Apple's MacOS Big Sur updates are crashing and failing for some users

People trying to update are seeing lengthy download time frames.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor

Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.

Expertise News, mobile, broadband, 5G, home tech, streaming services, entertainment, AI, policy, business, politics Credentials

I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.

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Corinne Reichert

Nov. 12, 2020 1:49 p.m. PT

If you're trying to update your MacOS software to Big Sur, you may have encountered installation delays of hours or even days. People have been reporting problems on Twitter, with Apple now confirming a download issue starting at 10 a.m. PT Thursday.

Servers seem to be very slow, with the update failing completely for some customers. After saying it had "about 17 hours remaining," the Big Sur installation failed five or six times for one CNET reporter and now won't restart.

According to Apple's system status page, the ongoing MacOS 11 issue is impacting "some users."

"Users may not be able to download macOS Software Updates on Mac computers," Apple says. "The issue is currently being investigated."

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.

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