Trying to get to Big Sur from Mojave

TuckerdogAVL

TuckerdogAVL

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I finally decided to upgrade to Big Sur. Getting "null" set and error. I'm in Mojave. Do I need to go to Catalina first? I don't want Monterey yet. I just got comfortable with Big Sur. I'm upgrading (supposedly) from the System Preferences. FYI: When I first clicked on the "upgrade to Big Sur" and it went to Monterey. I went back, started again and since then can't get there from here.
 

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I had gone to the app store first. Then I read where I should upgrade thru the system prefs. I found the install xxxx.app when I searched fro install assistant.pkg. I deleted those files. The install apparently was still running in the background, so I didn't stop it. I haven't yet as there seems to be something going on with the "minutes remaining." However, a Command L shows this currently. Should I stop and try to start over again? Or wait and see where this goes? PS Nothing has happened since that last "Machine thermal state is now normal" And I'm stuck on 53 minutes remaining ...
 

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Hoops. Just got another retrying after 4 failure ... started download package again ... time changed to 32 minutes remaining ... maybe it's actually doing its thing? But this is the log as well.
 

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And, now ... this is a late 2014 Mac Mini. Time left: 12 minutes. I feel like I"m in a movie and we're about to run into the death star :)
 

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The upgrade process will be way easier if you download the Big Sur installer app, then create an external bootable installer for Big Sur.
It can be on a thumb drive (you need 16GB size to do that), or a volume on an external USB storage of some kind. That volume will need to be at least 14GB to make that bootable installer for Big Sur.
You can follow the steps to create that bootable installer here.

You will probably have to sort out the drive issue that you are apparently having now.
Do you have enough space on the drive for the install? There must be more than about 35GB space free for an upgrade install
Do you have a spinning hard drive? Probably not a good candidate for upgrade to Big Sur, and you should consider upgrading to an SSD.
Or, do you have a fusion drive? Likely you will need to back up the drive, and remove the volumes, so you can create a fresh fusion drive.
Again, your better plan will be to go to an SSD-only boot drive.
 
Suddenly everything sort of unclogged. A whole bunch of stuff started moving in the log and now I’m staring at the apple with a little bite out of it and 14 now 7 minutes remaining.

as I had said, one of my concerns was canceling or stopping and then trying to start again and that’s why I was waiting to see what would happen. So I’ll post here if Big Sur actually does install. Right now it appears that everything is moving

Thanks for your help. But I just didn’t wanna stop in midstream iif it turned out that it was actually loading I guess I won’t know until it’s done

Update: Less than one minute remaining for 12 minutes so far
 
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According to the Drive there’s 135 GB left but there should be a lot more. Because in theory my files that are downloaded are supposed to be in dropbox, but when I run the internal clean up program, that comes with the OS, it shows there’s a bunch of stuff that’s on the hard drive
 
DeltaMac said:
The upgrade process will be way easier if you download the Big Sur installer app, then create an external bootable installer for Big Sur.
It can be on a thumb drive (you need 16GB size to do that), or a volume on an external USB storage of some kind. That volume will need to be at least 14GB to make that bootable installer for Big Sur.
You can follow the steps to create that bootable installer here.

You will probably have to sort out the drive issue that you are apparently having now.
Do you have enough space on the drive for the install? There must be more than about 35GB space free for an upgrade install
Do you have a spinning hard drive? Probably not a good candidate for upgrade to Big Sur, and you should consider upgrading to an SSD.
Or, do you have a fusion drive? Likely you will need to back up the drive, and remove the volumes, so you can create a fresh fusion drive.
Again, your better plan will be to go to an SSD-only boot drive.
Click to expand...
Yes it’s the fusion drive
 
TuckerdogAVL said:
Yes it’s the fusion drive
Click to expand...
If I’m able to use the computer after this , or if I have to use someone else’s, I’ll do this and reinstall. Hopefully I won’t run into issues as it just restarted again, which is as u know, fairly normal in an upgrade
DeltaMac said:
The upgrade process will be way easier if you download the Big Sur installer app, then create an external bootable installer for Big Sur.
It can be on a thumb drive (you need 16GB size to do that), or a volume on an external USB storage of some kind. That volume will need to be at least 14GB to make that bootable installer for Big Sur.
You can follow the steps to create that bootable installer here.

