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nicolas17

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2020
162
285
I'm looking for someone who has (or is getting soon) an M3 Mac and is still on macOS 13.5. I want to take a copy of that preinstalled macOS version, for preservation and research. This is a special build of 13.5 with M3 support, it's not the same as the public 13.5 released months ago, so there is no download for it.

The ideal way would be to boot into recovery and get a full image of the SSD contents (this won't expose any of your personal data, since it's all encrypted through the Secure Enclave, it can't be decrypted even if I knew your password). But there's other options that may be easier. I will give you detailed instructions either way.

This is going to get increasingly harder to find as more people update, and as Apple begins selling them with Sonoma out of the box... and then that build will be lost forever. Heck, maybe it's already too late. If you have an M3 on Ventura 13.5, don't assume someone else will volunteer, you're probably the last hope. Please reply here or send me a private message.

Many thanks!
 

nicolas17

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2020
162
285
Why not buy it off them?

The international shipping and customs fees would probably double the price. My MacBook Pro with M2 works just fine for me.

I don't need nor can afford a new Mac, I (and a bunch of Apple security researchers) just need the contents of the SSD of this particular Mac model.
 
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