stuck on up grade

[Mac Man 2007]

My Mac Air 2013 Mojave is stuck on an upgrade to Catalina using a USB flash drive. This is the 2nd time this has happened. Last time I managed to boot to recovery and get back into Mojave. Now I am letting it sit while I post here and see if someone can help. I rebooted it once and choose boot to installer. It takes me back to where it is stuck and then just sits there. I have used this USB stick to upgrade the 2015 Mac Pro that I am writing this on. After the first attempt I wiped the USB stick and got a new copy off Apple of Catalina and used terminal to install it to this USB stick.
Any one???

 

[ferrarr]

Is there a reason you are specifically going to Catalina? A 2013 MBA can go up to Big Sur, macOS 11.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Is there a reason you are specifically going to Catalina? A 2013 MBA can go up to Big Sur, macOS 11.

I thought would jump one at a time. I stayed on Mojave cause I didn't want to go to 64 bit but now Mojave is getting to old. But that said I could go to Big Sur. But why am I getting stuck on the up grade to Catalina?

 

[Rod]

Well the first thing I'd suspect is the bootable installer on your USB flash drive. Why don't you just download the installer directly from the App Store?
I have the links for older macOS on my computer but I'm on my iPhone at the moment. Give me half an hour an I'll post the URL in my next reply, unless someone beats me to it

 

[ferrarr]

@Rod, I don't believe the older ones are stillll in the store. When you go to the Apple Support page, some links (newer OS's) take you to the store, while other links (older OS's) just start downloading a dmg file.

 

[Rod]

Hmm, well obviously I haven't tried it myself but here's Apple's list; How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
And I've had users report success with this site as well; How to download old versions of macOS: Get Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, and more

eg. On the above (second site) site clicking Catalina takes me here;

And clicking the link to the App Store in the box takes me to this page on the App Store;


So it looks okay but as my device is not compatible I cant test beyond that.

 

[ferrarr]

I don't have a device to test with either.

 

[Rod]

I guess we'll have to wait on Mac Man 2007 to report back. I would really like to know if these old links still work for the sake of all the others who ask this question.
So, Mac Man 2007, please let us know if this works for you and any problems you had along the way.

 

[Rod]

I should add, if Catalina fails I'd suggest you try Big Sur much as I'm in favour of incremental upgrades it's more recent and more likely to have valid certification.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

I guess we'll have to wait on Mac Man 2007 to report back. I would really like to know if these old links still work for the sake of all the others who ask this question.
So, Mac Man 2007, please let us know if this works for you and any problems you had along the way.

Just got back on after recovery mode. I had to give my wife her laptop back and I hate using iPhone for this stuff. OK I like bootable USBs and have used them since Snow Leopard.
That said the first time I tried to upgrade using this 32 gb flash drive 2 weeks ago it failed and got stuck at the "9 minutes left mark". I had installed Catalina using this USB to upgrade the 2015 Mac Pro and that went flawlessly. So I wiped the USB clean and downloaded from the Apple a new Catalina into applications earlier this week. So I used terminal like always to mount Catalina and the process went flawlessly. Then earlier today I used the USB to upgrade to Catalina and it got stuck at the exact same place "9 minutes left" and just sat there for a couple of hours. So I force quit and restarted the upgrade and it would get stuck in the same place. BTW the USB stick would quit blinking when it was stuck. Of course it doesn't blink continuously when upgrading but when it got stuck it didn't blink at all. Finally I shut it down and pulled the USB and the restarted to recovery. I did not use the internal recovery I went to apple and used their system.
BTW I just ran first aid in disk utility on the flash drive and it was clean.

 

[Rod]

Great, thanks for the feedback. There is something about "certificates" that I don't understand, it's no longer an issue for me but back when it was I used to occasionally run into an issue where the certificate had expired for the macOS installer. I know that Apple changed something about that but as stated because I'm always up to date with the latest macOS now I no longer run into that problem.

So, what I'm getting at is, perhaps you cannot use the same USB installer repeatedly on multiple devices which is stupid because that "used to be" the whole point. "Used to be" being the key point.

Anyway if you prefer the USB Flash device upgrade method by all means use that, I personally did not like the Terminal process so I used the 3rd party InstalDisk Creator free from MacDaddy.io



This creates a bootable macOS installer on your chosen USB Flash drive (it will erase it first) it never failed for me and it provides instructions along the way as well as a progress bar which Terminal lacks.

Have you tried downloading Catalina from the sites I attached? The second one is the one I've used most successfully.

Do let us know how you get on.
PS. It is possible that your flash drive is failing.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I used the apple link to download from the Apple store. I also use Apple commands for terminal to create the bootable USB. I erased the original copy of Catalina, and then full erased the USB and then put a fresh copy on the USB wondering if that was my glitch. As for the SSD I replaced that 2-3 years ago and I do not think it it buggered. I bought it from OWC Aura Pro X2
I am feeling snake bit. Maybe I'll try MacDaddy even though terminal has always worked. Right now I would like to get up to 64. Once I am clean on Catalina then I'll go to Big Sur.

 

[ferrarr]

Have you tried upgrading the OS or are you only wanting clean installs?

 

[Rod]

I beleive Mac Man 2007 is Upgrading from Mojave to Catalina with the objective of further upgrading to Big Sur from there.

 

[ferrarr]

Thanks Rod.

The issue with certificates, I believe, Randy mentioned was the date needed to be manually manipulated. But I forget the specifics. I did just search and found this, #3 , from Randy.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Have you tried upgrading the OS or are you only wanting clean installs?

I wasn't doing a clean install. I was just trying to upgrade.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

I beleive Mac Man 2007 is Upgrading from Mojave to Catalina with the objective of further upgrading to Big Sur from there.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Yes. I will upgrade the 2015 Mac Pro to Big Sur first and then move up from there. Then I will have to stop with Big Sur on the 2013 Mac Air

 

[Mac Man 2007]

I have thought about wiping the drive and doing a clean install of Catalina. The last time I did a clean install I used USB flash drives to save all the files and such and then moved them into the fresh install. This time I would like to use time machine as a back up after I do a clean install.
Will there be any problems I should expect when I use a backup that is all from 32 bit and then moving them into the 64 bit Catalina???

 

[MacBiter]

I have thought about wiping the drive and doing a clean install of Catalina. The last time I did a clean install I used USB flash drives to save all the files and such and then moved them into the fresh install. This time I would like to use time machine as a back up after I do a clean install.
Will there be any problems I should expect when I use a backup that is all from 32 bit and then moving them into the 64 bit Catalina???

It depends what you mean by "all from 32 bit"? Mojave is a 100% 64 bit OS - however, it will run 32 bit apps. So there shouldn't be any problems migrating your data using TM ... AS LONG AS you remember that any 32 bit apps you currently run will not run in Catalina.