You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: Richard from Camas
Richard from Camas Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Big Sur - Disk Utility - Restore option... won’t work, target has broken seal

Fixed a problem with iMac. Did fresh install onto an external... copied users, but no applications. Judiciously added needed apps and fixed the problem. Problem solved for a few days now. Now I want to erase and restore from the external onto the SDD in the iMac. Cant’t do it. “Broken Seal” on the SDD target volume. Did an erase with APFS option and all seemed to go well, but the restore won’t work.


What’s a seal and how do I fix it?

Posted on Apr 15, 2021 5:26 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Jack-19
Jack-19
User level: Level 8
46,014 points

Posted on Apr 15, 2021 9:54 PM

Hi Richard from Camas,


A "seal" is part of the Signed System Volume (SSV) in macOS Big Sur. Not being able to use the "Restore" feature is a known issue in macOS Big Sur. So, you need to erase the disk, install macOS Big Sur, then transfer data manually, or with Migration Assistant/Time Machine restore.


Directions:

  1. Turn on the Mac, (if off) and immediately press and hold Option + Command + R until you see a spinning globe.
  2. Once you are in macOS Recovery, verify you are connected to WiFi in the top right corner.
  3. Go to Disk Utility.
  4. Select "View" in the toolbar —> "Show All Devices".
  5. Select your main hard drive or SSD. This will either be the top, non indented hard drive. 
  6. Click Erase, and input the following exactly: (If you cannot select erase on the main hard drive, erase the "Container" or “Macintosh HD”.)
  7. Name: Macintosh HD
  8. Format: APFS
  9. Scheme: GUID Partition Map (if shown)
  10. Click Erase. If “Erase Volume Group” is shown, use that instead. 
  11. Quit Disk Utility
  12. Go to the reinstall macOS app.
  13. Follow the prompts, and install on Macintosh HD.
  14. Restore data using the method of your choice.


Cheers,


Jack

View in context

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Jack-19
Jack-19
User level: Level 8
46,014 points

Apr 15, 2021 9:54 PM in response to Richard from Camas

Hi Richard from Camas,


A "seal" is part of the Signed System Volume (SSV) in macOS Big Sur. Not being able to use the "Restore" feature is a known issue in macOS Big Sur. So, you need to erase the disk, install macOS Big Sur, then transfer data manually, or with Migration Assistant/Time Machine restore.


Directions:

  1. Turn on the Mac, (if off) and immediately press and hold Option + Command + R until you see a spinning globe.
  2. Once you are in macOS Recovery, verify you are connected to WiFi in the top right corner.
  3. Go to Disk Utility.
  4. Select "View" in the toolbar —> "Show All Devices".
  5. Select your main hard drive or SSD. This will either be the top, non indented hard drive. 
  6. Click Erase, and input the following exactly: (If you cannot select erase on the main hard drive, erase the "Container" or “Macintosh HD”.)
  7. Name: Macintosh HD
  8. Format: APFS
  9. Scheme: GUID Partition Map (if shown)
  10. Click Erase. If “Erase Volume Group” is shown, use that instead. 
  11. Quit Disk Utility
  12. Go to the reinstall macOS app.
  13. Follow the prompts, and install on Macintosh HD.
  14. Restore data using the method of your choice.


Cheers,


Jack

Reply
User profile for user: Richard from Camas
Richard from Camas Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Apr 17, 2021 9:50 AM in response to Jack-19

Hi JACK,

EXCELLENT! PROBLEM SOLVED. HERE’S HOW IT WENT,

steps 1==> 2 - Spinning loose was nice... but did not finish... Error code 5101F

Step 3===>11 - Erase went OK... some of the options were not available.

Step 12===>13 - The install macOS went ok. Maybe the install app does some clean up needed, but bypassed by the Disk Utility restore option?

Step 14 --- With the new APFS secret partitions, the restore user part of the set up function did not have enough free space to proceed. I eliminated the biggest part of the user merge (Pictures which was HUGE!) and the migrate/restore user of the new macOS set up function worked fine. I made a copy of the original source Pictures folder, made an alias of the file <iPhoto Library.photoslibrary> and moved that to the target user folder. Total success. Nothing lost.


I like the separation of the Apple applications (In the System.Applications folder and putting the non-Apple applications in the traditional Application folder. Hope you can similarly isolate the extensions Apple/Non-Apple. It would have made my initial attempts to eliminate the old/un-updated Apps/Extensions that were infecting my wife’s computer. Turns out, none of them were currently needed for her main line work


Many thanks

Reply

Big Sur - Disk Utility - Restore option... won’t work, target has broken seal

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up