macOS Big Sur Update Failure

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macOS Big Sur Update Failure

My iMac will act like it is updating and then when it restarts it still has the macOS Catalina. I have checked and it is compatible with the update, I plenty of space available, and have performed a backup.

Anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 29, 2020 1:08 PM

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Answer 1

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Dec 31, 2020 9:31 AM in response to Channypru

Hello Channypru,

It sounds like when trying to upgrade to macOS Big Sur it looks like it's working but never installs the upgrade.

You can try some basic troubleshooting. Here are some resources that can help.

While you have space available, endure it meets the requirement from How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur "If upgrading from macOS Sierra or later, macOS Big Sur requires 35.5GB of available storage to upgrade."

Review Step 6 "Allow installation to complete."
- "Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac might restart, show a progress bar, or show a blank screen several times as it installs both macOS and related updates to your Mac firmware."

If this is correct, you can run First Aid to check your disk in macOS Recovery, How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility and try to install again.

Alternatively from "Learn More" in the previous article of How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur in "You can also use macOS Recovery to reinstall the macOS you're using now, upgrade to the latest compatible macOS, or install the macOS that came with your Mac."

Hope this information helps.

Have a good day.

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macOS Big Sur Update Failure

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