Cannot upgrade to Monterey with non-apple SSD.

I would think if Monterey installed then yes your firmware is updated it will not install without updating it. I'm guessing something else happened between then and now that has caused the issue you are seeing.

Yes, 2 drives installed, both non-apple. The one that is still visible is the secondary SATA drive. The main OWC drive is just missing from the diskutility. Since the SATA drive is still there, it sort of makes me think firmware on the pcie side... although a bit of a stretch.

Since Monterey installed to that drive, I'm guessing something else too... but since there is this firmware thing floating around, I'm faced with hours of swapping drives (whomever designed this 2014 mac mini case is evil), which will ultimately probably end with a dead OWC drive anyways.

I'm just hoping someone could confirm that a non-apple pcie drive, with the firmware issue, shows up in recoverymode disk utility (or not).

I just wanted to update my eventual solution. I could not get the new drive unscrewed from the machine so had to take it to be installed. Luckily, the Onyx Consulting people are really nice people, it only took and hour to do.

Thank you you for all the help!

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

I have been getting the same error as well. This error does not make any sense. I had upgraded from Catalina from macOS Catalina to Big Sur. My current version is 11.6.2. I tried to get MacOS Monterrey, but I had the same Error. It did took me back to Big Sur. There is no such thing as Compatible internal storage since it does not make any sense. No matter if the storage is a non-apple SSD, it has to install Monterrey with no Problems. Apple needs to fix this error. What if I wanted to get Logic Pro X or Final Cut Pro, and all of the sudden, Apple announces the new version of both of those apps I have to upgrade Monterrey in order to purchase both Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro. This is ridiculous on when it comes with being stuck on the current MacOS and not being able to get Logic or Final Cut Pro due to the new macOS version requirement. Even though Upgrading to the newest macOS such as Monterrey, I would end up getting compatibility problems.

I bought my 2015 MacBook pro since August 2020 on eBay, but it did not come with the Original Apple SSD. I took a look of the brand of the internal storage, it was a non-apple SSD that came. I wonder where can I get the Apple SSD for the 2015 MacBook Pro in order to upgrade from Big Sur to Monterrey.

Running into the same block. I purchased my MBP 2015 Retina used in 2017. Of course the internal SSD is “non-Apple”. So many inane hoops just to install an OS. At a minimum, communication could have been much better on Apple’s part about this firmware update. And 4 months later and still no clarification.

First of all, Apple banged everyone hard who they sold these laptops to that had such small hard drives to begin with then to not support other drives with firmware updates adds insult to injury. I got my laptop (2015 MacBook Pro) for free because the non-technical person that paid full price for it ran out of space in a very short time and could no longer use it. I took it apart and upgraded it with a bigger drive like I'm sure a lot of you folks also did.

STUPID! ANOTHER APPLE BLUNDER!!

I have the same problem (trying to upgrade to Monterey from Big Sur 11.6.1 on a late 2013 MBP) but get an "update not available" message despite having an original Apple 1TB SSD

Thanks for this good advice. I can confirm this works. I'm writing this on Monterey MacOS 12.0.1 MacPro(late 2013) with Aura Pro X2.

So I appear to have the same problem, but I still got the original ssd installed yet it doesn't work... does anyone have other fixes for the issue?

That's just going to be huge pain in the *ahem*. I think I'll just wait to see if there is an eventual patch for this.

Thank you!

I still say this is a big mess up on apple , i don't think this would be intentional but i could be wrong, i mean they have to think of the people who upgraded there hard drives for crying out loud.

Yes!!! Monterey has installed just fine.

I might keep it on the genuine 256GB Apple SSD but I also might try doing the upgrade on the 1TB Samsung 970 EVO m.2 SSD…..

It indeed works, like I said above. Or did you mean to reply to Luca? ;-)