Warning about a potential Apple Silicon Mac "gotcha" when re-installing the OS

[pollycat]

If you ever want to erase your Apple Silicon Mac and reinstall everything, be very careful when going into Recovery mode and formatting the main drive. Make sure you follow the instructions in the following Apple support documents and, especially, make sure you connect to the internet and get your newly-formatted drive "authenticated" before proceeding with the installation.

If you don't get the drive authenticated, the OS installation will proceed as normal and you can use your Mac. However, when it comes time to install OS updates, you will be hit with a "No users available for authorisation" message and it will not let you proceed with any form of updating the OS - no downloads from the Mac App store or Software Update, nothing. At that point, your only option is to erase and re-install from scratch again.

I hit this problem today when trying to update to the new 12.3.1 release, so wanted to warn others.

https://support.apple.com/en-hk/HT212541
https://support.apple.com/en-hk/HT212030

 

[MacGizmo]

Nice of them to bury this information in a support document instead of an instruction screen during the process of actually doing it (though maybe it is there). Especially the part about you needing a WIRED MOUSE AND KEYBOARD in order to complete the process—not sure why that should be necessary.

 

[w5jck]

Nice of them to bury this information in a support document instead of an instruction screen during the process of actually doing it (though maybe it is there). Especially the part about you needing a WIRED MOUSE AND KEYBOARD in order to complete the process—not sure why that should be necessary.

With my 2012 Mac mini, anytime I install updates, or even just execute a restart, during the parts where the screen is completely black, or black with a bit of text, any wireless mouse or keyboard will lose its connection. Heck, even the Dell monitor using the DisplayPort loses touch with the mini. I've had this issue as far back as I can remember, so I learned to keep a wired mouse and keyboard around for such occasions. That might be more of a mini issue, nevertheless, I wouldn't be surprised if it extended to other Macs that don't have built-in trackpads and/or keyboards. I never have an issue with my 2014 MacBook Pro or my 2020 MacBook Air M1 restarting, just the mini.

As far as burying this information in a support document, yep Apple sucks at that. The Mac's on screen prompts during updates is cryptic and nearly useless. Apple seems to have morons on their staff who apparently don't USER TEST anything. I hate doing updates to a Mac as it is always a crap shoot, especially on the mini which when the screen goes black it might or might not wake up again. I often have to manually restart the mini once or twice during updates. If updates are this bad, I shudder to think what a nightmare a reinstall would be like!

 

[Internaut]

If you ever want to erase your Apple Silicon Mac and reinstall everything, be very careful when going into Recovery mode and formatting the main drive. Make sure you follow the instructions in the following Apple support documents and, especially, make sure you connect to the internet and get your newly-formatted drive "authenticated" before proceeding with the installation.

If you don't get the drive authenticated, the OS installation will proceed as normal and you can use your Mac. However, when it comes time to install OS updates, you will be hit with a "No users available for authorisation" message and it will not let you proceed with any form of updating the OS - no downloads from the Mac App store or Software Update, nothing. At that point, your only option is to erase and re-install from scratch again.

I hit this problem today when trying to update to the new 12.3.1 release, so wanted to warn others.

https://support.apple.com/en-hk/HT212541
https://support.apple.com/en-hk/HT212030

I’ve yet to try it but don’t the M1 Macs come with the simplified reset feature (i.e. No messing about with Disk Utility)?

 

[bobcomer]

I’ve yet to try it but don’t the M1 Macs come with the simplified reset feature (i.e. No messing about with Disk Utility)?

They do, if you can boot into the OS. I used it to get ready to ship it back as a tradein. It works pretty well.

 

[MarkC426]

Nice of them to bury this information in a support document instead of an instruction screen during the process of actually doing it (though maybe it is there). Especially the part about you needing a WIRED MOUSE AND KEYBOARD in order to complete the process—not sure why that should be necessary.

If your wiping your boot disk, there will be no Bluetooth drivers until the new OS is installed.
Edit: just read the doc above, your Mac un-pairs any BT devices when formatting.

 

[MacGizmo]

If your wiping your boot disk, there will be no Bluetooth drivers until the new OS is installed.
Edit: just read the doc above, your Mac un-pairs any BT devices when formatting.

Yes I'm aware of that fact, that's my point. How are you supposed to work with the computer during the process if it doesn't support Bluetooth? They really need to make that clear during the process for consumers that aren't as tech savvy. I'm thinking like a giant "cover the entire screen with a red box and big white letters" warning that tells people they might want to grab an old wired mouse/keyboard for any possible navigation necessary during the process.

It's not a big deal most times... but when it is, it's a deal-breaker.

 

[Fishrrman]

MacGizmo:
"How are you supposed to work with the computer during the process if it doesn't support Bluetooth?"

By using a WIRED keyboard and mouse?
(that's intended to be a serious question)

 

[chabig]

If your wiping your boot disk, there will be no Bluetooth drivers until the new OS is installed.

macOS won't let you erase the volume that it's booted from. So what you suggest isn't possible. Therefore your hypothetical problem...isn't.

 

[MarkC426]

macOS won't let you erase the volume that it's booted from. So what you suggest isn't possible. Therefore your hypothetical problem...isn't.

Sorry, meant booting from Recovery.
Presumably no BT drivers in the recovery partition.

 

[Bodhitree]

Hmm so all those iMacs with colour matched wireless keyboard and mice…

 

[chabig]

Sorry, meant booting from Recovery.
Presumably no BT drivers in the recovery partition.

I can’t confirm, but I believe Recovery should contain all of the necessary Bluetooth drivers.

 

[Macative]

I can’t confirm, but I believe Recovery should contain all of the necessary Bluetooth drivers.

Of course it does. Apple ships all in one computers, like iMac, without wired periphs and have for years. They have this handled. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse always work.