How to format M1 correctly?

[JSBRG]

Have tried formatting my new MacBook Air M1 to get a completely fresh system on without all the pre-installed apps. I always do that when I order a new computer.

I have done as I usually do. Made a USB with Big Sur 11.1 - booted from it, selected Disk Utility deleted Macintosh HD and Data, also installs Big Sur. Everything goes fine - until it has started up, and I get to the screen where you have to create your account on the computer (not iCloud) but the computer account.

After I have chosen my name and password, I press "next" ... and my screen freezes. Nothing happens. I have waited and nothing happens. Have tried formatting 2 times and the same thing happens. The only thing that helps is to put my new MacBook to my old MacBook and do a restore in Apple Configurator 2.

But there must be an easier way than having to use 2 computers to format. Are there any of you who have good advice, or have I done something wrong?

 

[Quackers]

Others having this issue have deleted their Mac from icloud and/or Findy My then re-tried.
I suspect if you had searched first you would have found Apple's instructions for re-installing an M1 Mac.

 

[Sarpanch]

Had the exact same issue with an M1 Air and I spent a good amount of time solving this issue yesterday. Mine wasn’t even linked to any iCloud account and still didn’t allow setup to complete. It was always stuck at Account Creation Failed.

Here are the steps that I followed to fix it (you may want to remove device from iCloud as well)

1) Shut down Mac and then long press/hold the Power/Touch key to enable boot options
2) In the boot menu, click on “Options” and then Continue
3) In the Recovery Screen, click Utilities and load up Terminal
4) In Terminal, type “resetpassword”
5) In the new window, on the top left Recovery menu bar, “Erase Mac” will now be enabled. Click on that
6) Follow on-screen instructions to erase. Mac will restart and require Internet to activate again.
7) Follow steps 1-6 to erase one more time
8) Boot into recovery, click the option to reinstall Big Sur. It will download an install the minimal version (without Pages/Numbers/GarageBand etc)

Account creation should succeed this time.

Deleting the macOS partitions via Disk Utility seem to be the culprit. I have no idea why Apple has buried the Erase Mac feature so deep.

 

[M1Buddy]

Do you want to delete all apps and data, or delete all data without the apps?

 

[dengue]

Had the exact same issue with an M1 Air and I spent a good amount of time solving this issue yesterday. Mine wasn’t even linked to any iCloud account and still didn’t allow setup to complete. It was always stuck at Account Creation Failed.

Here are the steps that I followed to fix it (you may want to remove device from iCloud as well)

1) Shut down Mac and then long press/hold the Power/Touch key to enable boot options
2) In the boot menu, click on “Options” and then Continue
3) In the Recovery Screen, click Utilities and load up Terminal
4) In Terminal, type “resetpassword”
5) In the new window, on the top left Recovery menu bar, “Erase Mac” will now be enabled. Click on that
6) Follow on-screen instructions to erase. Mac will restart and require Internet to activate again.
7) Follow steps 1-6 to erase one more time
8) Boot into recovery, click the option to reinstall Big Sur. It will download an install the minimal version (without Pages/Numbers/GarageBand etc)

Account creation should succeed this time.

Deleting the macOS partitions via Disk Utility seem to be the culprit. I have no idea why Apple has buried the Erase Mac feature so deep.

what ssd name will you have in this option, when I used "erase Mac" it's formatted ssd as "Untitled" but I want to name it Macintosh
so need to format it again via disk utility

 

[Quackers]

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/reinstall-macos-m1-apple-silicon-macs/
and
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983

 

[Sarpanch]

what ssd name will you have in this option, when I used "erase Mac" it's formatted ssd as "Untitled" but I want to name it Macintosh
so need to format it again via disk utility

Yes, it will be “Untitled”. You can always rename it once the install is complete.

 

[edk99]

Have tried formatting my new MacBook Air M1 to get a completely fresh system on without all the pre-installed apps. I always do that when I order a new computer.

I don't understand this. What pre-installed apps would be missing from a clean install that is different then the install that came out of the box?

 

[Sarpanch]

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/reinstall-macos-m1-apple-silicon-macs/
and
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983

Fortunately, the Apple Erase Mac instructions for the “Personalization” error from 11.0/11.0.1 work for the “Account Creation Failed” issue as well.

