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Restoring Apple Silicon M1 Macs Leading to macOS Installation Errors

melancholy said:
WTF. Now I can’t reinstall macOS after updating to 11.0.1. I’m getting the same error!!!!!!!!!!! It let me reinstall on 11.0!!!!
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So you reinstalled Mac OS, updated it, then tried to reinstall it again? Why?

I get that you should be able to do that, but wouldn’t you just chill out on the reinstalls after reading this thread and wait for a fix from Apple?? I mean it kinda sounds like you were trying to experience this problem for yourself
 
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Camarillo Brillo said:
So you reinstalled Mac OS, updated it, then tried to reinstall it again? Why?

I get that you should be able to do that, but wouldn’t you just chill out on the reinstalls after reading this thread and wait for a fix from Apple?? I mean it kinda sounds like you were trying to experience this problem for yourself
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I was trying to restore from a time machine backup. My backup was from 11.0.1, my new Mac came with 11.0, and it was giving me an error that I couldn’t restore. So I updated it then repeated the steps when my new Mac updated to 11.0.1.

I was trying to restore my Mac from a time machine backup. Obviously not trying to encounter the bug myself. This method is how I always restored my Mac (from macOS recovery)
 
melancholy said:
I was trying to restore from a time machine backup. My backup was from 11.0.1, my new Mac came with 11.0, and it was giving me an error that I couldn’t restore. So I updated it then repeated the steps when my new Mac updated to 11.0.1.

I was trying to restore my Mac from a time machine backup. Obviously not trying to encounter the bug myself. This method is how I always restored my Mac (from macOS recovery)
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But you’re restoring from a time machine backup of an Intel machine right?

I just wouldn’t expect that to be a great idea on one of these new devices in the first place, just start fresh, everything should be saved in iCloud anyway right?
 
HiVolt said:
It's too bad that Apple doesn't provide a simple installer tool to download the OS of your choice and create a USB bootable installer.

Microsoft has been doing that for Win10 for like 5 years now and it's painless to install or reinstall.
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Except they do. It’s not a “simple tool”, but it’s easy enough for power users who already feel comfortable to do such operations on their own. It’s a command line tool called “createinstallmedia”, included in every macOS installer downloaded from the Mac App Store, and it works just fine for that purpose.

I’m guessing that is still not an option because maybe Big Sur is like Tiger, in that there are separate releases for different ISAs and, seeing how Apple Silicon Macs all came with Big Sur to begin with anyway, their users can resort to Internet Recovery (which, mind you, is Apple’s actual alternative to what you proposed in terms of ease of use, if not as convenient for power users who may have to repeat those operations) and no full Apple Silicon Big Sur installer will ever be provided in the app store.

I’m guessing that unless there’s a bigger change in how operating system updates for AS Macs are distributed and installed, we may get a Universal macOS 12 installer, much like we had Universal Leopard installers on DVDs back in the day, and createinstallmedia will be a thing for AS Macs once again.
 
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My m1 after 20 minutes fun, bricked, apple support no idea. Saturday i get a new one from ama... tomorrow i send it back.
Not possible to go in dfu mode for me to fix it.

but the machine is so fast and makes fun cant wait for it <:)
 
stewa said:
I ran into this issue too and was able to work around it. I was initially erasing the disk using disk utility, following the instructions here
This failed with "...personalize software..". Tried like 4-5 times.
Then I discovered the recovery assistant app had an "Erase Mac..." option in the menu. When I used that instead of disk utility, the installation of Big Sur worked. No DFU mode needed.

During the failed installs, checking the install logs, the underlaying error message was "Failed to update boot policy for OS". Not sure what that means, but my guess was that volumes was not correctly set up after erasing in disk utility.

The reason I wanted to try a clean install was that I was seeing multiple issues. Top 2 was
1) No iCloud drive files showing up
2) After purchasing the Pixelmator Pro upgrade bundle, I could not download Pixelmator PRO (could on other Macs though)

Sadly, reinstalling everything from scratch didn't solve any of these issues for me.
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Hello, I'm having the same issue with the "failed to personalize the software update". I see you did solve the problem by using the "Erase Mac" option. I would like to try your solution but I can't find it in the recovery assistant. Can you help me please ?
 
Voxlay said:
Hello, I'm having the same issue with the "failed to personalize the software update". I see you did solve the problem by using the "Erase Mac" option. I would like to try your solution but I can't find it in the recovery assistant. Can you help me please ?
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I think he was trolling.

I've tried a number of different ways of erasing the drive, none of them have worked. I've yet to found a solution.
 
chrisphil1724 said:
I think he was trolling.

I've tried a number of different ways of erasing the drive, none of them have worked. I've yet to found a solution.
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Oh okay thank you very much. I think I'm stuck because the only friend I know with a Mac has a 2015 one with no USB-C port, so I think I can't do the DFU solution.. I wonder if a bootable USB would work.
 
I have the same issue. Xcode installation failed, then all apps from App Store installation failed. Tried to reboot multiple times, updated new Big Sur... not working. Had to erased the system and the OS system restore from boot menu not working either. DFU mode + Apple Configurator 2 was able to download and proceed the restoration. Sad the new MBA took me a dozen hours for nothing :(
 
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Apple seems sure it was a wireless network issue, I tried a wired connection and the result was the same. I have a time set up for next Tuesday to do the DFU mode + Apple Configurator 2 fix at the Apple store.
 
