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Random_American

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2025
4
0
I got a retina intel MacBook Air (2020) and tried to do a clean install of MacOS. However, I must have screwed up somewhere because now, it just boots into internet recovery. Internet recovery mode keeps giving out "-2003f" and "-2010f" errors after attempting to start.
I've tried shutting it down (10 seconds on the power button) then holding option before turning it back on again to use a bootable USB installer instead, but it keeps booting into internet recovery. Other keyboard combinations have the same issue.
It's worth noting that right after shutting down the computer, it automatically tries to reboot into internet recovery again.
I tried to use Configurator + a DFU restore, however while in the process (step 4 of the DFU restore, with the bar halfway done), the boot looping MacBook boots and then the DFU icon turns into a lock.
 
Just use a USB network adapter or dock. The error you describe happens often when recovering using Wi-Fi.
 
I got a retina intel MacBook Air (2020) and tried to do a clean install of MacOS.
For this "clean install", did you initially boot into Recovery and reformat the internal storage?

You should be able to boot from external USB media (flash or disk), granted if you have another computer you can use to download macOS installer and create the USB install media to use.
 
For this "clean install", did you initially boot into Recovery and reformat the internal storage?

You should be able to boot from external USB media (flash or disk), granted if you have another computer you can use to download macOS installer and create the USB install media to use.
Yes, I booted into MacOS recovery and used disk utility to reformat the internal SSD. However, the MacOS installer in recovery failed and I shut down the MacBook Air. Afterwards, it only booted into internet recovery mode. I tried to create an external USB installer with another mac, however I was not able to get it to show up on the problematic MacBook Air (I tried to reboot while holding option, which usually works fine).
 
I tried to use Configurator + a DFU restore, however while in the process (step 4 of the DFU restore, with the bar halfway done), the boot looping MacBook boots and then the DFU icon turns into a lock.
This sounds like Activation Lock. Your MBA is tied to someone's Apple Account.
 
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