 

[jdb8167]

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/reinstall-macos-m1-apple-silicon-macs/
and
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983

That Apple support doc just got published this week. It should have been published last month. It would have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble. Thanks for the link. It might solve my problems getting Big Sur running from an external USB drive. Unfortunately my MBA is out of commission while waiting for the installer to do it’s thing so I have to find time to experiment.

 

[Quackers]

I don't understand this. What pre-installed apps would be missing from a clean install that is different then the install that came out of the box?

Not 100% sure but I think internet recovery installs without things like Garage Band etc etc.

 

[Quackers]

That Apple support doc just got published this week. It should have been published last month. It would have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble. Thanks for the link. It might solve my problems getting Big Sur running from an external USB drive. Unfortunately my MBA is out of commission while waiting for the installer to do it’s thing so I have to find time to experiment.

I'm not absolutely sure they knew what was actually happening until recently.
Some early adopters that erased the drive ended up bricking their machines until 11.0.1 came out.
Previously they had to re-invigorate their firmware - not much fun.

 

[jdb8167]

I'm not absolutely sure they knew what was actually happening until recently.
Some early adopters that erased the drive ended up bricking their machines until 11.0.1 came out.
Previously they had to re-invigorate their firmware - not much fun.

Someone at Apple knew since someone designed the new security features in the T2 Macs and now the M1. It is needlessly complicated. There should be a recovery application that says “reinstall as new” that does all of this nonsense without requiring tech support.

 

[Quackers]

Someone at Apple knew since someone designed the new security features in the T2 Macs and now the M1. It is needlessly complicated. There should be a recovery application that says “reinstall as new” that does all of this nonsense without requiring tech support.

Your point is not without merit 😁

 

[JSBRG]

Had the exact same issue with an M1 Air and I spent a good amount of time solving this issue yesterday. Mine wasn’t even linked to any iCloud account and still didn’t allow setup to complete. It was always stuck at Account Creation Failed.

Here are the steps that I followed to fix it (you may want to remove device from iCloud as well)

1) Shut down Mac and then long press/hold the Power/Touch key to enable boot options
2) In the boot menu, click on “Options” and then Continue
3) In the Recovery Screen, click Utilities and load up Terminal
4) In Terminal, type “resetpassword”
5) In the new window, on the top left Recovery menu bar, “Erase Mac” will now be enabled. Click on that
6) Follow on-screen instructions to erase. Mac will restart and require Internet to activate again.
7) Follow steps 1-6 to erase one more time
8) Boot into recovery, click the option to reinstall Big Sur. It will download an install the minimal version (without Pages/Numbers/GarageBand etc)

Account creation should succeed this time.

Deleting the macOS partitions via Disk Utility seem to be the culprit. I have no idea why Apple has buried the Erase Mac feature so deep.

Am glad I'm not the only one who has that problem. Must admit that I almost regretted I had not just bought an Intel Mac.

I got my computer yesterday and I have not been logged in with my Apple ID on that computer either.

That sounds like very good advice. But as I understand it, I can not install Big Sur with USB? It would clearly be best so i can avoid having to download 13GB every time.

 

[JSBRG]

I don't understand this. What pre-installed apps would be missing from a clean install that is different then the install that came out of the box?

They pre-install apps, GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers etc.

 

[freshe]

I had similar issue with my macbook, and took me a bit to push through all the threads to find the solution that worked.

So I would create the user and password. Screen would freeze and give me a message that creation of the account failed et. Booting mac os resulted in my password I set up not being recognised and basically I was unable to use the mac at all.

I did terminal resetpassword with de-activation and activation of mac, erasing the Mackintosh HD and Data, fresh installation of the mac os. Which would again repeat the account creation bug. At some point I would have all 3 accounts available in the login screen after booting the system to mac os.

What worked was the Configurator 2 on a second mac and entering into DFU mode on the M1 mac. There are videos on how to enter that mode on M1 macbook air - which didn't work for me after multiple attempts including entering this mode from recovery screen (pressing and holding power button when booting).

