SOLVED Monterey 12.6 won't update

[imacchris]

I am trying to update my iMac(24 inch M1 2021) from Monterey 12.5.1 to 12.6.
When I start the update I am told it needs 13.87GB disk space and I do not have enough available.
When I look at the storage under About this Mac, it shows 39.67GB available.
CAN anyone tell me why the update wont go ahead?

 

[TonyAguila]

I am trying to update my iMac(24 inch M1 2021) from Monterey 12.5.1 to 12.6.
When I start the update I am told it needs 13.87GB disk space and I do not have enough available.
When I look at the storage under About this Mac, it shows 39.67GB available.
CAN anyone tell me why the update wont go ahead?

40+ gigabytes of free space is indeed critically low, even if the installer requires less than that. The system needs disk space for things like memory caches, swap files, snapshots, etc., that do not register as used space.

Can you first try installing from Safe Mode? For Silicon Macs, you need to shut down and press and hold down the power button until the Options screen comes up. Press the Shift key when you select the startup drive. You will see indications that you are running in Safe Mode. Then try the update again.

If this fails, maybe the space freed by Safe Mode is not enough to allow the update. If you have access to an external drive, you can temporarily move data files to the external for restore later. I don’t recommend moving applications or system files.

Either way, something needs to be done to make more room on your drive for normal operations. You can only assume that updates and upgrades to macOS will more than likely require even more disk space.

 

[imacchris]

40+ gigabytes of free space is indeed critically low, even if the installer requires less than that. The system needs disk space for things like memory caches, swap files, snapshots, etc., that do not register as used space.

Can you first try installing from Safe Mode? For Silicon Macs, you need to shut down and press and hold down the power button until the Options screen comes up. Press the Shift key when you select the startup drive. You will see indications that you are running in Safe Mode. Then try the update again.

If this fails, maybe the space freed by Safe Mode is not enough to allow the update. If you have access to an external drive, you can temporarily move data files to the external for restore later. I don’t recommend moving applications or system files.

Either way, something needs to be done to make more room on your drive for normal operations. You can only assume that updates and upgrades to macOS will more than likely require even more disk space.

Thanks Tony, I started up in Safe Mode and the update went ahead OK.