How Long Does Updating MacOS Take? Why Is MacOS Update Taking So Long?
One of the questions many Mac users have when they see newly available system software updates for MacOS is “how long will updating MacOS take?” followed by “why is MacOS update taking forever?” These are both perfectly reasonable questions, and it’s important to remember the answers can vary. But, with modern MacOS, you can also get a pretty good estimate for how long installing a MacOS system update will take.
Let’s dive into this topic a bit so that you can better understand and prepare for installing MacOS updates on your Mac.
How long does a MacOS update take to download, install, and finish?
MacOS updates can take anywhere from as short as 15-20 minutes to several hours to complete, particularly when you factor in downloading the update and installing the update to completion.
There are various factors that come into play with how long a MacOS update will take, including the size of the MacOS update itself, the internet connection speed, and general system performance of the Mac.
The update process for MacOS goes something like this; the user checks for and starts the process of updating system software, which the Mac then downloads from Apple, verifies the downloaded package and update, unpacks the update, then the Mac restarts into an update mode where the new update is installed, before finally booting back up again with the update complete. Again, this process can be quite fast, or quite slow, depending on the aforementioned factors.
Why is MacOS update taking so long to finish?
There are a few reasons that installing MacOS updates can take a long time. First, is the file size of the update itself, where some updates are well over 5GB in size, and these can take a while to not only download, but also to unpack and to install.
A slow internet connection will also make downloading and installing updates to MacOS a much slower process.
Finally, if the Mac is older, has limited free storage, has minimal system resources, or has a slow drive, installing the updates can take a while too.
How to See How Long Installing a MacOS Update Will Take
Newer versions of MacOS offer a super simple way to determine an estimate for how long it will take to install a system software update to MacOS:
- Go to “System Settings” from the Apple menu
- Choose “General” and then “Software Update”
- Look under the available software update(s) for text that says something like “Once downloaded, this update will take about 20 minutes to install.” (the amount of time will vary depending upon the update(s))
The time estimation for completing the update is only available in newer versions of MacOS.
Also, once your Mac reboots to install the update, you will see a progress bar indicator, sometimes with a ‘time remaining’ estimate, that can also give you an idea of how long it will take to install and finish an update.
Note that the estimates are not always accurate, and are better as a general guideline. Sometimes an estimate may say 15 minutes remaining, but the update takes 2 hours to complete – that situation is not super common, but it is also not super rare.
How can I speed up MacOS software updates?
The only real way to speed up a MacOS software update process is to have a faster internet connection, which will allow the Mac to download the update faster.
If your internet connection is really fast, but the download of the MacOS update is going very slow, it’s likely a result of Apple’s servers being overwhelmed, which can happen sometimes with a major software update release.
But, remember the unpacking, verification, and installation process of the update itself, still must occur, and that process can’t really be accelerated.
If you’re trying to update multiple Macs at the same time to the same version of MacOS, and you have a slower internet connection, you might find it useful to download MacOS installers directly and then copy that update/installer to other Macs on the same network to run the installer directly, which would prevent each Mac from having to download the same update.
The MacOS update is taking multiple hours, what should I do?
If your MacOS software update process is taking multiple hours, the best thing you can do is to let the process complete.
Never interrupt a system software update that has not finished!
Interrupting a system update can break MacOS as the update will be incomplete, and may require MacOS to be reinstalled. Theoretically, it could even result in permanent data loss. Do not take this risk.
Just have patience, and let the update finish. Sometimes the updates can take multiple hours, and while that isn’t common on the latest Macs with the latest versions of system software, it can happen. If the Mac is older, a lengthy update process is much more common.
