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Apple support article offers workaround for recent issues with Setup Assistant on 12-inch MacBook

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As nifty as the new 12-inch MacBook is, a number of users have encountered an issue using the Setup Assistant during the initial setup of the notebook. The bug apparently has the spinning beach ball appear during setup, putting the user in an endless cycle.

Apple recently shared a support article that offers users of the new 12-inch MacBook assistance getting around the issue.


Apple is suggesting that users who get stopped by this bug to either wait 30 minutes for setup to resume, or to complete the Setup Assistant process without connecting to the internet. If the user chooses the latter option, they must reboot their machine after running Setup Assistant and choose a network after the laptop restarts. From there, they will be able setup iCloud and other services.

The article reads as follows:

Allow Setup Assistant to complete

If your MacBook stops responding and shows a spinning wheel after you create a user account in Setup Assistant, simply allow setup to continue. The setup process will resume after about 30 minutes.

You can avoid this delay if you complete Setup Assistant without connecting to the Internet. When Setup Assistant prompts you to select your Wi-Fi network, click Continue without selecting a network. If you have an Ethernet adapter, disconnect it before you start the setup process. After you complete Setup Assistant, restart your Mac. Now you can join your Wi-Fi network or connect your Ethernet adaptor, as well as set up iCloud.

If you restart your Mac during setup

If you restart your Mac during setup, the Setup Assistant will appear again. If you continue setup and see a message that the user account you’re trying to create already exists, create a temporary user account to finish setup.

This is a bug unlike a lot of what’s seen before and, on a personal note, I ran into it while setting up a brand new iMac yesterday. I was able to resolve the issue by rebooting, running the Setup Assistant, creating a new account, logging in, deleting the old account and proceeding from there. It’s a weird issue and with any luck, it’ll get ironed out sooner rather than later.

Via 9to5Mac and support.apple.com