So in the end what works is this:

Good mack + configurator 2 plugged with USB C cable to the broken M1 mac.
(Plugging the M1 mac to the working mac may boot the M1 - so needs to be turned off)

Pressing and holding power button for 1 second (count one one thousand).
After first one one thousand is counted press and hold Right Shift, left Control and left Options for 10 seconds (count fresh one one thousand after the power button 1 second press).
Apple logo will light up with progress bar showing up for a moment and then screen switches off.
Once you count 10th second release the Shift, Ctrl and Options button but keep holding power button for another 8 seconds or in my case until you will see the DFU icon on the working mac with Configurator 2 app.

This is the only way it worked for me and I was able to recreate this DFU mode boot every single time.

After that you click the big DFU icon in Configurator 2 which enables actions menu for the M1 mac. Click revive - it may say some updates are required so just follow these and then click revive again and it will reinstall system on the M1 (there will be apple icon on your M1 mac with progress bar). I had to do that twice but eventually it worked.

I was able to set up new profile with new password, sign in with my apple id, turn on and off find my device, sign out from apple id and erase the Mackintosh HD / Data in recovery and reinstall the Mac OS without any problems multiple times now. No more issues with not being able to access my mac.

Hope this helps. It was most frustrating few hours going through all of the tutorials without a positive result. But it worked and worked every time after I finally figured it out.

 

[JSBRG]

Okay. Then I found the solution or maybe learned to understand what Apple has in mind with this cumbersome solution.

Apple does not want you to just delete the drives when there are still users installed. Possibly some security. The idea is to delete the Mac BEFORE deleting / formatting your drive.

It just has to be said that I have NOT been logged in to iCloud on my computer, so there may be some extra security if you are also logged in when doing all this.

Here's what I did (The first is just copy / paste from Apple's site)


1) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. Select Options, then click Continue.

2) When you're asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter their administrator password (I saw no users, nor was I asked to enter the password)

3) When you see the utilities window (shown here), choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.

4) Type resetpassword in Terminal, then press Return.

5) Click the Reset Password window to bring it to the front, then choose Recovery Assistant > Erase Mac from the menu bar.

6) Click Erase Mac in the window that opens, then click Erase Mac again to confirm. When done, your Mac restarts automatically.

7) Choose your language when prompted during startup

8) If you see an alert that the version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled, click macOS Utilities (I saw no alarm.)

9) Your Mac will begin activating, which requires an internet connection. When your Mac is activated, click Exit to Recovery Utilities.

Now your drive is active, deleted and as "Untitled" under Disk Utility.

10) Perform steps 3 through 9 once more

After I did step 3-9 again, my hard disk was passive, and was "grayed out" under Disk Utility. If I pressed activate, I just got an error. But then I deleted it, and gave the drive a new name, also it was active again. Well.

Now I shut down the computer, and booted up from my USB key with Big Sur 11.1, and simply installed the operating system on my freshly formatted drive. Thats it. My Mac booted up as it should and I set it up as usual.

When I had to set up a computer account I was holding my breath. But it went through - it took just 10-15 seconds before it got further and could set up location, screen time, Siri, etc.

I come from a MacBook Air from 2014, and Apple has probably made it more cumbersome than necessary.

Thank you all very much for your help 😍

 

[Quackers]

Okay. Then I found the solution or maybe learned to understand what Apple has in mind with this cumbersome solution.

Apple does not want you to just delete the drives when there are still users installed. Possibly some security. The idea is to delete the Mac BEFORE deleting / formatting your drive.

It just has to be said that I have NOT been logged in to iCloud on my computer, so there may be some extra security if you are also logged in when doing all this.

Here's what I did (The first is just copy / paste from Apple's site)


1) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. Select Options, then click Continue.

2) When you're asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter their administrator password (I saw no users, nor was I asked to enter the password)

3) When you see the utilities window (shown here), choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.

4) Type resetpassword in Terminal, then press Return.

5) Click the Reset Password window to bring it to the front, then choose Recovery Assistant > Erase Mac from the menu bar.

6) Click Erase Mac in the window that opens, then click Erase Mac again to confirm. When done, your Mac restarts automatically.

7) Choose your language when prompted during startup

8) If you see an alert that the version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled, click macOS Utilities (I saw no alarm.)

