macOS could not be installed on your computer" - is there a fix yet for this?

[Bending Pixels]

I've had this happen on two separate MacBook Pro's (one a 2019). The full screen message is "macOS could not be installed on your computer. Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup: -(-69808)

After upgrading from macOS High Sierra to macOS Catalina, and testing a whole bunch of different software, I decided to do a clean install of Catalina - reboot and chose Command R to go into recovery console. I deleted the Macintosh HD Data volume, and formatted the Macintosh HD volume to wipe it clean.

After the first reboot, this screen came up with the error message. The Apple Genius Bar doesn't know of a fix/correction at this point.

One response from Stack Exchange indicated it is a disk labeling issue.

 

[ptfuzi]

Can you download the latest installer from app store, and get it to a USB drive?

 

[Bending Pixels]

Can you download the latest installer from app store, and get it to a USB drive?

Yep - tried that on the 2019 13" MBP. After rebooting, the above screen came up also. The Apple Geniuses don't have a clue [yet] as to what is causing it

 

[Ruggy]

Well, I did a search and found at least 3 people that say they solved this problem by deleting the VM disk.
I should be clear: I have no personal knowledge of this it's just what I found......

Mac OS Catalina install failure (starting… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/OSXBeta/comments/ddh2mj/_/f2y22co

HELP: error some information was unavaila… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[haralds]

Formatting the volume might have removed the T2 password for the volume.
I would contact Apple Support.
I ran into that getting a MacBook Pro 2018 early in the release cycle. They had to replace the machine. By now they might have a utility to help you.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Formatting the volume might have removed the T2 password for the volume.
I would contact Apple Support.
I ran into that getting a MacBook Pro 2018 early in the release cycle. They had to replace the machine. By now they might have a utility to help you.

Thanx - as of my last discussions, Apple support seems to not have a fix

 

[haralds]

Thanx - as of my last discussions, Apple support seems to not have a fix

I hope you are still under AppleCare.

 

[Bending Pixels]

I hope you are still under AppleCare.

yep...learned that lesson the hard way

 

[Peadogie]

This is what I did:
I used a bootable (Mojave in this case) backup SSD with a Catalina installer on it (assuming you have a current installer to avoid the expired certificate debacle). Launch Disc Utility. Select Apple SSDxxxx. Erase the disc (this should leave you with a pristine disc). This will generate:

Apple SSDxxxx
**Container disc1

Select Container disc1.
Click on the plus widget to add a Volume.

Name it (I used Catalina), confirm that it's formatted APFS/GUID.
Run First Aid to verify that everything went well.
Run the installer choosing the Catalina Volume.

You could adapt this to using Recovery/bootable installer. The important thing seems to be having a Pristine disc/volume to install on to.

Hope this helps. It worked for me.

EDIT: As haralds pointed out below you must enable booting from an external disc by booting into Recovery. Choose the Utilities menu and click on Startup Security Utility. Under External Boot choose Allow Booting from external media.

 

[haralds]

For that to work on a T2 system you need to have booting from external drives enabled.