Monterey Installer app fails preparing installation

[sashavegas]

i have iMac 2017, so now i have to disasemble it again and put back original 32GB SSD, and trying to install Monterey, and than disasemble it again and put back my ssd to install Monterey again ? Very nice. Just glueing back screen require a lot of time and effort. Thank you very much apple.

 

[LindyTalbot]

@sashavegas seems like an awful lot of work, if you can wait for a .0x or .x update. Maybe even a firmware update we can install?

FYI, I have a 2015 MBP with an Aura (OWC) upgrade to a 1TB drive and it encounters the same error we are all talking about...similar situation to @cobra521

 

[Artsman]

I spoke to OWC tech support, their workaround is that if you can reinstall the original Apple-supplied drive and then install Monterey on it, then it will update the EFI firmware for the device and then you can install Monterey on your Big Sur volume. It seems this is also mentioned on Apple support thread as a successful solution.

Unfortunately whatever mess that happened so far with the Monterey installer failure has deleted my recovery partition and made the network recovery unable to see my drives. It looks like I'm going to have do get some hardware to fix this, and of course Apple has stopped all genius bar appointments.

It looked like I had that same issue as well but with a bootable USB flash drive plugged in I could choose it and Monterey installed on the upgraded SSD. Hope this works for you. It was a total pain to do all that swapping out for such a small issue. Luckily for me, given that I still had the original SSD, doing it on the 2013 Mac Pro was pretty easy. Not so easy on later Apple laptops.

 

[cobra521]

Art,

Tried that with an SD card in the MBP. No joy; same result as the OWC 2TB SSD - same error. I'll try with a USB...

Tom

 

[mr100percent]

It looked like I had that same issue as well but with a bootable USB flash drive plugged in I could choose it and Monterey installed on the upgraded SSD. Hope this works for you. It was a total pain to do all that swapping out for such a small issue. Luckily for me, given that I still had the original SSD, doing it on the 2013 Mac Pro was pretty easy. Not so easy on later Apple laptops.

I tried that with a bootable USB drive, the install fails at the same point.

 

[LindyTalbot]

Too bad I sent the original SSD back to OWC to get a rebate. Wonder if they can send it back; it’s been 2 years. (Kidding ?)

 

[willemc]

By the looks of it, im the least experienced of you all, but have the same issue and i also contacted OWC today (i have their 2TB SSD drive on Mac Pro 2013.) Here is the solution they gave me. I dont have an external drive of the same size to do, so will try going to the local repair/tech shop to see if they can do for me.

There is a method you can try, which we've suggested for past macOS versions when using an Aura SSD (or any 3rd party SSD) with the 2013 Mac Pro. https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/...or-2013-Mac-Pro-10134-and-Later-Install-Issue

You can clone your Aura SSD to an external drive (many users like to use Carbon Copy Cloner for this http://bombich.com/ ), then boot to the external drive, update it to macOS 12, and then clone it to the Aura SSD.

 

[rcoden]

Thank God I save everything. Found the original SSD, installed it, upgraded to Monterey, removed it, put back in 1TB Samsung SSD and then upgraded from Big Sur to Monterey with no issues. For users who don't have their original SSD, that's gotta suck.

 

[ThierryL]

I have a custom 2013 trash can from OWC, so I don't have an original SSD, so I guess that's it for this Mac. Oh well...

 

[martyr]

Use the original SSD.

I confirm the following worked great for me on my 2015 MacBook Pro 15".

1. 1. Installed original SSD.
2. 2. Installed fresh copy of Monterey via the USB stick onto the original SSD (it rebooted a bunch of times, indicating a firmware update).
3. 3. Put the new SSD back in.
4. 4. Booted off USB stick and upgraded to Monterey without a hitch.

It sucks if you don't have your original SSD but maybe you can get a cheap one off of the interwebs. Doesn't have to be big. Likely doesn't even have to be the same one that came with your unit. Most likely just *any* genuine Apple SSD.

Good luck.

 

[sashavegas]

Use the original SSD.

I confirm the following worked great for me on my 2015 MacBook Pro 15".

1. 1. Installed original SSD.
2. 2. Installed fresh copy of Monterey via the USB stick onto the original SSD (it rebooted a bunch of times, indicating a firmware update).
3. 3. Put the new SSD back in.
4. 4. Booted off USB stick and upgraded to Monterey without a hitch.

It sucks if you don't have your original SSD but maybe you can get a cheap one off of the interwebs. Doesn't have to be big. Likely doesn't even have to be the same one that came with your unit. Most likely just *any* genuine Apple SSD.

Good luck.

Interesting. In My case i have imac 2017, Original SSD was 32GB, i swapped it with SSD pulled from macbook pro 2016 (512GB). Same pinout, apple SSD, does not work.

 

[willemc]

This is how it finally worked for me: I found my original Apple SSD of my Mac Pro (2013.) I just pulled out my upgraded 2TB Aura SSD (OWC) and stuck my old Apple 256GB SSD back in. It still had High Sierra on it. Did a few small High Sierra updates and then straight to Monterey. It installed on the old apple SSD. Then removed the old Apple SSD and put my 2TB SSD back and install went like a charm. Strange that just switching internal SSD drives went without any glitches.

