M1 Mini - An error occurred preparing the update

[PsykX]

This bug is driving me crazy, I've spent all afternoon with it, to no avail.
I made sure we upgraded on Big Sur 11.0.1 before doing the recovery part. AFAIK the bug is still present in this version.

So it ended up working with Configurator 2, but not the first time.
I don't know what or if I tried something different, but it ended up working.

Too bad this Mac Mini wasn't for me though! It's one beast of a machine.

Few things I also noticed :
- It got 7,700 in Geekbench 5 Multicore. I'm pretty sure I've seen the majority of people getting closer 7,400. It's not much better, but it's still 4% above than my expectations, which were already sky high. I'll take it!
- It was an 8 GB Mac Mini. I know macOS uses as much memory as it can - it uses its whole potential. But I had nothing running and if I remember well, it was already at 4 GB.
- I noticed ONE task that was utterly slow : syncing a whole 2,500 Photos library on iCloud. It clearly wasn't using the Internet plan we had at its full potential, which is 4-5 MB/s. It was running at 100-150 KB/s, so it took a few hours.
- I love Big Sur! It's gorgeous, the UI is much more standard across all applications. But my own iMac Late 2013 won't let me install it. I'll wait until there's an Apple Silicon iMac (M2 / M1X).

 

[mobilephone2OO3]

** Scratch this - workaround failed **

 

[Turtleboy22]

I had a problem. I hooked a second monitor up to the new Mini. One was connected to the HDMI port, and one was connected to the thunderbolt port with a HDMI->Thunderbolt connector. All was going well.

Then suddenly, everything went fuxored. It wouldn't boot, etc. I was able to trace the problem to the HDMI port on the Mini causing a kernel panic. 100% of the time if there is a monitor plugged into the Mini's HDMI port, it won't boot. It boots halfway and then reboots. If I hot plug it when it's on, the Mac turns off and goes into the boot loop.

I tried all permutations of monitors and cables switching back and forth and even different cables and adapters. Either monitor works in the thunderbolt port. Both crash in the HDMI port (and I tried different HDMI cables too).

I couldn't find anyone else having this problem. As it was only two days old and a clean install, I hadn't done that much to it. I decided to wipe it and start anew. I've booted into recovery, used disk utility to re-format the HD, and then reinstall the OS before. So I figured I'd do it again.

Mistake. It bricked it. It took two hours to download and try to install Big Sur, and failed at the very end with the personalization error

I tried the terminal fix.

It failed a couple of times and I slept fitfully. I was almost ready to just return it wait for the 16GB, when it finally worked and let me do a clean install. But now, instead of doing a real clean install again, I decided to see if I could restore from Time Machine, which I had two days of backups from. I didn't do the most recent backup which I figured was the messed up one, but did one from a few hours beforehand. My Time Machine is an SSD Drive attached to the Thunderbolt and restored at 280MB/s. Fast.

It worked! Woo hoo.

 

[delsoul]

This bug is driving me crazy, I've spent all afternoon with it, to no avail.
I made sure we upgraded on Big Sur 11.0.1 before doing the recovery part. AFAIK the bug is still present in this version.

Yup, it’s definitely present in 11.0.1. Not sure how this one slipped by Apple

 

[surroundfan]

I just got my MBP and thought 'I already have a bootable installer with 11.0.1 - how hard can it be to go straight to 11.0.1'. Tricky it seems.

My steps:
1. Boot into Recovery (press and hold power)
2. Fire up Terminal
3. Type resetpassword
4. Select Erase Mac from the menu
5. Reboot but into the bootable installer this time.
6. Go into Disk Utility and rename the volume called 'Untitled' to 'Macintosh HD'
7. Install Big Sur

Simples... ?

 

[1412]

Yes, just drag the ipsw file to the DFU icon and restore. When completed, like a new mac just unbox
ipsw download: https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/

Are you sure of this? I used the ipws system and worked, but I'm not sure if it will give me trouble in the long run. I asume that this system is like restore your iPhone with and ipws, leaves it like new (removing all the possible issues caused by this error and restoring the recovery partition and all partitions afected)
Thanks and sorry, I have OCD...

