Big Sur installation stuck

I have the same issue. BigSur froze my iMac. I’ve spent nearly four hours with Apple tech support and still have no solution. I was hoping to find some kind of solution but all the suggestions here have been tried and have been unsuccessful.

Is there a fix? I desperately need to help to get back online. I can’t believe that this would be out there and cause so many people problems.

Hey all - I have had this happen to 5/ 80 devices - trying to find a a common denominator - I think its filevault - did you all have filevault enabled?

Cheers

We’ll my iMac is now a brick. Any chance Apple may spend some of those Apple Developer’s Fees to provide us with some support?

Same-

I have been working on mine for 3 days. About to go insane. I have tried everything. I currently have something i haven’t seen. Any new tips??

Still seeing some desperate users here, so I will summarize some previous posts.

1. Clear parameter ram: Reboot with Command-Option-P-R held down (fast, easy, if this works, great!)
2. Reboot into safe mode: Hold down shift before the logo/load screen comes up.
3. Reboot into recovery mode: Reboot holding down Command-Option-R

In recovery mode, you can connect to wifi and do a network install. Takes a while, but one way to get a remote re-install if your computer won't boot.

From Safe Mode, you can: a) Reinstall Big Sur b) Run Disk First Aid c) Backup your files

If you reinstall, and come back to the same problem: A) backup your files, then do a Clean Install (this means you lose your files, so hence backup first) B) you can try to find the needle in the haystack (what was Big Sur trying to install from your previous system that is incompatible?) and remove it, but that requires some deeper expertise.

These are all Mac101 troubleshooting tips. I'm currently having this problem, and this is what I'm doing to try and fix.

I created the account just to respond to this thread.

Last weekend, I was basically forced to "upgrade" to the BS (Big Sur) system cuz I needed to download iMovies but it no longer supports my "old" OS that came with the MBP I purchased in 2019. Like so many others, the progress bar got stuck at ~95% when rebooting. I tried everything mentioned here, but nothing worked. I was only able to reboot in "safe mode" and get into the "fancy" "Big Sur (BS)" system, but could not do anything other than browsing the most basic web pages. I wasn't able to open any documents or log into my online drive, and most importantly, external hard drives could not be recognized!

After wasting over 7 hours of my life trying to sorting out the mess, I called the support and talked with a technician over the phone for another 2 hours. I could tell that he tried everything, but still at no avail. He then presented me with two options: 1) wait for more experienced "Apple engineers" to investigate (which could take a very, very long time), or 2) erase everything and do a "clean install" (which still would NOT guarantee that it would work). What a Sophie's choice. I went with option 2), and asked for an extra day just to email my most important documents by getting into "safe mode" again.

This is not the first time I got screwed by Apple. Last year, I lost all the photos and text messages on my iPhone after "upgrading" the system. I suppose Apple has given me enough reasons not to trust their products so much again, and I'm now more open than ever to trying out new brands

The same thing happened to me a few months back and the only solution apple could give me was to completely wipe my computer and start from scratch. This meant I lost all my files and photos. All they said was that I should've backed my laptop up on a hard drive.

Same problem now. After downloading it, it booted up, then the apple logo showed then the progress stucked on abt 10%. What to doooo? :(

They had me enter into Safe mode, back everything up to the iCloud, shut down and enter "command" + "R," try re-installing Big Sur, when that didn't work because th eprogress bar was still loading constantly, they ha dme go into disk utility, macOS HD, and erase. Then, go back and install mac os HD big sur.

Just update to Big Sur last night and stuck on progress screen whole night. Cannot boot on recovery mode or safe mode. How i can fix this? Anybody can help?

Hey guys. I was stuck on 90% for a day but what actually worked for me was the following:

Clear parameter ram: Reboot with Command-Option-P-R held down.

I really hope this can help some of you lucky few out there who can solve the issue with just a Ram reset.

There is a fix for specific root cause, caused by a large number of mdworker files.

If you are upgrading from macOS High Sierra, Mojave, or Catalina to Big Sur your upgrade could fail if it matches a very particular condition.

If folders in multiple directories in the location below

/private/var/folders///C/com.apple.metadata.mdworker have more than 20,000 files your upgrade could fail.

In some situations users have reported 500,000 – 2,000,000 files!!!

Entire solution is here: https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-upgrade-to-big-sur-failed-stuck-progress-bar-fix-prevention/

Big Sur total lock-up like so many others on this thread. Apple progress bar stuck at 30%. Tried booting into safe mode, internet reset and then 2 hrs last night with Apple technician chat. Another hour this morning. No joy; I now have an appointment at the local Apple "Genius Bar". What Apple genius a)released software that does this and b) hasn't fixed it in over a year? At the very least this should come with a health warning for older machines (mine is a 2015 Air)

all asking questions but seems, no one have answar, sick apple problem n sick developed system