It actually is! I just restored successfully!
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Caution: Unable to reinstall macOS on 2018 MBP
- Thread starter pshifrin
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Admire your patience and persistence. Talk about unintended consequences—and who would have expected that just testing with a dummy user would have left you in this position.
I’m glad you and @stringerhye got it sorted and hope @DeanLubaki and any others affected get up .
I feel like we should buy all of you a round of (virtual) drinks.
Haha. Glad to have it all sorted now and good to know if anything does happen that I can restore in the future. Only problem is now iMessage in iCloud won't sync for me on macOS.
Another couple of strange things: on iCloud and Under my AppleID info I noticed that my MacBook Pro is listed as a 13" model, and doesn't have an icon under the AppleID info. Strange.
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A bit of a gaffe by Apple. And unnecessary stress and inconvenience for you. I hope all is smooth from hereon out.
I'm still having issues restoring. Any tricks to get it to work? Also, the T2 restore process doesn't seem to work.
Shift-Option-Command-R at boot (force internet recovery regardless of what's installed on SSD), once that loads, go to disk utility and erase your internal SSD (after you are SURE you don't have any files you need), then go to reinstall macOS and as long as your are connected to the internet, it will download and install.
Why would you wipe a new machine?
Because he gets to exchange it without questions if something happens. Those will then come down to refurbishments, I hope, but this did feel like a waste to return it. Should have just waited for Apple to release a version, kicking yourself for erasing a new MBP which does not contain any bloatware or anything.
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Apple did not think that there will be people erasing their machines as soon as they got them.
@pshifrin Thanks. That got me further than I was getting prior, but has now resulted in an endless loop of trying to install. All this started when I changed the secure boot mode to medium, which you'd think would make it easier but I guess not...And since I reformatted I can't change change the secure boot options anymore.
That's not a reason. They released a $4,000 machine with no reinstallation image. It was dumb, end of the story. There is absolutely no justification for this.
It's probably their secrecy culture: no one knew the new MacBooks were coming and people were unprepared, and some guy probably thought "meh I'll just upload the image to the server next Monday" and the result was many people having to get their machine replaced with a loss from Apple.
It's exactly how Apple never noticed the iPhone's 4 Antenna problem during testing because every time the engineers would use it outside in real life, they wore a gigantic case to hide it and that prevented the issue from being noticed...
That's my local store! Good to hear they're responsive like this. I've had some good luck going there for work-related things, they recognize the partnership with the corporation and have bumped me to near the front of the line as a walk-in
Question for anyone who did a successful restore here. I was able to get mine to download and restore but the Apple Pay and wallet app is just missing. It was there out of the box, but was gone after the restore. Anyone else seeing this?
One issue I am having after installing Mojave is that I can't add any cards to Wallet. I get an error message.
Can you use Touch ID?
When I picked mine up and signed in, the email I received from Apple said 13” as well.
I can use Touch ID. I didn’t install Mojave, though. High Sierra is what I installed. I also did so using internet recovery so there is a chance that it was done with a different version than what was used at the factory since I have no way of knowing if it was the exact same thing posted to Apple’s Web server. On a positive note I can confirm that recovery does now work, you just might lose the Apple Pay app on your computer. If I’m being honest, that’s not a huge deal, I have a literal handful of devices I can use Apple Pay on. Also, it will trigger apply pay on one of my devices just like computers without built in Apple Pay. So not a big deal, just super annoying. I feel like Apple needs to get their stuff in order, these machines cost way too much to have dumb issues like this. Also, due to their super secrecy, calling support with an issue on a brand new device or feature gets you no where since none of support have any training on it. I wish they would stop with that.
Not to say you are wrong or I do not agree with you, but there is also no justification to wipe out a brand new Mac out of the box. These things have no bloatware whatsoever and there really was no need for anyone to wipe out anything. Also, in 2018, while Apple can be blamed and is being blamed for anything wrong in our lives, there is the internet and before wiping out a brand new, not to speak of just released computer, people should have done research on the internet. You can blame Apple, but the fault also lies with those who did not research before wiping a computer that was released not a fortnight ago.
Im in the same boat, I thankfully turned off all the T2 protections (as I didnt want to get myself into trouble later on) but as I was in the recovery partition I thought I might as well do a disk check/repair whilst I'm here.
It found about 6 faults and supposedly repaired them. I rebooted and was left with the message please reinstall high sierra. Bugger, it wont boot off the network (cant find the image off the server) and I downloaded the latest high sierra install from the apple store and made a boot USB but it just says it needs a newer one to continue, checks the network and cant find one (as before). I'm now trying to install from time machine backup I did 10 mins before I did all this and it failed half way through. Just having another go now. Looks like a trip to apple at this point for a swap.
So don't do any disk repairs until apple have got the installers ready
It found about 6 faults and supposedly repaired them. I rebooted and was left with the message please reinstall high sierra. Bugger, it wont boot off the network (cant find the image off the server) and I downloaded the latest high sierra install from the apple store and made a boot USB but it just says it needs a newer one to continue, checks the network and cant find one (as before). I'm now trying to install from time machine backup I did 10 mins before I did all this and it failed half way through. Just having another go now. Looks like a trip to apple at this point for a swap.
So don't do any disk repairs until apple have got the installers ready
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Dude, research about what? Apple's own support document mentioned Recovery HD as means to restore, and also steps to restore the T2 chip, specifically mentioning the 2018 MacBook Pro while in fact no image was on their servers.
I don't even know what point you're trying to make. Apple made a mistake, admit it that's all. We all makes mistakes in life.
At the end of the day, it's Apple that incurred a loss with all the returned MacBooks they can't sell as new anymore, not me.
Why oh why would you think there is no "justification" in wiping a new mac?
I have always done exactly that for the past years, not because there is bloatware, but usually the most recent iteration of macOS is not installed. Instead of having to go through the cumbersome update process of downloading several of Apple's security updates and whatnot, I usually use a prepared USB stick with the most recent OS.
If we have reached the point where I am not "supposed to" do a clean install on a computer, then that is really sad. Powerusers tend to tinker with their machines, and while it might not be necessary to do so, Apple is obliged to get their recovery procedures straight.
Doesn't have anything to do with a blame game, but rather with a professional attitude towards customers like us...
I did it because out of the box I set it up as new and loaded a bunch of tools for stress testing the machine. This was because I was one of the people who was burned by Apple and their thermal paste problems during the purchase of my last MacBook. Once I finished the stress testing it was just easier to wipe, reinstall, and then migrate my data over.
One more point of contention, though. Macs don't contain bloatware in the general sense, new Macs absolutely have pages, numbers, and keynote installed on them. I do not use them, nor want them. Yes it is easy to delete those programs after running through the setup assistant, but when I wipe and reinstall they are also not reinstalled as the OS installation package from the server does not contain them. In short, there are legitimate reasons someone could want to do it. Also the fact is that even if it is just a silly preference that makes no difference there should be an installation medium available at time of purchase to allow it to happen. Back when Macs used to contain installation media the disk was in the box (later the USB drive), now that it is downloaded from Apple's servers it would be wise of them to make sure it is uploaded to said servers before they start shipping people new computers.
Apple has set rather high standards for themselves, agreed, and it is not like Apple to not have restore media available. But, surely, they could be cut some slack as this is not really a normal requirement for at least 98 out of 100 people. No denying that it should have been available, though. They did goof up.
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Agreed.
