Problems upgrading to macOS Mojave on MacBook Pro 2018

Hey people. I might have a solution for ya. I've been really struggling with the so called error 602 (readed out of the installer log) when the installer stopped at around the end before restarting preventing the computer to reboot and install.

Not sure if it has anything to with this, but the secure boot is on low security for me (set it in recovery OS) and after doing everything I could find anywhere (even a clean install), the solution turned out to be the SMC reset but make sure you follow these steps on the 2018 MacBook Pro with the mentioned T2 chips:

(check it in the System Report/Controller)

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
2. After your Mac shuts down, press and hold the right Shift key, the left Option key, and the left Control key for 7 seconds. Then keep holding those keys while you press and hold the power button for another 7 seconds.
3. Release all three keys and the power button, then wait a few seconds.
4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

After resetting the SMC with these steps the installer managed to pass through where it always stopped. The auto proxy was turned off for me by default, it could never be a problem but everybody was assuming that.

I hope this solves it for more people!

I called Apple Support, they guided me and I successfully installed Mojave.

Shut down your Mac

Push Power up button release it and immediately press&hold option command R combination.

You'll see the spinning world icon, then choose wifi network, wait for a while and opens recovery.

Choose second option which is install macOS X

macOS Mojave installation start screen welcomes you. Follow the instructions, setup will download the necessary files, and starts to install macOS mojave. After 20-30 minutes it will install successfully.

Hi all,

After more than 25 downloads it finally worked for me. Below step by step guide that I followed and its hopefully easy to follow for non technical people.

1. Disable Wi-Fi during the complete installation
   1. System Preferences -> Network
   2. Select Wi-Fi and click "Turn Wi-Fi off"
2. Plug in USB LAN Port to connect to your router (you need a special adapter to support USB-C)
3. I had the "AdBlocker Pro" software installed which uses Proxies (you need to clear the proxies)
   1. To disable the Proxies go to System Preferences -> Network -> USB 10/100 ....
   2. Select Advanced -> Proxies
   3. Un-click all protocols
   4. Click Ok and then Apply
   5. Close network
4. In Finder: Open Applications and delete "Install macOS Mojave" and other versions as well
5. Restart your MBP - it is essential that you reboot AFTER you have removed the Proxies - Proxies are still enabled even if you have done as described above until you have done the reboot.
6. In App Store search for "MacOS Mojave" and download
7. Install Mojave (30 min or more)
8. When done re-enable Wi-FI and the proxies you need

I hope it works for you - it did for me. It is all about sequence

I struggled with this for 3 days, and I was finally able to install Mojave. Before I proceed with any steps, please confirm that you are perhaps stuck at the same spot I was at:

• The installer stops when there's about 15 seconds remaining, an error shows up saying "An error occurred installing macOS", and clicking on 'OK' quits the installer.
• After this, open up Spotlight Search (Cmd + Space), type 'console' and press Enter. In the console sidebar to the left, click on the /var/log directory, and then select 'install.log' in the resulting sidebar.
• Check whether there are any error messages in the log stating 'Could not personalize boot/firmware bundle' or 'Failed to personalize with options'. You can use the search field to search for these messages. My error log looked exactly like djeux's log here: Re: Re: Mojave - "An error occurred installing macOS" error

If you see an error message that includes the above, the following solution might help:

1. Create a new admin user using the steps mentioned here: http://osxdaily.com/2017/07/17/how-create-new-admin-account-mac/. You will need to reuse the password for admin logins, so use something handy.
2. Login using the newly created admin user and run the Mojave installer again. It should install just fine this time. If it doesn't and if the console error log says that 'BridgeOS could not be updated' or something similar this time, disable the firewall by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Lock button in bottom left > Turn Off Firewall. You can re-enable it later, but this part may be unnecessary to most people.
3. The installation will be completed and you will be logged back into this newly created admin account. You can then log out and log back in to your usual admin account, and you can delete the other account and its home folder if necessary.

I have had conversations with about 6 different Apple support agents, and it seems like Apple may be unaware about this error in particular. I tried all their solutions, resetting the SMC, installing from safe mode, from internet recovery mode, disabling auto proxy discover, using an Ethernet adapter, and nothing worked except this.

They also suggested I try a bootable installer for Mojave, but that would've been time consuming and I haven't tried it yet as I found a better alternative before that. But if you the above solution didn't work, you can give it a try yourself by following the steps here: How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help!

-- Sufi

Just an update from me: As I wrote last week, I formatted by MBP 2018 which has the T2 chip and wanted to install Mojave from a USB drive.

As many other MBP 2018 owners, I couldn't install Mojave and also couldn't restore High Sierra.

Hence, I had my Apple Genius Bar appointment yesterday and they confirmed that also their own Apple Store MBP have the update issues.

Anyway, I left my MBP 2018 there and they could restore High Sierra and I just picked it up today.

So, if you have the chance, set up an appointment with Genius Bar or any other authorized Apple reseller and get your MBP 2018 with T2 restored.

I will continue using High Sierra until we get a stable Mojave update which works with MBP 2018 with T2 chips.

FINALLY DID IT!!! Talked with AppleCare for 3 days, non of their solutions worked.

Then I just turned off the WiFi, connected to my iPhone using USB tethering Personal hotspot, and ran the Install MacOS Mojave application. It took a really long time, but in the end it installed without any issues and now no problems seem to be occurring. Hopefully, the numerous crashes due to Kernel Panic will also cease with this update, but I don’t know though. But fingers crossed.

