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!

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've been working with this problem more over the past week and came across what I think was the actual root cause to my problem. Don't know how this applies to anybody else, but was causing issues for me.

LONG STORY SHORT: Unplug anything extra you have connected to the computer (USB drives, external hard drives, etc.). For me it was an external hard drive that may be going bad that caused the problem.

Full story:

Since I thought it might have been something I installed that corrupted my system, I wanted to start from a clean slate before setting up anymore software. So I tried using one of my external hard drives to create a USB bootable drive for High Sierra so I could startup to that drive to macOS Utilities, erase my hard drive via Disk Utility, and then reinstall High Sierra from scratch.

I created the bootable drive, and then when trying to boot into it, macOS Utilities never loads! I then read a tip online about unplugging all peripherals and so I unplugged everything and tried to boot into recovery mode again, and this time it loads up no problem. So that indicated to me that the drive might be a problem. I got a separate USB flash drive and turned that into my external bootable drive, booted up into recovery mode no problem, and proceeded with the process of wiping my hard drive and reinstalling the OS again.

That was all successful. I decided to plug in all of my USB stuff again, everything came up, and then I shut down. Booting back up - SAME PROBLEM WITH THE PROGRESS BAR!!!

So I unplugged everything again and then tried to boot, and it came up no problem. I now have all my USB stuff plugged in with the exception of that one hard drive, and now after several reboots, everything is fine and dandy. So it's either the drive going bad, or according to my friend at Apple, a bad driver, controller, or firmware. Either way, running without this one drive attached is working fine for me, so if you have any peripherals connected, it could be an issue with how the computer is reading that device. This goes for USB devices, or anything plugged into any of the other ports. If you have something going into a port other than power, unplug it and see what happens!

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

I was having the same problem with a slow login that stopped at 100% and never progressed. Mid2013 MacBook Pro running High Sierra. I did all the keystrokes suggested throughout the boards. Nothing fixed it. Did a reinstall of OS using disk utility, same problem. I am attaching a pic of the repeating code it showed in verbose. I called Apple Support and the gal said it sounds like a software problem, could I bring it in. Well, there are no Apple stores in my entire state and the nearest Apple certified repair is 200 miles away. So in the end, I was transferred to a manager who advised me to wipe the HD and then reinstall OS. That worked. I have some files that will take time to recreate, but I really need this laptop for work and it was better for me to lose everything then to sit with a brick. A disappointing solution, but a solution nonetheless.

I’m on my phone and every time i try to upload the image it has an error. Grr. The code is “Process[173] crashed: opendirectoryd. Too many corpses being created.” That error just keeps repeating: Process[174], Process[175], etc...

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

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.

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

Before I started trying some of these suggestions, I unplugged all of the external drives from my 4 USB ports, plus pulled the SD card out. Restarted and it is fine! So, try this first if you have anything plugged into your computer.

I had the same problem with the progress bar when I upgraded to High Sierra. I worked with a senior advisor at Apple by phone.We tried running first aid, opening in safe mode and finally tried to wipe the computer we got halfway there and a confirmation message popped up "Do you want to erase and install Lion?" I was floored! That is what was on my computer when I bought it 5 years ago. My advisor was not about to give up and said "that's not necessarily a bad thing"! He was a full blown optimist which was exactly what I needed at that point. I thought to myself ; "Why not? After all beggars can't be choosers!" So we went for it and right when I thought I was going to get Lion and we would then upgrade from there it started to install and then in red bold letters on my screen was the word ERROR! The advisor suggested my taking my computer to an authorized service center and gave me the name of one of the Apple premium service centers in Santa Monica California. The name of the store is Unitek, address: 1201 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90402 phone number: 424-272-9400 and their website is www.unitekusa.com. I envisioned being there at least an hour trying to explain what it happened to my 2013 MacBook Pro. I was pleasantly surprised when all it took was about 10 minutes. When I started to explain I realized I didn't have to go any further the technician told me that they were getting at least 3 to 5 people a day with the same problem. The problem being High Sierra. He also told me that they don't install High Sierra on any of their computers and they sell MAC only. To cut to the chase they wanted to know if I had a back up which I did not only in the cloud but also an external. I arrived at 2 P.M. and by 7P.M. the same day my computer was good to go. My MacBook Pro 2013 was completely and fully erased, a new hard drive was installed and upgraded to 1TB and Sierra was put back on my computer for a total cost of $188.00. They strongly suggested not putting High Sierra back on my computer there are too many kinks that Apple needs to work out. Np.

My MBP is now better than ever with a new lease on life.

The reason I added the contact number and address for the store Unitek is that I noticed people saying that they did not have an Apple store or an authorized service center nearby and I believe Unitek can fix if you send to them. Of course full backup and FedEx insured. Give them a call they are well versed on the problem. Turn around time: speed of light! Good Luck. Yup! Frightening!

i just experienced this problem a while ago with my mbp retina 2013 i5 high sierra which lead me here. it was crazy all of a sudden i got stuck in the apple logo with 100% progress bar. no matter how long i waited or how many times i restarted it didn't go past the startup logo. i was in the process of reformatting my mac and went into recovery mode. good thing was, it also took time till the bar completes so with me hesitant in wiping all the contents of my laptop i quit recovery mode and restarted again. After numerous times of patiently attempting to boot in safe mode, unexpectedly it went through. whew! i read here to disconnect everything that is connected to the device so out of frustration i disconnected the charger then tried to boot again in safe mode. i just kept on pressing the shift button, i thought it was pointless because the apple logo keeps reappearing and the bar kept on loading until it was it. The login window.whew! i immediately copied all my important files to my external hd manually cause time machine won't backup unless i wipe everything in my external hd which is lame. after, i went into restarting one more time fingers crossed and this time it was successful. thank God. now i will make it a habit of backing up once in a while just to be prepared on matters like this. maybe this issue in high sierra isn't that at all serious. maybe.

Hi,

In my case, service center guys formatted the hard disk and reinstall the is again. According to those guys,os was corrupted while installing new os.

I had this exact problem and and don’t know a fix however you don’t have to loose all your data if you haven’t got a time machine back up

I got a TB external drive and cloned my Mac hard drive onto it by booting into recovery mode and using disk utility

I was then able to retrieve all my files from another Mac

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