I've tried pretty much everything on the Apple advice page apart from wiping my machine again. The only OS that appears in Recovery is Ventura. I can't go higher. How do I fix this?
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
How are you performing the upgrade? Are you running the Sonoma installer from the Applications folder while booted normally? Or Recovery Mode or bootable macOS Sonoma USB installer?
There isn't much information about the "Personalization" errors when updating software on an Apple Silicon Mac. I have come across some threads where people have this issue and also a website that I thought provided some information, but I cannot find the site which has that information. I believe it is an issue involving the security enclave chip getting confused or corrupted.
One post mentioned someone create a new macOS admin user account. They logged out of their main macOS user account, then logged into the new macOS admin user account. From the new macOS admin user account, they reported being able to update or upgrade macOS successfully. I don't know whether the original admin user account will still have issues down the road with the next update or if this could "fix" it, or whether they just decided to use the new user account going forward....like most forum posts people don't provide many details.
If that does not work, then maybe try performing a firmware "Revive" to reset the security enclave chip & system firmware. I don't know if this will help at all, but at least it should not destroy any data (theoretically). I would highly recommend making sure you first have a good backup just to be safe.
One of the few mentions of the "Personalization" error I could find is from 2020/2021 when the original M1 Macs had the issue when trying to update Big Sur. I stumbled across this blog with instructions on how to resolve it which involved erasing the Mac & reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup.
https://mrmacintosh.com/reinstalling-big-sur-on-apple-silicon-macs-with-11-0-20a2411-error/
The Apple article being referenced on that blog and their video has been completely changed by Apple today and has no mention of the "Personalization" error, however, I was able to locate the original Apple article on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210116101320/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983
Keep in mind if you have a later model Mac, then some of the information in that Apple article is no longer valid since the link to download a Big Sur installer using the command line won't apply to your Mac. I'm just providing that old Apple article for reference since it is mentioned in the linked blog.
I guess you could try installing macOS next to itself by creating a new APFS volume to see if that could fix things. Installing macOS into another APFS volume won't interfere with the existing macOS installation as long as you give the new APFS volume a unique name, plus it is very easy to delete if the original OS volume allows you to update/upgrade again. I have found that this can sometimes fix some of the odd things with these Apple Silicon Macs so that you don't have to erase the computer. Theoretically you could migrate from the original installation to the new installation, then once you confirm everything is working you could delete the original APFS volume with the old & broken OS.
However, installing macOS beside itself may not even work since the issue may be with the Apple Silicon Mac's security enclave chip and only a complete erase & reinstall may be the only way to fix the problem. I thought I would provide some non-destructive options for you to try before you go with the nuclear option.
It would be nice if Apple actually provided documentation for these specific errors and an explanation why a complete erase is necessary so we could better understand the system. You can always provide Apple with product feedback here:
How are you performing the upgrade? Are you running the Sonoma installer from the Applications folder while booted normally? Or Recovery Mode or bootable macOS Sonoma USB installer?
There isn't much information about the "Personalization" errors when updating software on an Apple Silicon Mac. I have come across some threads where people have this issue and also a website that I thought provided some information, but I cannot find the site which has that information. I believe it is an issue involving the security enclave chip getting confused or corrupted.
One post mentioned someone create a new macOS admin user account. They logged out of their main macOS user account, then logged into the new macOS admin user account. From the new macOS admin user account, they reported being able to update or upgrade macOS successfully. I don't know whether the original admin user account will still have issues down the road with the next update or if this could "fix" it, or whether they just decided to use the new user account going forward....like most forum posts people don't provide many details.
If that does not work, then maybe try performing a firmware "Revive" to reset the security enclave chip & system firmware. I don't know if this will help at all, but at least it should not destroy any data (theoretically). I would highly recommend making sure you first have a good backup just to be safe.
One of the few mentions of the "Personalization" error I could find is from 2020/2021 when the original M1 Macs had the issue when trying to update Big Sur. I stumbled across this blog with instructions on how to resolve it which involved erasing the Mac & reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup.
https://mrmacintosh.com/reinstalling-big-sur-on-apple-silicon-macs-with-11-0-20a2411-error/
The Apple article being referenced on that blog and their video has been completely changed by Apple today and has no mention of the "Personalization" error, however, I was able to locate the original Apple article on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210116101320/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983
Keep in mind if you have a later model Mac, then some of the information in that Apple article is no longer valid since the link to download a Big Sur installer using the command line won't apply to your Mac. I'm just providing that old Apple article for reference since it is mentioned in the linked blog.
I guess you could try installing macOS next to itself by creating a new APFS volume to see if that could fix things. Installing macOS into another APFS volume won't interfere with the existing macOS installation as long as you give the new APFS volume a unique name, plus it is very easy to delete if the original OS volume allows you to update/upgrade again. I have found that this can sometimes fix some of the odd things with these Apple Silicon Macs so that you don't have to erase the computer. Theoretically you could migrate from the original installation to the new installation, then once you confirm everything is working you could delete the original APFS volume with the old & broken OS.
However, installing macOS beside itself may not even work since the issue may be with the Apple Silicon Mac's security enclave chip and only a complete erase & reinstall may be the only way to fix the problem. I thought I would provide some non-destructive options for you to try before you go with the nuclear option.
It would be nice if Apple actually provided documentation for these specific errors and an explanation why a complete erase is necessary so we could better understand the system. You can always provide Apple with product feedback here:
Personalisation failed when trying to update to Sonoma from Ventura.
