El Capitan 10.11.1 Install Problems

The most important thing emerging from this thread and a couple of others is not what kind of tricks or high-end troubleshooting might lead to a successful update to 10.11.1, but that Apple has put out such a problematic update at all, and so far done nothing about it. It's not all that uncommon for a major update to have a few bugs, but an incremental update which is capable of bricking many Macs is unheard-of. I don't understand how come we haven't heard more about this, since the problem is surely not limited to those few in our exclusive circle on these forums.

gbdoc wrote:

...Apple has put out such a problematic update at all, and so far done nothing about it

I have had no problems installing it on three Macs; a 21 iMac, a 27 iMac Retina, and a 17 MBP - all with a variety of apps.

As has been pointed out before, many, perhaps even most, of these updates go well. Still, judging by posts here (and extrapolating: the overwhelming majority of Mac users have never used, read, or posted on such a forum), the update is very problematic for a significant number of users for no apparent or obvious reason. One of my AirBooks had no problem, but the other was bricked, and, despite being somewhat tech-savvy, and having tried everything I could think of or read, the update still won't work, and only my clone saves me.

I Agree. I think most people probably had little issue but it seems like a decent percentage have had serious issues that leave us more than just limping, but in some cases completely paralyzed. I just wish there were some kind of way to warn people, that if they have certain hardware and/or software set ups, this might occur and if it does, here is how you can fix it.

I consider myself a pretty tech savvy guy, too, and I have always enjoyed downloading the latest OS the day it comes out, but this experience makes me seriously think twice about being at the "front end". I had always assumed I was pretty safe with the .1 updates, but perhaps I need to hang back more in the future.

Hi Everyone,

As on my new IMAC 27" it was perfectly working, i have decided to install it on my macbook pro bought 6 months ago

I have tried 3 times to install OS X 10.11.1

every time i have the same black serial as you described going up to 90% and stopping for a full day (then i had enough)

is my IMAC is much more efficient than My Macbook Pro (pretty much the same setup except hard drive)

What should i do ?

I need those bugs fix with office 2016 ?

should i ignore it for the time being ?

Thanks for your help

If you have the 2 machines and the one with issues is the MacBook Pro, I would try connecting it to the iMac and booting it in target mode, and try a fresh install on the MacBook Pro that way. It might work around some of the issues. If your data on the MacBook Pro doesn't carry over, you can restore it from Time Machine (assuming it is backed up).

If you end up trying this, let us know how it goes.

I tried something like that - connected my clone in TD mode and applied the UD - but it didn't work, the same problem persisted.

Dang it (and sorry if I missed that you had tried that already).

I gotta be honest, it looks like this is a real crapshoot as to who is going to have issues with the update as well as how to fix them. I am considering myself lucky that my issues were fixed by a fresh install (after rebooting in recovery mode) and I only had to spend about 36 hours working on the issue.

gbdoc wrote:

As has been pointed out before, many, perhaps even most, of these updates go well. Still, judging by posts here (and extrapolating: the overwhelming majority of Mac users have never used, read, or posted on such a forum), the update is very problematic for a significant number of users for no apparent or obvious reason. One of my AirBooks had no problem, but the other was bricked, and, despite being somewhat tech-savvy, and having tried everything I could think of or read, the update still won't work, and only my clone saves me.

And how many is a significant number, do you have any clue at all or are you just 'extrapolating' from those complaining.

Do you even know how many users are running ElCap in total? or is extrapolation a euphemism for speculation. Check my profile, an awful lot of Macs, everyone (bar the 2008) is now running ElCap, no installation issues at all.

For my staff and me this has been the least troublesome OS X installation ever, but each Mac was properly prepared for it.

utazdevl wrote:

Once again, thanks for your opinion. I'll file it somewhere appropriate.

Would you know where that is, or are you speculating again?

I think everyone on this thread knows exactly where those belong.

Thanks again for the level of insight you have contributed to this discussion. It speaks volumes about how helpful and what a kind of person you are.

i have tried in Target mode; doesnt seem to work either,

When you say "fresh install" do you mean using Cmd + R to recovery mode and using OS X setup ?

then when it's done are you using time machine ?

What i dont understand is my back up time machine with all my settings is before the 10.11.1 update how can this works ?

utazdevl wrote:

I think everyone on this thread knows exactly where those belong.

Thanks again for the level of insight you have contributed to this discussion. It speaks volumes about how helpful and what a kind of person you are.

You're welcome, and remember, I am not here to massage your ego, or be your friend. I am here to help people who can not install an OS without messing up. And that sir describes you.

Yes. This is ultimately what worked for me. I booted up using Command R and then tried a Time Machine restore. That didn't work so I chose the Fresh OS X install, which did allow the full boot to take place, and then my data and preferences were all already there (except for the legacy version of Java, which I had to reinstall). I also assumed I was rebooting to 10.11, but it seemed to "finish off" the .1 update, and I was all up to date.

Hope this helps and works for you.

Thank you for providing me with another equally insightful piece of help. The number of people you have helped here is literally countless.