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Big Sur updates take hours to complete

ChpTrk

ChpTrk

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
44
79
Looking for some help. Since updating to Big Sur, whenever Apple releases a system update, it takes hours to complete on my Early 2015 MacBook Air. The download is fine, but then it gets to the "preparing macOS Big Sur" stage and I wait and wait. I've done a clean install of Big Sur and still experience the same issue when applying updates. Any ideas on how to diagnose and resolve?

I also see similar issues when simply updating Apps from the App Store on this MacBook, so I'm not sure if that 's related or not. Thanks in advance for the help.
 
similar issue here. I can't even update. the 11.2 and 11.2.1 starts to download and then there is "10 minutes remaining" fans are on full blast and after good hour or so nothing change.. so I just restart mac..

there is this process (com.apple.MobileSoftwareUpdate.UpdateBrainService) which takes 99% of my CPU doing something in background (thats probably why fans are kicking).

never had an issue before with updating, don't know what to do..
 
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Agree completely on this! Big Sur installation and updates take forever, it’s disgusting.
It’s at the point where I wait until about 7:00 pm, get the process started, then just let it run overnight.

And don’t get me started on restarting the computer. I don’t dare unless there’s a large storm coming.
 
Updates will take longer with the update-in-place system in Big Sur.

The vast majority of this work is done in the background and you can continue to do whatever you want in the meantime. Personally I think this is a lot better than staring at the Apple logo for 45 minutes in Catalina.
 
larrylaffer said:
Updates will take longer with the update-in-place system in Big Sur.

The vast majority of this work is done in the background and you can continue to do whatever you want in the meantime. Personally I think this is a lot better than staring at the Apple logo for 45 minutes in Catalina.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, but I was literally at 15 minutes remaining for over and hour before it dropped to 10 minutes. Is that normal?
 
jagolden said:
It’s at the point where I wait until about 7:00 pm, get the process started, then just let it run overnight.
Click to expand...
That was how I approached my update today. After my 11.2 update, I decided I wasn't going to wait on this one. I started the download and went away, came back after about an hour and it was waiting for me to restart. It took a couple hours to finish after that restart, based on what I'm seeing in Console.
 
ChpTrk said:
Makes sense, but I was literally at 15 minutes remaining for over and hour before it dropped to 10 minutes. Is that normal?
Click to expand...
Not sure, but I would guess that if this was Catalina, and the nature of the update was the same, you'd be staring at the Apple logo for even longer.
 
This article has some good detail on how Apple has drastically changed the OS update sequence and workflows in Big Sur:
eclecticlight.co

Big Sur, Software Update, Content Caching Server and M1 Macs

Although updating each M1 Mac requires 1 GB of direct download from Apple, there are great economies in running your own Content Caching Server. And why Apple doesn’t want to offer standalone…
eclecticlight.co eclecticlight.co
 
Last edited:
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11.2.1 took around 30 mins on my MBP16 (i9, 32GB)
Catalina updates were certainly faster though.
 
Apple_Robert said:
I did not.
Click to expand...
That's interesting.

I’m just curious why my M1 mini, which I’ve only had a month, would be slower to update than any other new Mac. My first guess would be that it might be due to something in my system files that I migrated over.

I don’t claim to totally understand the "Relocated Items.nosync" folders. I’ve read a bit about them and skimmed through the ones left every time I have updated. There’s nothing in them, other than empty nested folders and the standard PDF explaining what the folders are supposed to contain, and a text document explaining configuration standards called “main.cf.system_default”, dated January 2020. I’ve also checked to see if there are hidden files. Maybe this indicates some kind of configuration error?

I have no idea. Just grasping at straws. In hindsight, I wish I had done a manual migration.
 
It seems that Apple has never managed to account for the presence of SSD's in their time remaining bar. On my two M1 minis, "about an hour" has meant "about 15 minutes" for both 11.2 and 11.2.1 updates. Of course, I keep my internal drives as free as possible (2TB ext SSD), and reboot immediately before I start system updates.
 
I have had no problem with the updates on my 2015 MacBook Air, course I do them at 1 am, maybe with everyone being forced to work from home and remote learning, too much bandwidth is being used near you.
 
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Updates on Big Sur are a mess.

They rarely complete on the first try and take FOREVER (half a day). On Catalina and before these updates took <30 min.

When updating using the command line "softwareupdate", the download often gets stuck at some percentage and won't continue, the GUI just gets stuck without telling anything.

I did a fresh installation when Big Sur 11.0 was initially released.
 
ChpTrk said:
Looking for some help. Since updating to Big Sur, whenever Apple releases a system update, it takes hours to complete on my Early 2015 MacBook Air. The download is fine, but then it gets to the "preparing macOS Big Sur" stage and I wait and wait. I've done a clean install of Big Sur and still experience the same issue when applying updates. Any ideas on how to diagnose and resolve?

I also see similar issues when simply updating Apps from the App Store on this MacBook, so I'm not sure if that 's related or not. Thanks in advance for the help.
Click to expand...
My MacBook Air early 2015 says 12 hours remaining for the update. GREAT SCOTT! Please help if you have answers of how to remove this serious s@#t
 
It seems that Apple has improved the updates, the last one didn't take long at all.
 
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