Upgrading macOS 15.4.1 hangs at "About 30 minutes remaining" messagea

Noah Wallach wrote:

Upgrading macOS 15.4.1 has the "About 30 minutes remaining" message appearing for over 10 minutes.

Upgrading from 15.3.2

Hardware: MacBook Pro Apple M3

The amount of time shown is not accurate in all instances. In some cases it depends on the internet connection speed and how busy the Apple servers may be. I would allow it 2 hours and if it still does not change then you could restart and try again from Safe Mode. But I have heard from some that it took several hours. For me the update took less than 15 minutes but as I said, it can vary due to various factors.

Further to the above. A reinstall of the OS fixed the issues. I can only conclude that the 1 hour update had actually failed in some subtle ways.

Curiously the Mac would not shut down when I went to restart to perform the reinstall - needed a long hold of the power button to force a shutdown and then another long hold to get to the options screen where the Reinstall Sequoia option can be found.

tupolevmgr wrote:

Got the same issue.

An update is trying to be setup since 2 weeks ago, but it returned error in the system updater. Now with the last update accumulated, it takes long to download, like 30 minutes and then progress bar stalls at the middle of the supposed total time, resources manager shows idle forever. That's from last friday.

Additional info: Beyond that 30 minutes point, there is no further CPU / Memory / Network usage, so either it's waiting for some remote stuff that timed out already, or it is failing in a local process and not network related.

Check storage space

If the message says that your Mac doesn't have enough storage space, free up storage space.

Check your internet connection

The installer needs a stable internet connection to download macOS and get firmware and other information specific to your Mac model. Make sure that your Mac is connected to the internet.

There are factors:

Some which are beyond your control and those with are totally under your control

Software on the computer interfering with the download process including AntiVirus Software

Notation: Disabling the AV Software may or may not solve the issue.

Removal of the AV Software may increase the chances of the download to perform as expected.

Running behind a VPN which may increase Packet losses or corruption of the download 

Turn off any Third Party Two Way Firewall and try again 

I had the same problem and the update completed after about an hour. (Mac Mini M4 Pro)

[Edited by Moderator]

Got the same issue.

An update is trying to be setup since 2 weeks ago, but it returned error in the system updater. Now with the last update accumulated, it takes long to download, like 30 minutes and then progress bar stalls at the middle of the supposed total time, resources manager shows idle forever. That's from last friday.

Additional info: Beyond that 30 minutes point, there is no further CPU / Memory / Network usage, so either it's waiting for some remote stuff that timed out already, or it is failing in a local process and not network related.

I just want it

Worked now.

Same issue for M4 Max Macbook Pro.

[Edited by Moderator]