Big Sur installation stuck

same happened to me, while installing big sur on my macbook pro 2014. the solution was the one suggested in this thread, by Matthew_schuiling:

1) shutdown (by holding power button)
2) pressing option+command+r while restarting the mac
3) after a few minutes of a screen showing a globe and internet connection, a menu opens where you can find install big sur. press this one.

it should work, but have patience! due to desperation, i was almost ready to reboot again and again, perpetuating this cycle of suffering! so... try to be calm and wait for the installation process to finish, even if it seems that it will take forever.

what a relief when i saw the login screen again!! big sur is quite very nice, in speed and design.

i will also leave some useful links here, discovered later:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201475 (How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur)

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904 (How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery)

i'm writing this message from my macbook pro 2014 model, running big sur 11.0.1 and everything works fine, praise the apple gods.

I am NOT a developer, or even close, but I opened an account here just to thank you all for your time and the effort you put in to providing the solution. When a mere, practical lay-user such as me encounters a problem like this (the blank, black screen; hours-long time burden, and - worst of all - the apprehension that all is lost) it can be emotionally mortifying. I went with Matthew_schuiling's advice, and was gratified to experience that same, enormous sense of relief. Thanks to you all.

Hold down shift while booting it up and your Mac will turn on

I had the same frustrating experience updating to 11.1 Beta (20C5048k), 2020 MacBook Pro. I tried every suggestion posted but none worked. Finally contacted Apple Support who came up with the following solution:

• Reboot holding the option key (Startup Manager)

• Returns you to software update window

• Updated Software

This time worked like a charm

So, I've had the same issue on my iMac 2017. I tried all suggestions, I got the furthest with @Charaiveti's suggestion until my mouse stopped being accepted as an accessory. So I couldn't choose "Reinstall Big Sur". I connected a wired mouse and had about 2.5 hours of "support" from Apple, essentially having me do the same things over and over. I'll add that about an hour of that support was talking me into the idea that my mouse was dead and I needed a new one. We reset SMC and NVRAM.

When I was finally able to choose "Reinstall Big Sur" from the recovery window, it tells me "This opperation couldn't be completed. Permission denied." Quick note, I am the admin user. So I reinstalled Catalina (and by the way my mouse started working as soon as I reinstalled) and tried to install Big Sur again. Same issue. My load bar sits at about 1/5th of the way for hours and hours.

I think I'll just wait until another version other than 11.0.1. Unless there are other suggestions.

Facing same issue on iMac 2019 (Samsung SSD) migrating form Catalina 10.15.7 with both 11.0 and 11.0.1.

After having waited for hours, the installation progress bar did not even appear.
Decided to hard reboot leading into Catalina coming up ok up to you're login. Right after providing password, the iMac gets stuck in the login process with a frozen screen.
So finally booted into recovery and reinstalled Catalina, which is working fine :-)
None of the suggestions worked for me yet.

Will we have 11.1 soon?

Hey guys, suffering from the same issue, too.

today I purchased macbook pro i7 16GB 512 SSD; after starting it with my apple id; on the desktop found a new release of macos big sur as an update. I did required steps however it’s been going on for almost 9 hours and not completed. It once showed:
12,18 GB / 12,18 GB with an un-filled blue line in the dowloading statues bar; with an inconsistency that the download seems to be completed in numbers and yet the line has not hit the finishing point.

Suffering from the first hours of my brand-new mac has not been a good experience.
Hope someone would help and let me enjoy this device asap.

thanks in advance.

Same issue today. I have a 2019 MacBook Pro I purchased around this time last year. I see the apple logo... And the install bar frozen at about 90% complete.

It's entirely disappointing at this stage that I cannot find an answer to resolve it. Im going to attempt to reinstall Catalina so that I can actually do some work tomorrow. Wish me luck.

G

Shut down Mac 
Hold down Option + Command + P + R for about 20 seconds
Restart his iMac.

worked for me on iMac 2018.

Thanks T2jerry

I've got the same problem during update from Big Sur 11.0.1 to 11.1. What finally helped is installing Big Sur from App Store when in safe mode (holding Shift on switch on to enter it). Neither restoring Big Sur from recovery mode nor wiping out NVRAM helped in my case.

Hi all,
I have looked at your suggestions but I am still stuck after I tried to upgrade to Big Sur (on a 2018 MacBook Air).

When do you exactly use the shift etc options to reboot and get into safe mode?
I have pressed it during every possible moment but it doesn’t lead me to a safe mode or any way out of this installation loop....
Stuck with the Apple logo / not finishing the installation and leading to an error message.

Just want to go back to my files to save them on a disk.

Can anyone advise?

I have tried everything suggested.

Now I get this.

1. If I do not press Command + R at the reboot, the Mac just keeps rebooting itself.

2. If I press Command + R at the reboot , the Mac just stops are the beginning showing an Apple logo with the progress bar stuck at about 10% and never proceeds.

It was working perfectly yesterday before I tried to update to Big Sur.

Please help.

Jing

Not to add more of the "me too" threads... but this is happening to me as well.

BRAND NEW Macbook Pro 16.

Finally got it to restore a backup from my old macbook via Time Machine and boot up normally. That was a challenge and took a lot more time than I thought it would (no big deal though)

As soon as it booted, it asked me to update to Big Sur... Wish I did my research before doing this!

I went ahead to update it and it got stuck somewhere around 50-70% (hard to tell)...

So, like all of us here, I did a Google search and found few options for a possible solution(most are listed here).

Shutting it down (hard shut down) and then turning it back on... Didn't work.

Tried to reset NVRAM... that got stuck halfway through the loading bar (apple logo)... had to do another hard shut down... tried to reset it again... stuck again.

I tried using the recovery mode (online - command+option+R) to reinstall... but it only shows Catalina and not Big Sur... but if I go into the local recovery mode (command+R) and I go to reinstall, it does show Big Sur but then says it has to be online in order to do this... Now I'm just frustrated!

Brand new MacBook Pro 16, over $3500 and I still can't use it! (I know the computer itself isn't the problem, but this is still unacceptable!)

Has anyone else gotten this experience?

Thank you all!

What the hell have I just gotten into...

I have just updated a 2013 iMac 21.5-inch to Big Sur and boy was that a mistake....
...my mom is going to kill me...
I guess 12 HOURS of research didn’t work...

I have the same issue updating my iMac (bought just a few years ago). I tried everything on this forum and nothing is working. Apple should really be addressing these issues and replying on here.