Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

atlchamp

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 19, 2012
2,056
1,245
Atlanta
decided to go back to El Capitan. Simply erased hard drive. Repartitioned it. Tried to go into recovery mode. Gets stuck on the wireless selection page. Can't move forward then an -2002F error comes up. Called AppleCare. They couldn't do anything for that other than trying an SMC reset. Genius appt scheduled today. Please proceed with caution when installing Sierra looks like something is wrong there.
 

grahamperrin

macrumors 601
Jun 8, 2007
4,942
648
Not bricked, but I understand the reaction :)

It's probably nothing more than a bug in Sierra Recovery OS. I guess that you simply erased the macOS startup volume without destroying the slice that was given to Recovery OS.

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

– begin with that (it'll do no harm) and then use Internet Recovery. If your Mac's firmware is too old for Internet Recovery then please write again.
 

eww7633

macrumors regular
Dec 15, 2008
181
70
decided to go back to El Capitan. Simply erased hard drive. Repartitioned it. Tried to go into recovery mode. Gets stuck on the wireless selection page. Can't move forward then an -2002F error comes up. Called AppleCare. They couldn't do anything for that other than trying an SMC reset. Genius appt scheduled today. Please proceed with caution when installing Sierra looks like something is wrong there.

If you don't want to spend all that time downloading multiple GB's, just wait for your reservation. They can reinstall using a USB drive or off their wired network, it'll be much faster.
 

ajay96

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2013
604
255
New York, NY
Happened to me when i was downgrading back to El Capitan. I just had to make another USB with the El Capitan installer and use it to boot. The El Capitan installer was just replaced with the Sierra one, and you can't use internet recovery with that yet I guess.
 

navaira

macrumors 68040
May 28, 2015
3,914
5,138
Amsterdam, Netherlands
What worked for me (Sierra wouldn't even finish starting up on my Air, both with clean and dirty install) was booting to Recovery and restoring from Time Machine backup. Say what you want about Time Machine but this is magic. My system is exactly how it was before I formatted the drive to give Sierra a test ride.
 

DaveOP

macrumors 68000
May 29, 2011
1,575
2,322
Portland, OR
Happened to me when i was downgrading back to El Capitan. I just had to make another USB with the El Capitan installer and use it to boot. The El Capitan installer was just replaced with the Sierra one, and you can't use internet recovery with that yet I guess.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Internet recovery downloads the OS that came with your machine from the factory. Since no Macs have shipped with Sierra, it will never download that from Internet Recovery (unless I am not understanding your post correctly)
 

RednBlue

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2013
209
81
Reading UK
Had a very similar experience. Beta 2 appeared to install faultlessly on my '2015 MBPR...looked good and all seemed to work well on first tries - even 2008 MS Word and Excel! Turned machine off, and when turning on later nothing but white folder in the middle of a black screen. After several re-tries tried to do internet recovery but same as above - very slow internet link and spinning globe for several hours. Gave up on that and went to local Apple Store for re-installation of El Cap and they couldn't get it to reboot - tried all the various resets to no avail and they have now kept my MBP to investigate further!! Be warned.
 
Last edited:
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
Just get yourself an installer on USB. You can buy a Mac from the Apple Store, create an installer from it, even clone the new Mac's drive, and then return the machine to the store within 14 days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikecwest

RednBlue

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2013
209
81
Reading UK
Just get yourself an installer on USB. You can buy a Mac from the Apple Store, create an installer from it, even clone the new Mac's drive, and then return the machine to the store within 14 days.
Can't I do that from my MBP when it comes back from the Apple Store repaired and with a fresh clean El Cap installation?
 

RednBlue

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2013
209
81
Reading UK
Yeah Just download it from the App Store and make a bootable USB.
Thanks for that...Done that while I wait for the MBP to come back from the Apple Store.....using an 8 year old MB Air. A lot slower than my MBP, but I'm really liking the look of Mavericks having not used it for several years!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ajay96

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,489
43,414
Maybe water over the bridge, but many developers and appleseed participants clone their drive prior to installing the beta. I recommend this process as the beta version updates the recovery partition and you may have trouble downgrading. With a cloned drive, you can bring your mac back to the pre-beta state.

I'm not trying to rub that in anyone's face but maybe consider that in the future.
 
Last edited:

RednBlue

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2013
209
81
Reading UK
May be water over the bridge, but many developers and appleseed participants clone their drive prior to installing the beta. I recommend this process as the beta version updates the recovery partition and you may have trouble downgrading. With a cloned drive, you can bring your mac back to the pre-beta state.

I'm not trying to rub that in anyone's face but maybe consider that in the future.

Fortunately I cloned my MBP with Carbon Copy Cloner before I installed the Beta, so I've got all my working El Cap OS apps and data safe. Unfortunately I couldn't use them when the Sierra beta bombed because the whole system fell over - even the Apple Store couldn't fix it without taking the machine away.
 

shfxyz

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2016
2
1
No...and Mac Store couldn't boot up from an external source either. Suspicions of some sort of hardware failure - fortunately under warranty.

The same thing happened to my Air.

Immediately after upgrading it failed to restart and I had to do it manually.

Now it's "bricked" bricked: can't turn it on, doesn't react, doesn't make noise, doesn't perform the SMC reset as instructed by Apple via phone. I can't even get it to make a sound, let alone restore from web or from external media.

I'm taking it to be fixed.

Here's hoping it's just the power button that failed. :(

EDIT: I just noticed this is months-old topic about the beta. My problem is with the final version released a couple days ago.
 

shfxyz

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2016
2
1
  • Like
Reactions: grahamperrin
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.