Yosemite Macbooks stuck at 50% boot (Progress Bar)

[ctopacio01]

Hi,

After OS Yosemite was installed in some of our MacBooks, we had some boot at 50% and it stays stuck there. The first time I saw the issue, I power cycled the MacBook and I let it sit for an hour. It was still stuck at 50%. I power cycled the machine again and left it on for the whole night (5:00pm-8:00am). As I got back to the MacBook, it was still stuck at 50%.

I did some Google searching and I read this thread here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6603394 and tried booting to the recovery partition (Command + R). I booted to the recovery partition, turned off Wi-Fi, then restarted the machine using the menu bar.

After doing this method, the machine successfully rebooted and finally reached the login screen. I have done the same methods for another MacBook along with one MacBook Pro and they all managed to reach the login screen after booting into the recovery partition, turning off Wi-Fi, then restarting the machine.

I don't know if this is the "right" solution for this issue, but other ways to solve this issue would be greatly appreciated as we are planning to upgrade more and more MacBooks (and Pros) to OS Yosemite.

Thank You!

[Hikaru]

When I went into disk utility and selected my MAC HD drive. I put in the password. I selected verify disk permissions I got this:
User differes on "private/var/db/displaypolicyd"; should be 0; user is 244
Group differs on "private/var/db/displaypolicyd"; should be 0; group is 244

When I repair permissions says same as above plus:
Repaired "private/var/db/displaypolicyd"

[spotter]

@Hikaru I was in the same boot nothing worked except for @mm2270 recommendation which is stated in this thread...

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DisableFDEAutoLogin -bool YES

after running that I saw the error he described, the device was trying to connect to a network resource.

[Hikaru]

What are sudo defaults? @Potter and Do i go into single user mode or do i go into disk utility then bring up mobile terminal?

UPDATE*
I entered this into Single-User mode:
sudo /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DisableFDEAutoLogin -bool YES
it responds with:
sudo /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow: Command not found
Any help?

[mm2270]

@Hikaru Is this your own personal Mac, or a company owned system? This thread primarily discusses an issue that affects Macs joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain and, in many cases also running FileVault 2 encryption.
It sounds like the problem you have is on a personal Mac. Is that the case? While its possible you have FileVault 2 enabled, its unlikely you are joined to an Active Directory domain, if its your own Mac.

Also, can you clarify the exact problem you're seeing? Is it hanging after it boots up at around the 50% mark in the progress bar?

I ask all this because you may be experiencing a problem different than what is described on this thread.
Have you tried booting from Recovery HD at any point? Wasn't clear in your post if you have or not.

[Hikaru]

This is a personal mac computer. I turn on my computer it loads with the apple logo then hangs at 50%

[mm2270]

And what about the other stuff? Disk encryption that you know of? i.e, does it boot up and ask for a password with your user icon or just boot and get hung on the progress bar? Have you tried Recovery HD and checking the disk?

Also, take a look at this post in this very thread from Chris Hotte: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=12589#responseChild76389

You may be having the boot cache issue as described. If so, the fix Chris outlines may help. Follow the instructions exactly.
No guarantees it will help, since I honestly don't know how your Mac is configured. Good luck.

[Hikaru]

I do not see a recovery disk.
I turned off encryption via Disk Utility.

I did chris hottie's way and I am just confused. I get the window and everything but I do not know how to apply settings etc. I did it exactly but the thing is that I press enter and it just starts another line/ Is there a more thorough step by step version?

[pchang]

@emilykausalik ...that is my dream too! ....it'll happen one day....

[NightFlight]

@Hikaru

Are you an Admin, responsible for a company's workstations? If you are just an end user - this workaround/resolution does not make sense for you and likely you have another issue. If you do not have Active Directory enabled - this workaround is not the fix you are looking for.

If do not know how to use the command line and related editors - this is not the forum you are looking for. You need more basics first and this is not the platform for that instruction.

I haven't read the contents of this link, but at a glance it appears to be what you require to get started:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/42980/the-beginners-guide-to-nano-the-linux-command-line-text-editor/

I know its on Linux, but MacOS is just darwin based, so its essentially the same when on the command line.

[dgreening]

10.10.3 Dev Beta users check the opendirectoryd build in the latest release. :D

[EliasG]

@dgreening spead the news what is it?

[dgreening]

Lets just say that it looks like the fix is in.

opendirectoryd (build 382.20.1)

Macrumors Thread

You can double check your opendirectoryd version by issuing /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd --version

[roiegat]

Apple just released 10.10.3 which they claim fixes this issue.

[davidacland]

@roiegat is that a public release of 10.10.3? I thought it was still beta.

[dstranathan]

Thanks @roiegat. This is another beta (14D98), correct?

http://wp.me/p1xtr9-1y6d

[dgreening]

The beta that I was referencing is 10.10.3 (14D98g). I cleared the rc.server file and have not been able to get it to hang at login. This is with AD (mobile account - no UNC path) and FV2.

[jasonh]

Came here to ask, saw the answer already posted. Thanks dgreening!

[#19]

Thanks Apple. The fix came late, but at least it happened.

