Have they worked out the bugs for Big Sur yet? I haven’t downloaded it as of yet.
There are bugs with installing on external drives and running Big Sur on an external boot drive. I can't get it to work at all on my M1 MacBook Air. But Big Sur seems pretty solid for day to day use. Better than Catalina in my opinion.
Wrong. I ran all beta versions and final versions of Big Sur from my external USB 3.0 SSD drive. Worked perfectly. The problem you are encountering is Apple's security changes that started with T2 Macs. You must boot into recovery mode using Command-R, if that is even still possible on an M1 Mac, and disable all the new security imposed by the T2 Macs. Namely, the new security 'feature' that prohibits installing or booting from ANY external drive. You should also disable the macOS security features that prohibit installing any version of macOS that is not downloaded at the time of install. Those are likely the reasons why you cannot install or boot from an external drive. Has nothing to do with any version of macOS.
I’ve tried all that. It simply doesn’t work. Have you tried making an external USB drive boot an M1 Mac? There are people who have gotten it to work but I’m not one of them. I’ve tried a half dozen different things and I get an error every time.
Apple has continued to make everything more and more difficult to manage their product. Removing delta and combo updaters that people used to manage their Macs makes no sense. So now you have download a full 12GB installer and wait an hour to do a re-install if you are troubleshooting something strange?
The worst was the introduction of the T2 chip which by default prohibits you from installing macOS on your own system, without jumping through hoops (when you want to do a clean-install). The default is to only allow a macOS install from the Command-R recovery mode, requiring a long download. By default, you cannot boot from any external drive, unless you specifically disable the restriction that prohibits external drives. Also, you have to allow macOS install from any source. If you do not change those settings and you wipe the drive to re-install from an external USB boot disk, you can brick your Mac if you do not have internet access to re-install macOS.
Also, the creator of Diskmaker X has 'retired' the product because he does not have the time to re-write the program to figure out how to make a Big Sur boot disk with all of Apple's changes. He never could get it to work running Catalina. So the only way to make a Catalina boot disk is to run it from Mojave. So I am guessing it is nearly impossible to make a USB boot disk of Big Sur.
Bit of an unnecessary angry rant here. The only reasonable statement here is about the removal of delta updaters, except the full install doesn't take an hour but whatever. The rest is misinformation...
You can rant about defaults all you want but Apple has almost always had everything they make default to the easiest simplest option for end users, but with extra power under the hood for those who need it. The vast majority of Apple users turn on their Mac and use it. They don't need or want to boot from anything other than the internal drive or maybe occasionally from recovery mode when instructed to by Apple support.
The default is improved security for everyone. You do understand that if someone steals your Mac and boots it from any volume other than yours you'll get no help from Find My Mac? But if there's no way to boot it from any other volume than yours then it's a useless brick to them, plus they can't even turn it on without it telling your iCloud account its location, so your chances of getting it back are better. That's worth something to most Mac users.
The rest of us still have the option to disable that security and have all the options we've always had (for booting from other sources). The process to do so is a documented process of about three mouse-clicks in Recovery Mode and not half the hassle you're making it out to be. It's one of the first things I do when I get a new Mac and it's been seamless every time.
As for your comments about DiskMaker X... I can't speak for the motivations of its developer not to support Big Sur, but the Apple built in process of making a standalone macOS installer is no more or less complicated or difficult than it has ever been (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372). Every Mac OS since 10.11 including Big Sur is covered there. Building a GUI around a Big Sur version should be no harder than for any other Mac OS before it.
Please check your misinformation - and maybe even your anti-Apple anger - at the door.
Ever had an update get stuck? That's when it reports some error but does not say what it is or how to fix it. The only suggestion is to try again later, which never ever works. You will get no further updates since all the later ones require the stuck update to complete first. The only solution is to manually download and install a standalone update, which no longer exists. Thanks Apple!
Umm... no. The solution is to download the appropriate full installer version and install that. The latest sub-point version of every full macOS installer since El Capitan 10.11 is linked to from this page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372. Sure, a full instal is a little more time than an update is, but the end result is the same (or better) and it's not the impossible situation you're implying.
Have they worked out the bugs for Big Sur yet? I haven’t downloaded it as of yet.
There are bugs with installing on external drives and running Big Sur on an external boot drive. I can't get it to work at all on my M1 MacBook Air. But Big Sur seems pretty solid for day to day use. Better than Catalina in my opinion.
Wrong. I ran all beta versions and final versions of Big Sur from my external USB 3.0 SSD drive. Worked perfectly. The problem you are encountering is Apple's security changes that started with T2 Macs. You must boot into recovery mode using Command-R, if that is even still possible on an M1 Mac, and disable all the new security imposed by the T2 Macs. Namely, the new security 'feature' that prohibits installing or booting from ANY external drive. You should also disable the macOS security features that prohibit installing any version of macOS that is not downloaded at the time of install. Those are likely the reasons why you cannot install or boot from an external drive. Has nothing to do with any version of macOS.
I’ve tried all that. It simply doesn’t work. Have you tried making an external USB drive boot an M1 Mac? There are people who have gotten it to work but I’m not one of them. I’ve tried a half dozen different things and I get an error every time.
