Ventura has really messed up my iMac

[phenyxxfire]

Hello, new to the forum. I'm desperate for some help here. In mid July, I downloaded the original Ventura Beta onto my '21 iMac with an M1 chip. About a week ago I went into the System settings and the "General" tab wouldn't load. 3 other tabs wouldn't load either but the General tab is the important one because it has the system updates option. At this point I feel like I've tried everything but I can't fix the problem. Please do NOT suggest anything that involves going to System Settings/Preferences -> General because I do not have access to that screen.

What I've tried:

Turned it off and turned it on again. Fail.

Started in in Recovery mode and reinstalled Ventura. Fail.

Started again in Recovery mode and ran disk utility first aid. No problems detected.

Created a bootable Ventura beta install USB and tried a clean install of Ventura beta. Fail.

Started in Recovery mode and attempted to do a restore from time machine backup. Was redirected to Migration assistant. Went to Migration assistant and did a "complete" restoration to a backup dated one day before I downloaded Ventura. Fail.

Yes, fail. It appears that all the Time Machine restore did was change the Ventura poppy wallpaper to the blue "hello" wallpaper from Monterey. I still have the new mail program that came with Ventura. Apple Menu -> About this Mac still says it's running Ventura AND it still has the Ventura style "about" window rather than the old Monterey "about" window. Also, the time machine restoration did NOT restore the Monterey "System Preferences" window either. The Apple menu still lists "System Settings" and the "General" tab is still non functional. I'm assuming this is because I can't delete the Ventura beta profile. I would love to delete the accursed Ventura beta profile but of course it's on the General tab that will not load.

So I created a bootable Monterey install USB and tried to do a clean install of Monterey thinking that would fix everything. FAIL! Recovery mode is now telling me that my disk cannot be downgraded.

How in the name of BACON do I get this hell-spawned beta off my iMac?

Phenyx

 

[DeltaMac]

You have to erase the boot drive to downgrade, not just the volume.
That's not as simple as erasing a device on an intel Mac. You'll need to search out how to completely erase the boot drive on an M1 Mac.

 

[phenyxxfire]

I looked into erasing my hard drive and reinstalling from there. Apple’s instructions for erasing are to use their “erase assistant” that can only be accessed through the “system settings” -> “general” screen that I do not have access to because it won’t load.

 

[iStorm]

The reason why your Time Machine backup didn’t roll back to Monterey is because Time Machine no longer backs up or restores the OS. Apple now requires you to reinstall the OS yourself, and then restore your data. So the behavior you saw is expected…you restored your data (i.e. wallpaper) into the Ventura install.

Do you have access to another Mac and a USB-C to USB-C cable? If so, you could try restoring Monterey using Apple Configurator.

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator

In an unrelated but similar thread, supposedly Apple said some M1 devices cannot go back to Monterey, so I can’t guarantee Apple Configurator will work either…

 

[phenyxxfire]

The reason why your Time Machine backup didn’t roll back to Monterey is because Time Machine no longer backs up or restores the OS. Apple now requires you to reinstall the OS yourself, and then restore your data. So the behavior you saw is expected…you restored your data (i.e. wallpaper) into the Ventura install.

Do you have access to another Mac and a USB-C to USB-C cable? If so, you could try restoring Monterey using Apple Configurator.

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator

In an unrelated but similar thread, supposedly Apple said some M1 devices cannot go back to Monterey, so I can’t guarantee Apple Configurator will work either…

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I did the revive/restore with Apple Configurator and successfully returned my system to macOS Monterey! Now I just have to run a time machine restore to get back my files/settings and I'll be all set!

No more beta program for me. I've been in it for at least a decade and I've never had a beta version mess up my system that badly. Strangely though, I also put the Ventura beta on my '18 Intel MacBook Pro and it works perfectly. You'd think Apple OS developers could make an OS that works with their own darn silicon...

 

[exoticSpice]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I did the revive/restore with Apple Configurator and successfully returned my system to macOS Monterey! Now I just have to run a time machine restore to get back my files/settings and I'll be all set!

No more beta program for me. I've been in it for at least a decade and I've never had a beta version mess up my system that badly. Strangely though, I also put the Ventura beta on my '18 Intel MacBook Pro and it works perfectly. You'd think Apple OS developers could make an OS that works with their own darn silicon...

I am glad it's all good now. Bugs exist in any beta software just cause it's Apple's chip does not mean bugs won't exist. Each install plays out differently for each user

 

[MrMacintoshBlog]

Hello, new to the forum. I'm desperate for some help here. In mid July, I downloaded the original Ventura Beta onto my '21 iMac with an M1 chip. About a week ago I went into the System settings and the "General" tab wouldn't load. 3 other tabs wouldn't load either but the General tab is the important one because it has the system updates option. At this point I feel like I've tried everything but I can't fix the problem. Please do NOT suggest anything that involves going to System Settings/Preferences -> General because I do not have access to that screen.

What I've tried:

Turned it off and turned it on again. Fail.

Started in in Recovery mode and reinstalled Ventura. Fail.

Started again in Recovery mode and ran disk utility first aid. No problems detected.

Created a bootable Ventura beta install USB and tried a clean install of Ventura beta. Fail.

Started in Recovery mode and attempted to do a restore from time machine backup. Was redirected to Migration assistant. Went to Migration assistant and did a "complete" restoration to a backup dated one day before I downloaded Ventura. Fail.

Yes, fail. It appears that all the Time Machine restore did was change the Ventura poppy wallpaper to the blue "hello" wallpaper from Monterey. I still have the new mail program that came with Ventura. Apple Menu -> About this Mac still says it's running Ventura AND it still has the Ventura style "about" window rather than the old Monterey "about" window. Also, the time machine restoration did NOT restore the Monterey "System Preferences" window either. The Apple menu still lists "System Settings" and the "General" tab is still non functional. I'm assuming this is because I can't delete the Ventura beta profile. I would love to delete the accursed Ventura beta profile but of course it's on the General tab that will not load.

So I created a bootable Monterey install USB and tried to do a clean install of Monterey thinking that would fix everything. FAIL! Recovery mode is now telling me that my disk cannot be downgraded.

How in the name of BACON do I get this hell-spawned beta off my iMac?

Phenyx

You ran into 2 different issues.

#1 Ventura Beta USB installs are not working right now
#2 You can't downgrade with the Monterey USB unless you erase the drive first.

I'm glad you got it fixed with a DFU restore. 👍