failed update - message says "You need to be an owner"... I am the only user... I own my house, I own this Mac, my car... anything else?

Is there more than One User Account on this computer.

System Preferences >> Users & Groups.

Are you logged into the Admin Account of this computer.

That or the computer has Profiles installed. If Enrolled in a Mobile Digital Management Program to work at the Office via Home as may companies are doing during the COVID issue.

Then to Solution is to communicate with the Company IT Department as they actually Control the computer.

Download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

" BitDefender and Memory Clean 3 " Useless and cause more harm than good as one is experiencing with them installed on this computer.

Testament to BitDefender - read some of the 574 posting on these ASC Forums Remove it as per Developers Instruction .

Apple macOS of any stripe and version is very well equipped to Manage the Memory Requirements on the computer. Introducing a Third Party Application to perform the same actions - well is totally unneeded and actually compromises the OS and Security

There are no known Windows-like Viruses in the wild that self replicate and affect macOS, because of the underling UNIX  Foundation and Permission Limitation. 

The The Built in Security  is all that is required to protect the computer.

AntiVirus Software should be removed as per Developers Instructions. They are unneeded, cause havoc and interfere with the normal operation of the OS including the download and installation of Monterey. 

I believe after all this time and trouble I'd reinstall the OS. Doing so from the Recovery Panel does not harm personal data. It also leaves certain settings alone which could be problematic. If that were to fail, I'd make a series of backups, maybe with CCC and Time Machine, and wipe the drive and reinstall the OS from scratch. Probably from a bootable flash drive of which I already have several.

There comes a time when all else fails you have to just recreate the out-of-box condition.

BUT, and this is a big but, if you're not comfortable with either of these you need to find a buddy who is. Who TRULY IS competent at doing these things. If you follow the instructions they work perfectly, still .....

It's problems like these why this forum stresses the harmful effects of 3rd party apps that claim to be fixers, monitors, improvers, optimizers,AV and the like.

Likely your account doesn't have a secureToken enabled and you have FileVault turned on.

needs to be fixed using the sysadminctl command while logged in with an Admin account.

I have been fighting this problem all morning on my Mac mini M1. Others reported going into Activity Monitor and force quitting a couple different files starting with com.apple.Mobil.... and com.apple.ND.... The weren't even present on my computer. So I "quit" (not deleted) Memory Monitor and then it found the update just fine.

I have this issue today with the most recent update MacOS 12.2.1. With Error:

I read somewhere (https://docs.jamf.com/technical-articles/PreStage_Enrollment_Users_Are_Not_Volume_Owners_on_Computers_with_macOS_11-512_when_the_Recovery_Lock_Password_is_Set_During_Enrollment_PI-010304.html) that:

1. Volume ownership is required for users to authorize changes to local policy on computers with Apple silicon, and to allow software updates and kernel extension management.

Please post the full report as requested.

What were you trying to update?

The operating system? From what to what?

One or more apps? Which one(s)?

Something else? What?

i have same problem, "In order to continue installing, you need to be an owner." appeared when i try to update the Macos Monterey 12.1

any idea why?