First - apologies if this has been posted before. I did check to see if this specific guidance has been provided and couldn't find anything similar.
I purchased a M1 MBP (1TB SSD/16GB RAM) on Monday. I have a MBA that I could use with Configurator 2 if I ran into issues while trying to find a solution to the Big Sur reinstallation issue. I did a lot of testing and found this solution works. Yes - it's a bit clunky, but it works.
Use the Terminal commands noted in support document HT211983. i.e. boot into macOS Recovery, open Terminal and enter “reset password” and then “Erase Mac”. From what I can figure out, the “Erase Mac” command most likely eliminates the Admin profile - my guess is that the Personalization Error is caused by the Admin profile being present on the SSD. “Erase Mac” wipes the hard drive and does a factory reset.
Once the Mac restarts after running Erase Mac, you’ll be presented with the macOS Recovery screen. Go into Disk Utility and rename the SSD from Untitled to Macintosh HD (DON'T erase the drive - just rename it). From there, run the Reinstall macOS and all should go as normal.
The process takes a while but does work (I've ran it several times),
I purchased a M1 MBP (1TB SSD/16GB RAM) on Monday. I have a MBA that I could use with Configurator 2 if I ran into issues while trying to find a solution to the Big Sur reinstallation issue. I did a lot of testing and found this solution works. Yes - it's a bit clunky, but it works.
Use the Terminal commands noted in support document HT211983. i.e. boot into macOS Recovery, open Terminal and enter “reset password” and then “Erase Mac”. From what I can figure out, the “Erase Mac” command most likely eliminates the Admin profile - my guess is that the Personalization Error is caused by the Admin profile being present on the SSD. “Erase Mac” wipes the hard drive and does a factory reset.
Once the Mac restarts after running Erase Mac, you’ll be presented with the macOS Recovery screen. Go into Disk Utility and rename the SSD from Untitled to Macintosh HD (DON'T erase the drive - just rename it). From there, run the Reinstall macOS and all should go as normal.
The process takes a while but does work (I've ran it several times),
