High Sierra update 10.13.3 won't install

Same problem - running BootCamp with Windows 10 (and Win10 has Bitlocker). I suspended Win Bitlocker, rebooted into OSx and did the same update attempt. Same fail. No Bitdefender installed, no other AV program running. Trying one last time from Combo Update as was suggested by others and then heading into the Apple Store.

The greatest Irony of all is that this is my first experience doing a MacOS update EVER after being assured by the kind genius at the Genius Bar that "Apple never has update problems" -- and, consequently switching to a MacBook Pro from a brand spanking new state-of-the-fart MSFT SurfaceBook2.

Irony, Part 2 -- the Windows that I'm running on the MacBook Pro was able to do the latest Windows updates (1703 => 1709) flawlessly, even as the top-of-the-line MICROSOFT SurfaceBook machine choked on its own Windows update and wasn't able to do it.

Irony/Intuition, Part 3 -- both MSFT & APPL are releasing these updates/patches in the wake of Specter/Meltdown and they're really not communicating what's happening in the updates to make them more radical (as in rooting deeper and deeper into the respective BIOS-es) than before. If true, that ***.

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!) -

Same for me as you... no virus material. Both App store download and combo installer have failed multiple times. Machine restarts starts installing but fails to complete install and reverts to 10.13.2. Did you get any solution?

I haven't had any new ideas to try so I'm still stuck. I figure my two options right now are wait for the next update - perhaps major update - and hope one of them will eventually work. Or use my Time Capsule and wipe/upgrade/restore which I'm waaaay not excited about wasting my time doing.

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.

the only way that we were able to get past this at the Apple Store was by creating a separate "container drive" (in a partition of the otherwise 'erased' disk with several Apple/MSFT/Bootcamp 'empty-of-content' partitions) -- so carving out a 50gb or so container driver out of what was already a puny 128gb HDD. Then and only then could we successfully load a 10.13.3 fresh install.

Please note, this approach required us to wipe all the data on the Win10 partition and the MacOS partition (multiple attempts to erase, then unmount, then erase, with no success except that the contents were being erased, not the underlying partitions). And even having done that, with no Win10 files supposedly on the machine, and with a clean MacOS install at an Apple Store, every time you would boot the MacBook Pro it would first go to a Windows Blue Screen of Death pointing out that it didn't have the necessary files to continue booting. Thanks, MSFT. To give a sense of the irregularity of this, it took Apple folks two hours to do this in the store, and we were all getting failure, failure, failure, so much so, that we were at the store after the store itself closed! The tech was so curious to get to the bottom of this issue, which according to him, he had never seen before.

So, next day, spent a morning with Apple support on the phone to see how we could reclaim the remainder of my 128gb drive, and we also spent a TON of time, first with one tech, then escalated to another) to try to solve the problem. Failure, failure, failure from WITHIN TERMINAL using all sorts of fancy diskutil command-line tricks, until finally had to format the entire **** drive and then do a fresh install of MacOS 10.13.3 --

Now, anyone who has experienced this problem and has been reading these threads knows that the punchline is coming. Here it is:

-After doing what was supposed to be a squeaky-clean format following command-line directions from frustrated Apple techs who were also done being 'puzzled' and 'baffled' by the apparent persistence of the MSFT partition controls, and were just totally determined to return the machine to "factory state" -- [drumroll]

[drumroll]

Machine appeared to have been restored to factory. Finder and diskutil were showing just one Macintosh HD. Everyting seemed to be working ... until ... [drumroll]

You clicked to reboot, and this "restored-to-factory-settings" MacBook Pro asked you if you wanted to reboot to Windows (with the click option). Holy smokedy smokes!!!! That's how deep the Win10/Bootcamp/whatever-the-****-is-actually-controlling-the-drive really goes. I'm not a power Mac user at all, and in fact, got an MBP because I was dead tired of dealing with "enterprise-grade" Windows updater problems, but my novice gut tells me that I'm not supposed to be asked whether I want to reboot back into Windows by an Apple machine that's running a freshly mounted up-to-date MacOS 10.13.3 on a freshly formatted HDD that a total of five Apple technicians spent a total of 7 hours trying to cleanse of Bootcamp/Windows 'residuals.'

How's that for an intro to the "Mac" experience for someone who was transitioning away from Win precisely because update/security/control problems. Now, and only now, do I understand how Linux (and its many shards) stayed relevant and continues to grow.

Non-technical advice for Apple support (same advice given to each of the folks who worked on this mess with me) -- you gotta examine what the heck latest builds of Win10 1709 are doing on Apple HDDs. These 1709 builds are post Specter/Meltdown, so it doesn't surprise me that they are "burrowing deeper and deeper" into the HDD, using whatever tricks of the trade are available.

But the fact that Windows root coders have apparently succeeded in beating Apple root coders concerning control over Apple hardware/software does not inspire trust. Bottom line is that newest Windows builds seem to colonize the Apple disks, and it will take a LOT of effort to undo this. Apple has to expend this effort because othewise, the fancy new file format and partition claims they are making don't withstand basic user-scrutiny.

Hope this helps, in whatever little way. The irony of ironies, of course, is that now I'm not running Windows in Bootcamp on that (or other) machines, which deprives me of the best Windows experience that I had ever had (fleeting as it was). So maybe there's a lesson here for MSFT coders as well: if you play nice and don't try to colonize the entire Macbook Pro disk once we let you onto the hardware playground, maybe we'll let you return. If not, banishment seems like the only workable remedy, and that ***** because a regular user is forced back to having two machines for running two OSs -- and that seems so, 2008.

To say to not use AV software on a Mac and to say that it is not needed as BAD BAD advice. Macs get hacked too and it is more common thane you think. This is advice coming from an ethical hacker. Don’t ever assume that a Mac doesn’t need anti malware or security software just because it’s a Mac.

Q: Did you solve the issue?

I have the same issue until today. Currently on 10.13.2 (17C88), update 10.13.3 won't install.

Tried all of this:

- Traditional install via App Store update notification

- Traditional install via App Store update notification (with AV Bitdefender deactivated)

- Traditional install via App Store update notification (with AV Bitdefender completely uninstalled)

- Manual download update file from Apple site (with AV Bitdefender completely uninstalled)

I'm still on 10.13.2 (17C88)

Every time the install starts. The Mac reboots and does it's thing before restarting.

Then it notifies me that the update was unsuccessful, but the update disappears from the App Store (for a while).

I also have Parallels installed, which I can't uninstall, because it's business critical.

I am experiencing the same problem with the install for Mac OS Sierra 10.13.3 update. I attempt to install and it restarts my computer and says install will take about 1 minute and it freezes. I then have to manually shut down the computer and restart. Within a few minutes, the reminder shows up to install the update. It hasn't worked in the 5 times I have tried. I am tired of having the install reminder stuck on my screen blocking my view. I wish that I could find a suggested resolution.

I've unistalled Bitdefender and the updates still won't install. I'm getting really cheesed off with it as I swapped to Apple a few years ago and have been impressed but that's getting less so now. Has anyone got any other practical suggestions please?

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

I too tried several times without success - and don't have an AV product installed. So I downloaded the combo installer from here at it worked first time: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1953

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

Great advice; thanks.

Your welcome.