External Booting Problems - M1 issue or Big Sur? Can you boot M1 ext from Mojave?

[pistonpilot]

I called Apple support last week about this issue. Apple can't seem to figure out if this is a Big Sur issue or an M1 issue. Has anyone tried booting a Mac Mini with Mojave? Will the M1 boot Mojave?

I'm pissed that Apple put out a product that they obviously didn't test. I spent my money on Ram and not a bigger SSD assuming incorrectly that I could boot from Thunderbolt using a USB 3.1 C drive.

Has anyone else involved support? They are not admitting that this is even an issue.

What have others heard from support?

 

[Kung gu]

No, M1 only supports Big Sur and up.

 

[MarkC426]

Don't blame Apple for not testing the M1.
It has always been the case, a Mac only supports the OS it ships with and newer.

 

[jdb8167]

I called Apple support last week about this issue. Apple can't seem to figure out if this is a Big Sur issue or an M1 issue. Has anyone tried booting a Mac Mini with Mojave? Will the M1 boot Mojave?

I'm pissed that Apple put out a product that they obviously didn't test. I spent my money on Ram and not a bigger SSD assuming incorrectly that I could boot from Thunderbolt using a USB 3.1 C drive.

Has anyone else involved support? They are not admitting that this is even an issue.

What have others heard from support?

The M1 uses the ARM architecture which didn't exist on macOS before Big Sur. There is no way that any OS before Big Sur will boot on an M1 Mac. Apple doesn't back port to previous versions of OSes ever except for security patches.

 

[chabig]

I spent my money on Ram and not a bigger SSD assuming incorrectly that I could boot from Thunderbolt using a USB 3.1 C drive.

Don't incorrectly assume that you can't boot from an external drive. You can, but it has to be Big Sur.

 

[jdb8167]

Don't incorrectly assume that you can't boot from an external drive. You can, but it has to be Big Sur.

Maybe. USB-C might or might not work. Thunderbolt drives have had more success. I haven't been able to get a USB 3.0 SSD to boot. I've tried at least a dozen times with different proposed solutions.

 

[pistonpilot]

Don't blame Apple for not testing the M1.
It has always been the case, a Mac only supports the OS it ships with and newer.

Did you read anything I wrote?

I wrote in the first paragraph: I called Apple support last week about this issue. Apple can't seem to figure out if this is a Big Sur issue or an M1 issue.

 

[Chundles]

Will the M1 boot Mojave?

It will not. M1-based Macs will only boot Big Sur and later.

From what I read online you can boot from an external drive by using the Startup Disk Security Utility:
Link Here:

I have not and do not plan on attempting this so I can't comment on it's recency with respect to M1-based Macs but Apple's forums indicate that it works.

 

[pistonpilot]

From what I read online you can boot from an external drive by using the Startup Disk Security Utility:
Link Here:

It does not have any effect. The issue is not the boot security or drive security.

 

[Chundles]

It does not have any effect. The issue is not the boot security or drive security.

Sounds like the drive MUST be Thunderbolt 3 rather than USB-C. That's disappointing. Hope there's an update soon to resolve USB-C external booting.

 

[pistonpilot]

Sounds like the drive MUST be Thunderbolt 3 rather than USB-C. That's disappointing. Hope there's an update soon to resolve USB-C external booting.

It's more than disappointing, it is careless of Apple to put out a product they clearly did not test. Shame on you Apple.

 

[Buggs]

You will find that actually very few here are Tech-Savvey, The majority turn simple issues (Mole Hills into (Mountains) and the vast majority that do post are useless comments I assume to see their message count grow.

 

[chabig]

It's more than disappointing, it is careless of Apple to put out a product they clearly did not test. Shame on you Apple.

I sense that you are frustrated. Macs never boot from operating systems older than what they originally shipped with. Even the 2020 Intel Macs won’t boot Mojave.

 

[jeanlain]

After five posts, it's still unclear whether the OP wants to boot Mojave, to boot from an external disk or both.
The explanation from Apple support seems rather out of place, as they should have simply said that booting Mojave on an M1 Mac is not possible. But if the OP's explanations were as muddy as their post here, I understand why the support guys may have been confused.

But for some reason, Apple must be ashamed of something. Not sure what. For not trying to boot Mojave on an M1? That's impossible. So don't blame Apple for that, OP.

 

[09872738]

It's more than disappointing, it is careless of Apple to put out a product they clearly did not test. Shame on you Apple.

No. Its all on you. Why would Apple test a new device on an old operating system? One that is built for a different architecture?
The M1 is certainly thoroughly tested with an operating system that actually supports the ASi architecture. That, of course, would be Big Sur

 

[jeanlain]

I have a theory: the OP has tried to boot their M1 Mac from an external drive and failed. Apple support said it might be an issue with the OS (Big Sur). So the OP is trying another OS (Mojave).

