Symptoms

Installation or update of Parallels Desktop gets stuck (often on "Removing the previous version").

Cause

A part of macOS® called Launch Services is not working correctly and needs to be restarted.

Solution

To restart Launch Services, do the following:

1. Restart your Mac®.

2. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

3. Run these commands one by one:

   /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill

   sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill

   After running this second command, you will be prompted for your password. Due to security measures no symbols will be shown, so just hit the keys and press Return/Enter.

   sudo -u <username> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill

   Instead of <username> enter your username that can be seen in the terminal before "$" sign.
   

4. Run Parallels Desktop installation once again.

Alternative solution

The issue can also be caused by a misconfiguration in the macOS®.

In that case, the following steps may resolve the issue:

1. Restart your Mac®.
2. In macOS®, click Apple® logo > System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options > Edit
   
   
    
3. One by one, select each available entry and click '-' to remove it.
4. If Mac has multiple user accounts, sign in to each account and perform steps 1-3. 
5. Once the entries have been removed, run the installation.

If the steps above do not resolve the issue, please contact Parallels Support.