Fixing an Installer .pkg Stuck on “Verifying” in Mac OS X

Mac users may find that a system update, installer, or package (pkg) can get completely stuck in a verification sequence, with a pop-up alert that says “Verifying ‘name.pkg’…” while showing the Gatekeeper icon and a progress bar that never updates. The effect is the package or installer won’t run as it never completes verification, making it impossible to install. This is a strange issue that can cause some alarm, because it can happen with both third party packages and installers, as well as updates and packages that come directly from Apple. If you ever run into the package stuck on verifying issue within Mac OS X, we’ll show you how to fix the problem and get the package update to install on the Mac anyway.

Note: the “Verifying” process for packages, installers, and updates can take a while on any Mac. This is not a troubleshooting guide for merely slow verifications or for those who are simply impatient, this is only for cases where “verifying” process is completely halted and not working at all, thereby preventing the intended installer from running. If you aren’t sure if the “Verifying” process is stuck on the Mac, open the package, disk image, or installer file as usual and let the verification procedure run for a while, it can take many minutes or longer to complete. If the process is still stuck and unchanged an hour or so later, it’s probably stuck.

Forcing a Stuck Verifying .pkg Installer to Run in Mac OS X

Re-download the installer: Before anything else, you should consider that the downloaded .pkg installer, dmg, or updater may have been corrupted or perhaps is incomplete. The very first step should be to re-download the pkg or dmg in question, and always get it from a trusted source (for example, get the installer or update directly from the developer and never from a third party downloads site). If you know the installer package is legitimate, completely downloaded, and not corrupt through hash verification or otherwise, proceed as usual.

Assuming the .pkg, .dmg, or installer app is legitimate and still stuck on “verifying” then here is what you can do to force it to run:

1. From the Finder in Mac OS X, hit Command + Shift + G and enter the following path:

/System/Library/CoreServices/

2. Locate the app named “Installer.app” from this directory and launch it directly



3. Navigate to the .pkg file that is stuck on verifying and select to open it



4. Success! Run through the package installer or update as usual

The package installer should now work just fine, whether it’s a software update for Mac OS, a third party app, or whatever else was stuck in the verifying stage. This seems to happen most often with installers that are run from a mounted disk image, but it can occur with downloaded .pkg updates as well.

Another possible option would be to disable Gatekeeper to prevent the verification process from unidentified and identified developers from running in the first place, but that is really not a good idea as it could open the Mac up to broader vulnerabilities or other issues.

For those who like to dig a little deeper to see what’s going on behind the scenes with the failed verifying attempts, you can open the Console app (/Applications/Utilities/) and you’ll typically find messages from launchservicesd and CoreServicesUIAgent with ‘Error -60006 creating authorization’.

I ran into this exact issue recently when using a Combo Update for Mac OS X on a particular machine getting it up to date with OS X 10.11.6. Strangely, the verifying process failed and multiplied itself nearly a dozen times, which unsurprisingly didn’t work at all. Nonetheless, running the .pkg file through the Installer app allowed the system update to install without a hitch. This is a fairly rare hiccup to occur with installations and updates, but I’ve seen it happen with Microsoft Office, VirtualBox, Mac OS X, and other downloaded updates as well.

Did this work for you? Do you know of another solution to this type of issue? Let us know in the comments.