Jeroen Mols

Jeroen Mols

Software developer at Plaid and Google Developer Expert

MacOS update could not be installed

26 Dec 2017

MacOS update could not be installed

less than 1 minute read

Tonight after a routine MacOS update (10.13.2) disaster struck and my Mac got stuck in an update boot loop. After a few hours of panic, reading online and trial & error I managed to resolve it. Here’s what I did in the hope it also helps someone else.

Steps

From the “MacOS could not be installed on your computer” screen:

  • Press and hold “option” key and click restart
  • In the “Startup disk selection” screen, use the arrow keys to select your main hard drive (not the MacOS update)
  • Wait for your Mac to boot normally
  • Download the latest combo update directly from Apple. (this is a full system image, not an incremental update)
  • Open and install the update
  • Grab a snickers, this will take a while

My environment: 2017 Macbook pro 15” Touch Bar with MacOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra) installed and tried to update to 10.13.2 using the App Store.

If this was helpful to you, consider buying me a coffee or thanking me on Mastodon!

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