Need to erase MacMini 8,1 for each update of MacOS

[ductng]

Hi,

this has been really frustrating for a while now and I already posted this in the apple forum, but I did not receive any good advice: for every update since BigSur on my MacMini 2018, I need to erase my Mac, reinstall the OS from the internet (using internet recovery, also tried NVRAM and SMC resets) and restore from my backup. Going from BigSur to Monterey did not help and I still need to perform the lengthy recovery for every small update (I am now at 12.3.1, holding off the 12.4 update until I find a couple of hours to do it).

It always goes like this: I can start the update process in the OS (and I also turn off file vault), but after the first restart it goes into recovery mode and the recovery utility says that it cannot find any partition to recover.

I tried many things from here:

• in disk utility to check my partition (both partitions are there, the secure one and the data volume and I can event mount it)
• reset the SMC/NVRAM
• explicitly select my internal SSD as a boot medium (using the option key at restart, select internal SSD)
• Turned off activation lock
• Turned off all the boot security to a minimum

However, I can never get past the recovery utility and the fact that it does not recognise my installation anymore.

The only steps that work so far is to erase my Mac and start an internet recovery (at least 2h for download and install) and recover everything from my TM backup (another 2-3h).

Is there anything else I can try or check what goes wrong? Is there something wrong with the locking/activation of my Mac that prevents the update from going smoothly?

Cheers
Duc

 

[richmlow]

Hi,

this has been really frustrating for a while now and I already posted this in the apple forum, but I did not receive any good advice: for every update since BigSur on my MacMini 2018, I need to erase my Mac, reinstall the OS from the internet (using internet recovery, also tried NVRAM and SMC resets) and restore from my backup. Going from BigSur to Monterey did not help and I still need to perform the lengthy recovery for every small update (I am now at 12.3.1, holding off the 12.4 update until I find a couple of hours to do it).

It always goes like this: I can start the update process in the OS (and I also turn off file vault), but after the first restart it goes into recovery mode and the recovery utility says that it cannot find any partition to recover.

I tried many things from here:

• in disk utility to check my partition (both partitions are there, the secure one and the data volume and I can event mount it)
• reset the SMC/NVRAM
• explicitly select my internal SSD as a boot medium (using the option key at restart, select internal SSD)
• Turned off activation lock
• Turned off all the boot security to a minimum

However, I can never get past the recovery utility and the fact that it does not recognise my installation anymore.

The only steps that work so far is to erase my Mac and start an internet recovery (at least 2h for download and install) and recover everything from my TM backup (another 2-3h).

Is there anything else I can try or check what goes wrong? Is there something wrong with the locking/activation of my Mac that prevents the update from going smoothly?

Cheers
Duc

Hello ductng,


It sounds like you have tried just about everything!

I would recommend that you take your Mac mini to the nearest Apple Store. Explain carefully (and in detail) your situation to an Apple Genius and have them resolve your annoying problem.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.


richmlow

 

[now i see it]

Your machine is messed up and there isn’t a magical key sequence that’s going to make it all better.

 

[Soondae]

It certainly sounds like there is an issue with your boot partition. I have the same model as you the only thing that would be different is that I have an external Seagate SSD hooked up permanently that runs all my documents, Music Library and the like freeing up space on the main volume. Could it be that you have little free space on the boot partition so the updates choke on install? Run a storage report from the "About this Mac" APP and see if you have sufficient free space.

One other idea is since you go through all that trouble to install the updates, next time delete the Boot partition and recreate a new Boot partition. If the old one is corrupted this should solve the issue.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I have the exact same problem but with my 4th Gen Apple TV. I don’t know when it started but I can no longer do OTA updates, including point releases. I have to do a restore from my Mac. I was hoping tvOS 16 would solve this but after reading the OP’s issues I am doubtful it will solve the problem.

 

[BrianBaughn]

OP: Have you tested a clean install and then update? What I mean is…do a clean install of Big Sur creating a new, test user account and don't recover/migrate any of your stuff. Then, try to update that to Monterey.

