Latest update to Sierra - iMac stuck at end of install

You are welcome. Internet Recovery is very slow to load and takes awhile to install. Hopefully, you have a backup in case of an oops. Could you not reinstall using the Recovery Partition (command - R on a restart)?

Don't do the Internet Recovery, that will NOT solve the problem, as Eric Root very friendly said.

Try the solution as in this thread. Otherwise try the Recovery Partition, CMD+R, (not the Internet Recovery Partition) as Eric said also.

Had very similar problem. Managed to upgrade to Sierra from El Capitan successfully - (using a Sierra Upgrade Install that had been downloaded a while ago - so may not have been the most recent release from Apple(?)). Machine booted into Sierra ok. Immediately offered 10 updates in App Store - one of which was a System Update. Took the system Update - which required a Restart - upon which I fell into this problem. Apple screen with completed black bar - hung. Eventually went to Verbose mode (Command-V) and spotted that I was hung, getting the "SmartBattery - finished polling Type 4" reports. Followed the thread here to delete the HuaweiDataCardDriver from the Extensions folder.

Solved the problem. This driver has been there through several OS System upgrades - why does it create a boot problem now? (It hasn't worked as a dongle driver since at least El Capitan if not before - no upgrade offered by Huawei)

I am now at OSX 10.12.6 and being offered a System Security Update 2017-001 10.12.6. I am not going to apply it until I have a full Image backup - because this is when the trouble started last time.(Hopefully the removal of the driver extension will any potential problem).

Another 24 hours with no machine.

Have now set the NVRAM to boot in Verbose mode permanently - might spot these problems a bit faster in future.

Thanks to the folks who posted the solution here - would never have solved it otherwise.

Wonder what the next challenge will be with High Sierra ?! - one-step-at-a-time.................

You have an alternative to restoring from Time Machine. You can drill down into the Backups.backupdb files and drag your files to your Mac.

If you don't have a clone backup it's time to start. Just like a seat belt and an air bag protect you in different ways when driving, you need both Time Machine and a clone for full protection.

A clone is an exact bootable copy of your internal drive.

You'll need an external drive that has enough free space to copy your entire drive. Often the best buy is a 3TB drive. You can partition the drive to have multiple options. In the future always clone your drive before doing an update. If something goes wrong you simply boot from your clone and you are back to work in a matter of minutes.

• Boot from the Recovery drive and using Disk Utility, Erase, format and partition your external drive.
• Select to install macOS on the external drive.
• Select CCC or SuperDuper to clone your internal drive to one of the partitions on your external drive.
• Now you can do an erase and install knowing your files are backed up.

How to reinstall macOS

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5943

How to set up and use an external Mac startup disk

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911

Software used to Clone:

SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/

CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

Hi. If you look across the we. There are thousands who have had exactly the same issue with the latest sierras upgrade. I myself had to restore from time machine twice and have now stuck at 10.12.5 so that I have a functioning laptop. This is unacceptable from Apple. They should issue a statement and withdraw the update or issue a fix.

Interestingly I recently bought a new printer (hp252dw). When I installed it via preferences I had the exact same problem as when I update sierra, i.e. restart stopped at the end of the loading bar. For a third time I had to restore from Timemachine. So although I can print to my printer from i

OS devices I cannot print from my Mac.

I guess from reading around that the fault with the sierra upgrade seems to be linked to various 'kext' files including printer new drivers but you get no option not to install

Apple after 33 years of happy Mac use I am extremely disappointed in you. You need to start communicating with your users and acknowledging issues as well as sorting them o

ut quickly. I'm guessing you are only interested in getting high sierra finished and out there in the hope it will solve the problem. Wit its new file structure I will not be upgrading until there is clear evidence it is safe to do.

1/10 for effort -10/10 for communication

I tried to install Sierra three times, two months apart. Each time I got stuck. I tried to contact Apple with no answer at all. In the first to intents after really distasteful ordeal I was lucky enough to get my computer back (notice!!!, I was left with no computer at all after my intents) and as I had my time machine copies I got il all in order... but the third time the Mac Book Pro late 2013 (no kidding about the Pro) did not accept the time machine restoration so I lost all the files archives layout hat I had been building up painfully the last five years!!!!

My level of disappointment (I'm the owner of an iMac, Mac Book Pro, two working 4S and & &Splus, two apple watches, an air iPad and an iPad Pro) with the current managers of Apple is reaching astronomical height... How is it possible that so many of us that were really happy with the "Apple way" after suffering Windows rubbish for so long are now facing this miserable ordeal that can only be solved by not updating at all and keep waiting for a new proper and careful manufacturer... who will "it" be... Google, Samsung, Amazon, HP... not Apple for sure.

Sayonara.

What we need is updates working seamlessly, not this absolute mess. More when Apple does not come cheap at all, customers are advanced ptofessionals that need trustable support and this aloof (despite the smiles at Apple events, crazy! What they are laughing at?) approach.

Just to be clear....

Apple Support Communities is not official Apple support. We are volunteers here. If you want your complaints to be heard by Apple you need to send Apple feedback.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

Hi everyone, wish I had read this thread before falling down the same hole. Sierra update frozen iMac, grey screen, progress bar nearly at the end.

tried restarting in safe mode, but the same screen just comes up each time. i'm not sure what my options are if I cannot get to safe mode? Would really value your help.

thanks

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

Have you tried reinstalling the OS as suggested in the answer marked solved?

Thanks for the super quick reply! I’m attempting macOS reinstall and hoping I pick the option that doesn’t erase my data. Currently it’s been hanging for 10 minson a screen saying ‘starting internet recovery this may take a while. I’m on super fast broadband so hope this is normal!

Mike

35 mins later still on same screen! I do have a time machine backup fortunately! I used option-command-r because that was the option on the link that would upgrade to latest compatible version so I felt as that is what I’m ultimately trying to do it seemed ok.

Hopefully we be not messed up. I’ve had the Mac since 2012 and never had a problem till now so not used to all this!

It is plain easy.

High Sierra seems to be more of the same, if you look for "problems with High-Sierra" in Google.

So not to update at all.

Where is that company that was customer oriented? Now they are forcing its constituency into trouble and misery and have become a "problem" more that a "solution" and stubbornly unresponsive.

Really disappointing.

It's all getting too complex - too many historical machine architectures / applications / drivers / upgrade pathways.........must be an internal nightmare. Would love to keep all User data totally divorced from System - and do clean installs of new Operating Systems. Never been clear to me that there is a bombproof way of doing this on the Mac. They always talk about re-initialising the hard drive and starting again............