A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

[AJ847.63e]

Hi all,

I've got a A1708 which we decided to sell off as we no longer use it. We factory reset the device to wipe all data which went fine but when trying to reinstall macOS it fails with the generic “ MacOS “Installation Failed, An Error Occurred While Installing”. I've tried the usual solutions like the first aid utility apple recommends and also disc utility delete the partitions but still get the same error. Digging into the logs you can see it's giving an error 478 but unfortunately wasn't able to get much info on that on google so I'm unsure where to go from here.
I'm at home now but can provide the log files tomorrow if needed.

I'm setting up a usb drive to try install off that instead of relying on internet recovery (tried both cmd r and cmd option shift r). Tricky part though is this is the only new mac we have. We do have a 2012 pro I believe but trying to use that thing is impossible as it's so slow. I'm therefore trying to use TransMac to setup a usb drive on my windows pc. Got the stick formatted, and the image loaded is there anything else you need to do? Every guide I can find says that's it but normally you need to do something to make the drive actually bootable?

Thanks for your assistance.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Internet recovery usually tries to download and install whatever it originally came with. Anything older than Catalina I don't think works anymore, at least this is what I've seen from customers who try what you did. I just boot off a USB and reinstall that way.

Might want to check your time and date are current, as the installers use security certificates to verify they are up to date. Apple had to reissue all of their installers back in 2019 because of expired certificates. Whether they updated their backends for internet recovery could be a reason why they don't work anymore.

If you have a 2012 MBP, then create a new USB installer by using the software from the Core Legacy Patcher website. You can grab Monterey and create your USB that way.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Thanks for the info.

Yes I’ve checked the time and dates are correct. I have seen some sudgest setting them back in case apple is trying to block you from installing a “too old” OS haven’t tried that yet so might give that a shot.

Thanks I’ll take a look at the patcher website tomorrow if the usb I created doesn’t work, which I don’t think it will because I just downloaded and used that program to extract so I don’t think it creates a bootable usb.

BTW is there a website that confirms MacBook models and their supported OS versions? Obviously apple do not put the year model on the bottom case only the model designation so it’s hard to correlate the two. This A1708 for example I wasn’t sure if it supports ventura or you have to use Monterey.

Thanks again.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Although the A1708 was made between 2016 and 2018, Apple only support Ventura on the 2017 models and up. Apple are aggressively dropping support for the older Intel models with each new release, and I won't be surprised to see them drop the Intel MAC's entirely if not the next release, then definitely the version after that.

You can use this page for compatibility:

https://www.macworld.com/article/673...y-mac-run.html

If you try to boot a MAC off an unsupported installer, you'll just get the don't enter sign on the screen. Apple don't block anyone from installing old software, as they don't have the system locked down to install app's like they do the iPhone. It's really that the older stuff doesn't make then any revenue, so nobody really cares if things get broken (like Internet recovery on older devices). Just plain economics.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Fair enough I'll try the patcher website and see how it goes. If that doesn't work I need to try find a replacement apple ssd for it.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Recovery usb didn’t work unfortunately. Holding down the option key brought me back to recovery, holding down ctrl or command just brought me to the internet recovery so it looks like the usb indeed isn’t bootable. Haven’t been able to get the patcher to work but the 2012 laptop does have an old Sierra installer on it so I’m trying to create a usb with that hopefully that is supported by the a1708.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Unfortunately the old installer didn't work, says there's fils missing and cannot be used to install macOS. How do you force the App Store to download a macOS update? When I go to about this mac > system update opens the App Store and opens the updates tab but it only show's application updates not os updates. And when I try launch the legacy patcher you mentioned above it just crashes, deleted and re-downloaded it a few times now so it seems like this 2012 isn't supported despite being on the supported list.

I also tried hooking up the a1708 to the 2012 machoene with a c to a cable hoping I could try use apple configuration or iTunes to restore it but the 2012 laptop just brings up a “thunderbolt accessory not recognised please disconnect and connect to the thunderbolt port”. We unfortunately don't have a thunderbolt 2-3 adapter though.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Are you sure you didn't boot off the stick? Option key should bring you to the bootpicker menu. However, if you missed it, the MAC will automatically boot off the stick instead.

With Option held, you should at least have the Network drop down box, and the Install MAC OS Monterey icon from the USB stick. The Core Legacy Patcher works fine last time I used it.

What MAC OS do you have on the 2012 MBP? Catalina?

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Definitely didn’t boot off the usb, holding options brought me to the question mark folder ie same as if you try to boot off the internal ssd. I suspect the customer accidentally deleted the recovery partition so maybe that’s why options not working? Or it certainly is possible the ssd/main boards somehow damaged. Looks fine by visual inspection though.

The 2012 currently has Sierra, but unfortunately the App Store will not give me any option to upgrade os in the updates section it only shows updates for two of our applications.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

If you can get at least Catalina on the A1278, then you can use the following from a terminal window to download a Monterey installer.

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer 12.6.3

While the softwareupdate command is on older versions, the fetch full installer option is only on Catalina or above. This will download the app to your Applications folder. Create the USB stick from the installer folder in the usual way.

This is the link on the App store for Catalina:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-...a/id1466841314

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Awesome thank you I’ll try that tomorrow and report back.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

sorry left a bit out. It should be:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.6.3

I usually do this on a Macbook Air. It should work on an A1278, but if not, use the Core Legacy Patcher once you've updated to Catalina. Sierra is simply too old to do anything with.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Just tested on a A1278 with Catalina, and softwareupdate won't pull anything newer than Catalina.

But Core Legacy Patcher 0.6.1 works and can pull installers up to Ventura. Installers are downloaded to your Applications folder. For Monterey or Ventura you need at least a 16GB USB drive and you can create it via the createinstallmedia script in the installer under resources, or just use Core Legacy Patcher app.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Thanks for that. I managed to get Mojave installer as Mac world have an article with direct links for basically all the App Store pages so I was able to download it and install onto a usb. For some reason creating the boot stick though did not work using the instructions on that page, kept saying applications is an unknown command. I was able though to install direct to a usb than use recovery mode on the a1708 for some reason this time once connecting to the net it actually went through and installed instead of erroring. Not sure if it installed off the usb or internet but it works now so doesn’t matter I guess.

Thanks again for your assistance it is greatly appreciated!

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

For future reference is there a way to skip to the os like windows has with OBE(out of box experience)? What do you think is most likely my friend did wrong to cause this issue in the first place? Because I’m basically going to have to do the same thing he did now, remove the user profile and return the Mac to out of box state so I want to do it correctly.

[reformatt]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Not sure, but I've had mixed success when using IR. Sometimes it works, sometimes it errors out. Can be date/time related, or some issue at Apple's end. What does work is a bootable installer (although you don't have that option out of the box for the T2 Macs) so I really don't bother with it.

Once you go through setup and get to the country setup page, you just press CMD+Q to shutdown. The new user will be presented with that page when they next boot up to get through the setup sequence.

[AJ847.63e]

Re: A1708 unable to reinstall Monterey after factory reset - disk utility error 478

Fair enough, nice to know it wasn’t just me though. I still have the machine so I might take this opportunity to build up a stack of all the macOS boot installers while I can. Thanks again for your assistance!