 

[sashavegas]

in my case i have to deal with disamble iMac. Just unglueing screen and glue it back would be a big work for me. Besides the original ssd was only 32 GB, so i would need to put back old HDD and create fusion again. Too much work just to update apple firmware

 

[cSalmon]

2018 MacBook Air original apple SSdrive currently running Mojave 10.14.6. Yesterday I tried all morning to download Monterey (no other devices connected to internet) turned off all energy saving settings. No installers that I can tell are in my Apps folder. I tried again today: here is the message:

Any thoughts?

 

[sashavegas]

I decided to bite the bullet and disassembled my iMac (2017)

Put back original 32GB SSD and 1TB HDD. Create Fusion and install Monterey.

After that I disassembled it again and put back 512GB SSD (That was pulled from broken MacBook 2016). Installed Monterey again and it was OK.

System Firmware Version: 447.40.12.0.0

Since I was do it fresh anyway, I decided install Monterey first beta 12.1, that was released yesterday. Got the same error, about not able to installed firmware.

As a result, it was not an apple mistake or fluke, right now Monterey officially has mechanism to verify original hardware and will prevent to install on any outside the apple update.

The funny part was that SSD that I swap was also from Apple. I am not using Syntech adapter for regular NVMe drive, or Aura SSD, or any other aftermarket drive. SSD was swapped directly from apple machine.

So if any further update of Monterey is needed in the future, it will require to put back original SSD again, that become headache. I guess Big Sur will be the last OS that allow outside of apple repair.

Attached images: on the left Original 32GB SSD, on right MacBook 512GB SSD.

 

[secretanchitman]

Use the original SSD.

I confirm the following worked great for me on my 2015 MacBook Pro 15".

1. 1. Installed original SSD.
2. 2. Installed fresh copy of Monterey via the USB stick onto the original SSD (it rebooted a bunch of times, indicating a firmware update).
3. 3. Put the new SSD back in.
4. 4. Booted off USB stick and upgraded to Monterey without a hitch.

It sucks if you don't have your original SSD but maybe you can get a cheap one off of the interwebs. Doesn't have to be big. Likely doesn't even have to be the same one that came with your unit. Most likely just *any* genuine Apple SSD.

Good luck.

Did the same thing just now on a 2015 15" Macbook Pro and had an identical experience as you - Monterey is installing perfectly!

 

[spainbran]

I have an original 2015 15" Macbook Pro, still with the faulty battery.
Did the update from 11.6.1 to 12.0.1 (roughly 1h once downloaded) No problems
Did a clean install today after wiping completely my system (roughly 2h30) once downloaded.
If the install does not work when the SSD has been changed, this is more than a huge BUG on apple side.

It's better than Big Sur and more stable in my experience so far.

 

[cobra521]

Followup: 2015 Macbook Pro.

go == Monterey successfully installed

OWC SSD as found working as boot drive/Big Sur == no go
Original SSD == no go until Erased with DiskUtil. Then == go
OWC SSD after Original SSD Monterey install == go

What a pain in the ...

Probably took 2 maybe 3 hours to run through all the trials to do this chore. Download update. Re-download when first install didn't work. Remove replace remove replace well you get the idea.

Tanks a lot Apple ?

Wonder why they did this? To control their customers? To aggravate their customers? Maybe both?

Tom

 

[Barto]

Had same problem with installation of Monterey on a non original drive - MacBook Pro 13 early 2015 with Transcend 480GB drive.The solution was putting back an original drive to the MacBook and boot the computer from the transcend drive with Big Sur connected externally and upgrading macOS to Monterey on that drive. After successful installation I swapped the drives and that was it.There was no need to install Monterey on the original drive first, just do the normal upgrade on the external drive and then swap the drives.

 

[enhalos]

Ok so going through some forums, I've seen two supposed fixes. Firstly, "Turn off networking". Not sure why that would change anything, but it's worth a try.
Second thing I found was "uninstall any software that makes use of and installs kernel extensions. Examples of these are Parallels, Intel CPU gadget, and Little Snitch". I actually have 2 out of 3 of those, so let me give it try and i'll come back with some info.

I am also on a non-apple ssd and could not upgrade to Monterey after about 5 attempts. I could download the update but not install due to "firmware not updated". So I tried what tomdringer recommended and shut off my wifi while trying to install Monterey for what was now my 6th try and it ended up working. Thanks

 

[WestonHarvey1]

So, did anyone ever get any further on this without installing the original SSD?

 

[tk_mac]

So, did anyone ever get any further on this without installing the original SSD?

I have this question too.

Also, Is this issue only for updating to Monterey after a third party SSD is installed, or can it affect updates to earlier systems such as updates to Catalina or Big Sur? Is this a new action by Apple against our Right to Repair starting with Monterey? Once updated to Monterey, does this issue repeat for each point release of Monterey as the replacement SSD continues to be present?

 

[Artsman]

I have this question too.

Also, Is this issue only for updating to Monterey after a third party SSD is installed, or can it affect updates to earlier systems such as updates to Catalina or Big Sur? Is this a new action by Apple against our Right to Repair starting with Monterey? Once updated to Monterey, does this issue repeat for each point release of Monterey as the replacement SSD continues to be present?

I think it's just a one off with Monterey. The update that wouldn't let the initial install happen seemed to be with a firmware update to a hardware component other than the SSD.

 

[tk_mac]

Have people been able to update to Monterey 12.2 with a third party SSD installed before the newest Monterey update came out?