Error "Failed to Activate Device" on MacBook Pro after erasing it

The last comment on this thread was about a month ago. However it happened to me yesterday. So evidently the problem at Apple's end is not resolved.

I went through the Erase All Contents and Settings process on my 2018 Macbook Air, and now I have the Failed to Activate screen.

I had Monterey on the MacBook, and I have a MacMini Pro M2 with Ventura, but the Apple Configurator app won't download unless I upgrade the OS to Sonoma.

I'd like to know if others are still having this problem. Make me feel a bit less alone with this .

I do see this all over Reddit. I reccomend more people start calling support or going to the Apple store so they can esclate / expedite.

I think it's disrespectful because after more than a week we still have the problem.

*SOLVED*

Problem was under Sonoma 14.6.1 on Mac Studio with M1-max.

I finally managed to solve this under Sonoma. The really only way is via DFU. But never via the finder but always with the help of the Apple Configurator 2 which can be downloaded from the App Store.

Even though you can read everywhere that DFU can and should be done under Sonoma via the finder this didn`t work for me. I tryed 7 times in various ways with various cables etc... very annoying since every try takes a minimum of 40 minutes of waiting for the OS to be downloaded over and over again. Apple please change this. This is so unnecessary. Not to mention to activate a allready payed and 100% customer owned machine again and again is absolutley wrong.

Anyway so with Apple Configurator it also ended in various error messages alike "Firmware file is corrupted" or similiar or "you do not have enough space" and even more weired messages come up. They all mislead the real step and even the customer support and service team got cought on those wrong messages.

So the way it worked for me was using the Apple configurator but only via the "repair" button which can be found in the toplevel drop down menu "Actions"->Extended->Repair

Sorry the screenshot is in german but since my system language is in german this is the fastest way to shot it.

I hope it helps and I really can say keep on trying. This really works.

And Apple please change this complete way of how a restore and reinstall is done.

Good Luck to everyone and you are welcome to leave a comment here whenever it worked for you too.

Hi! Thanks for sharing first. But I've tried so many times to restore my mac mini with m2 chip, and that helped nothing. Everytime after I restored my mac and restarted it, I was led to the activate mac page again. Would you like to share more details about your experience? Like did you use apple configurator or just in finder? And what did you see after you restored your mac and restarted it again, was you led to the activate page again and this time activated successfully? Or just skipped activation progress? I'll be very appreciate. I'm having the same issue for almost one week. That made me so sad. Thanks for your reply again and wish you have a nice day.

Hi! Thanks do much for sharing us about that. I have some free time and I’d like to try this method because I do need my Mac this weekend, and I don’t think Apple could solve this problem in this week. Before I do that, would you like you share some details about your try? Did you use Apple Configurator or just finder on another Mac? And did you remember what’s the sign of success? Is that the same as Activate Mac page or just skipped activation? I’ll be very appreciate for that. Thanks again and wish you have a great day. 

This pretty much worked for me too, though I had to go through a "restore" and not just a "revive". I got into DFU mode without too much hassle, and my laptop appeared in the Apple Configurator on my older laptop. Selecting "restore" started a download of a new OS which took forever (and I already had a copy). When that finished, Apple Configurator put up a prompt saying that an update was needed. This was confusing -- an update for what? I first declined to download the update, but then then the process ultimately failed. I retried again, and at least Apple Configurator realized it still had the OS to work with. I then let it download the update. Finally, after starting up Apple Configurator once again, the restore operation finally started up.

How did it go? Did they know about this problem? And what did they do to fix it?

This would be very helpful even for other Genius Bar visitors to know as well as for the employees at Apple stores.

Up until now the Apple Employees and service and support teams in Germany have no clue what to do and how to solve this. This is really annoying and ridiculous as one can imagine.

Yes I used a Mac Book Pro with a M1pro chip under Sonoma 14.6.1 and not via the Finder but with Apple Configurator 2 from the App Store.

I used the Apple Original USB C cable from the IPad to connect both computers.

in Configurator the only way that worked for me was to choose „repair“ from the top level menu und „Action“

please see my screenshot to get a better understanding.

the final overall working repair took about 1.5 to 2 hours. This is kind of crazy.

I wish you the best and I hope you have a Time Machine backup since everything gets wiped out with this method.

This is still an issue. Erased all contents on my old Mac Mini 2018 (12.7.6) in preparation to give to a family member. Now I'm stuck on Failed to activate device. Retried activation over 20 times, but stills fails.

I may give the DFU recovery a try if I have some spare time. Thankfully, this was not a critical system. I can't imagine the frustration some of you must be having if this is happening to your daily use system.

Update! I did eventually get it fixed. I couldn’t find anyone of my friends with a Mac with Sonoma, and as I didn’t want to upgrade to Sonoma on my working Mac Mini, I had no choice but to take it to as Apple authorised reseller shop.

of course they didn’t at first believe that I knew what I was talking about when I told them it needed connecting to a Mac with Sonoma, and Apple Configurator downloading. But they did take it off me and I waited, about half an hour, and they said it had worked but that it was now reinstalling the OS and that would take 3 hours. So I left it with them overnight and it was working , with Sonoma on it, the next morning.

So, the message is, follow the instructions that are on the Apple website, to the letter except use Configurator on the working Sonoma Mac, not Finder. Be careful with the sequence of shutting down, restarting, which cable to use, which ports to use - that depends which Mac model you are trying to fix.

Good luck!

me too，why so stupid