[NightFlight]

I haven't tested yet, but its beta. Its not too late for them to pull out the the fix. :)

[calumhunter]

Tested and confirmed fixed here as well.
As expected and as others have mentioned, opendirectoryd has been updated

admin$ md5 /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd 
MD5 (/usr/libexec/opendirectoryd) = 3dbc0c2e3653ace4dd92b43022daced9

$ /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd -v
opendirectoryd (build 382.20.1)

[CGundersen]

Good deal. Looking forward to testing in the morning. I'm hearing/hoping there might even be some love for 802.1x/Login Window issues we've experienced. Might be able to roll out Yosemite yet.

edit: 802.1x still rough. Yosemite rollout on hold.

[macloo]

Apparently a new Apple software update (March 2015) is causing this 50-percent dead bug on a lot of systems, according to the Apple-authorized service place at my university. None of the solutions posted here worked for me. My hard drive now has bad sectors and must be replaced. (Thanks, Apple.)

Lesson learned: Always make sure you have a complete backup before you do any Apple updates. I have had a Time Machine problem ever since Yosemite came out, so my data backup was not up to date. Panic! Terror!

Thanks to the generosity of others, I was able to recover my own data. Here's the procedure (with links), if you ever need it:

https://github.com/macloo/recovering-mac-files

[RobertHammen]

Nope, LoginLock is a Yosemite bu^H^H"feature" that has been existent since 10.10.0. Your issues are likely hardware failure unrelated to any update.

[csheridan]

Agreed w/ @RobertHammen. Bad Sectors are much more likely a sign of hardware failure than any updates applied. Sounds like a lot of crazy and unfortunate speculation coming from that AASP if they are reporting an issue of that magnitude...

[bielaski]

We have Apple Macbook Air's and Pro's using Active Directory Domain binding.

There is a key that can be modified to lower the timeout value for AD when connecting off-network on a FileVault2 Apple system. If the value is set too low, the user may miss password expiration notices and other AD policies.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DSBindTimeout -int <seconds>

I set this to -8 to -10 and the mobile profile loaded in 10-15 seconds.

Thank you achand for this.

[spalmer]

Did some quick tests on my test MacBook and so far it appears fixed for me as well.

[JPDyson]

Yeah, I've seen just last week a freshly-imaged Macbook Air with this 50% boot problem. Not bound, no FileVault - just stuck right after install. None of the fixes worked. I'm not above believing that it was something about the base image (autodmg created, so it seems a bit unlikely) or the imaging process (there's some... interesting... steps) but it's more than just an AD or FV issue. This one's deep I suspect.

[#29]

I am trying to use the @chris.hotte method but I am unsuccessful. GNU nano does not allow me to save. It states:

[ error writing ect/rc.server: no such file or directory ]

Can someone walk me through this please? I know very little about Unix. Thanks.

[alexforsyth]

Hi @bk37 Check your syntax! The directory is etc/rc.server

If UNIX isn't your thing, then you may be safer waiting for the official Apple patch....

[emily]

Hi @bk37, welcome to the forum! Just so you know, this forum is designed for Mac Administrators in the business and education space and machines imaged and configured for work/education/business use. If you're having an issue with your work machine I recommend you contact your Help Desk team. If this is your personal computer, this is most likely not the place to be for a solution to the issue you're having.

[#32]

Syntax error! Thanks @alexforsyth @emilykausalik If that's a nice way of saying l'm not welcome no worries. I got what I need. Good day.

[emily]

@bk37 if we're lucky the next release from Apple (10.10.3) will resolve this for everyone! :)

[htse]

We got to the bottom of what caused this issue in our case. I thought I'd share it because symptomatically it looks very similar.

It was stuck between the transition stage between text startup and graphical mode, at which stage loginwindow would start.

An Office update deployed through Casper on logout put down a file in the User's home directory, ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist owned by root:wheel, so the system chews on it continually with the wrong permissions, preventing the process to continue after login window. After chown'ing the directory, we haven't had an another incident.

[jperkins01]

@htse Was the 50% stuck at boot or was your problem happening when you came upon a logon screen and a user was attempting logon and then got the 50%?

[htse]

It was stuck 50% stuck at boot after it passes EFILogin to decrypt the disk.

[tmuzica]

50% - fixed.

"sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DSBindTimeout -int <seconds>"

I set this to -8 seconds and unchecked the "Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location" in Safe Mode.

MacBook Pro, Filevault, AD bind.

bielaski, thank you!

[EliasG]

The last few Yosemite boot stuck issues, I have restarted the laptops log into safe mode, then restart them again and I am able to log back into them and the boot issue resolved itself.

[jardoin1]

It's good to know the 10.10.3 update is going to fix this. Guess I'll ride it out till then. Unfortunately, I can't get approval to roll a beta :*(

[MarcosMunoz]

I have verified that 10.10.3 Beta fixes this issue. For now, I have been disabling UNC from Directory Utility and that works 100% of the time.

[dstranathan]

Just to clarify: While my Macs are bound to AD, I don't have UNC enabled on any of my 10.10 Yosemite Macs and I still have the 50% boot hang issue.

The most recent 10.10.3 beta does seem to have resolved the issue. The /etc/rc.server temp fix also seem to mitigate the issue on most of my Yosemite Macs, too.