Mac OS Monterey update fail

Do you have an Apple SSD installed? I ask because I had problem with upgrading late 2013 MP to Monterey.

A while ago I replace the internal Apple SSD with an NVMe drive with adapter in my late 2013 MP. I successfully updated to Big Sur with no problem but could not update to Monterey. Could not even install Monterey on a blank external drive. Then I Googled and it appeared that an Apple internal SSD has to be installed in order to update the firmware and OS boot loader. I installed the original Apple SSD which had Mojave and updated successfully to Monterey. I then booted from my Big Sur NVMe SSD and successfully updated to Monterey. I am typing this from that OS now.

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

I Tried to install on my external Samsung 1Tb SSD on my iMac 27" late 2015

& it soft bricked my system I ran it from the installer app. since my internal SSD had died I had no other choice..

I had verbose enabled & it kept giving me `disk1s1: media is not present` & it kept looping like this for 4-5 min then it reboots & then kept looping the same message.

I then tried to do a clean install via USB & it did not detect any external SSD's or any USB's connected other then the 64g flash drive where the installer was being run from.

Stay away from Monterey if using an external solution.

I have the same "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." issue on my 2013 Mac Pro "Trash Can". It has the 6 Core Xeon... and the D500 twin Graphics. I tried updating to Monterey both before and after I updated to the macOS Big Sur 12.6.1. It still won't work.

I even just opened a terminal and ran the command "softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.0.1" to see if it would just pull down the whole update and that maybe I would get a different version than the one from the software update mechanism.

It seems that many people on the web are having this problem... and I am kind of surprised that their testing of the Monterey update did not reveal this.

If I wait two months before I check again, am I going to find out that I still won't be able to update? Kind of getting disappointed here. My 2016 MacBook works just fine and was doing well with the beta preview program. It upgraded successfully.

Anybody know what to do to get it to install? Hardware wise... the Mac Pro is plain vanilla. Thanks...

Hi, thanks for the response. I bought my 2013 Mac Pro about 2 years ago... and it was refurbished/2nd hand. The reseller put in two 1 TB Intel NVMe memory drives in it. I don't know If there are any native Apple NVMe drives out there... will have to check.

This could be why a bunch of people across the web are having trouble. For me...this is one big " :-( " ... while if this is dealing with MacBooks and MacBook Pros... your discovery will be very helpful to them. Good thing you kept the original drive.

I am going to have to do some looking. First I will check what NVMe drives the 2013 Mac Pro would have shipped with... and then see if there is one around that I can swap out and try... or just take my trash can into a certified Apple repair shop.

Thanks for pointing me in a direction to pursue, even if it may not be THE right direction for the Mac Pro. We shall see. Thanks for your kindness in helping me out. Hopefully you have already helped others who are having this same issue. I still think that Apple should have addressed this issue. ;-(

I just bought a 512 GB of certified refurbed Apple NVMe RAM... part number that works in the 2013 Mac Pro... will give it a shot.

I thought that I would just grab it before the memory is taken up by people trying to install Monterey and it all goes sky-high in price. Viva l'Ebay.

If this is not an issue.... and it does not work, I can always find somebody who needs it... it fits more than just the Mac Pro.

Thanks... ;-)

Me and another person in two distant parts of the planet had the unwanted kernel problem and one year laptops are now bricks. It is so disappointing Apple should not have stopped this downgrade update making our lives more difficult with people needing a laptop for work. I may need to buy a new one urgently today if Genius Bar doesn’t give me an immediate replacement. I won’t update this killing downgrade with the new one.

You know, it makes me wonder if Apple even trolls their own support base. If this was going to be an issue with NON-APPLE SSDs... they should have had a disclaimer or something so as to make potential upgraders aware of issues. Bricks are fine when you are making a BBQ... but as you know, not fine when you are trying to work form home and retain your job. I hope that the Apple Store does right by you. Good luck!

I have a 2019 iMac that has a similar error that only appeared when I installed from recovery. My storage is a sad as well. If more of these are reported I suspect a fix incoming. I was able to reinstall Big Sur without issue.

Thank you very much. The Mac supporters that do not accept the problems make me hallucinate. This forum is for reporting problems and fixing them. I was so eager to get this update by alleged good reports and now I realise after knowing there are people having my problem of one one year Mac Book Pro Brick and so many bugs they should stop this defective release. I hope my Apple Store staff would be professional and give me one quick solution. We bought Mac because we are professionals needing good and reliable laptops. I feel duped with this defective update. At office O have an Imac that I won’t update and warned my colleagues not to do it unless we want bricks

Glad to hear they got it going, did they get you to Monterey or not? I worked with apple support to get the information from my computer and install to the engineers. Hopefully this will help them correct these issues.

Mactrix,

same here 2013 Trash Can - trying to install on Ext Drive :

Mac os a required firmware update could not be installed. Compatible internal storage is required in order to update.

Ext Drive had been erased and formatted correctly.

I have confirmed I have an aftermarket (OWC Aura) ssd. I had a fusion drive before, the apple certified repair shop I use thinks they can get me a OEM replacement drive. $$$ but I don't; want to do a work around to have to deal with this later, defeats having a Mac (its supposed to be hassle free right?).

I got Monterey and it looks like working fine. My laptop is only 1 year old so what happened is quite surreal! I am lucky I have several Apple Stores. I am quite sorry for people that have no access and has no technical help if they are not IT engineers. I really think Apple should urgently make a statement for not “downgrading” with this defective update for the users ending with one brick laptop and not understanding why.

Yeah, this is not new folks… it is all new to us though. I am hopefully getting around it with the NVMe stick I ordered off of eBay…. But to others… getting the machine open and SSD swapped out… even if you kept the original… will be technically difficult. It seems to me that your repair shop should have a SDD for your Max or you can get the part number and search for it on eBay yourself… you can probably get it used or whatever and then let your repair guys use it to help you. At any rate.. the moral of the story is to keep your original SSD.

it is both nice and sad to know that there are so many in the same boat. Good luck!