What should I do if my MacBook Pro won't activate after a reset?

Ok! Just of the phone with support. genius bar it is. Only solution is firmware update. If you have a second mac, try these steps: How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support (CA)

Ayer actualicé a Sequoia y se me ocurrió hacer una instalación limpia, al parecer cuando instalas una RC los servidores de actualización aun no están disponibles por lo qué no es posible activar los dispositivos, también me pasó con un iPhone que quise restaurar desde cero y no avanzaba la restauración. La solución a todo fue poner en modo DFU y restaurar desde un archivo ipsw (en em Mac y en el iPhone) a la versión actual, Sonoma 14.6.1 y iOS 17.6.1 y todo listo. No perdí nada ya que toda mi información estaba en la nube. 👍🏻

I suggest doing what I did and not suffering. Take a second working MacBook and through the Apple Configurator program reflash your MacBook in DFU mode. It took me 30 minutes. I downloaded this from Russia, and your servers are nearby and the firmware will download to the device faster.

I’m seeing this all over Redit as I have the same problem. Did a clean sweep of my macbook and the recovery assistant is telling me “failed to activate device”. People on Redit are talking about an outage of the Apple Activation server.

I’d expect apple to tackle these outages during the weekend but I guess not, since this is going on for about 1,5 days now.

please help Apple! Need my mac tomorrow!

I tried all the options, the only solution that helped was to borrow my wife's MacBook and install Mac OS via DFU

nchous63 wrote:

Yes, everything works. The only thing is that all the data has been deleted.

In the hands of ill-informed, this is exactly would it will do - > delete all the data

" To resolve without erasing any of your files, revive the firmware of your Mac. If reviving is unsuccessful, you can restore instead. "

No. Have a call with support in 30 minutes. Fyi: the reddit thread is growing fast. We are not the only ones. Some users report that they fixed with a revive or restore Mac firmware. But you need a second mac for this. Also reports of people going to the Genius bar for this procedure and it still was not fixed. They have been told it was on Apple side server issues and they had to wait it out. This is strange because there are no report of this issue on official apple channels.

when I know more I’ll let you know!

shehabul wrote:

I am using macbook pro m3. yesterday i created a new user with administration privillage but unfortunatelay i edited my last admin user with same username.

after restart my mac when i put my password and enter it spinning for a long time but not log in.

for that i factory reset (erase mac) and tried to setup new os. my last mac os was updated. whenever i tried to activate mac by wifi network it says "Failed to activate device". I attempt it for long time with wifi, mobile data but not working. what can i do now ?

Often warned not to mess with an existing account:

make sure that you have a backup before continuing. Doing this incorrectly could damage your account and prevent you from logging in with that account.

ref: Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder

see if there is anything here—

Activate Mac -- no WiFi menu to select ne… - Apple Community

They have been able to restore mine. But had to miss it for two days as they initially could not get it into DFU mode when I was there. They fixed it however at no cost here in Amsterdam.

There is non. But even when you go to the mac store or try DFU mode yourself, nothing is sure. At the Mac Store they could not even get mine DFU mode. Had to leave there for further testing. They had no clue after 25 minutes testing.

Any update on this? I went to Apple Store and they told me they have to reset something that has no aasurance and that I have to pay 30 dollars for it. Like why would I pay for something that is a server bug?!? They even gaslight me to think it might also be a logicboard issue when there has no 0 issues prior of me reformatting my volume and I’m not someone who has no experience on doing that. This is so ridiculous!

Okay, it's strange that you couldn't put it into DFU mode, by the way, it happens that it doesn't go into DFU mode the first time, but it works the second or third time. I'm glad that everything worked out for you.

Erasing my M1 Max MacBook Pro last night as I wanted to clean install MacOS Sequoia and VOILA.. “Failed to activate device” 😩

Since I’m out of town I don’t have any other Mac available to do the DFU thing.

APPLE please fix this!

Hi, I have the same problem, have you solved your problem?

Thanks for your reply. I will wait for your reply.