9) Your Mac will begin activating, which requires an internet connection. When your Mac is activated, click Exit to Recovery Utilities.

Now your drive is active, deleted and as "Untitled" under Disk Utility.

10) Perform steps 3 through 9 once more

After I did step 3-9 again, my hard disk was passive, and was "grayed out" under Disk Utility. If I pressed activate, I just got an error. But then I deleted it, and gave the drive a new name, also it was active again. Well.

Now I shut down the computer, and booted up from my USB key with Big Sur 11.1, and simply installed the operating system on my freshly formatted drive. Thats it. My Mac booted up as it should and I set it up as usual.

When I had to set up a computer account I was holding my breath. But it went through - it took just 10-15 seconds before it got further and could set up location, screen time, Siri, etc.

I come from a MacBook Air from 2014, and Apple has probably made it more cumbersome than necessary.

Thank you all very much for your help 😍

Glad to hear you got it sorted out

 

[RvXtm]

incredibly complicated way to just reinstall your OS, for the normal every day user. Could be a bug somewhere.
I still don’t understand why you have to erase mac twice ?

 

[jdb8167]

incredibly complicated way to just reinstall your OS, for the normal every day user. Could be a bug somewhere.
I still don’t understand why you have to erase mac twice ?

It’s a mess. Apple needs to fix it and I expect that they will or they are going to have a lot more tech support calls.

 

[RvXtm]

It’s a mess. Apple needs to fix it and I expect that they will or they are going to have a lot more tech support calls.

It sure is ... and to be honest, i do a lot of testing and messing around with configuration, I used a hakintosh in the past that was easier to reinstall/restore than m1 machines.
I do not have another mac, and there is no apple store in my country, i’s disappointing to think that each time i want to reset my machine, there is a possibility to brick it. Not happy at all.

 

[lightfire]

Okay. Then I found the solution or maybe learned to understand what Apple has in mind with this cumbersome solution.

Apple does not want you to just delete the drives when there are still users installed. Possibly some security. The idea is to delete the Mac BEFORE deleting / formatting your drive.

It just has to be said that I have NOT been logged in to iCloud on my computer, so there may be some extra security if you are also logged in when doing all this.

Here's what I did (The first is just copy / paste from Apple's site)


1) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. Select Options, then click Continue.

2) When you're asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter their administrator password (I saw no users, nor was I asked to enter the password)

3) When you see the utilities window (shown here), choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.

4) Type resetpassword in Terminal, then press Return.

5) Click the Reset Password window to bring it to the front, then choose Recovery Assistant > Erase Mac from the menu bar.

6) Click Erase Mac in the window that opens, then click Erase Mac again to confirm. When done, your Mac restarts automatically.

7) Choose your language when prompted during startup

8) If you see an alert that the version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled, click macOS Utilities (I saw no alarm.)

9) Your Mac will begin activating, which requires an internet connection. When your Mac is activated, click Exit to Recovery Utilities.

Now your drive is active, deleted and as "Untitled" under Disk Utility.

10) Perform steps 3 through 9 once more

After I did step 3-9 again, my hard disk was passive, and was "grayed out" under Disk Utility. If I pressed activate, I just got an error. But then I deleted it, and gave the drive a new name, also it was active again. Well.

Now I shut down the computer, and booted up from my USB key with Big Sur 11.1, and simply installed the operating system on my freshly formatted drive. Thats it. My Mac booted up as it should and I set it up as usual.

When I had to set up a computer account I was holding my breath. But it went through - it took just 10-15 seconds before it got further and could set up location, screen time, Siri, etc.

I come from a MacBook Air from 2014, and Apple has probably made it more cumbersome than necessary.

Thank you all very much for your help 😍

You created a USB stick with Big Sur 1.1 so you didn't have to download again? How?

 

[JSBRG]

@lightfire

Yes exactly. It takes forever to download 13GB from Apple's server. You can see how to make a bootable disk here, it's pretty easy.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system.

support.apple.com

 

[Mac... nificent]

incredibly complicated way to just reinstall your OS, for the normal every day user.

I found a way to re-install Big Sur which takes only around 20 minutes and doesn't involve Recovery. This is provided that you already have downloaded macOS from System Prefs. I'm typing up the instructions as we speak....