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Did I brick my m1 air?

watchmainspring

watchmainspring

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 2, 2005
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I see there are posts and apple support data on this but I'm not getting anywhere. I formatted my m1 air drive (not the installer partition) and now when I try to reinstall big Sur it tells me it can't find a user profile to enable the install. I was able to login using my iCloud account but still can't find a user to authorize a big Sur install. I am going to return this Tomorrow if there isn't an easy solution. I see there is some data on the apple site about using the terminal. The only terminal I should be visiting is the returns counter at best buy where I got this.

Any tips?
 
Apple_Robert

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
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In a van down by the river
Quackers said:
And twice for me.
Click to expand...
When you are used to the old ways, as we all (still) are, it can be easy to miss a step or mess up a step.

Apple really hasn't done a good job of proactively communicating how to restore a m1, in my opinion. A seasoned vet (like the OP) or a newbie shouldn't have to rely on MR to get the correct information. I am still thankful for MR. It has saved me more than once.
 
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Quackers

Quackers

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Apple_Robert said:
When you are used to the old ways, as we all (still) are, it can be easy to miss a step or mess up a step.

Apple really hasn't done a good job of proactively communicating how to restore a m1, in my opinion. a seasoned vet (like the OP) or a newbie shouldn't have to rely on MR to get the correct information. I am still thankful for MR. It has saved me more than once.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. It's almost as if Apple never thought people with brand new computers would think of a fresh install/re-install and issued no instructions on how to do it until problems developed.
That's a pretty large oversight, especially after they change the process.
 
watchmainspring

watchmainspring

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Apple_Robert said:
What happened? It has worked for me not long ago.
Click to expand...

It can't reset the password in the terminal. To be clear this is my computer and I know the password.

So I tried the terminal command to download big Sur. That failed too.

I'll try configurator tomorrow morning and if that fails I'm returning this beta effort.
 
watchmainspring

watchmainspring

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 2, 2005
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Boston
Quackers said:
Absolutely. It's almost as if Apple never thought people with brand new computers would think of a fresh install/re-install and issued no instructions on how to do it until problems developed.
That's a pretty large oversight, especially after they change the process.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
Quackers

Quackers

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Winstonp said:
It can't reset the password in the terminal. To be clear this is my computer and I know the password.

So I tried the terminal command to download big Sur. That failed too.

I'll try configurator tomorrow morning and if that fails I'm returning this beta effort.
Click to expand...
I know the instructions don't say so but did you log out of your AppleID first, or delete the M1 from your iCloud account? It seems that might matter.
I haven't had the resetpassword command fail to work.
The repeat of that doesn't seem to do much but it does seem necessary.
The erase mac being done twice also seems to matter.
The second time I did this process it did have problems. It began boot looping and asking for language and activation and refused to boot from the USB installer.
I ran everything 4 times before it finally worked and I was able to re-install.
 
watchmainspring

watchmainspring

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 2, 2005
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Boston
Quackers said:
I know the instructions don't say so but did you log out of your AppleID first, or delete the M1 from your iCloud account? It seems that might matter.
I haven't had the resetpassword command fail to work.
The repeat of that doesn't seem to do much but it does seem necessary.
The erase mac being done twice also seems to matter.
The second time I did this process it did have problems. It began boot looping and asking for language and activation and refused to boot from the USB installer.
I ran everything 4 times before it finally worked and I was able to re-install.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Okay I finally resolved this like 48 hours later. I had to remove the computer from my icloud account. Still the "resetpassword" failed yet again.

Then I erased BOTH disks. Then Big Sur would install just fine.
 
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Quackers

Quackers

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Sep 18, 2013
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Manchester, UK
Winstonp said:
Thanks.

Okay I finally resolved this like 48 hours later. I had to remove the computer from my icloud account. Still the "resetpassword" failed yet again.

Then I erased BOTH disks. Then Big Sur would install just fine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update.
It does seem that the process can be a bit buggy sometimes :)
Glad it's sorted though!
 
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Geoff777

Geoff777

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2020
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Concerns me that Terminal seems to be needed more than ever..... I got into Apple many years ago to avoid stuff like that! It's like going back to CLI of MS-DOS!:)
 
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