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So, just to be clear if you try to do a clean install of macOS on these machines you get the error? Or is it just when you try to restore from a backup?
 
Wow, what a strange oversight. I almost was going to press ahead to reinstall from recovery as it seemed insane to me that a super common use case like clean installs wouldn’t work. Glad I confirmed here.

I haven’t read through all of this thread - has anyone been successful clean installing or is it failing for everyone?
 
Is there a proper way to format my mac without running into this issue? I am switching from my Mac Mini (M1) to a Macbook Air (M1) and want to safely delete all my data prior to sending it back to apple. My data is FileVault protected and usually I did a format and clean install to my macs prior to selling them...
 
chrisphil1724 said:
Apple seems sure it was a wireless network issue, I tried a wired connection and the result was the same. I have a time set up for next Tuesday to do the DFU mode + Apple Configurator 2 fix at the Apple store.
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just use an iPhone... or log into iCloud go to find my iPhone devices. and click erase MacBook . boot MacBook m1 via the boot menu by holding down the power button. once connected to internet and password input. the Mac will erase. once erase can partition and install will continue without error
 
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Mainyehc said:
Except they do. It’s not a “simple tool”, but it’s easy enough for power users who already feel comfortable to do such operations on their own. It’s a command line tool called “createinstallmedia”, included in every macOS installer downloaded from the Mac App Store, and it works just fine for that purpose.

I’m guessing that is still not an option because maybe Big Sur is like Tiger, in that there are separate releases for different ISAs and, seeing how Apple Silicon Macs all came with Big Sur to begin with anyway, their users can resort to Internet Recovery (which, mind you, is Apple’s actual alternative to what you proposed in terms of ease of use, if not as convenient for power users who may have to repeat those operations) and no full Apple Silicon Big Sur installer will ever be provided in the app store.

I’m guessing that unless there’s a bigger change in how operating system updates for AS Macs are distributed and installed, we may get a Universal macOS 12 installer, much like we had Universal Leopard installers on DVDs back in the day, and createinstallmedia will be a thing for AS Macs once again.
Click to expand...
Except you totally missed my point. You can't choose the OS in Internet Recovery. It just downloads the latest, whether you like it or not.

And in App Store now, I cannot find Mojave or Catalina, should I want to make a USB installer on my 2018 Mini.

They are making it harder like iOS to downgrade should you need to.

I'm guessing with M1 future OS'es will be signed like iOS, no downgrading possible.
 
This feels in the same vein as the **** show I’ve encountered tried to load a fresh copy of Big Sur on a separate SSD on my 2019 Mac Pro. Wants me to enter a password for my admin account to start the process, yet won’t accept the correct password.

I’m all for a secure system, but this is just ridiculous.
 
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Somesayimhandsome said:
just use an iPhone... or log into iCloud go to find my iPhone devices. and click erase MacBook . boot MacBook m1 via the boot menu by holding down the power button. once connected to internet and password input. the Mac will erase. once erase can partition and install will continue without error
Click to expand...
That is not my issue. I disabled and removed the Macbook from iCloud/find my before I tried reinstalling.
 
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Yasushi said:
I got the same issue so I talked to an Apple support agent over the phone in Japan today.
He taught me the latest article from Apple below and I could totally recovered my M1 MacBook Pro.

If you get a personalization error when reinstalling macOS on your Mac with Apple M1 chip

I recommend to just follow the instructions on 'Or use Terminal in macOS Recovery'.
You don't need any secondary Mac or USB flash drives.
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So effectively Macs are *not* being bricked by restoration because this workaround exists?
 
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falkon-engine said:
Windows is cool but it has its quirks. One thing to always remember: the grass is not greener on the other side. Windows has had significant issues with software updates as of late. And windows is even more aggressive in forcing updates down your throat than macOS. A recent 2020 windows update led to blue screens of death if you plugged in an external drive via thunderbolt. Let that sink in. Windows is still quite buggy.

If I were you, I would avoid windows if possible unless you want to game or run an app that won’t run on Macintosh.
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Linux on Dell hardware.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I have a 2016 Dell and a 2019 MBP.

I think I’ve had to reboot the MBP more in two years than the Dell in five years.

If I ditched Apple, I’d miss iWork and iLife, but honestly, I think I’d go ahead and just go Windows only sooner than I’d go Mac only. Windows 10 is for Windows what Snow Leopard was for the Mac - rock steady. It just works. No pointless annual releases that reskin everything for the worse and somehow introduces a boatload of bugs despite delivering no worthwhile features.
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I think with the last 3 macOS releases more and more people are coming to that same conclusion.
 
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MadeTheSwitch said:
So ridiculous. Didn’t anyone at Apple even test this before shipping these out? Doesn’t seem like it. How does this happen? How can Apple have thousands of employees on staff and not catch these things?

Oh and great solution...in order to make our product work, you have to have ANOTHER of our products to revive the one we broke. Fantastic. 🙄
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