Big Sur install USB won't recognize Apple wireless keyboard and mouse

[William2020]

I am on a 2017 21.5-inch Retina 4K iMac. On Mojave until today, having skipped Catalina.

I tried to do a clean-install of macOS Big Sur with the latest public beta. I made a working USB installer and rebooted. When the first menu came up the install software would not recognize both my Apple wireless keyboard and mouse.

The Mojave USB installer I made years ago gives me similar grief, but only for my wireless mouse. Using just the keyboard I can still do a clean-install this way.

It's very disappointing this is still an issue for macOS and that in fact the problem has gotten worse.

Is there any way I can get the Big Sur installer to recognize my Apple wireless peripherals? I do not have an old wired keyboard & mouse lying around.

 

[yukari]

I am on a 2017 21.5-inch Retina 4K iMac. On Mojave until today, having skipped Catalina.

I tried to do a clean-install of macOS Big Sur with the latest public beta. I made a working USB installer and rebooted. When the first menu came up the install software would not recognize both my Apple wireless keyboard and mouse.

The Mojave USB installer I made years ago gives me similar grief, but only for my wireless mouse. Using just the keyboard I can still do a clean-install this way.

It's very disappointing this is still an issue for macOS and that in fact the problem has gotten worse.

Is there any way I can get the Big Sur installer to recognize my Apple wireless peripherals? I do not have an old wired keyboard & mouse lying around.

If you plug your Apple wireless keyboard with a USB charging cable to your iMac, it will recognize your keyboard.

 

[William2020]

I tried plugging in the Apple keyboard with the USB charging cable, but only after I was able to connect a borrowed wired mouse as well was the Apple keyboard finally recognized by the Big Sur USB installer.

Thanks for the help.