MacOS – Stuck in endless macOS Sierra installation loop

installmacos

I am a long time Apple Mac user since the 1990s, and I have never come across this sort of ridiculous behaviour before.

Yesterday I decided to reinstall macOS Sierra on my iMac. I followed these steps:

  1. I used Command-R to boot into macOS Recovery.
  2. I selected Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities window.
  3. I opted to erase the HD with a 2 pass secure erase. This was successful.
  4. I quit Disk Utility.
  5. I selected Reinstall macOS from the macOS Utilities window.
  6. I clicked continue when it told me to click ‘continue’ to set up the installation.
  7. I clicked continue again when it told me to click ‘continue’ to download and restore macOS
  8. And now I’m back at Step 6 again and get stuck in a loop between steps 6 & 7.

I have tried the above steps again today with the exact same result. Below is a visual representation of this madness:

enter image description here

Also, clicking on 'continue' instantly displays the next/previous screen – there is no indication that anything else is happening – not even the apparent eligibility check.

How do I get out of this looping hell?

I did read installation stuck in a loop due to damaged HD and Mac OS X Sierra installation stuck in a reboot loop but neither is about the same looping scenario as I find myself in.

Best Answer

This is the type of UX pain that really irks me, and very unlike Apple.

Since you're a long time Mac user I'm going to assume you have access to another Mac, so my suggestion would be to try reinstalling a fresh version of macOS Sierra via a USB installer.

Follow the steps below:

  1. On another Mac, download the macOS Sierra installer via the Mac App Store
  2. After its downloaded, the installer will launch automatically. When it does, quit the installer.
  3. Grab a USB flash drive of at least 8GB in size
  4. Connect the USB flash drive to the same Mac
  5. Rename the flash drive to Untitled
  6. Launch the Terminal app

  7. Now enter the following command into Terminal. It may be best to just copy it from here (try triple-clicking) and paste it in.

    sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

  8. You will be prompted to enter your user password. Enter it now and press return (note that you won’t see the cursor move or display any of the characters you enter)

  9. At the next prompt (about erasing your drive) press the Y key
  10. Wait for your USB flash drive to be erased (you’ll see the progress via % values appearing within the Terminal window)
  11. Once the erasure is complete, you will see a prompt that files are being copied to the disk. This may take a while, so be patient.
  12. Eventually the copy process will be over and you should see a Done message in Terminal. You can now quit Terminal.
  13. Eject the USB flash drive and now connect it to your iMac (the one you want to reinstall macOS Sierra on)
  14. Startup the iMac holding down the option key
  15. Select the USB flash drive you created from the list of drives and press enter

You should now be able to boot from the USB drive and install macOS Sierra from there.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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