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Upgrade from macOS Big Sur to macOS Monterey failed: “error occurred applying the software update”.
Now it’s stuck at the window named “Choose Startup Disk”, message saying: “Select the system you want to use to start up your computer” progress ball spinning forever. Is there any way I could recover from this situation other than rebooting to a recovery pendrive?
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
I've had better luck from the Safe Mode because I evidently have some 3rd party software that interferes with the installation so try the following:
#1 - boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support.
NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3-5 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
#2 - go to the System/Software Update preference pane and begin the download.
#3 - run the installer from the Safe Mode.
I've had better luck from the Safe Mode because I evidently have some 3rd party software that interferes with the installation so try the following:
#1 - boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support.
NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3-5 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
#2 - go to the System/Software Update preference pane and begin the download.
#3 - run the installer from the Safe Mode.
Trying this now, I was able to enter RecoveryMode (Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac – Apple Support (UK)) and restart the installation. Will share the result.
Wrt backup - sure I have everything what I need in iCloud. I have not yet setup TimeMachine as I intended to do so after the upgrade 🤨.
Trying to “Start up your Mac in safe mode” ends up in a boot loop to the in the very beginning of the progress bar, “4 seconds.. reboot..” and it continues forever.
Just after releasing the keys, it restarts the installation process and fails the same at c.a. 29,28 minutes until the end.
There are reports appearing on the ASC Forums regarding failed installation of Monterey on older Qualifying Apple Computers.
In most cases this is related to having a NON Apple Original Internal Drive ?
The EFI Boot ROM included in Monterey is verifying for Original Apple Drive and if not found , may Balk or fail to upgrade to Monterey.
Reports indicate the EFI BOOT ROM is Required to Flash the Computer and is a requirement for a Successful Monterey Installation.
If and only if this applies to this computer - the solution is to remove the After Market Drive and Replace with an Apple Original Drive.
Run the Monterey Installer to that drive. The reverse the above step and run the Monterey Installer to the after Market Drive
The recovery turned out to be "Monterey recovery" so the original installation must have failed in some later stage after actually doing most of the work.
I did start the regular recovery via "Command-R" and have chosen to Install Monterey, it has prompted for the Network connectivity / Wifi password, and seemed to have started downloading the installation image. As I was away from home network, and mobile hotspot did not perform very well (progress bar displayed c.a 4hours, the image was around 12GB).
I have switched to the Monterey Installation USB Drive I have prepared meanwhile on an another Mac computer.
After booting to boot manu by holding 'Option' and choosing "Install Monterey USB Drive" I have again chosen to install/reinstall Monterey on top of the existing damaged one.
It did show 30 minutes and has succeeded this time! Perfect!
@Matti Haveri and all thank you so much!
Afer all it has been resolved by using the USB Drive but I have used it only because of the poor-internet mobile connection.
I believe having a stable network - Network recovery would work exact same good!
The original user files were preserved. No need to restore the backups.
Hi P.Phillips,
This was not related to "NON Apple Original Internal Drive" I still had my original Apple 256 NVME (Apple Samsung MZ-JPV256S/0A4 256 GB SSUBX 2017.04). So with restarting the installation from another media it has eventually went fine.
But after I have successfully enter the Monterey MacOS, I have created a Time Machine backup. And upgraded the drive to 1TB Samsung EVO 980, and after booting to the same "Install Monterey USB Drive" successfully formatted it with a disk utility and also installed Monterey on the 1TB drive, and then restored the user data from Time Machine.
Good and it worked.
So in your case, the Original SSD was present during the first attempt to install Monterey.
Subsequently the After Market Drive was installed and Monterey was successfully installed on the larger SSD.
That would make sense as the EFI BOOT ROM had Flashed the Computer allowing the Replacement Drive to be used successfully
Try to boot into Internet Recovery mode and re-install Monterey on top of the old macOS. It should preserve user files. You do have a backup, right?
Did you start Big Sur recovery or Monterey recovery? Monterey recovery should be available at least in Internet Recovery via Option-Command-R.
How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Upgrade to macOS Monterey failed: error occurred applying the software update
