Cannot upgrade to Monterey with non-apple SSD.

While that provides a workaround, why in the world ought I have to buy another drive just to install an otherwise compatible MacOS. Apple fixing this mess ought to be the answer, not expending more $$$ to compensate for their engineering error.

I ran into the same issue and contacted OWC to see if they had a firmware update available for my SSD. Talking to support, they said that it isn't the SSD that requires the firmware update, but the MacBook Pro itself, which requires an EFI update that won't be installed unless there's an Apple SSD installed. They recommended that I reinstall the original Apple SSD, then install Monterey to get the EFI update, then replace the Apple SSD with the OWC SSD, and upgrade from Big Sur 11.6.1 to Monterey. According to OWC, they've tested this fix in their lab and it works. (We'll see.)

You can get an Apple SSD and do the firmware update and then reinstall the non-Apple SSD. That is what I did for same problem on late 2013 MP.

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.

Maybe this will be resolved in a subsequent update to Monterey so you can wait and try again.

Given months have passed, probably a gross engineering oversight that doesn't have an easy resolution short of swapping drives (who wants to take their machine apart???). The idea of having to reinstall an Apple drive to upgrade to Monterey, then swap back to the regular SSD is asking a bit too much, especially for anyone whose computer expertise is marginal. How this issue even got to this point is simply mind boggling.

Kennaugh wrote:

I have just seen a different list of eligible MBPs from Apple and the 15" late 2013 is no longer there (though I saw it on their list earlier today). They seem to have changed their mind.

Nothing has changed here...

macOS Monterey hardware requirements—

https://www.apple.com/macos/monterey/#section-router

In recovery mode, can you see the non-apple disk?

About a week ago I upgraded to Monterey on a OWC 1TB (mini 2014). Everything went smoothly and was running fine for the last week. I sat down to find the mac with the black screen question mark folder.

• I don't think there were any power outages (my other 2 machines were still running)
• A quick search uncovers a bunch of issues with the OWC drives similar to what I'm seeing
• the 2014 MM is a huge pain to swap SSDs, so I want to be sure its a firmware issue and not a bad drive.
• The OWC SSD is missing in recovery mode (I have a samsung SATA drive that does show up... so the aforementioned firmware issue seems unlikely in my case)
• Since Monterey installed, can I assume my firmware is already updated? Or would this randomly brick the machine a few days later?

Firmware error is resolved for try the following steps. >>-----> Apple will be so jealous after reading this solution

• Remove your upgraded SSD
• Insert your Macbook pro's original apple made drive
• Upgrade your MacBook Pro to Monterey on the original SSD because it will up-date your logic board's Firmware witch is required by Monetary
• Remove the original SSD add back your new SSD and upgrade to Monterey it works

Thank you.

This does not work for me....

• I previously installed monterey (without incident) on a OWC drive
• It ran fine for about a week, then I randomly got the black screen with the folder
• Swapped in the original apple drive... updated that to monterey (which supposedly updates the firmware, but who knows)
• Put the OWC drive back in and it didnt recognize the drive (absent from disk utility)
• Contacted OWC and they sent me a replacement drive
• Same exact issue - new drive (after all the successful monterey updates) is still missing from disk utility in recovery mode

So today I received my genuine Apple SSD for my MacPro 6.1

BigSur installed fine on it and firmware got updated properly.

Monterey is installing as I type this. I think I did not get so far as I do now….

Exactly and the entire sell of the Mac Pro is to be able to have a configurable computer ... which includes hard drive swapping, upgrading, and managing. Full control.

cymrych wrote:

I cannot upgrade from Big Sur (11.6.1) to Monterey. I was unable to do so with the beta and now that the production release is available I'm still having the same issue. When attempting to run the installer from the applications folder, it fails to restart and prompts me to launch the application again. So I created a bootable USB using createinstallmedia and that progresses further, but during the restart process, it eventually fails with a "firmware upgrade could not be installed. Compatible internal media ..." error message. It then launches the startup disk dialog and I reboot back into Big Sur.

Did you contact the vendor of your "non-apple SSD" for support or insight

wow so glad i did not wipe my internal drive i updated it to Monterey first then i clean installed mac os big sur on my external 1 tb drive and updated it to Monterey , glad i kept the OS in there this is a Imac so wasn't about to tear it down and install just went with 1 tb SSD in thunderbolt 2 drive enclosure.

As someone who has a late 2013 MBP (well, actually, my daughter has), this is something that is not new. I have been aware of that for a long time that my daughter's mac would not be upgradeable to Monterey.

Use the original SSD.

I confirm the following worked great for me on my 2015 MacBook Pro 15".

1. Installed original SSD.

2. Installed fresh copy of Monterey via the USB stick onto the original SSD (it rebooted a bunch of times, indicating a firmware update).

3. Put the new SSD back in.

4. Booted off USB stick and upgraded to Monterey without a hitch.

It sucks if you don't have your original SSD but maybe you can get a cheap one off of the interwebs. Doesn't have to be big. Likely doesn't even have to be the same one that came with your unit. Most likely just *any* genuine Apple SSD.

Good luck.