store for things like "macOS Sequoia". Apple used to hide old versions unless you went through the special links in the Support article, but they changed that a little while ago.

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Answer 3

jaw444 Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 5, 2026 2:35 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thanks for detailed reply. my plan to update today got interrupted by something else that took hours but it will be easy to get into doing it with supportive guidance, thanks!! then i'll find out if new OS is what has been needed.

the way my problems started this year, after no MBP/Catalina problems before mid 2025 was that i would click on the link i had created to my Apple login page and i would get an all blank page, the right address in the URL but an all blank page. I had the same thing happen a few months before, on Next Door which continues, the link brings an all blank page. Emailing NextDoor Help, they said they're just volunteers and not tech people, and they had no knowledge of Apple devices. no other app has shown this problem so far. i haven't updated OS yet out of fear of losing some essential functioning which sometimes happens with OS updates, but at this point, it can't get any worse.

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Answer 4

Feb 5, 2026 11:58 AM in response to Servant of Cats

Here's something new and surprising in the App Store.

I just launched the App Store app and searched for "macOS". This was the result:

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