Resolved This computer does not have any authorized users - How Can I fix?

[ImpetuousRacer]

I have a Mac mini M4. I installed Seqouia 15.1 on an external hard drive and then erased the internal hard drive.

• In recovery, when I go to select my external drive as the startup disk, it gives me the error message "This computer does not have any authorized users" "The current computer does not have any authorized users. You can continue to try and set the startup disk but some features such as software updates will not be functional"
• When I try the resetpassword command in terminal in recovery, it tells me "There are no users on this volume to recover"
• When trying to change Startup Security Utility settings, it tells me "No administrator was found." and "No user found for system recovery"
• When trying to disable SIP using csrutil disable, it asks me to enter password for my username, I enter it correctly, but it tells me "failed to set credential: Authentication failure

When I boot into the external, I have an admin account. I also created a new admin account but I still receive the above errors. Can someone help me on how to resolve this. I tried removing .AppleSetupDone to resetup an admin but it looks like that no longer works when you have an account.

Thanks for the help!

UPDATE 1:
I ended up unplugging the external, removing mac from iCloud, reloading the OS via the internet restore, then rebooting into recovery which now has a user. I then went to switch startup disk to my external I plugged back in, then it told me there were no authorized user and now prompted me to associate which I did.

Now it works but I'm afraid of deleting the internal storage.

HOW TO REALLY FIX?
There has to be a way to simply add an authorized user without having to do all of that. If anyone finds out or knows, please still post.

 

[gilby101]

erased the internal hard drive.

That is probably your mistake. How and exactly what did you erase? You may need to reinstall macOS on the internal and start again with the external - depends on exactly what you have done.

Did you consider the question of ownership which is critical when booting from an external disk. The links in the answer to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255312003?sortBy=rank are essential reading (the question is slightly different to yours).

I have to ask why you want to boot from an external disk with the internal "erased"?

 

[ImpetuousRacer]

That is probably your mistake. How and exactly what did you erase? You may need to reinstall macOS on the internal and start again with the external - depends on exactly what you have done.

Did you consider the question of ownership which is critical when booting from an external disk. The links in the answer to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255312003?sortBy=rank are essential reading (the question is slightly different to yours).

I have to ask why you want to boot from an external disk with the internal "erased"?

I have an 8TB external drive and use the internal 256GB just as a storage drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

"There has to be a way to simply add an authorized user without having to do all of that. If anyone finds out or knows, please still post."

I could be wrong, but I believe that "completely wiping" the internal SSD wipes away some small bits of data that are essential to booting the Mac normally. Some of this pertains to the administrative user accounts necessary to authorize actions (such as in "recovery", as you discovered).

Looks like you were able to get it resolved.
With the OS now again booting from the internal SSD, and a new [administrative] account created, you don't get the alerts any longer?

Looks like it's best to boot and run from the INTERNAL drive.
If you need "more storage", well of course add external storage.
But learn how to manage both drives "at once"...

It's still possible to create an EXTERNAL bootable SSD.
BUT... even if you do, DON'T completely erase the internal drive, or the problem will arise again.
Let the OS reside there (even if you're booting elsewhere).

 

[gilby101]

There has to be a way to simply add an authorized user without having to do all of that. If anyone finds out or knows, please still post.

My understanding is that this is part of Apple security in the sense that is make theft less useful to the thief. As you have discovered you can't just plug in an external boot disk to use an Apple silicon Mac.

 

[dsemf]

Mx Macs always start the boot sequence from the internal SSD. See the details at https://eclecticlight.co/2024/10/22/boot-volume-layout-and-structure-in-macos-sequoia/.

When using an external "boot" disk, what happens is that internal boot sequence finally passes control to the SSV on the external disk if eveything is ok.

DS

 

[ImpetuousRacer]

I mean I could boot to the external drive without any issue with nothing on the internal drive and everything appeared to work perfectly fine when the OS was loaded. I only discovered the issue with authorized user when trying to disable SIP in recovery mode.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You're still probably better off to leave a bootable copy of the OS on the internal drive.

What happens if your external boot SSD FAILS?

 

[ImpetuousRacer]

OP:

You're still probably better off to leave a bootable copy of the OS on the internal drive.

What happens if your external boot SSD FAILS?

Simply reinstall the OS like I did.

256GB is tiny and taking 50GB just for the stock OS and apps is a huge chunk. Obviously not end of the world, but it seems like there should be a simple solution - like using terminal to add an "owner" or "Authorized User" or "Admin" and/or at least have some clarity on how to easily do that.