Big Sur Beta 5 will not finish downloading

I have a Late 2015 iMac with 32 Gig of RAM. I am attempting to download macOS Big Sur Beta 5 and the Software Update stops at preparing macOS Big Sur Beta 5 (about 2/3). It has been stuck for about two hours. Is there anything that can be done to complete the download and install the beta?
  • public beta tester here, with same problem..my 2014 mac mini went to download the latest version and screen has been black for several hours now...i hope it's temporary, as i just bought this kit a couple months ago...i can't abide a brick...i can't get to the desktop to do any of the issue resolving methods, below..

    late 2014 i7 3.0 GHz 16 gigs ram

  • just zapped the parameter ram....no bueno...

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Hello. I have the same issue with 2015 MacBook Pro 13'' Retina with 8 gb of RAM. It's download well, but when it get started preparing for install, it stopped without problems of cpu, ram or disk space. Appears a notification that says that will be installed on my computer this night , but I think that it will not happen... Could you help us with the issue?

Another question that I have is that I have installed public beta 11.0 and appears as option on preferences, install beta 5 11.0. Is it a good way for doing the update? How can we fix it?
Same issue here, have a 2019 iMac 21"
mine is also stuck on beta5 download.
I found the command line to install the update and running it right now, hopefully this time, it will go through:
Code Block
sudo sh -c "softwareupdate -ia && reboot"


Here is the result of this command:

Code Block Finding available software
2020-08-22 15:30:11.288 softwareupdate[542:5594] Creating client/daemon connection: 5F61A821-0A19-452D-A5BF-515CAA3FD079
Downloading macOS Big Sur Beta 5
downloading: 100.00%
Failed to download & prepare update: Error Domain=SUMacControllerError Code=7740 "[SUMacControllerErrorPrepareFailed=7740] Failed to perform Prepare operation: [MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSU_ERR_FILESYSTEM_DOESNT_VERIFY(3)_1_NSPOSIXErrorDomain:92|FullReplacementRequired|]" UserInfo={SUMacControllerErrorIndicationsSummary=|FullReplacementRequired|, SUMacControllerErrorIndicationsMask=2, SUMacControllerErrorIndicationsDescription=-> Full replacement is required [as opposed to incremental patch]., NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbaf8718b70 {Error Domain=MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain Code=3 "'./System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/PlugIns/mcx.profileDomainPlugin/Contents/Resources/ms.lproj/SystemMigration.stringsdict' did not verify and is not on the exception list." UserInfo={target_update=20A5354i, NSLocalizedDescription='./System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/PlugIns/mcx.profileDomainPlugin/Contents/Resources/ms.lproj/SystemMigration.stringsdict' did not verify and is not on the exception list., NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbaf87189e0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=92 "Illegal byte sequence" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=lstat("/System/Volumes/Update/mnt1/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/PlugIns/mcx.profileDomainPlugin/Contents/Resources/ms.lproj/SystemMigration.stringsdict") failed. errno: 92 - Illegal byte sequence}}, MSUFullReplacementRecommened=true}}, NSDebugDescription=[SUMacControllerErrorPrepareFailed=7740] Failed to perform Prepare operation: [MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSU_ERR_FILESYSTEM_DOESNT_VERIFY(3)_1_NSPOSIXErrorDomain:92|FullReplacementRequired|], NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to prepare the software update. Please try again.}


Went into terminal and copied @isbkch to see what would happen. I had a positive result showing this:

Finding available software

2020-08-22 16:18:03.093 softwareupdate[739:12281] Creating client/daemon connection: 94E540D0-BC14-4AEE-A85D-54E0E81F0BBF

Downloading macOS Big Sur Beta 5

preparing: 65.68%00%

  • The good news is that it started at preparing: 65.34%. Moving very slowly, but moving I suppose

Thanks isbkch, I tried that command and it restarted after Downloading without installing.

However running:

sudo sh -c "softwareupdate -ia"  

Worked.
@Allan - Thanks for sharing that. I experienced the same issue and trying again with this command line. Download and preparing moving along fine. Waiting for successful install
Having the same issue here. Using the GUI it downloads and then gets stuck at preparing update. Using the command line posted by @Allan it got to about 70% and got stuck as well. I'll have to keep messing with it tomorrow.
I have some new error messages to add to the thread:

iMac17,1 (2015) running beta 4

xyz@bigsur ~ % sudo sh -c "softwareupdate -ia --verbose"

Software Update Tool



Finding available software

2020-08-23 20:59:54.678 softwareupdate[3811:61191] Creating client/daemon connection: BB6D4721-8450-4399-87E2-EFD67CB2E6B6

Downloading macOS Big Sur Beta 5

downloading: 100.00%

Failed to download & prepare update: Error Domain=SUMacControllerError Code=7723 "[SUMacControllerErrorPreflightPersonalizeFailed=7723] Failed to perform PreflightPersonalize operation: [MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSUERRINTERNALERROR(7)1MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSUERRINTERNALERROR(7)]" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7f8d41e05110 {Error Domain=MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain Code=7 "Could not create update context in preflightpersonalize." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not create update context in preflightpersonalize., NSUnderlyingError=0x7f8d43806f90 {Error Domain=MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain Code=7 "Update context didn't validate." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Update context didn't validate.}}}}, SUMacControllerErrorIndicationsMask=0, NSDebugDescription=[SUMacControllerErrorPreflightPersonalizeFailed=7723] Failed to perform PreflightPersonalize operation: [MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSUERRINTERNALERROR(7)1MobileSoftwareUpdateErrorDomain(MSU):MSUERRINTERNALERROR(7)], NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to personalize the software update. Please try again.}
Having the same problem-- my download is stuck at 0.0 with 1 day left. Seems weird.
Completely killed my iMac ..unable to restore back to any version as it cannot find any backup in timeline. Apple Support were useless (over the phone) and were unable to provide any additional support other than "you will need to take to a store"
Having to take to a apple certified repairer to reinstall OS back to a suitable OS ...just hope this doesn't cost the earth.
Seems that the backups dont like the new file OS file system.
This will be the last beta upgrade I participate in ...fell let down by Apple not testing the release update, its not as if I have upgraded to R5 ..it was a standard system update !!
I managed to fix this and the 'Cannot install error'

Using a combination of the following (I don't know which worked)
  1. Reset PRAM

  2. Disable Filevault

  3. Boot into Recovery and enable Startup Security

  4. Use sudo sh -c "softwareupdate -ia" via terminal

Macbook 2015, Previously unable to restart with kernal panics and unable to install/download Public Beta 5
I have a MacBook Air (2019). I attempted the last update and it has crashed my system. Whenever it begins to reboot it is caught in an unending cycle of asking for password to HD and then reboots to the same page.

I'm a rookie and this was updated by accident from a previous beta version.

It's requiring 50+gb to download the OS in the Recovery mode, which I do not have.

How can I get past this stage?
I have the same problem with my iMac 5k 2017, I try all commands show here but nothing.
I solved it by setting the mtu to 1450. For two months I was unable to download the update as soon as the mtu was set, the update was successful.