Mac stuck on loading bar

I texted a friend of mine that does software development for Apple and he was able to help me get past this problem. I was experiencing the same symptoms: upon starting my iMac, the progress bar would load underneath the Apple logo, and it would just sit there and never progress any further. Here's what helped me solve the issue without having to reformat my drive or reinstall the OS.

With the computer shut down, turn it on and hold down Command + S to launch a command shell. Give it a few minutes until it doesn't load anything else on the screen.

Type the following commands, pressing enter after each command:
mount -uw /

sync

reboot

See if this boots you back into the system. If not, try this order:

mount -uw /

mv /Library/Extensions/*.kext /

mv /Library/LaunchAgents/*.plist /

mv /Library/LaunchDaemons/*.plist /

sync

reboot

I was able to get back into my system, but I noticed if I shut down and tried to turn it back on, the problem still persisted. According to my friend at Apple, he was 99% sure it was third party software. So I uninstalled each new program I had installed recently one by one until I narrowed it down to which one I thought was causing my particular issue. My computer appears stable now, and it may be because a program I was using isn't updated for the latest High Sierra update, and the incompatibility caused something weird to happen on startup. Definitely not 100% sure that's what happened, but between using the commands above to get me back into the computer, and uninstalling things one by one and going through this process over and over until I narrowed it down, it solved it for me. Hope this helps someone else!

As someone who managed to recover from the "Stuck Progress Bar" malfunction by using TM, may I suggest you have a look at "Mafrom's" reply of the 28 February as probably the only solution to your problem. I "restored" back to a December 17 backup and lost all the work I had done from then to March 17th. However, I had carried out a March backup, three days before the malfunction and I can now copy the missing files individually from this back up. (I wanted to avoid a possible problem which may have been saved the March backup.)

Accessing your hard drive from another mac and copy files to it would seem to be the only solution to recover your work.

Start up in safe mode

To start up in safe mode:

1. Start or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo appears on your display. If you don't see the Apple logo, learn what to do.
2. Release the Shift key when you see the login window. If your startup disk is encrypted with FileVault, you might be asked to log in twice: once to unlock the startup disk, and again to log in to the Finder.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys during startup.

If an issue doesn't happen in safe mode

If an issue doesn't happen when your Mac is started in safe mode, try restarting without pressing any keys.

• If the issue comes back, you might have incompatible login items.
• If the issue doesn't come back, it was probably caused by a cache or directory issue with your startup disk, which safe mode fixed.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

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

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

I have the same issue, ever since I upgraded (ha!) to high Sierra last fall and the subsequent updates. I resolved it with support the first time (command +r) and starting from my hard drive. After the latest update, it's worse - I've tried to all the shortcuts /safe mode/ command +option +P +R / no success. The progress bar eventually loads to 100 percent, fan is whirring like crazy. FFS Apple, you know this is a problem - one would think you are forcing people to give up and buy new equipment. Hmmmm not bloody likely now. Lol

Plug in your external hard drive (that’s either the same size or bigger than your Mac hard drive) Boot the Mac into recovery mode mode by holding command + r when you turn it on, more info on how to do that here, it’s really easy https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201314

Then click the disk utility option and follow the steps descibed here https://www.lifewire.com/use-disk-utility-to-clone-macs-drive-4042367

This will delete all the files you already have on your external hard drive that you plug into your Mac btw, this is because it basically makes the drive a copy of the one in your Mac

After I did this I plugged the drive into my friends Mac and was able to copy over all the files I needed

I am sad to tell you that there is only one way to solve the issue.

It is to initialize the hard drive and reinstall High Sierra.

I had the same problem, which I solved saving all the data off my hard drive starting my MacBook Pro in target disk mode, for which you need to connect it to a second computer running macOS: (How to use target disk mode to move files between two Mac computers - Apple Support).

Then: How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support.

You need:

1) another computer running a Mac based OS (Mac OS X or macOS);

2) a proper cable (FireWire or Thunderbolt);

3) an external hard drive at least the size of your internal hard drive;

4) time (I had my MacBook running by itself in less than 4 hours).

Kind regards

SAME PROBLEM, "Mac is stuck at full progress bar."

Mac OS High Sierra Ver 10.13.2

Mac Mini (Late 2014)

1.4GHz Intel Cor i5

4GB 1600Mhz DDR3

Safe Mode (Power on + Shift ) - Made no difference - no "safe mode" initiated

MacOS Recovery

(Power ON + Shift + Command + Alt +R)

Initiated a revolving Globe and a progress bar which takes a few minutes.

Screen: Language option

Screen: see- https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201314

There is a option to "Reinstall macOS". (Reinstall a new copy of macOS).

I tried this and it offered to install EL Capitan. I selected procede, agreed to the licence but it would not allow me to download EL Capitan because I had a later OS version installed. Could not find an option to install alternative OS

Proceded with option "Restore From Time Machine Backup"

Warning given about erasing destination disc.

Selected a December 17 Back up on Eternal hard drive interfaced to Timemachine

Took about 90 minutes to backup.

Screen: My login Profile image and Password request. Background was an out of focus mountain

Eventually System returned with screen showing my preferences as of December 2017.

Performance initially slow but is getting quicker. (2 hrs later)

This thread was very helpfull to get me going thanks to all contibuters.

DonBudge

Thank you so much pbromelkamp

This worked for me:

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

Contact Apple Support

I'm having the exact same issue... I also reinstalled High Sierra, first aid, etc. Not much of a techy, but unable to find an answer.

Did you end up getting ahold of Apple support? I unfortunately do not have a time machine back up either, so I hope I don't lose everything. Yikes.

Wow! Apple's recent updates really stink. I have been resisting High Sierra because I've heard so many negative things about it, but I decided to install a 10.12.6 security update last night, and my Mac Mini (which is usually fine) hung up "stuck at the full progress bar." I tried every strategy, from safe mode to Disk Utility, but nothing has worked, so now I am backing up from Time Machine. I try to ignore the constant nagging from Apple to upgrade on my desk top and on my iPhone, and from now on I will try harder.

adityafromfir wrote:

Hi PrasadYR,

There is no way other than formatting the internal hard disk and installing the os again.

The issue sounds more like a bad install and/or a corrupted drive. I've had a corrupted drive happen when my machine froze and I forced a power down. Before I do an OS update I make sure to back up. I have a bootable clone (two actually since I'm paranoid), but a lot of people use Time Machine.

A corrupted drive would have to be completely reformatted. I've had one case where High Sierra refused to reformat my drive in HFS+, so I used an older machine running Snow Leopard to reformat.