Problems upgrading to macOS Mojave on MacBook Pro 2018

One of Apple’s Senior Advisor’s told me yesterday that 500-600 iMacs had thus far downloaded Mohave without any issues and with every OS upgrade there are occasional glitches with some units. His claim leaves me a bit skeptical but if he’s correct, than it’s time Apple replaces my computer since one could reasonably assume there’s a defect in it somewhere that presents it from a successful download.

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.

Suggestions here have included SMC reset, starting in Safe Mode to clear caches etc, but I would also boot into Recovery (Cmd+R), go into disk utility and run disk First Aid on the hard disk, maybe more than once for good measure.

Another finger pointing at the T2 chip. I get the "An error occurred installing macOS" failure early on in the Mojave upgrade process. In the console I found several log lines such as the following:

Operations failed with error: Error Domain=BOSErrorDomain Code=204 "An error occurred during preflight." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred during preflight., NSUnderlyingError=0x7f9102a7b900 {Error Domain=BridgeOSSoftwareUpdateError Code=25 "[/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/BridgeOSSoftwareUpdateControl ler/BridgeOSSoftwareUpdateController-16.70.3/bridgeOSUpdateProxy/BridgeOSUpdateF irmwareUpdateInfo.m:77][_get_SEPersonalizationInfo_framework] SE not ready: state == 3" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=[/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sourc es/BridgeOSSoftwareUpdateController/BridgeOSSoftwareUpdateController-16.70.3/bri dgeOSUpdateProxy/BridgeOSUpdateFirmwareUpdateInfo.m:77][_get_SEPersonalizationIn fo_framework] SE not ready: state == 3}}}

BridgeOS is related to the T2 chip AFAIK. I am having some other odd issues (Messages taking 1-3 minutes to start up, and the Wallet and Apple Pay Preference pane failing to load and work correctly) which also may have T2 related causes... Not sure if it's a hardware issue or software bugs around the new security chip or what....

Update:

- booted in safe mode and was able to get the desktop 🙂 - everything appeared to work normally (although the fan did spin up quite quickly)

Rebooted in normal mode - 😟 - boot stops about 75% of the way through - consulting the log reveals that it stopped when trying to load "The Quartz Framework" - unable to find anything online so reverting to High Sierra via Time Machine restore.

Tried to install Mojave on MBP 2017 - hung at 16mins remaining for half a day until I switched it off. On reboot, it hung for a few hours on the login screen with no access to mouse or keyboard. Recovered using option-cmd-R after wiping the disk (thanks Apple, lost a whole lot of stuff there) and managed to get a functioning install - HOWEVER - it's flaky as anything, apps keep hanging (yes, they're 64bit) and the whole thing is running sloooow. Who signed off the release of this crappy OS. Did anyone do any REAL world testing first?

This is very frustrating. Why do we have to put up with this? This is NOT OK and it is NOT what you expect after paying and arm and a leg on a premium priced pieace of equipment.

Quite honestly, Apple isn’t what it used to be. I’ve wasted so much time on this. Apple Care try to get you to go through the usual stuff, but we aren’t a field of experiment and this should never ever happen ...

Very disappointing. I don’t think I’ll brother trying to upgrade anymore. There’s smoething fundementally wrong and they ought to sort it out ASAP.

Apple ought to do the right thing and pull the Mohave OS app OFF of the App Store immediately - if not sooner. There’s more than sufficient information to suggest that this is a complete disaster that has now inconvenienced hundreds if not thousands of Apple users.

With due respect, it seems to be a minority (and vocal) many have not had issues or minor at least.

I installed on 2 computers ok ( a little hiccup on one ).

Would suggest put formal complaint to apple through the feedback portal.

Can you quantify “it seems to be a minority (and vocal)...” I have in fact contacted Apple multiple times - one in which a senior advisor was to call me back in 20 minutes afetr a second attempt to download - it took 7 hours to hear back.

Clearly, there’s a significant problem.

Perhaps it would be helpful for you to share what computers on which you were able to sucessfully download, and their spec’s.

I have a 13 inch MBP 2018 (month old) and I've given up - tried everything (the download via a wired connection got me the furthest - I was able to login in safe mode but not normal).

Have had to revert to my TM backup `(thank goodness it worked) since I don't have time to futz around with this anymore.

Will wait until Apple fixes whatever the underlying issue is.

Is it fair to infer from your assertion that those of us who have experienced problems with the download are doing so improperly? I been a Mac user since the SE 20 days, owned scores of Mac products for many years, upgraded numerous OS’s during this time and NEVER have I experienced anything remotely close to this.

no, I dont think anyone is doing anything wrong.

The only thing I did differently is to do a disk utility clean up (via onyX). This can also be done via first aid.

Something went wrong with the testing on various models to lead to this.

It should be pointed out apple do do extensive beta testing but for what ever reason that did not pick up on these issues.

I did the following and 3 attempts at an install

1) full Tm backup

2) onyx clean and check of system

3) EtreCheck used

4)used CleanmyMAC3

5) reboot

6) tried install from app store = install stopped with 1/16 " to go on progress bar

7) tried all the suggested resets and boot procedures ( including restore )

8) after hours gave up and re-installed High Sierra

9) next day tried a clean install same crap.

I have always done upgrades without concern or issues NOT ANY MORE

DARK mode indeed

Ditto - even used CleanMyMac 3 as well! Failed at both attempts until a reinstalled High Sierra from My Passport/TM. One interesting observation - when I say failed, About this Mac actually showed that the Mohave OS had been installed - in fact initially the Mohave screen appeared with the desert background - then suddenly disappeared. Then the iMac essentially became inoperable with multiple issues.