Should I perform a DFU factory reset if macOS Sonoma reinstallation stalls on my MacBook Air?

Thanks a lot, HWTech, for taking the time to read my long posts and for writing a clear and informative answer. I've read or re-read all the linked texts.

I'm still waiting for a DFU firmware Restore.

If I can't find an acquaintance with a suitable Mac, I'll have to ask the nearest Apple shop (which is quite far away from my home). I wonder whether they'll provide that service free of charge or not. As far as I know, factory reset tends to be freely (and more easily) available on electronic devices.

In the meantime, let me describe in more details the incredible chain of events which led to the current sorry state of affairs.

As mentioned earlier, it was Friday, 13th!

1. I had two Macs switched on next to each other, but they were not connected via a network, nor was either even connected to the Internet.
2. On the left, my MacBook Air M1 from 2020 (Sequoia); on the right, my old MacBook Pro from 2011 (High Sierra).
3. I was mainly busy on the MacBook Pro. Having recently changed its internal SSD, I had unsuccessfully tried twice to restore it to an external HDD drive via USB port #1. The Disk Utility error message was: "Inverting target volume APFS inverter failed to invert the volume […] error 22".
4. On this website, I found this conversation (or rather monologue;-) APFS inverter failed... trying to clone S… - Apple Community matched my situation and – guilty as charged – I ran the risk and gave it a go although iso636 is a fellow "level 1" member like me (and has not posted anything else here!).
5. While the MacBook Pro was performing the Terminal commands listed by iso636, I accidentally very slightly dislodged the USB plug from its socket with my fingers while inserting another USB plug into the second (too!) adjacent USB port #2 in order to connect an iPod. I think Terminal had reached the stage before "Unmount Preboot volumes one by one" by then.
6. As a result of the oh so brief! USB disruption (the plug remained attached to the socket throughout), not only did Disk Utility become unresponsive, but it would not even force quit and the Mac would not shut down. Therefore I held down the power button for a few seconds to force a shut-down.
7. Only then did I disconnect the external drive.
8. Because my MacBook Air was switched on, I made the ill-fated decision to connect that external drive to it (instead of waiting for the MacBook Pro to be switched on again) in order to check its status.
9. On the surface, nothing much happened. The external drive was pronounced healthy. As expected, it was also apparently empty because the restore operation had been interrupted.
10. A few minutes later though, I noticed the presence of one or more snapshots of various volumes on the MacBook Air. It seems to me the only explanation for their sudden presence was the USB connection of the external drive to the MacBook Air because there was a "preboot" in the list of volumes on the MacBook Air … despite the fact that I – cross my heart – had never performed any Terminal commands to create preboots on my MacBook Air!
11. One of these snapshots had a size of about 12GB, which I found quite substantial and annoying, so I looked for information about Snapshots and found the page View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support you reference yourself in your post.
12. I followed the instructions provided. Towards the end, I remember being given a choice between two options, either delete "only" the selected 12GB snapshot or all snapshots. The latter option included a warning about possible harmful consequences. Therefore, I chose the former – again, cross my heart!

The rest is history (cf. my above posts in chronological order).

Ref. my MacBook Pro:

After my risky implementation of iso636's Terminal procedure and the clumsy disruption caused by my slight dislodgement of the USB plug (I have big hands!), my MacBook Pro has also ended up with (a remnant of?) a preboot volume as well as a Virtual Memory volume of 3.2 GB (isn't that too big?).

Here's a copy of its diskutil list:

Once bitten, twice shy, though, all the more so after having read your wise warnings, HWTech!

Thanks a lot for reading this long, sad story I took the time to write in the hope it might prove useful to someone.

An update after further searching on this website.

The following quote is from a recent post titled Reinstall MacOS Error - Apple Community.

It included a re-install log with some errors …

• identical to mine (a.o. "Will not load trustcache because required files are missing.", "Failed to initialize SUMacControllerClient")
• different from mine (eg. "disk3 is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).fdf" vs. "disk[…] has no volume")

PRP_53

User level: Level 10

92,305 points

Jul 26, 2024 2:16 AM in response to aashnaunadkat8

Suggest re-booting using the Cmd+R+Option combination […] >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. 

Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).

The drive normally is called Apple Media or Apple SSD - that is the drive to Erase and format as APFS with the GUID Partition Map. […]

That solution suggested by PRP_53 solved aashnaunadkat8's issue.

Once bitten, twice shy, though: having already caused some damage with earlier deletions, I'm wary of erasing and formatting my "APPLE SSD APO256Q Media" for fear of causing even more damage.

