Failed 10.13.5 system update

Hi there,

Just ran into similar issue and tried recovery mode and internet recovery mode to no avail.

I then went to Safe Mode and ran disk ultilites while in this mode. It took a while to run as the volume couldn't be unmounted, but I waited and after a bit, the disk utility repaired the volume. I then checked to see if 10.13.5 was installed. It was.

I then, checked for updates in my App store. The new iTunes 12.7.5 was ready to update.

I initiated it and allowed time for it to install.

After, I force shutdown my Mac and although start up was slower than usual (which I expected due to changes made, etc), my Mac started up and I was able to confirm the iTunes 12.7.5 and the 10.13.5 were installed.

My system took a while to adjust and allow the changes to my OS to reconnect with one another again, my system is running as it should again.

Side note: Minus my system running normally, the troubleshooting via Safe Mode took about an hour and a half to two hours approximately. The loading between restarts/shutdowns along with repair in disk utility took up the majority of the time involved. Your time may vary however.

If Disk utility - First Aid doesn't resolve your volume issue in Safe Mode, after making sure you have updated your OS and iTunes, I would proceed with your other options or call Apple Support.

Hope this helps & best of luck! :-)

Security update 2018-01 no restart and sleeping beauty for all the night.No installation. The same happened after 10,13,5 update on my MacPro late 2013. No avail from PRAM, and safety restart.

Skiddish, Apple, very skiddish.

Hello .. same situation. 10.13.5 Software Update failed - would not restart at all. Displayed Apple logo, ribbon loaded halfway, then black screen - over & over. Tried diagnostics, reset SMC, PRAM, etc. Tried Internet Recovery. Called Apple Support, on phone for 2 hours, trying to erase & reformat Fusion Drive. No go, referred to Genius Bar. Drove 20 miles, Genius succeeded in restoring 10.13.4 but advised to hold off on 10.13.5 as precaution .. very professional & knowledgeable, worth the trip.

My take: I don’t know if it was a “one-off” update failure, or something in the 10.13.5 update code that bricked my Fusion Drive ... but I suspect the latter. Am going to wait for full APFS support on Fusion Drive before I attempt another update. Apple really needs to get it together in the Fusion Drive software department - sheesh.

How I fixed the problem on my MacPro late 2013.

Delete ALL Caches

Delete ALL Cukies

Restart the MacPro

Download form AppleStore the new realease of OSX High-Sierra.

Install.

Restart The MacPro.

All fixed, 10.13.5 installed and running flawless.

Good luck and best regards !

I followed your process, but in my case it did not work to install 10.13.5.

I encounter 1 difference from your description:

When I have cleared everything down to the install page at AppStore Update, it is already at the Re-start Stage (no option to re-dl the app).

When I click the Re-Start command, the screen immediately goes to black with a cursor (moveable) and remains there "forever".

I am forced to do a hard shutdown/re-start (in Safe mode), which then takes me to desktop in exactly same condition as when I started your process, i.e., AppStore Update remain is Re-Start mode.

I have found no way to get around the frozen black screen/cursor step except to do the hard shutdown etc.

In my case, this problem was solved with the following step.

1) restart with "option + cmd + R"

-> macOS utility starts up as usual

2) check your boot drive

-> In my case, the boot drive was mounted

3) exit macOS utility

-> select boot drive before exit!

-> exit macOS utility

-> restart my Macintosh mini

4) 10.13.5 update is continued

-> In my case, 10.13.5 update continued from the remaining 13 minutes.

-> 10.13.5 update is completed and restart automatically

5) My Mac mini restarts just as usual

-> To Time Machine

iMac Mid 2011 with SSD. Your problems are not a one off. My variation was no restart on update and left with active mouse curser in top left of a black screen. Forced power off and it started OK. Same result on retry plus no power off on normal shutdown. Tried all the SMC PRAM etc and hardware diagnostics between steps as well. No fix. It would power off normally from the Repair screen so I knew it was capable of powering off. Re-installed OSX to 10.13.5 and still left with power off problem. Ran all the SMC repair etc again. No fix.

Restored from backup back to 10.13.4 and all is OK. Looked for updates on the App Store and NO 10.13.5 update and NO iTunes update that preceded it are listed as available updates.

Wait to see what 10.13.5 update V2 is about when it arrives!

