Big Sur: update problems with insufficient storage space

Who updates to macOS 11 (Big Sur), You must first check if there is enough free space on the device. Like heise.de mentionedOtherwise, serious problems can arise because Big-Sur-Installer doesn’t seem to check if there is enough memory available for a complete installation. According to the report, one of the officials warns about this.

Because if you run Big Sur update once and you run out of storage space, errors might occur, like Mr. Macintosh, A blog targeting Mac administrators, he writes. Specifically, we are talking about a boot loop in which the installer crashes while trying to complete the installation. Error message: «An error occurred while preparing the software update».

Verification failure was found in both the installer for upgrading from macOS 10.x to current macOS 11.2 and macOS 11.3 (beta). You can find the official Apple Support guide hereHow to upgrade your Mac to macOS Big Sur. It says you need at least 35.5 GB of storage to update Big Sur for macOS Sierra. To get an update from an older version, 44.5 GB of storage should be freed.

Before After updating, you must – somehow – create a backup. How to do it with a time machine Apple explained here.

This appears to be a problem especially on Macs, whose data is encrypted with an Apple hard drive File vault They are protected. The blog says, “If FileVault is activated on macOS Catalina and Big Sur, you will be required to enter an administrator password before you can start the recovery.” “Your password will not be accepted for recovery.”

According to the blog entry, anyone with a current backup can completely delete a Mac that’s stuck in the boot loop from recovery mode, then restart it and import the backup data. It should work with Macs from 2013 to 2017 by booting into recovery, deleting the drive, and reinstalling macOS. If you have a 2018-2020 T2 Mac with FileVault 2 activated, you should do “Delete Mac”. Entering Mr. Macintosh’s Blog You will find it here (English).