Since I've yet to find another Mac user willing to help me try the DFU solution, I'm sorely tempted to give it a try, though.

Of course, I'm not asking you take responsibility for my actions, I'm just looking for advice from people with more experience and know-how. How risky is a deletion of an Apple SSD media?

Thanks in advance.

Update #3: From bad to worse …

With little prospect of finding someone with a suitable Mac to help me try a DFU factory reset in the short term, I couldn't help being convinced by this text:

Why this method?

Disk Utility and Terminal provide more control, but it's also easier to perform unintended actions using those utilities. Many threads on this site have arisen because a user didn't erase the right item in the right way in Disk Utility, often leaving behind an old System or Data volume.

Recovery Assistant provides only one way to erase a Mac, and it's always a correct full erase.

Source: How To Fully Erase A Mac Using Recovery A… - Apple Community

It seemed to me I had found the suitable solution because I had indeed performed "unintended actions" in Terminal before the breakdown.

Once the erase was complete, the Mac restarted as predicted … but to an exclamation point in a circle:

According to this page If your Mac starts up to an exclamation point in a circle - Apple Support, this means that I'm back at square one because it links to the aforementioned page How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support about the DFU factory reset that was the topic of my original question.

Because I live in an isolated spot, it will probably take me a few days if not weeks to find the elusive helper.

I'll try to come back to this post when I finally get that far and … hopefully recover my Mac because I think it's hardly acceptable that you can destroy a Mac with a single (interrupted) Terminal operation that was actually done not on the faulty MacBook Air, but on this older MacBook Pro I'm writing on while restoring that MacBook Pro to an external drive. I accidentally touched the USB cable at some point and the restoring process was interrupted. I had to hold down the power button of the MacBook Pro for a few seconds in order to be able to shut it down. Later, when I connected that external drive to the MacBook Air to check if it was OK, things started to go downhill. For an inexplicable reason, connecting that external drive to the MacBook Air caused it to create a very annoying 12 GB snapshot. It was just one click in recovery mode aimed at deleting that snapshot that also erased its startup disk and caused very unexpected serious damage.

Fellow Mac users beware!

My DFU restore attempt failed while using as the Host an iMac running on Sonoma 14.2 and as the Target a MacBook Air M1 which had been running on Sequoia 15.1 before it broke down.

Here's a screenshot of the DFU error message:

The relevant Apple Support page gives uninitiated readers the impression that with any Silicon Mac as the Target, the Host Mac just needs to run on "macOS Sonoma 14 or later" (cf. How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support).

However, in the Troubleshooting section of his page entitled "Restore macOS Firmware on an Apple Silicon M1 Mac + Boot to DFU Mode", Mr Macintosh writes:

Error 10 […] is most likely because the host Mac was 1 or 2 OS Versions behind the Target Mac. The Host and Target Mac need to be on the same OS Version. If your Target Mac is on 10.15, then your Host Mac needs to be on 10.15.

Source: https://mrmacintosh.com/restore-macos-firmware-on-an-apple-silicon-mac-boot-to-dfu-mode/

Question #1

Is it necessary for the Host Mac to run on MacOS Sequoia 15.1 in order to avoid "error 10" in my case (Target = MacBook Air M1 which used to run on Sequoia 15.1 before breaking down)?

Question #2

NB: I had only just recently installed 15.1 on the Target Mac when it failed. Therefore, I have no 15.1 back-ups. My latest Time Machine back-up was done using Sonoma 14.4 on that Target Mac.

Which MacOS IPSW file (Sequoia 15. 1 or Sonoma 14.4?) should I use when performing the DFU Restore?

Thanks a lot in advance for your essential advice.

Update #2: After explaining my situation to an Apple Care Chat Advisor and getting her green light, I tried to delete the Apple SSD media, but yet again to no avail. The operation failed. Here's a pic of the error message:

I also add a pic of the Disk Utility graph of my Apple SSD Media because I find it intriguing that it shows a 5.37 GB container disk2 on the far right which does not appear in the list (of devices, container disks, volumes etc.) on the left. As a result of its absence in that list, I assume there's no way I can erase disk2 with Disk Utility.

Any Terminal or other solution proposal even more welcome!

Thanks,

Danilo

Thank you again, HWTech!

Both your answers give me hope.

As suggested, I have written a feedback report about my experience today of Apple Configurator and Apple Support documentation via the link you provided.

Unfortunately, the person who let me try DFU Restore on their iMac has just refused to upgrade from macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia. It's a free world.

I'll go on looking for another good samaritan over the festive season and I'll keep you posted.