Updating your Mac
to the latest version of the macOS software is pretty easy and straightforward. However, you may experience
Mac update issues.
The most common macOS installation error message that a lot of users are getting is as follows:
“An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.”
You may see Mac installation error message when you want to install or reinstall an update or upgrade. In this article, I’ll tell you exactly how you can fix macOS installation error.
An Error Occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again, fix
Here is how you can fix macOS installation error:
Please try the following troubleshooting tips in order. After trying each step, check to see if your problem is fixed.
1. Restart your Mac.
Try restarting your Mac to see if this fixes your problem.
2. Check the date and time.
Ensure that the date and time on your Mac are correct. Simply follow these steps:
- On your Mac, go to System Preferences and then select Date & Time. If your date and time are incorrect, update them. Also, consider checking the “set date
and time automatically” box to enable the option to set date and time automatically.
However, it might not be possible to access the above options as you may not access System Preferences if your Mac stuck in the middle of a macOS update. Thankfully, you can
use Terminal
(Applications /
Utilities)
to update your date and time settings. Simply follow these steps:
- Start by shutting down your Mac, to do this, press and hold down the power button.
- Power your Mac back on and immediately press and hold down the Command (⌘)-R keys together. Hold these keys until the Apple logo or a spinning globe appears on the screen.
- Your Mac will start up from macOS Recovery. The process may take time so be patient.
- If asked, type in your password.
- A “macOS Utilities” window will appear.
- From the top menu, click Utilities and Terminal. This will launch the Terminal window.
- In Terminal, type in the command below and press enter:
- date
- This will reveal your Mac date and time setting. Are they set correctly? If not, update:
- If your Mac is connected to the internet, type in the command below and press enter:
- ntpdate -u time.apple.com
- Now, the settings will be updated automatically. If you have no Internet connection, then consider updating this setting manually:
- Type in the current date using this format: date mmddHHMMyy”. (mm = two-digit month, dd = two-digit day, HH = 24 hour, MM = minute, yy = 2 digit year)
So if it is currently 11:46am, June 03, 2020, the command would look like: “date 0603114620”. So enter something like this: - date 0603114620
- Again let’s confirm, type in the date command again to check if your Mac has the correct setting.
- Finally, exit Terminal and check to see if macOS installation error has been fixed.
3. Try installing in Safe Mode.
Please follow these steps to install in safe mode:
- Start by shutting down your Mac.
- Turn your Mac back on and immediately press and hold down the Shift key.
- Hold down the Shift key until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
- Log in, you may have to log in a couple of times.
- Your mac is now in Safe Mode.
- Now, try updating your Mac. Is it working?
- To
exit Safe Mode,
simply restart your Mac normally.
4. Use macOS Recovery.
Please follow these steps
- Start by shutting down your Mac.
- Turn your Mac back on and immediately press one of the following keyboard combinations:
- Command (⌘)-R: This reinstalls the most recent macOS version that was installed on your Mac.
- Option-⌘-R: This will update your Mac to the latest compatible macOS version.
- Shift-Option-⌘-R: This will install the macOS version that came with your Mac.
- Click Reinstall macOS and then Continue.
5. Use a combo update.
- It’s worth noting that you can use this method to update your Mac from a previous version of macOS within the same major release. For instance, the macOS 10.15.4
combo update requires that macOS 10.15.0 or later is installed. - Download the essential macOS combo update on
the Apple website. - They are dmg files. Please note that they are pretty huge files.
- Now, double click the install the file. And then follow the onscreen prompts.