You will probably have to sort out the drive issue that you are apparently having now.
Do you have enough space on the drive for the install? There must be more than about 35GB space free for an upgrade install
Do you have a spinning hard drive? Probably not a good candidate for upgrade to Big Sur, and you should consider upgrading to an SSD.
Or, do you have a fusion drive? Likely you will need to back up the drive, and remove the volumes, so you can create a fresh fusion drive.
Again, your better plan will be to go to an SSD-only boot drive.
Click to expand...
got to here. This was third restart 20 mins so far. Do I give it an hour or so? Then what if still hanging? restart? command r? Haven’t been down this road before since 2001 and upgrades all smooth
 

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Cheryl said:
Give this a try:
Go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683
Click on the first link in that article - How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur.

It will bring you to the Big Sur web page, then the App Store app should start up and bring you to the download of Big Sur.
Click to expand...
I didn’t want to do this bec it was already in the process and didn’t have any clear directio as to whether I should cancel or not. I got to here about 30 mins ago. How long should I wait? Can I just try to reboit? Do I do command r?
 

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Well this was fun. I’m now frozen and no OS. Can’t use computer. So if u can share what to do next that would be great. All my stuff is backed up on time machine but ofif course it’s Mojave and I don’t know how to get to it. I assume I hold something down to start in safe mode or restore or ???
 
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If it is actually frozen after the upgrade install - give it more time. If you see a "frozen" progress bar, and your system won't continue to the finder, or a login screen, wait a bit longer - maybe another 10 to 15 minutes. If still no change, press and hold the power button for about 5 seconds, until it shuts off. I would probably unplug the power cord, then wait another 15 seconds or so, then plug the power cord back in.
AND --- press and release the power button, and wait for your mini to boot up.

If it does not finish booting this time - this is where an external USB bootable installer will come in handy. Boot to a big sur installer, and reinstall.
 
It gets to that spot and stops. I’ll let it go overnight. I can do command r and restore from time machine is a choice. I tried To reinstall Big Sur and it started from where it got to at 4pm, then goes to the screen where the white line is halfway.

So, the thing about T.M. that is terrifyingly is it asks, “ Do you want to reinstall from a full back up.” Yes… Continge… This will erase everything on the hard drive. Be sure you have everything backed up.

Huh? I thought I did have everything backed up. I’m restoring from a full backup aren’t I? I see the time and date. I can go back to noon today to be safe. But the “erase” and “be sure you have everything backed up” is terrifying. So, aren’t I restoring all data, files, photos, apps with the time machine full backup restrore? I don’t want to end up seeing a computer that’s been restored to 2014 and nothing on it.

I’m only asking because this falls into the what I don’t know that I need to ask dept. If it is T M and is a full backup, then that message should actually say, this will restore everything as it was back the date you are choosing, correct?
 
I don't think you need to restore from a backup yet.
Boot to the recovery system. Choose "Reinstall macOS"
You will see the opening install screen, showing the version of system that will be installed.
If it is Big Sur (and NOT Mojave), then continue on with that install. It will reload the system, and should not disturb your own apps and files.
Remember that the restore system has to download all the system installer files, so you have to allow for that time. Give the installer an opportunity to complete. Might take an hour or two - be patient, find something else to do for a bit.

If that install also stops, wait for it. Give it a 30 minute wait if you think it has stalled again, just to make sure.
If it is still stopped, then it is time to trust your time machine backup. I assume that you have had your external backup drive (the one that you use for Time Machine backups) attached to your Mac, and it was finished with backing up, so should be reasonably up-to-date, as far as you can tell.
The latest date would be the last completed by Time Machine. You don't need to pick some older date, just leave it at the default, which should be the latest backup. (AFAIK, Time Machine won't make a new backup until you have a working system installed, and so far, you don't have a working Big Sur system. The last backup, therefore, should take you back to your Mojave system, as it existed during the last backup - before you attempted to update to Big Sur, I think you can be confident about that.
So, take a deep breath, choose to restore from your Time Machine backup. Yes, it will erase the drive (which is what you need when you have a system that refuses to boot, and won't complete a normal system reinstall.
Trust your Time Machine backup
Click to expand...
You got this...!
Click to expand...
 
What happens is it attempts to reinstall the Big Sur that stops. It’s four hours now. that it’s been sitting on installing..

So, just wanted to confirm that the message I get from the T.M is telling me that everything will revert t the last Mohave and data that worked … and that was about 2pm. Correct? easy easy … as Time s showing a full backup at that point.
 
I’m sure the entire problem was the install was accidentally stopped in the beginning. and then started again. I reread the info on bootable using USB and terminal, and it seems that if I can get Big Sur to download to the uSB, I can then use it without having to do the terminal steps. Yes r no?
 
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