Problems upgrading to macOS Mojave on MacBook Pro 2018

Have you tried this? It has worked for a number of posters on here and resolved the very issues for which you have described:

The following enabled me to successfully upgrade to Mojave from High Sierra and resolved all issues On my 2017 27” iMac. (Watch your spacing and those are lower case “ells,” and not upper case “eyes”)

A. If you can log in (even if slow), or you're still on High Sierra, and have not yet upgraded, follow these instructions:

1. Start the terminal app from Applications/Utilities

2. Check if the file exists, by typing

ls -l /etc/sysctl.conf

If this returns a result like the following, then the file exists. If it does not, then your issues are caused by something else

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 136 24 Nov 2013 /etc/sysctl.conf

3. Rename the file by typing: sudo mv /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf.ba

(You’ll be prompted for your password)

4. Restart your computer, and you should be all set, or if you've rolled back to High Sierra, you should be good to attempt the upgrade again.

I don't this exact problem but I can't even choose Mohave to update to. I swapped out my original 2009 iMac HD for an SSD about two years ago and its lovely but now, I am wondering if that is why I can't update t Mohave. App store just tells me: "This version of Mac OS can not be installed on this computer." I am on El Capitan and never did High Sierra. Should I go get High Sierra first? It is not an option but I had heard problematic stuff with HS and Adobe CC 2017. Opinions?

Normally, I would just keep the OS I have if updating causes problems but some of my Adobe stuff won't install on El Cap.

There is nothing problematic with Adobe CC on High Sierra not Mojave. CC 2019 has just been released by the way. 2017 is history. You can upgrade through the menu bar icon. Just make sure to remove old versions of PS, Premiere, etc since Adobe has made several changes to CC 2019.

Also with CC 2019 Adobe has crushed piracy for the first time in a very long time. It is currently impossible to crack and pirates will have to make do with older versions. It’s about time Adobe finally did something since Adobe’s software is the most pirated around the world and they lose tens of millions of dollars a year to it.

Anyone else still having issues? I deploy MBP's into my enterprise environment, so this is quite concerning for not being able to update the OS to Mojave (even though HS works perfectly fine). Currently I am deploying only 2018 15'' MBP's with High Sierra (10.13.6). My 2 2015's and one 2012 test MBP's have had no issues updating to 10.14. I have an incident open with the Apple Engineers, and have sent multiple logs to them regarding this issue. So far they are blaming the proxy and firewall we have set in place (but that does not make sense to me, when pre-2018 Macs are able to update to 10.14 fine). I have tried SMC/NVRAM resets, attempting to update from a home network (non-proxied), hot-spotting either my iPhone 8 or XS to see if it goes through, and so far nothing. I am receiving the same errors as everyone else. I have not had much progress with the Apple Engineer Team quite yet, still awaiting to hear from them after viewing more logs. Hoping for more progress soon.

As I've mentioned before, "Sysctl.conf" is something the user has to manually create, or use a software tool that happens to create one to install custom network settings and other things. If neither one is the case, then the file shouldn't exist on ANY version of OS X / macOS. Now there have been cases here the file existed, and the user isn't know it. However, this isn't the normal set of circumstances.

Just to clarify, I would also reiterate the fact that the “sysctl.conf” was not a file that I KNOWINGLY, manually created or whereby a software tool was used to create custom network settings. (Not even sure I would know how to do either) I tend to doubt that most if not all of the other posters hereon who discovered the file as well, did not knowingly do either of the above as well. Perhaps, as you say, “the file shouldn’t exist on ANY version of OS X/macOS,” but the fact is, one way or another, it did.

That's all I was saying, the circumstances here, aren't the norm. At least based on the testing I did, and sources of information, be it people, or articles online.

Even in this thread, I think the percentage of people with the file was still smaller, then those who didn't have it. Maybe it was half and half, I would have to go back and read the thread to be sure.

In my earlier post on the topic, I was only able to go back as far as Snow Leopard when looking for the file in a stock Apple install. This means I wasn't able to check Leopard or older. Did anyone here with the file and older time machine backups have leopard, or a PowerPC based Mac that the backup came from? That's the only thing untested here.

Either way, it doesn't matter now since the issues have been resolved. It would just be nice to know how that file got involved, and caused problems.

Darn. I should have taken a screen shot of the file that got produced on my Terminal that I renamed since it did have a date on it. That said, my TM originated from a mid-2007 iMac although I cannot recall what version OS it came with although I always kept it upgraded.

Has your 27" iMac been working OK as of the upgrade? I was actually going to post here to see how everyone was doing. Since I hadn't heard anything until today, was hoping no news was good news. Especially since a majority of the main posters here had fixed their issues and were not updated.

I suspect that this thread has gone quiet since most of those who were unable to get any of the methods / workarounds to work haven't bothered to try again (I haven't and simply don't have the time to futz around - HS is working fine for the time being).

I'll be waiting for an update to Mojave before trying again.

I was thinking back to earlier in the thread where references to Microsoft were made referring to the documents problem with the October update. Seems like they pulled the update preventing anymore problems and fixed it, plus other problems. It's still not re-released yet, as they are still fixing things they keep finding before re-releasing it. Sometimes it feels like Apple and Microsoft are switching places. In Apple's situation with Mojave, I'm sure if it was bad enough to recall, they would have. As it stands it looks like people with issues are just going to have to wait for the upgrade.

What a mistake to try Mojave! I so regret downloading it onto my MBP. Fortunately I had the forethought to do a Time Machine backup just before kicking off the install process. Whew! However I had all sorts of issues trying to get it into recovery mode. It just kept on rebooting no matter what keys I pressed. After an hour of trying it suddenly allowed me do do an internet recovery into safe mode. I then gratefully plugged in my Time Machine and it is happily chugging away - only 3hrs 20mins to go, it says. Fingers crossed it will boot back again into High Sierra.

You do wonder if anyone does any serious testing at Apple before releasing and hyping up OS upgrades.

I've been a lifelong Apple fan. Bought my first Apple II at Christmas 1978. I even worked for Apple for 10 years both as a reseller and an employee. My feeling is that they have lost sight of their values of quality and innovation. I'm seriously looking at a Microsoft Surface Pro for my next laptop. Gosh, wash my mouth out with soap and water! Has it really come to this?

...and interestingly Ann, those who have never upgraded from their pre-installed OS’s do not appear to have that infamous syscntl file - just those who have upgraded along the way. This fact should strongly suggest to the Apple engineers from where the problem originates, then evolves, and migrates. Having said all this - did you happen to find the infamous file on your new 2018 MBP? So happy to hear that you’ve been able to resolve your issues. (Mine has been running beautifully with Mojave since renaming the file and with my Red Sox only one game away from the winning the World Series - Life is Good!)

The infamous file was not on my new 2018 MBP until I had used it for a week and installed a few new apps and done a very abbreviated Migration Assistant run from my 2015 MBP (I stopped Migration Assistant when I realized I couldn't pick and choose from my documents and apps--it just wanted to bring the whole kit and caboodle, which I did not want to do). By that time, the infamous file had shown up.