Updating your MacBook or iMac should be free of headaches and drama. Apple even coined a marketing phrase “it just works!” But recently, a lot of readers and Mac users are finding the opposite–it just doesn’t work! Several users have recently had issues updating their MacBook with the latest version of macOS. Unfortunately, this appears to be a fairly common problem for some when updating to the latest macOS High Sierra update.

The update gets stuck with a message “mac os could not be installed on your computer an error occurred installing macOS.” Some folks report seeing this message as well “the path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged.”

Sep 26, 2017 Your Mac has software installed on it that's known to be incompatible with your new macOS version. This software is placed in an Incompatible Software folder during the upgrade process. Your Mac has software installed on it that conflicts with updates to System Integrity Protection in macOS High Sierra. Make sure that you have the latest version. If you are running 10.8.x, then your Mac may be from late 2012/early 2013 - those can run the current OS as long as you have enough RAM. So, going to updates will not show you anything; new OS versions are upgrades, not updates. Have you gone to the app store main page see if a new OS is offered to you there? Press and hold the power button to shut down and start your Mac back up. Go to System Preferences Software Update Or, if you are on an older macOS verison, go to the Mac App Store and open. Oct 17, 2019 Firmware updates—such as for AirPort base stations—update the software on the printer or router, not the software on your Mac or iOS device. If the latest firmware from the manufacturer is several years old, the manufacturer might have stopped supporting or updating your device. Sep 26, 2017 If an app isn't working as you expect After you upgrade macOS, you might find that some third-party apps don't work or act as you expect. An app might not open, run,.

Then your Mac prompts you to quit the installer and restart your computer. Well, Apple, whatever happened to it just works???

Contents

1 Quick Tips
2 Getting macOS could not be installed on your computer?
3 How-To Fix macOS could not be installed issue
6 Reader Tips

Quick Tips

Check that your Mac’s Date&Time are on Set Automatically
Reset your Mac’s NVRAM or PRAM
Free up some internal hard drive storage
Restart in Safe Mode and run Disk Utility’s First Aid
Try Recovery Mode
Use Terminal to identify and remove non-Apple KEXTs
Restart in Single User Mode to remove problematic files

Getting macOS could not be installed on your computer?

If you are experiencing this issue with your update, here are a few tips that you can use to address this issue. Before proceeding with the steps below, we suggest that you ensure your Mac’s clock is correct. If your Mac’s Date&Time do not match your current timezone or date, macOS often won’t install. Go to System Preferences > Date & Time. Apple prefers if you choose the option to Set Automatically.

Next, let’s try out the basic NVRAM reset (or PRAM for older Macs) on your computer.

Follow these steps if you are not sure about how to do the NVRAM reset

Shut down your Mac
Turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R
Release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart
Open System Preferences and check (and adjust, if necessary) any settings that reset, like volume, display resolution, startup disk selection, or time zone

Check Storage

The other thing is to make sure that your MacBook/Mac has enough space available to complete the update. If you are running low on space, Apple provides some guidelines that can help you recover some space on your Mac.

Beyond the Basics

Now, that we have taken care of the basics, we suggest that you try each of the processes below until your macOS install problem is fixed. We arranged the how-to-fix steps in three separate categories.

The first of the troubleshooting steps walk you through Safe mode options and then we suggest the Recovery mode. The last of the options shows you how to remove third-party KEXT files using simple terminal commands and then try the install process.

How-To Fix macOS could not be installed issue

Fixing the Install issue using Safe Mode on your Macbook

One of the best practices around updating is to make sure that you have taken a backup of the system before doing any troubleshooting. Better Safe than Sorry. We are assuming that you have already backed up your machine before you proceed with any of the steps below
The first thing to try is to get your Mac/MacBook into Safe mode. When you hold the ‘Shift’ key during startup, your computer will launch into Safe mode
Safe mode essentially forces the initiated process to ignore all third party launch daemons and startup items. Once you are in the Safe mode, the next course of action is to get into Disk Utility. Once your MacBook has entered safe mode, you will see it indicated in the top right-hand corner of your screen

Log in using your credentials and then go to your macOS Utilities folder. Here you will need to start up the Disk Utility Program. Once in the program, Click First Aid on the top and choose the volume (Your main HDD) and start the repair process

Once the Repair has completed, you will be notified of the status. At this point, you would want to rerun the macOS Update program and see if it works for you without giving you the error message

If you tried the steps above in Safe mode and did not find success, the next course of action is to try the Recovery mode.

Fixing macOS Install Problem in Recovery Mode

To get to recovery mode on your Mac or MacBook, you will need to press and hold Command + R keys together when booting up your computer
Once you are in the Recovery mode, click on the Apple logo on the top left corner of the screen and make sure that your startup disk is pointing to the Mac Boot disk
Now find the macOS update program and run the update

Sometimes, when you are facing install/upgrade issues, a workaround that works for many users is to create an external bootable installer and try to run the install program using it. Apple provides a detailed white paper on this process. You can create the bootable installer on a USB and then try it to update the macOS.

Removing Third Party KEXT Files

If you are still reading and have already tried the series of fixes in both Safe mode and Recovery mode to no avail, you may have to roll up your sleeves and do a little more digging into the root cause of the issue. Sometimes it’s the third party KEXT extensions that cause a lot of heartache during update/install of macOS.

These KEXT Files get added to your Mac/MacBook when you are using third-party devices. If you are not sure about it, your best bet is to look and see what third-party extensions are currently there on your machine.

To do so, Open up terminal from your utilities and type in the following to see the non-Apple KEXTs.

Kextstat | grep –v com.apple

Apr 15, 2020 Here are 35 best free Mac apps to install in 2020 (includes media players, image and audio editors, utilities, and more). Find the best free Mac apps for video and photo editing, writing, managing passwords, reading and RSS management, managing emails, and more. Free picture apps for mac. Jan 07, 2020 In researching the best free apps for the Mac, I started by using Apple's category list. This makes it easier to cover the wide variety of content available. If an app is on the Mac App Store, it is in one of the 21 categories that Apple has listed.

This command should show you all the third party extensions. Now you can remove them one by one or remove the one that you think may be the suspect. Using terminal, you can unload the kext my using the following command.

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/NAMEOFTHEKEXT.kext

Here ‘NAMEOFTHEKEXT’ needs to be replaced wit

Why Isn't Software Update On My Mac