in the latest 15.1 beta 2 - I seem to have lost the ability to connect to any external drive. This could be hard drive or even cameras connected in mass storage mode. Massive blow to my creative work. Just warning and checking if anyone else has the same issue? MacBook Pro M1 Max maxed out (When the drive shows up as Untitled it says "zero items" )
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MacOS 15.1 Beta 2 HUGE BUG: NO EXTERNAL DRIVE ACCESS/CONNECTIVITY
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Surely the latest Beta fixed that problem which was prevalent on Intel Macs I think.
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I have 3 external drives connected, Thunderbolt, USB-C and an old WD network drive and they're all running fine on my Mac Studio M1 Max, so it doesn't look like a Sequoia problem.
Sequoia 15.1 beta 1 was updated via OTA to 15.1 beta 2 with no issues.
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You can generally install macOS to an existing volume containing a version of macOS earlier or equal to that of the installer without losing your settings and data.
If you have an Apple Developer account, there's a restore image for 15.1 beta 2 that you can download. You should be able to install over the top of your existing installation, retaining your data.
As you can't make a backup to an external drive first, try making a new partition on your existing internal drive and backing up to there before running the restore image. Alternatively, use Time Machine to make a backup and use it to restore your data and settings after running the restore image, if needed.
Good luck!
It's been a long time since I've had to tinker. My internal 8TB is almost full with no access to external drives. Will this ipsw open like an img file and mount giving me the option to install?
You would think that Apple should know better, but every single year is the same. Regressions everywhere, even for the most basic tasks. Nothing seems to work on the first betas, is unnerving.
1. Back up to Time Machine.
2. Shut down
3. Start up by holding the power button until you see start up options.
4. Select options. Select reinstall macOS.
5. Install over your current installation.
6. Hope whatever bug is fixed and you don't lose data
2. Shut down
3. Start up by holding the power button until you see start up options.
4. Select options. Select reinstall macOS.
5. Install over your current installation.
6. Hope whatever bug is fixed and you don't lose data
There is no Recovery for 15.1. It will be considered as a downgrade to 15.0, what is blocked to install. There is also no full installer available to download for any version of 15.1 or just to reinstall the update to beta 2. It can only be done with that Firmware IPSW-file and I think you need a second Mac for it.
I reported this already to Apple via Feedback Assistant, because not having a recovery option is not really good, even if it's juts a beta.
I wanted to downgrade to 15.0 because of the shorter update schedule and didn't find a way to just use the full installer. So I think I have to try it also with that firmware file.
P.S.: I have many different external devices and there are no connection problems. I just don't need that intelligence stuff and have to skip updates only to have that option in the settings.
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From Apple Support:
“How do I install Apple IPSW?
In Apple Configurator , select the device in the device window and drag the . ipsw file onto the device, then choose to update or restore the device. Note: Because of dependency on architecture and system changes to any current version of an Apple operating system, you shouldn't restore to an older operating system.”
You will need a second Mac to do this.
*This will overwrite your existing installation, so ensure you have a backup first.*
If it was me, I’d wait for the next beta and see if it corrects the problem.
I'll try a downgrade to 15.0 with that method if they skip again an update for 15.1.
If they update it regularly now and it was just an exception for the first beta to get the late update, I might try that too with the 15.1-IPSW.
I wanted to do a full install over mine already on 14.x because I am always messing too much with my Macs and some strange errors could be fixed. Also the Recovery for 15.1 would hopefully be there after doing this.
There were times I did clean installs several times a year just to get rid of harmless leftovers in my Library or couldn't decide what version of macOS I should use, because there were always changes I disliked in any new version. 🙈
I really hated the change of Disk Utility and still don't understand and even much more I hat APFS what always is making problems when partitioning any drive. I just wanted to look what the old file system had been called exactly (I think JHFS+) and noticed I can't even partition my main drive.
"This container has 665,35 GB used space.
Its minimum size is 994,66 GB. Snapshot tidemarks can raise the minimum size above the used size.
You can’t remove this volume, because the preceding volume cannot be resized.
This container can’t be split, because the resulting containers would be too small."
I don't even know where in this strange tree exactly to click on partition, but it always shows that same message. Only on one of them it showed about 300GB less free space, what also shows the drive on my Desktop, but even then it should be enough for another partition. This purgeable storage thing is also something I don't really understand.
I’m not going to put the beta on to test this, so I’ll take your word for it. When I ran Sonoma betas last year, however, recoveryOS was updated as well and would install the beta again. You can also download the installer from Mr Macintosh and use createinstallmedia and use that to install again.