MacOS needs Internet to install, even from the install file, as was clarified to me by a senior advisor from AppleCare. And to answer your question, tethering with my iPhone’s data plan. I guess the installer is not able to connect to the apple servers using WiFi, which seems to be the problem. I’m sure any wired connection will work, as long as you’re not using the MacBook’s wireless adapter. Mine is the 2018 MacBook, btw.

Hi. Well I got Mojave installed. The only way was to do wipe my ssd with drive utility. And install Mojave. I couldn’t do it in place upgrade from High Sierra for some reason. Something was preventing it from installing. After going to Apple Support Genius Bar stay there for four hours tried everything and it still wouldn’t work. So in the white been the whole drive base install of High Sierra and then from there upgrade to Mojave. Then I did a migration assistant and restored all my apps and everything works fine. I couldn’t do it in place upgrade from High Sierra for some reason. Something was preventing it from installing. After going to Apple Support Genius Bar stay there for four hours tried everything and it still wouldn’t work. So and I wipe in the whole drive base install of High Sierra and then from there upgrade to Mojave. Then I did a migration assistant and restored all my apps and everything works fine.

For those who might be on an enterprise environment (such as myself). I was able to get the 18 MBP's to update to Mojave by disabling the auto proxies and DNS Servers we had set in place and by, updating the OS via network that was not proxied as well. Was able to update to 10.14.1 with no issue either while at my office. I did not have that file that others have mentioned, but this is what helped my group of Macs to update. Anyone else experience anything similar?

I finally managed to install Mojave 10.14.1. As noted before, the High Sierra security update didn't work. (Tried several times.) So I went for Mojave 10.14.1 again. At that point I had already switched to Ethernet (using the HyperDrive SLIM 8-in-1), I had run `nvram -c` and `pmset -a restoredefaults` in Recovery Mode, I had disabled Safe Boot on the T2, I had disabled FileVault, had disabled all processes that might interfere like BlockBlock, Little Snitch, XFENCE, Firewall stealth mode, even Adguard. Nothing had worked. The Mojave 10.14.1 installation didn't work either. Whether High Sierra security update or Mojave 10.14.1, always the same thing: starts installing after logging out, then, after reaching 1 or 2 percent of the installation progress bar, quick reboot back into High Sierra.

The solution (at least for me) was to boot into Internet Recovery Mode (CMD-OPTION-r). Note: write down your WiFi password beforehand, or use Ethernet. It will then download the newest macOS installable on your Mac (which is Mojave 10.14.1), and then it installed just fine. I then ran into serious boot/login problems, namely the MacBook Pro freezing & crashing on the login screen, right after login, sometimes during boot. At first I thought it was a faulty installation, but the problem remained after installing Mojave again using Internet Recovery (even in safe boot mode with SHIFT pressed), so I booted into my High Sierra clone and removed all files and folders associated with the first of the assumed culprits, namely F-Secure XFENCE, incl. the kernel extension, and voila, it worked. I guess I had forgotten to set XFENCE to learning mode again, and instead had simply disabled it, and then it re-enables itself at next boot, which you really don't want during or after a system upgrade or update. So now everything's fine: re-enabled everything incl. FileVault, and it's back to normal. (Though dark mode 5uck5.)

But why didn't it install in the first place? XFENCE was always disabled at that point. I'm not 100% sure, but whenever I ran First Aid in DiskUtility on High Sierra, I received warnings that the system couldn't be cryptographically validated (three crypto_val errors). My hunch is that some of the 2018 MacBook Pro models were shipped/sold with a wrong build of macOS 10.13.6 (or bridgeOS). This in turn led macOS installers to abort installation, because they couldn't validate it either. This won't explain all the problems people have, but it might explain, why installation didn't work on my Mac all this time. (The crypto_val errors are now gone in Mojave; FileVault etc. working fine.)

More feedback.

Not able to disable FileVault - will need a LAN Admin to remove McAfee EPO, then disable FileVault, install Mojave, enable FileVault and re-install McAfee EPO.

Really shouldn't be this hard tbh

Can't speak for Rawbknalb, but I purchased my 2018 MBP online, and I picked it up at the local Apple Store. The initial supplemental update for the T2 seems to have installed fine, but the current security update didn't. Neither did Mojave. Crypto_val error too. The only thing that helped was Internet Recovery to install Mojave (crypto_val is gone afterwards). But if you want/need to stick to High Sierra, i.e. you just want to install the security update, then I don't know what to do. Best would probably be to call Apple support and ask them if there's a way to use internet recovery to install the security update, not Mojave.

Next update will be interesting for me: will macOS 10.14.2 install? Or will it not?

The only macs with the T2 chip are the iMac Pro and both the 13” and 15” 2018 touchbar MacBook Pros. The 2016 and 2017 touchbar MBPs have the T1. None of the base MBPs with function keys have nor will have these chips. It is for the touchbar, Touch ID, Apple Pay and the T2 also controls the NVMe SSDs as well.

I have a Late 2016 15” touchbar and I installed Mojave over my 10.13.6 installation. I did a regular upgrade proceeding as soon as I downloaded the Mojave.app installer from the Mac App Store.

If you or anyone has a problem installing Mojave or having it work normally on any 2016-2018 MBP then the problem is your specific machine or a conflict with software you have installed or if you modified something on the system that is causing a conflict. Maybe a Boot camp partition or something like this. No one should have a problem upgrading to Mojave on the latest macs.

I repeat Mojave IS NOT BROKEN!!!

Please open disk utility when booting the Mac by holding command+R. Then select the volume which should say “Macintosh HD” and click on First Aid. This should repair any errors you may have.

If you have FileVault turned on you will have to mount the SSD and enter your password to mount it.