I’ve been trying to work this out for 2 days now. Apple Tech Support has been as helpful as they can be, but still working on it.

Woke up yesterday to see a series of error messages — various apps in a frozen state. Managed to force quit them after some fiddling around, and restarted my 15” 2018 MacBook Pro.

On restart, on the black screen with white apple, the progress bar stalled at about 65% complete and stayed that way for half an hour. Restarted in safe mode. Same results. Tried another User I had created previously with no 3rd party extensions, etc. Nope. Booted from Recovery disk (Command-R) and ran Disk Utility. No help.

With Apple Support, did similar attempts and finally hours later ended up re-installing the OS from a 10.13 USB Flash Drive installer I had made previously. Success! App Store opened automatically and suggested I update to 10.13.5. I let it do that and, sure enough, the whole problem started again!

I reinstalled 10.13.4 (I assume) from the external thumb drive and all was well for the late afternoon and evening. Until last night, when apparently the system decided to update itself overnight. Came back to it this morning and was back to the original problem.

Got back on with Apple Support; bumped up to a senior tech. Ended up reinstalling from Internet Recovery (Command-Option-R). That install failed to work (it was installing 10.13.5), so utimately wiped my entire drive (I have good backups) and am now waiting for a completely fresh install to complete — over 2.5 hours today for some reason! At which point I will have to restore 500GB of files from my backup. Assuming the installation completes and works. Painful.

josh freeman, you have my sympathy.

Update on my post above - what worked for me - eventually.

Having got my iMac back to 10.13.4 by doing a complete restore from backup, after a few days the 10.13.5 update appeared in the App Store. Thinking Apple had fixed the glitch I let my iMac do the update. Big Mistake! I was back to the black screen with mouse pointer cannot shutdown or re-start scenario. The iMac would start so I tried various solutions that have now been posted including clearing things out using terminal. No success.

I restored completely again from backup to 10.13.4. All OK again.

To stop my Mac from trying to install 10.13.5 on it's own, I used the recovery utility (Start with Cmd + R) to install MacOS this worked and I am now on 10.13.5 and have had no problems since. Apart from..........

My backups are no longer accessible from the point before I restored and to backup now requires more space than is spare on my backup disks. No problem for me as I can live without older backups. So erase and backup to each disk in turn (Use two) and I am good to go again in case of the Macs SSD failure.

My old and trusty MacBook pro from 2010 (with SSD) updated no problem at all.

Hi Everyone!

I have a Late 2014 Mac Mini... I'm stuck on 10.13.3 because I had the same issue with the 10.13.4 update. I click on "Update" in the AppStore. it downloads the update and i click "restart".

It restarts and starts the update, i see the estimated time and progress, but after a minute or two, the screen goes off and back on and there is no progress bar or update information, it just reboots normally.

And then a message pops up saying "update failed to complete" and restart to try again or smth. And it does it again... I tried downloading the combo update but still no luck, the disk check didn't find any issues. I really don't understand why this is happening to so many users and I'm starting to get ******. And apple support is of no use. "did you try to restart your PC?" Ugh, did you even try to solve the problem, Apple? Or at least make a list of reasons why this is happening so we can at least try to solve it and narrow down the search...

If the update is not working or whatever, why even bother releasing the update?

Hi Dzamejka.

I had a load of problems (posted above) different to yours but with the same result - no update.

I used the recovery utility (Start with Cmd + R) and chose to install MacOS from there. This downloads the latest full MacOS version and installs it. It is a full fresh MacOS install so should work. For me it worked and I am now on 10.13.5.

Whilst in the recovery utility I suggest you run the disk repair utility on your disk and boot sector first in case the failed update has corrupted anything.

If installing this way does not work for you there may be something going on that is more than a failure to update.

I just reformatted the HDD and installed a fresh system, actually a lot less bother than googling everything for days and failing over and over again to fix the issue...

I had Windows 10 on the other partition and looks like that was the issue... I just deleted windows, reformatted the partitions and installed a fresh High Sierra, everything working fine... Didn't need a backup since I didn't have many important things so I just wiped it...

I guess backing up the important stuff and reinstalling fresh might be the easiest way to go (if easier solutions don't work)...

I have the same problem. Update keeps failing. I closed all other programs and tried to d/l and install again -- nothing. Update 10.13.5 still fails.