My 2015 Macbook Pro had an Apple drive several years ago. We replaced the drive with an OWC drive. How we cannot upgrade the operating system.

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My 2015 Macbook Pro had an Apple drive several years ago. We replaced the drive with an OWC drive. How we cannot upgrade the operating system.

I am in a catch 22 where I cannot get the correct MacOS version onto my MacBook Pro.

On a 2015 MacBook Pro the original Apple SSD failed in 2019 and I replaced it with an OWC Aura PCI drive. It has worked fine since but I can't update to Big Sur and Monterey in spite of Apple OS badgering me to update all the time. The issue is a missing Firmware update. To solve the issue, I borrowed an Apple drive from my older Macbook Pro 2013, inserted it into the MacBook 2015, and upgraded to Monterey. This allowed me to reinsert the OWC drive and update to Monterey using an internet install. Success!

However, now, the Apple drive that I used to fix the problem will not work when returned to its original Macbook Pro 2013 machine. It is totally blocked on the 2013 MacBook when starting up in recovery mode. Is there a way for me to revert this Apple branded PCI drive? Ugh!

Posted on Aug 25, 2022 12:42 PM

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Answer 1

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Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

142,393 points

Aug 25, 2022 1:01 PM in response to ejrmathews

MacBook Pro 2013 can not run the version you installed, Monterey.

Use Internet recovery to install the appropriate version of MacOS that was last running

you can use Option-Command-R during startup to be offered either the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac...

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Read the ENTIRE article before you do anything, because stuff mentioned later in the article is likely what you want.

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Answer 2

ejrmathews Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 25, 2022 3:03 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for the helpful information, Grant. The problem was Monterey had formatted the PCI disk in a manner that could not be used to recover on the 2013 MacBook. It needed to be reformatted and would not. even load the disk utility. Based on this article How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support I created a bootable El Capitan USB drive that allowed me to reformat the PCI drive and install El Capitan successfully. Then, I ran an updater to Big Sur. Thanks for your help.

John

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My 2015 Macbook Pro had an Apple drive several years ago. We replaced the drive with an OWC drive. How we cannot upgrade the operating system.

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