If that works, your issue likely resides in your User Account. Those issues can be hard to track down and most often require building back from scratch.

 

[Soba]

Hi,

this has been really frustrating for a while now and I already posted this in the apple forum, but I did not receive any good advice: for every update since BigSur on my MacMini 2018, I need to erase my Mac, reinstall the OS from the internet (using internet recovery, also tried NVRAM and SMC resets) and restore from my backup. Going from BigSur to Monterey did not help and I still need to perform the lengthy recovery for every small update (I am now at 12.3.1, holding off the 12.4 update until I find a couple of hours to do it).

It always goes like this: I can start the update process in the OS (and I also turn off file vault), but after the first restart it goes into recovery mode and the recovery utility says that it cannot find any partition to recover.

I tried many things from here:

• in disk utility to check my partition (both partitions are there, the secure one and the data volume and I can event mount it)
• reset the SMC/NVRAM
• explicitly select my internal SSD as a boot medium (using the option key at restart, select internal SSD)
• Turned off activation lock
• Turned off all the boot security to a minimum

However, I can never get past the recovery utility and the fact that it does not recognise my installation anymore.

The only steps that work so far is to erase my Mac and start an internet recovery (at least 2h for download and install) and recover everything from my TM backup (another 2-3h).

Is there anything else I can try or check what goes wrong? Is there something wrong with the locking/activation of my Mac that prevents the update from going smoothly?

Cheers
Duc

As others have said, it sounds like you have a partition problem somewhere. There's another possible fix that you didn't mention in your post; it involves the terminal and it will wipe your Mac.

Caution: This will completely remove all partitions from your disk and destroy all your data, so only do this on a Mac that has a reliable backup from Time Machine or some other backup method.

(I know this procedure looks long, but don't be intimidated; it will only take you a few minutes to go through everything before reinstalling macOS.)

1. Backup your Mac using Time Machine or another method you are comfortable with.
2. Shut down your Mac and disconnect any external hard drives or SSDs.
3. Restart the Mac, then when you hear the boot chime, hold the Option-Command-R keys to boot into Internet Recovery. Internet Recovery loads after a few minutes.
4. Open Disk Utility, then open the View menu and choose Show All Devices. Your internal SSD should appear at the very top of the list on the left side of the window and be called Apple SSD APXXXX Media (or similar).
5. Click once on the Apple SSD to highlight it, then look at the lower right cell of the table that appears on the right side of the window. You should see Device: diskX where X is a number. Make a note of this device name. (Note: It will probably be disk0 but there are situations where it might not be, so check this carefully. The value of X can change anytime you reboot your Mac, so if for any reason you need to reboot your Mac and restart this procedure, you must locate and note the device name again.)
6. Quit Disk Utility.
7. Go to the Utilities menu and choose Terminal to open the Terminal window.
8. At the prompt, type diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskx and replace diskx with the device name that you noted above in step 4. Press return and you should then see a confirmation that the disk unmounted successfully.
9. Type disuktil zeroDisk /dev/diskx, again replacing diskx with the device name that you noted in step 4. Press return, and after a few seconds, you will see a progress meter saying the procedure is 0% complete. Note: You do not need to wait for this to complete. Wait only about 10 seconds (it doesn't need to be precise), then hold the Ctrl key and press C. This will cancel the zeroDisk operation.
10. Quit Terminal, then reopen Disk Utility.
11. Your Mac's SSD should again be shown at the left side of the window (this time with nothing else underneath it). Erase your SSD and choose APFS for the Format and choose GUID partition map for the scheme.
12. Close Disk Utility and choose Reinstall macOS.
13. Complete the installation process.
14. After the Mac reboots, you can reconnect at any time any external drives you disconnected in step 2.
15. When prompted to migrate data, you can locate your Time Machine backup and your data will import.

Then, at your convenience (or whenever a new update is released), try updating your system and see if it behaves as expected. Let us know how it goes.