 

[02275629]

If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS - Apple Support

The message might say that an error occurred while downloading, preparing, or installing, or that the software is damaged, could not be verified, or failed to personalize. The cause of messages like these can vary, and sometimes they're only temporary.

support.apple.com

I have an M1 MBA and I followed those steps in the link above with the exception, after step 9, because I already had a bootable USB with BigSur on it, I skipped the downloading of the software and shut down the computer and re-entered In Recovery Mode and chose the bootable BigSur USB drive and then proceeded to install from the usb. No more errors.

 

[Kraizelburg]

If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS - Apple Support

The message might say that an error occurred while downloading, preparing, or installing, or that the software is damaged, could not be verified, or failed to personalize. The cause of messages like these can vary, and sometimes they're only temporary.

support.apple.com

I have an M1 MBA and I followed those steps in the link above with the exception, after step 9, because I already had a bootable USB with BigSur on it, I skipped the downloading of the software and shut down the computer and re-entered In Recovery Mode and chose the bootable BigSur USB drive and then proceeded to install from the usb. No more errors.

Hi, I have the same problem how did you boot into the usb drive? I hold opt key while booting but I can’t see any menu that let me choose my usb, please help.

 

[Kraizelburg]

I just got my MBP and thought 'I already have a bootable installer with 11.0.1 - how hard can it be to go straight to 11.0.1'. Tricky it seems.

My steps:
1. Boot into Recovery (press and hold power)
2. Fire up Terminal
3. Type resetpassword
4. Select Erase Mac from the menu
5. Reboot but into the bootable installer this time.
6. Go into Disk Utility and rename the volume called 'Untitled' to 'Macintosh HD'
7. Install Big Sur

Simples... ?

I am in the same situation, I have a big sur bootable usb but I can’t figure out how to boot into the usb, before it used to be holding opt key but it doesn’t work now

 

[surroundfan]

I am in the same situation, I have a big sur bootable usb but I can’t figure out how to boot into the usb, before it used to be holding opt key but it doesn’t work now

Press and hold the power button...

 

[SuperMikey]

Ok I have a new error message.
After Erase and on attempting to reinstall Big Sur, it's failing with the error '
No users available for authorisation'.

Does anyone have any advice on dealing with this?

I have a bootable usb installer to hand, and also a 2nd Mac, but looking like I might need to get to amazing to order a usb A to C cable...

update - I may have resolved, looks like the method posted by @surroundfan helps if you encounter the above issue.

 

[torncanvas]

I just got my MBP and thought 'I already have a bootable installer with 11.0.1 - how hard can it be to go straight to 11.0.1'. Tricky it seems.

My steps:
1. Boot into Recovery (press and hold power)
2. Fire up Terminal
3. Type resetpassword
4. Select Erase Mac from the menu
5. Reboot but into the bootable installer this time.
6. Go into Disk Utility and rename the volume called 'Untitled' to 'Macintosh HD'
7. Install Big Sur

Simples... ?

The Apple help article set a misleading context for me with these steps, here’s a more thorough version of what I did. Note I had 11.0.1 preinstalled but still had the personalization error after reinstalling after erasing from Disk Utility. I have no 2nd Mac & did not set up iCloud. My steps:
1. Recovery boot
2. Terminal
3. resetpassword, which does NOTHING functional (Apple help wrong)
4. See complaint of no user accounts THIS IS FINE
5. Select Erase Mac from menu (previously greyed out!)
6. Click blue Erase Mac link
7. Reboot into Recovery Assistant
8. Advance
9. “Your Mac has been activated” <—***
10. Reinstall Big Sur

I’m guessing the key for me was activation (hopefully I remembered the right order when that popped up). Maybe erasing from Disk Utility loses activation, which is needed when installing?

 

[Buggs]

kaschool, were you able to try the fix that I share

I've discovered a fix for those without a second Mac (or those that want to avoid the hassle of using DFU mode on 11.0)!