MacQuadra's response here is technically accurate. "Has nothing to do with any version of macOS" its correct. If this is proving an issue for you then it's an M1 thing, not a Big Sur thing.
Startup Security Utility: Set the security policies for your Mac. In the Recovery app, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility. ... See Set the security policy.
Have they worked out the bugs for Big Sur yet? I haven’t downloaded it as of yet.
There are bugs with installing on external drives and running Big Sur on an external boot drive. I can't get it to work at all on my M1 MacBook Air. But Big Sur seems pretty solid for day to day use. Better than Catalina in my opinion.
Wrong. I ran all beta versions and final versions of Big Sur from my external USB 3.0 SSD drive. Worked perfectly. The problem you are encountering is Apple's security changes that started with T2 Macs. You must boot into recovery mode using Command-R, if that is even still possible on an M1 Mac, and disable all the new security imposed by the T2 Macs. Namely, the new security 'feature' that prohibits installing or booting from ANY external drive. You should also disable the macOS security features that prohibit installing any version of macOS that is not downloaded at the time of install. Those are likely the reasons why you cannot install or boot from an external drive. Has nothing to do with any version of macOS.
I’ve tried all that. It simply doesn’t work. Have you tried making an external USB drive boot an M1 Mac? There are people who have gotten it to work but I’m not one of them. I’ve tried a half dozen different things and I get an error every time.
MacQuadra's response here is technically accurate. "Has nothing to do with any version of macOS" its correct. If this is proving an issue for you then it's an M1 thing, not a Big Sur thing.
Startup Security Utility: Set the security policies for your Mac. In the Recovery app, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility. ... See Set the security policy.
I get my M1 MBP in a week or so. I'll be investigating this then. In the meantime, have you tried all that?
Yes I've tried everything that I can. One thing I haven't tried is installing on a USB-C or Thunderbolt drive since I don't have one. Another thing is trying to install from a USB Installer on a thumb drive to the USB 3.0 drive. I can't try that because my USB-A adapters can only be used one at a time since they are too wide to be used side by side--when I bought them, I had a 4 port MBP. Trust me when I tell you, I've tried everything that was available up to wiping my MacBook Air by mistake (I had backups). I've ordered an appropriate cable but now is not a good time to get timely deliveries.
The ability to install Big Sur to an external drive on an M1 notebook is seriously buggy. There are people who have gotten it to work but I'm not one of them and most of the people who have it working had to try a lot of different solutions. Apple needs to fix the bugs in the process.
jdb8167 said: The ability to install Big Sur to an external drive on an M1 notebook is seriously buggy. There are people who have gotten it to work but I'm not one of them and most of the people who have it working had to try a lot of different solutions. Apple needs to fix the bugs in the process.
This is somewhat disconcerting. You'd think now that Apple has 100% control of the entire hardware/software stack stuff like this would be more reliable, not less reliable
Comments
You can rant about defaults all you want but Apple has almost always had everything they make default to the easiest simplest option for end users, but with extra power under the hood for those who need it. The vast majority of Apple users turn on their Mac and use it. They don't need or want to boot from anything other than the internal drive or maybe occasionally from recovery mode when instructed to by Apple support.
The default is improved security for everyone. You do understand that if someone steals your Mac and boots it from any volume other than yours you'll get no help from Find My Mac? But if there's no way to boot it from any other volume than yours then it's a useless brick to them, plus they can't even turn it on without it telling your iCloud account its location, so your chances of getting it back are better. That's worth something to most Mac users.
The rest of us still have the option to disable that security and have all the options we've always had (for booting from other sources). The process to do so is a documented process of about three mouse-clicks in Recovery Mode and not half the hassle you're making it out to be. It's one of the first things I do when I get a new Mac and it's been seamless every time.
As for your comments about DiskMaker X... I can't speak for the motivations of its developer not to support Big Sur, but the Apple built in process of making a standalone macOS installer is no more or less complicated or difficult than it has ever been (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372). Every Mac OS since 10.11 including Big Sur is covered there. Building a GUI around a Big Sur version should be no harder than for any other Mac OS before it.
Please check your misinformation - and maybe even your anti-Apple anger - at the door.
Edit: This link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 has all the standalone installers since 10.10
Edit: same as my previous post, this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 has all the standalone installers since 10.10
MacQuadra's response here is technically accurate. "Has nothing to do with any version of macOS" its correct. If this is proving an issue for you then it's an M1 thing, not a Big Sur thing.
Have you tried everything here: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/macos-recovery-a-mac-apple-silicon-mchl82829c17/mac ... specifically this part:
In case it doesn't work above, "Set the security policy" link goes here: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/macos-recovery-a-mac-apple-silicon-mchl82829c17/11.0/mac/11.0#mchl9b13cbdc and as far as I can tell provides all the same options as Intel T2 Macs -- please correct if I've missed anything there.Startup Security Utility: Set the security policies for your Mac. In the Recovery app, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility. ... See Set the security policy.
I get my M1 MBP in a week or so. I'll be investigating this then. In the meantime, have you tried all that?
The ability to install Big Sur to an external drive on an M1 notebook is seriously buggy. There are people who have gotten it to work but I'm not one of them and most of the people who have it working had to try a lot of different solutions. Apple needs to fix the bugs in the process.