Stuck AFTER successful High Sierra install

Saw this happen once shortly after upgrading my work iMac. I restarted in Safe Mode (restart holding shift key until the Apple icon appears) and everything seemed fine, then restarted normally and it has been fine since. I couldn't find anything in the console to indicate what the hang was but based on what I saw it must have been the Finder or whatever else launches just before the Finder. Don't know if Safe Mode, which deletes and trims cache files, had a positive effect or no effect.

I followed all kind of steps to boot my Macbook Pro (15") as mentioned on this link: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/mac-wont-turn-on-3423817/#comments

But nothing worked so finally i went into Recovery mode (Disk utilities) and did a Reinstall MacOS (I am on Sierra). It took many hours (3-4) and it worked to the extent that it booted my Mac into the OS upto the login screen. But here it got stuck as it didn't recognise any username/password. After breaking my head for many hours I finally contacted Apple support on chat. They suggested following steps which worked flawlessly:

1) boot into Single User mode
2) mount -uw /
3) rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
4) reboot
It should boot your Mac into Setup assistant. There follow below steps:

5) create new Administrator account
6) Skip iCloud Keychain, FileVault
Proceed and you should be logged in as the new user

At this point still I couldn't see my original username in System Preferences > Users & Groups. For that Apple Support provided this link to follow:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25515?locale=en_US

Basically create a new user account having the original username. Use Existing Folder when prompted.

Now I am able to login as the original username as well with all the original data (of course all the original data was preserved when i did the Reinstall OS option. I took a backup before Reinstalling).

I'm a very experienced Mac tech support consultant, yet I've been grappling with the "too many corpses" problem since yesterday. I tried a number of approaches, but was confident that a simple solution existed. YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO ERASE YOUR HARD DRIVE, or reinstall Mac OS. I found a couple of postings that explain this surprisingly quick solution. If you're able to get into Recovery Mode utilizing CMD-R, and you're not afraid to work in the Terminal program, THIS WORKS! If you follow these steps EXACTLY, a bad file named "mbr_cache" will be rebuilt and your Mac will reboot successfully (slowly the first time as the rebuild happens, then normal speed after that). This solution worked on my 2011-vintage 21-inch iMac (iMac 12,1) with Mac OS High Sierra. Someone should tell the Apple Geniuses and Tech Support Specialists about this. Or, better yet, they should be able to find these types of solutions themselves. Good luck!

The two articles where I found this solution are:

macos - Opendirectoryd too many corpses being created - Ask Different

https://mrsystems.co.uk/blogs/news/too-many-corpses-being-created

Steps from the articles:

1. Boot and hold CMD-R to start up from macOS Recovery
2. If Filevault is on, mount the disk with Disk Utility and enter password
3. Enter these two commands in Terminal

4. cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db/caches/opendirectory

5. mv ./mbr_cache ./mbr_cache-old

6. Exit from Terminal
7. Restart the computer

the hint that it is starting in Safe Mode is that it takes for ever to boot. That’s because disk check is running and then cache files are being deleted. There used to be more of an indication but I didn’t see anything in High Sierra. Just the usual incredibly slow boot.

I had a similar issue when I upgraded my 2010 MacBook Pro. The install went fine, then it got hung up while booting up. The progress bar got to, around, the 90% mark, then, stopped. I let it sit for over an hour and there was no movement. I, then, did a hard shut down, booted into the Recovery Drive, and verified that High Sierra was installed. I ran First Aid in Disk Utility and found no problems. I restarted and boot-up into the new OS was successful. I haven't had any problems with subsequent reboots. No other issues, either. I couldn't determine what it was getting stuck on during the initial boot.