A senior phone advisor had arranged an exchange at my local Apple Store (their suggestion!), and before leaving I initiated an erase on iCloud.com (but didn't remove the device from my account) – the machine rebooted and presented the language selection screen.

After selecting a language, it continued into recovery mode, where I tried reinstalling one last time, and it completed successfully!

THX reznq, after hours of frustration this actually worked

 

[ja_zd]

My steps was similar to yours, only my erase mac was not greyed out.
Just updated the MacBook to 11.1 and retried to reset and reinstall.
now my first step was to erase it like described in the article.
The terminal command doesn't change anything. May this helps when the partitions are not deleted yet.

The Apple help article set a misleading context for me with these steps, here’s a more thorough version of what I did. Note I had 11.0.1 preinstalled but still had the personalization error after reinstalling after erasing from Disk Utility. I have no 2nd Mac & did not set up iCloud. My steps:
1. Recovery boot
2. Terminal
3. resetpassword, which does NOTHING functional (Apple help wrong)
4. See complaint of no user accounts THIS IS FINE
5. Select Erase Mac from menu (previously greyed out!)
6. Click blue Erase Mac link
7. Reboot into Recovery Assistant
8. Advance
9. “Your Mac has been activated” <—***
10. Reinstall Big Sur

 

[Levina]

Anybody lost their start-up drive in the Mac M1? I have. That is, it's deactivated and for the life of me I can't get it activated.

I had erased the drive in my new Mac Mini M1 after removing it from my iCloud first. All went well and reinstalling Big Sur seemed to go fine as well. It would take almost two hours to complete, so I left it there, relieved it had worked. When I looked two hours later it said installation had failed (don't remember what the message was exactly), so I rebooted in Recovery mode again only to find the HD deactivated and with that being the case I can't access it. So now what?

Erasing a drive and reinstalling the OS used to be so simple...

 

[STX535]

Just wanted to give my 2 cents that finally worked for me.
MacMini M1. Finder started getting wonky this week. I was on MacOS 11.4.x so I hit Software Update and it starts doing its thing. After the reboot, it hangs about 2/3 of the way. I try multiple restarts and keeps hanging.
After finally figuring out the Recovery trick, I am still unable to install MacOS because get this, even having 37 free gigs, it wants an extra 550 MBs. I do notice that it says it's now 11.5.2.
I try the Sharing Mode trick from Recovery but neither my 2018 MPB 15" nor my friends MacMini M1 can ever see it in the new target disk mode so that I can free up space. I updated the MBP to 11.5.2.
Next I try to use external USB-C SSDs. Please, note that using DiskUtility under Recovery, you need to change view option to see the disk hierarchy in order to Erase the disk in the GUID Partition Scheme with AFPS. It otherwise would only give me MacOS Journaled mode, etc.
But even then, I'm unable to use MacMini Recovery mode to install OS on the SSD - it kept asking for passwords and it never went through with the Install. This befuddled the Apple tech who I had on a FaceTime call.
I take the computers home to work since I'm beat but do not connect the Mini to a monitor or tv because I knew how to put it into DFU mode.
Next, I tried DFU mode and Configurator 2 on the MBP. I tried Revive, Restore, Erase, Update - all to no avail. Over and over again. They would try downloading stuff and get me to the end. All sorts of different errors each time. I tried different USB and Thunderbolt 3 cables. Nada. Putting the Mini into DFU mode is pretty easy.
FIX: I watch MrMacintosh's video using the ISPW method. I downloaded the latest from his website. I dropped the file onto the Mini DFU picture, lit a candle, threw some chicken bones, and crossed my fingers. At the end, I hear the Mini chime the restart and light is no longer Amber color - it's white. Configurator still shows it's doing stuff but I ignore it. I unplug and take it to a TV for the HDMI connection. And there it is looking for a mouse/keyboard and it's like a brand new Mini.
Note: I lost all my apps and whatever wasn't saved on Dropbox. But I didn't have to take it to an Apple Store. Thank you all. I did not try the iCloud erase trick nor did I try the Recovery DiskUtility Erase option because I had no good experiences using Recovery. Thanks for reading and good luck my friends.