Mavericks install hangs with spinning beach ball – SIMPLE FIX

Apple released Mac OS X Mavericks yesterday, so I eagerly installed it on two MacBooks. The Mavericks upgrade hung on my MacBook Air. It got stuck on the startup screen with the grey Apple logo, with a colored spinning beach ball.

Here’s a picture of my Mac hung during it’s Mavericks upgrade:

The spinning beach ball usually indicates please wait while the computer completes an essential task. I waited and waited, but my Mac just stayed at the boot screen, with the beachball spinning.

This is the “simple fix” I used to complete the install:

1. I held down the power button of my MacBook Air until it turned off.
2. I pushed the power button to boot the MacBook Air.
3. It booted up fine, and lo, it was running OS X Mavericks.
4. No problems so far after 5 hours of working on it.

I’m not sure if this fix will work for you, but it’s worth a try! Let me know how you go in the comments below.