This article explains how you can fix the software update problem. More specifically, the focus of this article is on what you can do to when your Mac won’t update to the latest version of macOS.
Some Mac users, unfortunately, have been and continue to be affected by various macOS software update issues where they may experience a stalled macOS update. By stalled, we mean that macOS updates won’t download and install successfully.
Sometimes, you may see an error message saying “The macOS installation couldn’t be completed” or “macOS could not be installed on your computer”. https://caunaphtheda.tistory.com/17.
Apple has introduced a security mechanism with macOS 10.14 (Mojave), which requires special access to be granted to remote control applications like TeamViewer. And macOS 10.15 (Catalina) has strengthened the security and privacy even further and requires additional permissions to be given to TeamViewer in order to control your Mac. Download the macOS Mojave Installer from the Mac App Store. To download the macOS Mojave installer, go to the Mac App Store Updates tab and choose Mojave installer (Here is a direct link.) When it's ready, it's going to launch automatically. You will need to quit it at this point, we're not running it this way. To find macOS Mojave, launch the Mac App Store by selecting the App Store icon in the Dock. Creating a bootable macOS Mojave install image on a USB flash drive will allow you to perform clean installs of the macOS; that is, install on the existing startup drive by first erasing the drive and then installing macOS Mojave. This, of course.
It is important that you back up your Mac before you do anything.
There could be a variety of reasons for this. Before you do anything:
Make sure there is enough space to download and install an update. If not, you may see error messages. To see if your computer has enough room to store the update, go to the Apple menu > About This Mac and click the Storage tap. You can easily free up storage space on your Mac.
If you see a “Update Not Found” error, see this article.
Make sure that you have an Internet connection to update your Mac. You can troubleshoot your connection.
Be patient. An update may take some time. Just waiting may fix your problem. Sometimes more than a few hours. Do not put your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Also ensure than your Macbook, if it is a Macbook, it is plugged it into AC power.
If the update does not complete, your computer may seem stuck or frozen, for an extended time, try to restart your computer by pressing and holding the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds.
If you have any external hard drives or peripherals connected to your Mac, try removing them. And try to update now.
Reset PRAM on your Mac and then try again. To reset PRAM, turn off your Mac and then turn it on and immediately press and hold the Option, Command, P, and R keys together for about 20 seconds.
It is possible that your Mac may unable to reach the update server. There could be two reasons for this:
You may have a slow internet connection. You may want to restart your router and modem to fix this problem. If you are using a Wi-Fi connection, try a wired connection, if possible.
Or there could be issues with Apple servers. It is possible that Apple servers are overloaded as a lot of people may be trying to update. You can check if Apple servers are experiencing issues.
If you are still having issues, then you may try the followings:
Safe mode
Try updating your Mac in safe mode. Here is how:
Startup your Mac in safe mode. To do that, turn off your Mac and then turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login screen. Then release the Shift key. And login.
Now your computer is in safe mode. Try to update now.
Then exit safe mode when you are done (in either case). To exit safe mode, restart your Mac normally, without pressing the Shift key.
Combo update
You can use a combo update to install Mac updates. Please note that before you continue, you may want to back up your Mac. You can back up with Time Machine or you can use iCloud.
Please note that combo updates let you update your Mac from a prior version of macOS within the same major release. A combo update is a combined update that means that it contains all of the changes since the original release of that major version. This further means that, using a combo update, you can update from macOS 10.15 directly to Mac OS X 10.15.2, skipping the 10.15.1. But you cannot go from, let’s say, 10.14.x to 10.15.x. For example, using a combo update, you cannot upgrade from macOS Mojave to macOS Catalina.
Please note that combo updates are huge. Here is how you can use them:
Find the right combo update. And download it. As stated above, they can be huge. The combo will download as a .dmg file.
Now quit all apps on your Mac.
Double-click the downloaded file, if it does not start automatically.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Using macOS Recovery to update your Mac
Mac Mojave Will Not Allow Install Applications
Station app for mac download. If you still could not update, you may try this. To do this, you need to restart your Mac from macOS Recovery. Using the method below, you will be able to upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. Here is how:
Turn off your Mac.
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Option-⌘-R keys together until you see the Apple logo or the spinning globe icon.
Login.
Click Reinstall macOS and follow the onscreen instructions.
See also: How to fix Catalina update problems
Apple’s new macOS Mojave doesn’t support the old Macs prior to 2012. It was a shocking news for me too.
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I have an old, not for me actually, MacBook Pro which I purchased at the end of 2010. I was expecting Apple won’t drop the support of Mojave for MacBook Pro 2010 model, at least not for this time. But I was wrong. The latest Majove doesn’t support it too.
There is no need to worry. Even the oldest Windows 95 can be installed on Mac computer. There is a solution to every problem.
I don’t want to upgrade my MacBook Pro right now, especially when a new model is rumored to be released in next month.
Another choice for me was to buy a graphics card which supports Metal. In fact, it was the most feasible solution for to get installed Majove on my unsupported Mac right now.