I have a iMac mid 2010 and updates (while to frequent of late imo ) When I updated to Sierra

(Not High Sierra ) it took THREE days to get my iMac working , I did back up , What I did was google the issue

and used safe mode and left it run overnight (? why ) but in the a.m. it worked after (another ) restart )

It appears by this forum High Sierra may be sticky-fuzzy or > I did not do the latest iTunes updates (Due to all the problems reported (and Sierra update for iTunes -multiple , the last one deleted all but two of my visualizers oh well

I use my iMac for music -listening and Garageband and MainStage 3 , I avoid email too , I run Avast which has a low CPU load (turn off when backing up ) Music making also disconnect (ethernet )

Best of Luck

diamondblues

aka David

ℹ😟😠😕

I had a MacBook Pro mid 2012, and had the same problem(High Sierra 10.13.1). The install is fine, days later I shut down my computer and when I start it, it stuck after I entered my password.

I waited for about an hour and just press the power button to shut it down. This time the computer starts without any problem. I don’t know if it will happen again.

Hope this helps.

Two days after installation of HSierra 2010 MacBook Pro would not boot up. Tried booting from power on at least 6 times no success. Thanks to Time Machine I restored completely to old Sierra and everything is working again. Will wait for a month or two before upgrading again.

Having same issue. It seems to hold up when the apple logo appears and the progress bar starts loading. It seems to load normally at first until it gets about 1/3 to 1/2 way across, then it slows down considerably until the bar is fully black. Then it just sits there. I am attempting to restore from last known successful Time Machine backup. On the previous operating system.

A couple of things to note (not sure if anyone else had similar anomalies). First, my MacBook ( Pro, 2012.5) was running HighSierra Beta, and the version it was upgrading to was 10.13.1, which I believe is a retail release. Second, I lost internet service (service provider outage) just prior to the issue appearing.

After I regained service, my service provider had me reset (power cycle) both my Airport Time Capsule and the modem they provided me. Before I powered off my Airport, I powered down my MacBook (so it wouldn't interrupt a Time Machine backup). The last time I powered it down was more than a couple of weeks ago, and I believe it was the first power down since High Sierra downloaded to my MacBook. I think the issue is when it tried to install 10.13.1 on the restart.

If I get it to restore from the

Can you get to the point where you have 4 choices to makes: disc recovery, safari etc?

There I guess and I am not sure in files you can go to save image as from then TO on an external drive if you have one.

This has happened too. Apple over the phone and at their store didn't help and were offensive.

Cheers,

F

I was able to get to the recovery screen (Command R after power toggle), but when I tried to retry, it kept sticking at the same point. I performed a wipe and restored from backup (one prior to the update) and was able to get back to before the update. The next day my computer auto updated normally without any issues and has been fine since.

My guess is when the update downloaded into my computer, there was possibly an interruption in the data stream (my internet provider went offline for a couple of hours right around when the download pushed through) and some script could have been missed or corrupt.

One thing to note if this is the fix you want to try. It is a time consuming process. I used a direct connection between my Time Machine and my MacBook with a lan cable and it took around 8-9 hours (450gb onto a 480gb ssd). If you have a lightning connection to your back up source, it would probably be quicker, but if you attempt over WiFi, it could take over 24 hours.

I couldn’t get it to actually do anything and make it finish so I just completely burned it to the ground and got rid of everything and then installed the default install from the auto web helper thing. I think it was like 3 or 4 os ago and then back up to Sierra. Luckily I had done like a full back up before all of this, but it’s still inexcusable for this to be happening and wasting this much time and resources.

I’m having the same problem right now with my 2011 MacBook Pro. I went to restart this morning because of ungodly slowness, and 8 hours later it’s still in the reboot process, with just the Apple logo and fully black bar. I did a power-button reboot when it was stuck an hour after the first reboot, and it’s been frozen 8 hours after starting the second reboot.

Had this same problem after doing my usual update procedure once High Sierra had hit .2. I wipe the drive, do a clean install, then do a migrate from a Time Machine backup to bring my stuff back. Hasn't failed...until now.

Even booting Safe Mode didn't work (would still hang). Finally ended up reinstalling High Sierra again over this newly-upgraded installation, which did the trick.