 

[MarkC426]

Why didn't he say that then, instead of putting down people trying to help.

The specific question was, will an M1 mac boot Mojave....NO.

 

[MarkC426]

Did you read anything I wrote?

I wrote in the first paragraph: I called Apple support last week about this issue. Apple can't seem to figure out if this is a Big Sur issue or an M1 issue.

Neither, this is an issue with poorly trained tech support, not knowing their stuff.

 

[darngooddesign]

I called Apple support last week about this issue. Apple can't seem to figure out if this is a Big Sur issue or an M1 issue. Has anyone tried booting a Mac Mini with Mojave? Will the M1 boot Mojave?

I'm pissed that Apple put out a product that they obviously didn't test. I spent my money on Ram and not a bigger SSD assuming incorrectly that I could boot from Thunderbolt using a USB 3.1 C drive.

Has anyone else involved support? They are not admitting that this is even an issue.

What have others heard from support?

BigSur or M1 is irrelevant. Macs never boot from an OS older than what they came with.

I agree that tech Support should know this, but it has nothing to do with Apple's testing.

 

[jeanlain]

Why didn't he say that then, instead of putting down people trying to help.

The specific question was, will an M1 mac boot Mojave....NO.

On another thread, the OP reports his failure to boot from an external hard drive with Big Sur, not Mojave.
He seems to have posted here thinking that we were aware of all the twists and plots of his adventure. Then he blamed us for failing to read his mind.

 

[pistonpilot]

Sounds like the drive MUST be Thunderbolt 3 rather than USB-C. That's disappointing. Hope there's an update soon to resolve USB-C external booting.

It's more than disappointing, it is careless of Apple to put out a product they clearly did not test. Shame on you Apple.

No. Its all on you. Why would Apple test a new device on an old operating system? One that is built for a different architecture?
The M1 is certainly thoroughly tested with an operating system that actually supports the ASi architecture. That, of course, would be Big Sur

Uh huh ... so why won't it boot most external drives?

 

[09872738]

It's more than disappointing, it is careless of Apple to put out a product they clearly did not test. Shame on you Apple.

Uh huh ... so why won't it boot most external drives?

Different issue. It simply cannot boot Mojave under any circumstances since Mojave is Intel only. Unless someone unleashes an Apple Silicon version of Mojave from Apple‘s secret labs there is no way that Mojave boots on an M1 Mac, external or internal drive notwithstanding

 

[darngooddesign]

It wasn't my failure, it is Apple's failure to properly test a new product.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with your not fully researching the limitations of external booting in Big Sur on an M1 Mac when compared to an earlier version of OSX. Someone with such an amaaaazing grasp of the written word as yourself should understand that there is more to a clear and understandable post than sentences which being with a capital letter and end in a period. That being said, BigSur has plenty of bugs which do indicate a lack of pre-release testing, but those may not be relevant to your issue.

Two questions:
What is the goal you want to accomplish but can't?
What did Apple not test fully?

PS. Apple modifying or removing a feature is not an example of a lack of testing.

 

[Boyd01]

Moderator Note: Quite a few off-topic argumentative posts have been deleted from this thread. Please confine your comments to the actual topic of the thread and avoid making personal comments. Thanks

 

[matsuda0707]

For Mr or Mrs pistonpilot, I posted the answer for your post "M1 Macs, boot from external drive possible?" (Tuesday at 11:03 PM ). Did you read it?

From My experience, in Big Sur 11.1 (My Mac is Macmini M1 2020)
1) USB-C can NOT boot the external disk.
2) USB-A and Thunderbolt, boot of external disk is available.

in Big Sur 11.2
All USB-C,USB-A and Thunderbolt(not tested, but maybe) boot of external disk is available.

This may be fixed in Big Sur 11.2.

Also I asked my friend who has macbook air 2020 (M1) with 2 ports USB-C only to install Big Sur 11.2 and switch to external. But he could create Big Sur 11.2 on the external disk connected to USB-C, but it could not be booted!!!
I do not understand the reasons.

In this work of creating Big Sur external disk, I crested a bootable USB-A disk at first and it worked OK (bootable), and also created another bootable disk on USB-C. After switching to USB-C bootable disk, everything was OK! But after this, I disconnected the last USB-C disk, and re-connected the previou USB-A disk, then the system can NOT switch to it (USB-A disk appeared in the startup disk of environment preferences as switch-over candidate).
That is, the system can switch and boot the external disk (USB-C or USB-A) only for the lastly created external disk!
This is my experience!

For pistonpilot, please read my report and try!