Metal is natively supported by all Macs introduced since 2012. It means the following Nvidia, AMD and Intel family cards are compatible.
There are a number of third-party vendors which sell graphics cards with integrated Metal support specifically designed for Mac computers. While searching for a compatible graphics card, I found that I could install Mojave on my MacBook Pro Mid 2010 model by using a software known as macOS Mojave Patcher Tool. Kudos to DosDude1 who developed tested, and released it as a free app.
By using this software, we could install the latest macOS version on early 2008 Macs.
Here is the step by step method to run Mojave on unsupported Macs.
The whole process can be divided into four parts.
Part 1. Getting all the required things
Part 2. Downloading the macOS Mojave Installer App
Part 3. Making a bootable Mojave USB drive
Part 4. Installing and Patching Mojave OS on the unsupported computer
We will discuss each part in details in the following paragraphs.
Part 1: Requirements to Run Mojave on Old Macs
Four things are required to get macOS Mojave installed on your forgotten-by-Apple Mac.
Your Mac computer
It could be an early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro. The following models include under this category.
MacOS Mojave software can be downloaded as an Installer App from Mac App Store using the computer which supports Mojave.
If you don’t have Mojave supported Mac, you can download the Mojave Installer App using patcher tool. Open the macOS Mojave patcher tool. If it doesn’t open and says it is from an unidentified developer, right click on the tool’s icon and click on “Open” from sub-menu and then enter your Mac’s Admin name and password. After the verification, you can open it with the left double-click.
If you don’t remember your macOS password, here are the solutions to reset it.
Go to Tools in the Menu bar and then hit “Download macOS Mojave”.
I recommend using the built-in downloader tool because it will download the latest and the compatible Installer app.
Mojave Installer app is about 5-6GB in size and it may take some time depending on the speed of your internet.
If the internet connection interrupts while downloading the file, don’t worry. The downloading process will resume where it left. Simply download the Mojave software again but point it to the same location where you were already downloading and saving the installer app.
Part 3: Create a Bootable Mojave USB Drive
In order to create a bootable Mojave USB Installer drive, follow these steps.
Step 1: Insert 16GB or above USB drive into your USB port of your Mac.
Step 2: Open Disk Utility and erase the USB drive in OS X Extended (Journaled) format. Give a proper name before erasing. I gave the name “macOS Mojave” to my USB drive.
If you are new to Mac, get the basic information about how to make a Partition, erase the current partition and how to make a bootable USB drive.
Step 3: After the drive is erased, open “macOS Mojave Patcher” tool.
Step 4: Point the Patcher tool to the downloaded Mojave Installer app which is downloaded in Part 2.
Step 5: Now select the target USB drive you just formatted. Avast boot scan for mac.
Step 6: Hit the “Start Operation” button on the patcher tool and let it make the USB bootable with Mojave.
Step 7: It will show “Complete” when the process is done.
Part 4: Installing and Patching macOS Mojave
In this fourth and final part, we will install and patch the macOS Mojave on our old Mac computer. Follow the steps below to complete the remaining procedure.
Step 1. Restart your computer and hold down the “Option” key as soon as the Mac starts up.
Step 2: Select the USB drive, which was named as “macOS Mojave” as the startup disk.
Step 3: If you want to upgrade your current macOS to macOS Mojave, simply use the continue button to proceed and follow step 5. But if you want to install it on another partition or want to erase the current partition first, then follow the Step 4.
Step 4: Open Disk Utility from the bottom left panel.
Select the volume you want to erase. Use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Or if you have got late-2009 and later machines with SSD drives, you can also use APFS format.
If you don’t want to install Mojave on current volume, you can also create a new partition and install it there. Mojave takes approximately 18GB space on hard drive. So at least make a 25GB partition to test the new macOS.
Macos remove news app windows 10. If you want to use it for all routine work, set the partition size according to your needs.
Step 5: Select the volume and press “Continue” to begin the installation process.
Mac App Store Mojave
Step 6: The installation process takes about 20 minutes to complete. When it is done, reboot your Mac back into installer drive while holding down the “Option” key again.
Step 7: This time select “macOS Post Install” app from the bottom left panel.
Step 8: Select the model of your computer and the volume on which you installed Mojave and then click the “Patch” button. The tool will automatically select the required patches according to the model of your computer.
Step 9: Press the “Reboot” button when the patch is complete.
Step 11. If it doesn’t work properly on the restart, boot your Mac back into the installer USB drive, select macOS Post Install again, and this time also select “Force Cache Rebuild” option. Once the patch is complete and the cache is rebuilt, reboot.
Step 12: Upon restart, complete the setup process and start using your Mac with a Mojave operating system.
Happy Mojaving!!
For additional information and to know more about the known issues, please visit DosDune1’s website. He is an awesome guy.
Note: You will see a new “Patch Updater” app in the Applications under “Other” folder. It will alert you when new patches are available for your computer.
Your Mac will get the future Mojave updates as other supported computer do. If you don’t see the updates, or your computer doesn’t work properly after applying the update, use the step 11 of Part 4 to enable all patches.