Shortly after the launch of Apple’s new M1 Macs, reports documentedthat attempts to immediately restore and reinstall macOS on these devices could lead to an installation error. Now Apple has spoken out.
Some customers who have purchased an M1 Mac are facing a rather unfortunate problem. The restore is said to result in an error, causing the process to abort and the Mac to subsequently become inoperable. Specifically, the error message reads:
An error occurred while preparing the update. The software update could not be personalized. Please try again.
macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 is required
Now Apple has a new support document providedto help users resolve the issue. Specifically, the issue seems to occur when users erase/restore their Mac before updating to macOS Big Sur 11.0.1.
If you erased your Mac with Apple M1 chip before updating to macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, you may not be able to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery. A message may read: "An error occurred while preparing the update. The software update could not be personalized. Please try again.
Use either of these two solutions to reinstall macOS. You should then be able to use macOS Recovery as expected when you reinstall macOS in the future.
Apple suggests that those affected can create a bootable installer using another Mac. In addition, Apple describes a 17-step process using Terminal to get the M1 Mac back into working order. If those affected are unable to cope despite Apple's assistance, the company recommends contacting support. Have you already discovered the early Black Friday offers on Amazon? It's worth being quick. (Image: Apple)
