macOS Sierra Reinstallation Failure after Disk Erase on MacBook Pro Late 2016 (A1706)

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macOS Sierra Reinstallation Failure after Disk Erase on MacBook Pro Late 2016 (A1706)

I have a MacBook Pro Late 2016 (A1706) that I erased to prepare for selling, as I've purchased a new machine. I attempted to reinstall macOS Sierra post-erasure, but it fails with an error message "An error occurred while perparing the installation. Try running this application again.". Now, the disk has no operating system, leading to a question mark appearing during startup. Internet recovery also fails to install macOS Sierra.

Technical Details:

Internal Disk: "APPLE SSD APO256J Media"
Disk Format: "Mac OS Extended (Journal)"
Disk Scheme: "GUID Partition Map"
Diagnostic Tests: First Aid was run on both the internal disk and disk images without reporting any failures.
Bootable USB: I created a bootable USB stick with macOS Sierra (Version 10.12.6), which is not recognized during startup. Neither after performing activities with bless-command in Terminal during Internet Recovery mode.
NVRAM: NVRAM has been reset, but the issue remains unresolved.

Additional Information:

I am facing a two-fold issue. Firstly, macOS Sierra installation consistently fails. Secondly, the bootable USB stick is not being recognized, making it impossible to proceed with any form of installation. Internet recovery is also failing to resolve the problem. Any guidance on how to resolve these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Nov 1, 2023 8:26 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

70,076 points

Nov 2, 2023 9:04 PM in response to username5641

Did you try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R? Theoretically this should access the online macOS 13.x Ventura installer, but on some Macs it may still only boot to the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with the laptop from the factory. Also, how did you erase the internal SSD for Sierra? It needs to be GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). For macOS 10.13+, it should be GUID partition and APFS (top option).

How did you create the bootable macOS 10.12 USB installer? The only reliable method is by using a compatible Mac and using the instructions in this Apple article (although an extra unofficial step needs to be performed to fix a bug with the 10.12 installer which Apple decided to ignore years ago, so best to go for a 10.13+ installer):

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Generally you will need one of the following Macs in order to create the following macOS USB installer:

macOS 10.13 --- a Mac from Late-2009 to 2017 or (mid-2018)
macOS 13.x --- a Mac from 2016 to mid-2023

There is also a possibility the USB stick is bad. Macs can be very picky about the drives used for booting, plus the quality of USB sticks is extremely poor.

FYI, here is an Apple article with instructions for what should be done prior to selling a Mac (lots of steps before even erasing the Mac as well):

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Nov 1, 2023 8:43 AM in response to username5641

Reinstall the OS from Recovery mode (Command-R)

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

It's a little different that Internet recovery... it mostly relies on the hidden recovery partition on internal drive.

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Answer 3

username5641 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2023 8:44 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

I already did, error message is "An error occurred while perparing the installation. Try running this application again.".

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Answer 4

username5641 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2023 9:01 AM in response to username5641

I already did both - recovery mode and internet recovery - error message is "An error occurred while perparing the installation. Try running this application again.".

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