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Internet Recovery (for latest OS) boots to Catalina and not Big Sur

Yebubbleman

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2010
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Los Angeles, CA
I have a separate thread about this issue (though that thread was started on the pretense that it was limited to a single model of Mac), but I'm finding that it appears to be wider spread:

Basically on an Intel Mac that is compatible with (and otherwise running) macOS Big Sur, when one uses Command+Option+R to boot to the latest supported OS's Recovery OS via Internet Recovery, macOS Catalina is the OS that it lands on, not Big Sur.

This didn't used to be the case on said Macs, but this seems a bit recent (perhaps following the release of macOS Big Sur 11.1).

So far, I've encountered this on a MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017), a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) and a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014). All three of which are definitely compatible with and supported to run macOS Big Sur.

Is anyone else experiencing this, and if so, on which machines? Does anyone know what is causing this or why this is happening?
 
I recall reading (somewhere) that the new m1 Macs cannot do "internet recovery". If I'm wrong, others please correct me.

Having said that, I'm wondering if "internet recovery" has been removed from Big Sur altogether? Could someone please correct me on this...?
 
Fishrrman said:
I recall reading (somewhere) that the new m1 Macs cannot do "internet recovery". If I'm wrong, others please correct me.

Having said that, I'm wondering if "internet recovery" has been removed from Big Sur altogether? Could someone please correct me on this...?
Click to expand...

M1 Macs cannot do Internet Recovery. That said, I'm exclusively talking about Intel Macs (let alone Intel Macs that were able to do Internet Recovery to Big Sur just three weeks ago!).
 
I reset my Intel 2019 MacBook Pro today for trade-in. Yes, cmd-opt-R installed Catalina. In my case, it didn't matter. If I had wanted Big Sur, I would have performed an upgrade from Catalina.
 
chabig said:
I reset my Intel 2019 MacBook Pro today for trade-in. Yes, cmd-opt-R installed Catalina. In my case, it didn't matter. If I had wanted Big Sur, I would have performed an upgrade from Catalina.
Click to expand...
Right, and that is the current USB-less workaround. But that doubles the time it takes to get you to the most current OS. In the case of trade-in, it doesn't matter because surely whatever store you sell to will wipe and do whatever they're gonna do with the internal drive. If I'm selling a Mac to someone (as I planned to do with my aforementioned 2017 12" MacBook), I'm going to want to load an OS that's currently supported (ruling out High Sierra) and not a piece of crap (ruling out both High Sierra and Catalina). Getting Mojave on there, especially when ports are not a large commodity on the machine would've been a pain, so Internet Recovery made the most sense. But it still was a two-step process. I'm just grateful that startosinstall has an -eraseinstall flag enabling me to wipe the drive and install the OS afresh from the upgrade installer itself. Like, were it not for that, using the Catalina-then-Big-Sur workaround would've been a real annoyance.
 
A request for information from someone who has done the following:

a. You need to have an INTEL (not m1) Mac that originally had Catalina or earlier...
and
b. You need to have upgraded to Big Sur.

My question:
IF you reboot to INTERNET recovery (command OPTION R at boot)
then
Do you get to a "Big Sur internet recovery"
or
Do you get to a "Catalina internet recovery"

???

WHY I'm asking:
We're trying to determine if an Intel Mac that's been upgraded from Catalina to Big Sur will boot to a "Big Sur" version of internet recovery, or just back to the "Catalina version".

This would support my supposition above that Big Sur has NO "internet recovery" capabilities anymore at all, neither for m1 Macs OR for Intel Macs.
(I could be totally wrong, asking for empirical evidence).
 
I've done that Fishrrman. I had a 2019 Intel MBP that shipped with Mojave and was upgraded to Catalina, then Big Sur. Booting to internet recovery with CMD-R installs Mojave. Booting to internet recovery with CMD-OPT-R installs Catalina. This was yesterday.

As to your hypothesis, I don't know how there could not be an internet recovery for machines that ship with Big Sur. I suspect this is some kind of temporary glitch that Apple will work out.
 
