You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Cannot install Big Sur updates

Since upgrading to Big Sur I have been having problems installing OS updates. It started with 11.1. After seemingly downloading the update, the update would fail to install and a notification would appear saying to try again later. Eventually, I got tired of this and I reinstalled Big Sur from scratch. The OS installed with the latest update when a fresh install was performed.


I am now trying to install 11.2 (and today 11.2.1) and after about 20 minutes downloading the update, I get an error saying the download has failed because an error occured while downloading the selected updates.


Honestly, this is getting annoying, and I cannot reinstall the OS every time there is an update. I am seriously considering downgrading to Catalina instead, which was a much better OS anyway.


Any help which can be provided would be much appreciated.


Screenshots below

------------------------------------


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Feb 9, 2021 5:11 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 9, 2021 5:21 PM

Updating Big Sur is one of the biggest issues with this 11.0 OS. The only way that I could update Big Sur was to backup my computer, and then format the hard drive. Nothing else worked, not even recovery. Then install Big Sur on the empty hard drive, and then copy over all of my data. Using CCC to backup the data was quick and easy.


Trying to update 11.0.1 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.1 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.2 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.2.1 was quick and easy.


Hopefully whatever the issue was is now fixed, but you'll need to get 11.2 installed first. then install 11.2.1.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 9, 2021 5:21 PM in response to TheSpoon

Updating Big Sur is one of the biggest issues with this 11.0 OS. The only way that I could update Big Sur was to backup my computer, and then format the hard drive. Nothing else worked, not even recovery. Then install Big Sur on the empty hard drive, and then copy over all of my data. Using CCC to backup the data was quick and easy.


Trying to update 11.0.1 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.1 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.2 was a pain.

Trying to update 11.2.1 was quick and easy.


Hopefully whatever the issue was is now fixed, but you'll need to get 11.2 installed first. then install 11.2.1.

Cannot install Big Sur updates

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.