High Sierra update 10.13.3 won't install

Try installing from MacOS Recovery mode: press Option-Command-R upon startup. First run Disk Utility to make any necessary repairs to your startup disk; then run "Reinstall macOS" to reinstall 10.13. Then run software update to ensure you've updated to 10.3.3. Also, before doing so, try resetting the SMC and NVRAM. These support docs might help:

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

I finally solved this issue...what a headache. It looks like it stems from not having a recovery partition installed on your machine, and the 10.3.3 update trying to force the installation of the recovery partition, which fails while the boot volume is live.

Note:

this will force a recovery partition on your boot volume regardless of whether you want one or not.

Step 1: Download the 10.3.3. combo update

Step 2: Clone your boot volume and boot from the cloned drive
Step 3: install the combo update on the ORIGINAL volume, you can select the target during the install process
Step 4: Boot from the original drive and you are back in business

Apple is going down hill, I will be switching back to PC this year at some point, I simply cannot tolerate the slipping quality control and alienation of developers any further.

Pro users need a raid boot volume apple, adios.

GBoy_SY

Uninstall Bitdefender per the developers instructions. At best it is worthless and at worst it can damage Mac OS. Mac OS was designed to be extremely secure and does not require any AV, Cleaning or any other "maintenance" apps. If simply left alone and kept up-to-date Mac OS tends to run very well for most users for years.

Thanks for getting me on track with your solution.

Setup: iMac iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with SSD 500 GB on macOS 10.13.3.

Problem: I downloaded macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update (19/02/2018) via the App Store.

(The macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash)

But after the download, macOS would not restart. The screen goes black and freezes.

Only solution was to power off completely and reboot.

But macOS didn't complete the update.

Retried 20 times => not working.

Official Apple support says: try to update in Safe Mode => not working.

Solution that did work for me:

Step 1: Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update (Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update)

Step 2: Clone your boot volume and boot from the cloned drive

(I had luckily already a bootable backup on an external USB drive made with Carbon Copy Cloner ! :-)

Step 3: install the supplemental update on the ORIGINAL volume, you can select the target during the install process

Step 4: Boot from the original drive

Lesson learned: never 100% trust what official Apple support tells you, but search yourself the Apple Discussions forum for a solution. ;-)

Thank you @balrob, the download finally worked for me. I also disabled Little Flocker and Little Snitch... thinking one of them may have been blocking...

I actually did the same, with the same result. Whatever I tried, it did NOT install. Finally, I reinstalled the OS from scratch, then updated to the latest version and then put back all my files and settings from Time Machine. Just check before that you've got a full backup that's up to date...

Based on the enormous time I spent searching other solutions first, I would suggest you do it like this without trying anything else: Although it takes a little more time to go through the whole process, you won't waste any more time before. And it guarantees you'll be able to install the update. Added bonus is that you'll start with a clean system again...

That said I hope the next update 10.13.4 will install regularly tonight... if not, I'll let you know...

Regards,

NRR

Link to uninstall Bitdefender before updating to 10.13.3: https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-uninstall-the-new-bitdefender-antivir us-for-mac-1687.html

Simialr issue. After reading this I looked and found Dashlane password agent running. Uninstalled it and Sierra completed update.

Installing the Combo update - although I had to reload the App store page several times before the update appeared - did it for me.

Thank you for the suggestions, I made several attempts in safe mode with no success, reinstalling the software was the option that fixed my issue. I find it strange that it required reinstallation of the software, possibly 10.13.1 had some issue preventing future updates?

robg2 wrote:

Link to uninstall Bitdefender before updating to 10.13.3: https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-uninstall-the-new-bitdefender-antivir us-for-mac-1687.html

That is the correct link, please uninstall per the directions and then restart the computer in Safe Mode and then restart normally and re-test.

The Combo Update approach failed. Had to go to Apple Store. Long story short, after numerous attempts to force an install of 10.13.3 by the Apple Store staff, they succeeded, but only by creating a container disk (about 50gbs) and placing 10.13.3 in it. All other partitions were erased, and attempts were made to unmount them, but they persisted on the system. The result was not really stable, in that powering up took the MBP to a Windows "blue screen of death" that gave three function key options (F1 for help, F8 for something else, F9 for something else) -- none of which worked, of course, because the Windows Boot Camp files had been deleted. All told, it took about 20 attempts to mount and install 10.13.3 to get to even this step.

The following day, contacted Apple Support by phone and tried numerous Terminal-side options to delete the other "empty" partitions, and to allow MacOS 10.13.3 to occupy the entirety of the already meager 128gb HDD. Ten or so attempts later, and 3 or so hours of tech support later, we succeeded in essentially formatting the entire hard drive and reinstalling 10.13.3.

So, what's going on here? The intuition on this end, shared above, is that Windows/MacOS keep burrowing deeper into root registries, and in this instance, Windows won out, essentially blocking Apple from control over the Apple hard drive on an Apple computer. So, word to the wise, backup all files, and be careful running dual boot -- especially with Bitlocker and/or other encryption engines, as the systems don't appear to be playing nice with one another at the moment.

Peace (and Kudos to Apple Support phone staff for their expertise and patience!) -