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chabig wrote:
"As to your hypothesis, I don't know how there could not be an internet recovery for machines that ship with Big Sur. I suspect this is some kind of temporary glitch that Apple will work out."

I have to disagree.

We KNOW that the m1 Macs will no longer do internet recovery, that Apple seems to have deliberately removed such capability. And of course, they require Big Sur.

But even on intel Macs (as you have documented), a Big Sur installation will not permit internet recovery (at least an "internet recovery" that will reinstall Big Sur).

Instead, you get the "last version" of internet recovery that was possible -- Catalina -- because apparently the "upgrade" to Big Sur just "leaves in place" the volume/container (or whatever it is) that enabled internet recovery on older versions of the OS.

But again, I sense that Big Sur (whether Intel or m1 version) by itself has NO "internet recovery" abilities built into it.

I could be wrong.

But it looks to me that Apple's vision for the "future of the Mac OS" DOES NOT WANT the concept of "internet recovery" to be available to the user. Complete "recovery" on m1 Macs seems to have been made deliberately difficult or perhaps even impossible (at least impossible without 3rd party hacks that will eventually appear).

Again, my [uneducated] observation only.
 
Fishrrman said:
We KNOW that the m1 Macs will no longer do internet recovery, that Apple seems to have deliberately removed such capability.
Click to expand...
I don't follow you here. We know that M1 Macs have macOS Recovery built in, and one of the apps in macOS Recovery reinstalls Big Sur over the internet. The only difference I see between this and Intel machines is that the Intel machines will boot over the internet, while the M1 Macs apparently have the macOS recovery code built in.

Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon

Learn how to use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon.
support.apple.com
 
"I don't follow you here. We know that M1 Macs have macOS Recovery built in, and one of the apps in macOS Recovery reinstalls Big Sur over the internet. The only difference I see between this and Intel machines is that the Intel machines will boot over the internet, while the M1 Macs apparently have the macOS recovery code built in."

With internet recovery (as distinguished from "the recovery partition"), one can boot a Mac via the net, and then COMPLETELY ERASE the internal drive and start over again. Or "clone over" a backup to the "empty" drive.

It seems like this ability no longer is going to exist with the m1 Macs and Big Sur. At least "for the average user". With the recovery partition, you can reinstall the OS, but you CAN'T "erase" the internal drive itself (only the partition that the OS is going onto).

Hence, the problems reported by Mike Bombich of CarbonCopyCloner. Although he'll probably get them solved in time.

I'll reckon that there WILL be ways to erase the entire drive, but they won't be easy.
 
So I guess Apple reserves a portion of the SSD for macOS recovery, and that area can't be erased. But why would you want to?
 
Fishrrman said:
chabig wrote:
"As to your hypothesis, I don't know how there could not be an internet recovery for machines that ship with Big Sur. I suspect this is some kind of temporary glitch that Apple will work out."

I have to disagree.

We KNOW that the m1 Macs will no longer do internet recovery, that Apple seems to have deliberately removed such capability. And of course, they require Big Sur.

But even on intel Macs (as you have documented), a Big Sur installation will not permit internet recovery (at least an "internet recovery" that will reinstall Big Sur).

Instead, you get the "last version" of internet recovery that was possible -- Catalina -- because apparently the "upgrade" to Big Sur just "leaves in place" the volume/container (or whatever it is) that enabled internet recovery on older versions of the OS.

But again, I sense that Big Sur (whether Intel or m1 version) by itself has NO "internet recovery" abilities built into it.

I could be wrong.

But it looks to me that Apple's vision for the "future of the Mac OS" DOES NOT WANT the concept of "internet recovery" to be available to the user. Complete "recovery" on m1 Macs seems to have been made deliberately difficult or perhaps even impossible (at least impossible without 3rd party hacks that will eventually appear).

Again, my [uneducated] observation only.
Click to expand...
The Intel Mac with Big Sur is capable of performing internet recovery that delivers Big Sur. I performed the procedure on my Mac mini (2018).
 
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