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Can't Erase and Re-Migrate Without Reinstalling Sequoia???

J

jordii

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 9, 2008
242
130
I botched my migration to my new Mac mini, so I did an Erase All to try again fresh.

Mini restarted into recovery mode. I couldn't figure out how to reach the familiar generic "Welcome" screen.

Support said you must reinstall system software after an Erase All. A two hour process.

I replied that in 35 years of Mac computing I've never seen an Erase All (in any context) remove system software. I asked how I might have done this erase/re-migrate better. She said there's no better way. You always need to reinstall system software.

Thinking about it, I grok that the only way to ensure a default state for MacOS is to reinstall. But then why has this never occurred before? Is this perfectly normal and I'm an edge case?
 
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Apple_Robert said:
If you are talking about a new Mac mini, the “erase all content and settings” feature does not delete the OS. It deletes all user data. Ergo, there is no need for you to reinstall the OS. All you should have to do is go through the user setup process again.
Click to expand...
That’s not what happened in this case, ergo this thread.

After choosing “Erase all content and settings”, it booted into Recovery Mode. Apple support said that’s normal, and I must reinstall software. But I repeat myself…..
 
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jordii said:
That’s not what happened in this case, ergo this thread.

After choosing “Erase all content and settings”, it booted into Recovery Mode. Apple support said that’s normal, and I must reinstall software. But I repeat myself…..
Click to expand...

When you Erase All Contents and Settings, the machine boots in macOS Recovery, it then needs an internet connection to activate the machine, then reboots again to the Welcome Setup Screen.

So that didn't happen?
 
jordii said:
If I were to take a photo, you’d see system software reinstalling.
Click to expand...
I am rather shocked a new M series Mac is acting this way. It is definitely not normal. Apple Support was definitely reading off old cards that don’t really apply to the newer Macs.

If you still have your other Mac, give this video a shot. It is a very quick process and should get you up and going in less than 10 mins. I have used this process before and it does work.

 
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jordii said:
That’s not what happened in this case, ergo this thread.

After choosing “Erase all content and settings”, it booted into Recovery Mode. Apple support said that’s normal, and I must reinstall software. But I repeat myself…..
Click to expand...
I have done the erase all. After that, don’t have to reinstall all, but do get a recovery screen. Once go through by setting up the WiFi, simply activate and then it reboots and allows to start fresh. No reinstall necessary. I did this when selling a few Macs recently. I was surprised to see that recovery screen, but it was no big deal.
 
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ThailandToo said:
I have done the erase all. After that, don’t have to reinstall all, but do get a recovery screen. Once go through by setting up the WiFi, simply activate and then it reboots and allows to start fresh. No reinstall necessary. I did this when selling a few Macs recently. I was surprised to see that recovery screen, but it was no big deal.
Click to expand...
When I got to recovery screen and set up wifi, it rebooted to "Choose your startup disk" screen, with no choices offered, and no other moves.

I tried restarting while holding Command R to get back to Recovery, but the scenario repeated. Tech support told me to press and hold the power button to escape to recovery, whereupon I did get Recovery, and reinstalled system software (which, despite starting as a 2 hour thermometer, installed in an hour).
 
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Hokey Dokey. Software reinstalled, migration complete. Well, sort of. Have a look at this. Plug-and-play!

I've ignored this and done finishing touches on Mac mini, which seems happy and functional. But maybe one day I'll search for, like "Birth Certificate.pdf" or "Apartment Lease.doc" and find it curiously missing.

One irregularity....just before this second migration, my old iMac had trouble connecting to iCloud, and asked me to re-log-in to iCloud. After I cancelled this (on the iMac side), it asked for another iCloud log-on. My guess is that it lost permissions to transfer iCloud items, so the thermometer stopped on that end, but it's not a problem because Mini will synch with iCloud independently.
 

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I re-migrated my migration, and it went well. So I erased my iMac (after signing out of iCloud), and it rebooted into Recovery Mode. It was still connected to my wifi, but demanded that I reinstall Sequoia. Having done that, I got the familiar "Hello" choose language screen.

So maybe the Apple rep is right and the rest of us are all wrong.

I'll just note that the Sequoia reinstall starts by estimating 2-3 hours on the thermometer, but actually takes less than an hour.
 
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I ran into a very similar (if not the same) problem. I have a brand new M4 Pro MacBook Pro. Started the migration and thought I had a thunderbolt 3 hook up but it didn't read that. So I stopped migration and then it went into recovery mode (not sure what I did). But I then could not get out of recovery mode. No matter what. Restart. Tried to restart on the HD drive and it said Sequoia is not up to date. Now I have to download and install Sequoia.

What is going on? This makes no sense. I just want to get the darn computer back to the original startup (which is what I thought I was doing). I hope that downloading Sequoia will solve this. But this is frankly incredibly irritating on a brand new machine!

And it seems to be taking forever.
 
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