Can’t Erase AppleAPFSMedia

Regardless if it is High Sierra or Catalina - the method proved in earlier posting will apply if performed correctly

Just for accuracy - the most up to date version of High Sierra is 10.13.6. There have been several Security Updates and the last released was in November 2020

How to erase an Intel-based Mac. No doubt this was the method suggested by Apple Support person ?

How to reinstall macOS Then this ?

If the two links above have already been attempted - there might be one last method short of a visit to an Apple Store.

Shutdown the computer and disconnect all external drives. Connect the computer via Ethernet Cable to Router. Restart computer and Immediately hold the three keys Command + Option + r. Keeping holding until an Apple Globe appear. This is Internet Recovery Mode. Depending on speed of you connection and Apple Servers it could take some time until it completely loads.

It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ). The drive normally is called Apple Media or Apple SSD - that is the drive to Erase and format as APFS with the GUID Partition Map. Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS. Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time. Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the most recent version of macOS this computer Qualifies to run

jacobbbbbbbbb wrote:

To my surprise, when I attempted to wipe “APPLE SSD AP0256N Media”, I am not able to click the “Erase” button. It blinks as if I clicked it, but nothing happens.

I have encountered a bug with macOS where you may see two of these items listed on the left pane of Disk Utility. I recall I had trouble trying to erase the physical drive as well since this "duplicate" entry really confused Disk Utility. I believe one time I just started deleting volumes and partitions until I was able to actually select the physical drive to erase as @P. Phillips instructed.

While the instructions provided by @P. Phillips work 99% of the time Disk Utility can get confused sometimes and it may be necessary to first zero out the beginning of the drive to destroy the partition table. To do this you will need to use the command line which is accessed through the Terminal app located on the Utilities menu.

To use the command line to zero out the beginning of the drive you will first need to find the drive identifier for the physical drive and unumount any mounted volumes on that drive. Use the following commands as templates/examples. You will need to press the "Return" key at the end of a line to execute the command.

List the internal physical drives (if using an older macOS installer then the "physical" option may not be available):

diskutil  list  internal  physical

Now unmount all volumes on the physical drive you want to erase. Make sure to replace "diskX" in my example with the correct drive identifier discovered using the previous command.

diskutil  unmountDisk   diskX

Zero out the beginning of the drive (again making sure to replace "diskX" with the proper drive identifier):

sudo  dd  if=/dev/zero  of=/dev/diskX   bs=100m  count=10

You should now be able to quit the Terminal app and launch Disk Utility to erase the physical drive.