Is the internal recovery mode on my Mac broken or something ?

[bo-waleed]

First of all, I have a 2018 MBP that came with HS.

After a few days of intalling 11.1. I decide to go back to HS which is the os my Mac shipped with it.

I did the Option+Cmd+R which is the internet recovery and the macOS version that appears was Catalina but I didn't now about it and I accidentally erased my drive, I had no option the I decided to install Catalina then go back to HS.

Now the problem, Even since that time the 'Cmd+R' and 'Shift+Option+Cmd+R' doesn't work property.

When I do Cmd+R it starts with internet recovery and not internal recovery and it always end up with -1008f error.

I tried the solution found here and no luck:

If your Mac starts up to error -1008F - Apple Support (KW)

Your Mac tried unsuccessfully to start up from macOS Recovery over the internet.

support.apple.com

The very same thing happens with 'Shift+Option+Cmd+R' and ends up with -1008f error too.



The only command that works now is the Option+Cmd+R which installs Catalina .

After that I was able to install Mojave through a bootable USB. Not HS because I got with another problem with it, See here:

Did Apple block HS installation for 2018 MBP ?

You cant install older macOS than what you had installed on your MBP when delivered. Always been like that.

forums.macrumors.com

Thanks for reading.

 

[Grumpus]

Me too. My 2019 MacBook Air shipped with, and still runs, Mojave. I installed Big Sur on an external SSD for testing. Now I find that I can no longer boot the laptop's internal recovery partition. Booting with Cmd+R immediately launches the spinning globe internet recovery, which eventually fails with error -1008F. I've erased the Mojave drive and reinstalled, but the problem persists. Booting with Cmd+R and the Big Sur drive attached does work, bringing up the Big Sur recovery (after you get past the Recovery Assistant) but the Mojave recovery partition/volume won't boot.

I'm not certain, but I believe that the T2 chip's firmware was upgraded during the Big Sur installation, and that might be the root of the problem.

I read here that the problem with Option+Cmd+R has been fixed.