I am experiencing the same thing on a M2 MacBook Air. The download starts every time, and gets to the letters o and a in the word download (above the download status bar), and gets the error ever time. It worked fine on my 27" iMac, so it seems to me like a silicon issue.
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"failed to personalize the software update" when updating to macOS Sequoia
- Thread starter 212rikanmofo
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interesting.. maybe ill just wait till 15.1 to do a clean install unless i see it gets fixed with a 15.0.1 update if there is gonna be one.
So, is everybody that can't update using a VPN? I don't use one and had no problems installing on a 14" MacBook Pro M1, Mac mini M2 and 13" M1 MacBook Pro.
Just tried again, and still failing in my case.
Does not seem tied to VPN use.
Many, including myself, are facing the issue and are not using any VPN.
Apple screwed up. But it's not like we're dead in the water. Just have to be patient and wait till they fix the issue. I already updated on my Studio and iMac and honestly its nothing special, just another MacOS so I would suggest trying to get go on using your current OS till apple fixes this for us. That's where I am at. Yes, it's frustrating, I get it but life will go on without MacOS 15 LOL.
So guys, here I am…
I’ve been to the Apple Store, at the Genius Bar. I told to the guy all the problems we faced, showing him also the screenshots posted here on the forum. He of course tried to update both from settings and App Store because he blamed the network, while the APPLE MAGIC ETHERNET CABLE would have solved every problem!!
…
Failed on every attempt.
So then he tried to initialize Mac and restore from boot screen but the error was: FAILED TO ACTIVATE DEVICE.
Finally, he decided to bring the Mac to the back office and restore it with Apple Configurator, as many of you tried.
Tomorrow morning I’ll come back to take the Mac, hoping everything went well.
I’ll let you know!
P.S. the guy told me that in 2-3 days Apple will drop Mac OS 15.0.1 that, according to his words, will fix all these kind of problems, but I wasn't quite sure he knew what he was saying, maybe they were just words of reassurance.
I’ve been to the Apple Store, at the Genius Bar. I told to the guy all the problems we faced, showing him also the screenshots posted here on the forum. He of course tried to update both from settings and App Store because he blamed the network, while the APPLE MAGIC ETHERNET CABLE would have solved every problem!!
…
Failed on every attempt.
So then he tried to initialize Mac and restore from boot screen but the error was: FAILED TO ACTIVATE DEVICE.
Finally, he decided to bring the Mac to the back office and restore it with Apple Configurator, as many of you tried.
Tomorrow morning I’ll come back to take the Mac, hoping everything went well.
I’ll let you know!
P.S. the guy told me that in 2-3 days Apple will drop Mac OS 15.0.1 that, according to his words, will fix all these kind of problems, but I wasn't quite sure he knew what he was saying, maybe they were just words of reassurance.
What I'd like to know is why some M1, M2 & M3 Macs are having this problem and some are not. None of mine have had the problem. It would be nice to know exactly what the problem is.
Yes that would be nice, but you could know this kind of things maybe if you know someone who work for apple, like a software engineer, otherwise it’s quite unlikely that Apple would explicitly publish this low level errors. Probably you’ll see a changelog like “bug fixing” and stop.
Not sure why many who are having the problem are not erasing and installing. Backing up to Time Machine first of course. Has anybody had problems erasing and installing? Better yet, has anybody used Settings/General/Erase All Content and Settings, then installing?
Yes I tried this myself directly at the Apple Store, but the error was: FAILED ACTIVATING DEVICE
Seems like a firmware issue. Reviving the firmware will fix the issue
Nobody knows at this point if it's even something that Apple can fix without requiring another computer.
It is much easier to revive the firmware than to erase and install. Also, some people don't back up their data 🤷♂️
EDIT: changed restore to revive
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Thank you for coming back! Apple always tries everything that youve already done lol they think were all dummies. Appreciate the news, im sure the people with bricked computers will really appreciate it.
I have made a reddit post on the matter and some people in the comments have said some stuff you may find useful.
For clarity, Restore will erase all the data on the disk, irretrievably. Revive is the command that won't erase.
Just tried as of now and still the same problem with the failed to personalize the software update. I don't use VPN either. For you who are doing the revive/restore/DFU method, are they all the same thing? I'm running out of options here. But I have a relative that has an old iMac 27 from 2012-2013. So I'm not sure if I can use that to fix my M1 macbook pro? Seriously extremely frustrated.
I remember I disabled SIP a longtime ago, but now I can't even re-enable it back. It involves you entering recovery mode and typing in "csrutil enable". But I get an error whenever I try to do this. I can't even enter the "start up disc recovery" to set the permissions back to the default "full" without getting errors too. I have a feeling it has to do something with my SIP being disabled.
I remember I disabled SIP a longtime ago, but now I can't even re-enable it back. It involves you entering recovery mode and typing in "csrutil enable". But I get an error whenever I try to do this. I can't even enter the "start up disc recovery" to set the permissions back to the default "full" without getting errors too. I have a feeling it has to do something with my SIP being disabled.
Exactly the same issue I'm having, it always stops the download at that point and then I get a pop-up window with the "failed to personalize the software update..."