Freeze on softwareupdatelauncher

If you are using any system maintenance software, stop doing so. System cache cleaners actually do more harm than good. The only maintenance Macs need is a backup on the Mac OS X system. The worst is Mackeeper, whose removal directions are only possible through these directions.

If your machine is over 85% full, try cleaning it up. You may need to get an external hard drive or Flash drive to install an operating system onto of at least 16 GB if you can't boot directly.

Resetting the PRAM can help if the machine is under four years old if the update has already applied.

If your update hasn't applied, make sure your internet router firmware is up to date.

If none of the above helps, and you aren't backed up, and can't get to backing up, recover your data first.

Then you can look at your directory.

I am having this same problem too. When restarting it gets stuck on a gray screen with the topbar that says 'SoftwareUpdateLauncher'. The machine is not frozen, I can still move the mouse and select menu options (although no dialogs pop up when selecting anything) but it just never proceeds with the shutdown and stays on this screen. I have to hold down the power button to shut it down. It only started occuring after installing the OSX Update 10.9.1. I ran the Mavericks installer again but that did not help. My machine is an iMac Mid 2011.

Same here. I can no longer properly restart the machine, it gets stuck on 'SoftwareUpdateLauncher'. What is also strange is that I'm now in a strange limbo with this update. The App store says 1 update avaiable "OS X Update 10.9.1" while the section that lists updates installed in the last 30 days also contains "OS X Update 10.9.1". Trying to install it again from the App store just creates another entry under updates installed in the last 30 days and hangs in the same place ('SoftwareUpdateLauncher'). I now have 3 entries for "OS X Update 10.9.1" under updates installed in the last 30 days.

Under "About This Mac" is shows I'm still running 10.9 (13A603) so update clearly didn't apply.

Read my suggestions. If they do not apply, please start your own thread.

If you have not gotten the update to apply, it is possible the server is simply busy, and you need to try later.

Most important, backup your data before installing anything.

This is exactly what is happening to me with it showing in both the installed updates and the updates needing to be installed.

Brody,

it has nothing to do with connectivity or their server being busy. I tried installing the update by downloading it rather than applying it through the app store updates and got the same result. As for other system maintenance software that does not apply either.

If the update has not appeared to install, your data is backed up, you could try just downloading 10.9.1 from the website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1707

I'm in the same boat as UnfadingLight, 10.9.1 show as both a pending and completed update while SoftwareUpdateLauncher hangs my MacBook Air (mid-2013) every time I attempt to shutdown or restart.

I've zapped PRAM, run DiskUtility from the recovery partition (drive checks out OK) and repaired disk permissions. All to no apparent effect.

Same problem here. Cannot apply update.

Tryied:

- manuall dmg install

- different user

- clean update folder and redownloaded the update package again

- disk utility hard drive repair

- PRAM reset

Hardware:

MacBook Retina 15" early 2013

If you don't start your own thread, I can't help you.

Brody,

If we are all having the exact same problem why do we need to start separate threads?

I had the same problem and was able to resolve it.

After trying to install it via App Store as well as manually everything ended up with the gray screen and the menu bar. So I had a closer look at the menu bar and their items. Most of the items were deactivated, but the ones in the Apple menu weren't. So I played around with those.

I can't say for sure which item finally resolved the problem but I suspect that after I've hit Log Out and then hit the enter key (maybe even a few times) it continued and finally installed the update.

I also tried the Restart item but as I've already tried that one in an earlier try I guess it doesn't help.

Maybe hitting Log Out as well as the enter key helps some other people here!

It is a myth that you are having the exact same problem. Symptoms may be alike, but you still have different computers.

I think we are all having the same problem 😉

For whatever reason, ffreid's solution worked for me. Click Log Out and then 'enter/return' key. It's possible that only hitting the 'enter' key is necessary to start the installer.

Thanks, ffried.

Had you read the thread for context you wouldn't find yourself piling pissness on top of unhelpful general troubleshooting tips.