Rebooted Mac after erasing drive, Internet Recovery gives me El Capitan instead of Montery

[ThatSomeone]

I was erasing my Mac today to prepare it for selling, and during the process of erasing the drive I decided to reboot it in order to verify that the OS and the data was gone.

I was expecting to get back into the same recovery mode. However, I was put into internet recovery which downloaded an El Capitan copy(which was shipped with my 2015 15” rMBP) of the recovery tool that won’t let me install Montery.. And naturally it doesn’t recognize the APFS drive in the installation window either.

Is there any way to get back the Montery recovery? Or do I have to reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended, install El Capitan, update to Monterey and wipe everything again?

 

[Fishrrman]

What key combo did you use to GET INTO internet recovery?

There are two:
Command-OPTION-R
This should offer you the latest version of the OS that can be installed on the Mac you have.

Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R
This should offer you the ORIGINAL VERSION of the OS that shipped with your Mac when it was new, or whatever is closest to it.

Also...
When you erased the drive, did you erase THE ENTIRE DRIVE?
Many folks make this mistake when using Disk Utility with internet recovery.

To see the entire drive, you must check disk utility to see if there is a "view" menu (later version have this, older versions do not).
IF there is a view menu, you MUST choose "show all devices" to see the physical drive "in the list on the left", and that's what you need to click before you hit the erase button.

You may already have done these things, but pointing them out just in case.

Final thought...
If you're midway into the erase/restore routine, and El Capitan is all you're being offered, I'd just install El Cap, and let the next owner decide where he/she wants to go to next...

 

[ThatSomeone]

What key combo did you use to GET INTO internet recovery?

There are two:
Command-OPTION-R
This should offer you the latest version of the OS that can be installed on the Mac you have.

Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R
This should offer you the ORIGINAL VERSION of the OS that shipped with your Mac when it was new, or whatever is closest to it.

I used Command-R at first, but Command-Option-R got me into a Monterey version of the recovery tool!
Admittedly, I panicked at bit before making this thread and found it shortly after that there were several key combos to get you into the latest macOS internet recovery.

Also...
When you erased the drive, did you erase THE ENTIRE DRIVE?
Many folks make this mistake when using Disk Utility with internet recovery.

To see the entire drive, you must check disk utility to see if there is a "view" menu (later version have this, older versions do not).
IF there is a view menu, you MUST choose "show all devices" to see the physical drive "in the list on the left", and that's what you need to click before you hit the erase button.

I used the local recovery partition during the first erase. I selected the only available internal drive, erased it and all its volumes. Is it even possible to delete something else without that sidebar showing up?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I used the local recovery partition during the first erase. I selected the only available internal drive, erased it and all its volumes. Is it even possible to delete something else without that sidebar showing up?"

The "right way to do it" is to boot to INTERNET recovery,
... then erase the ENTIRE drive,
... then install a brand-new copy of the OS.

That cleans EVERYTHING out.

 

[ThatSomeone]

"I used the local recovery partition during the first erase. I selected the only available internal drive, erased it and all its volumes. Is it even possible to delete something else without that sidebar showing up?"

The "right way to do it" is to boot to INTERNET recovery,
... then erase the ENTIRE drive,
... then install a brand-new copy of the OS.

That cleans EVERYTHING out.

What part does the local version miss apart from the Base System volume?

 

[Fishrrman]

"What part does the local version miss apart from the Base System volume?"

(sigh)...
If you want to completely erase the drive, you CAN'T DO IT using the "recovery partition", because that is part "of the drive".

You MUST DO THIS using internet recovery.
The other way to do it is to boot from a bootable USB flashdrive installer.

But so long as internet recovery works, that will do it.

 

[ThatSomeone]

"What part does the local version miss apart from the Base System volume?"

(sigh)...
If you want to completely erase the drive, you CAN'T DO IT using the "recovery partition", because that is part "of the drive".

You MUST DO THIS using internet recovery.
The other way to do it is to boot from a bootable USB flashdrive installer.

But so long as internet recovery works, that will do it.

I did run the erase process once again in the Monterey version of the Internet Recovery, but I still doubt any sensitive data of importance to a normal user is retained in that Base Volume.