hoakley May 27, 2021 Macs, Technology

M1 Macs running Big Sur 11.4 support external disks fully

I’m delighted to report that five months after I wrote that M1 Macs had problems starting up from external disks, Apple has finally fixed Big Sur 11.4 so that they now work fully.

If you have an M1 Mac, you should now be able to connect supported storage, such as an SSD, install on it any version of Big Sur from 11.2 onwards, select that in the Startup Disk pane, and boot your Mac from that external disk. The procedure for doing this is exactly as you would expect:

Connect the disk to an available port on your M1 Mac, which could (subject to its compatibility) include a dock or hub.
Format the disk using Disk Utility. If it has been previously formatted using an older version of macOS, I recommend re-formatting it with 11.4 if possible. At this stage you can divide it into containers for multiple versions of macOS if you wish.
To install a fresh copy of any version of Big Sur since 11.2, run its full Installer app and select that external disk as the destination.
To make a copy of an existing boot volume group, use a cloning tool such as Carbon Copy Cloner 6 in ‘legacy’ mode.
Towards the end of the installation process, the installer may claim there’s “about a minute remaining” for many minutes. Give it time!
Once installed, the Mac will start up in the newly installed macOS for you to configure it in the normal way.

You can then switch between available boot systems using either recoveryOS or the Startup Disk pane. When using those, the first time that you choose a startup disk to boot from you’re likely to be asked to assign it an authorised user. You may also be asked to authenticate up to three times in rapid succession. There may be quite a long pause before your Mac restarts from the chosen boot disk. Once started up using the external system, you’ll be prompted to authenticate to access the Mac’s encrypted internal SSD.

Changing between external boot disks is normally simple and direct using the Startup Disk pane. Changing back to the internal SSD when booted from an external disk usually requires a visit to recoveryOS, where you need to authenticate in Recovery Assistant. After a long pause, once that has been accepted as successful, select the Restart button.

Checks

Check LocalPolicy for your bootable systems using sudo bputil -d, which should then list available macOS installations by the UUID of their boot volume group:
This computer has several macOS installations: 1: 126AC84B-82E4-49DF-A3CB-FEFD8099AFF1 2: 36F06ED1-BC14-4705-9E66-AE9CE802A799 3: DD539E79-F021-4F19-BB80-DDEDB26A0C47 4: 5B149101-9D13-41BD-882B-DD5CCD76F9F3 5: CF3EE91B-D9F8-430C-B5B3-13886470F1FC 6: 6A516FF1-2AB9-45BD-941A-EEA5568570BF 7: A33F9FC1-01A0-4C1E-B1AD-7E9B785440C0

A normal boot volume group set to Full Security should then read
Current OS environment: macOS Current local policy: Local Policy Signature Type : BAA Unique Chip ID (ECID): 0x0000000000000 Board ID (BORD): 0x00 Chip ID (CHIP): 0x0000 Certificate Epoch (CEPO): 0x1 Security Domain (SDOM): 0x1 Production Status (CPRO): 1 Security Mode (CSEC): 1 Volume Group UUID (vuid): 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 KEK Group UUID (kuid): 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Local Policy Nonce Hash (lpnh): 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Remote Policy Nonce Hash (rpnh): 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Next Stage Image4 Hash (nsih): 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Full Security enabled (smb0): absent Manual MDM enrollment disabled (smb3): absent Device Enrollment Program MDM disabled (smb4): absent SIP enabled (sip0): absent Signed System Volume enabled (sip1): absent Kernel CTRR enabled (sip2): absent Boot Args filtering enabled (sip3): absent 3rd party kexts disabled (smb2): absent User Authorized Kext List hash (auxp): absent Auxiliary Kernel Cache Image4 hash (auxi): absent Kext Receipt hash (auxr): absent CustomKC or fuOS Image4 hash (coih): absent
with appropriate IDs, UUIDs and hash values.

Problems

If your external disk connects by USB-C rather than Thunderbolt and you experience problems, try connecting it using a USB-C data cable rather than a certified Thunderbolt cable. If that doesn’t help, and you have a USB-A port available, use a USB-C to USB-A cable instead, which appears to be the most reliable.

If you experience problems updating an existing external disk, try changing its LocalPolicy from Full Security to Reduced Security using Startup Security Utility in recoveryOS. Don’t do this without good reason, though: Full Security is there to protect your Mac.

I haven’t tried any of this with macOS 11.0.1 or 11.1, which at the time showed destructive tendencies such as kernel panics when trying to install them under later releases of macOS. macOS 11.2 onwards should be reasonably safe to install and use, though.

Note that disabling SIP, breaking the seal on a sealed system volume, and other reductions in security may automatically force that disk to be downgraded to Permissive Security, which blocks some features of macOS, including the FairPlay DRM. Permissive Security is bad news and is to be avoided if at all possible.

Although you can clone the macOS container on the internal SSD, you can’t clone its other two containers, and cloning that one container back to the internal SSD will almost certainly make that disk unbootable, except in recoveryOS. If you want to try doing that, ensure that you’re ready to put that M1 Mac into DFU mode and restore it using a second Mac with Configurator 2.

Conclusion

Previously, my major reservation about recommending M1 Macs has been their severe limitations with bootable external disks. Thanks to the AppleVPBootPolicy kernel extension and other fixes and changes in macOS 11.4, I can now recommend them without that reservation. M1 Macs are good to go at last.

63Comments

Add yours

1

Michele Galvagno on May 27, 2021 at 6:56 am

Thank you! This is good news (for those who need this feature). Just to clarify: when you say “authenticate” during the boot process, what exactly does it mean? iCloud password, admin password of the internal disk’s user? Something else? Thanks!

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 2
  
  hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 9:15 am
  
  Thank you. There are several different authentications required at various stages. None is for the Apple ID (iCloud), some are for the authorised user assigned earlier, and later ones for the internal SSD’s admin user. The dialogs make it clear which they require.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
3

EcleX on May 27, 2021 at 7:04 am

Many thanks for the great news. Twice for the Conclusion section.

LikeLiked by 1 person
4

JR on May 27, 2021 at 1:17 pm

Great article. I don’t have a M1 mac since my intel mac is fairly new, but I have been following your discussion on external booting, albeit only vaguely.
Today I use external booting for two main reasons:
1 – Restore the local os version if something fails during an upgrade or I screw something up to the point of no return.
2 – To test out upgrades of the os and software prior to applying it to the main version running in the local drive.
The part that I am confused is, would I be able to restore the local copy of the os from a backup in a M1 mac using say Carbon Copy Cloner as I do today.
From what I am reading I would not be able to do that and keep all my settings.
I would have to reinstall the OS, lose any configurations and then restore my data portion. Is that correct?
Right now everything is perfect in the external booting world (I run Mojave), so I fear that the good times are about to end, but then again I don’t have a good grasp of the M1 external booting process, mostly because I don’t have to yet and I am afraid I won’t like what the future holds.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 5
  
  hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 4:50 pm
  
  Thank you.
  I thought about trying to answer your points here, but think it better to explain them in an article, which will publish here tomorrow. I hope it explains why cloning an M1 Mac’s internal SSD isn’t a good idea, and that there are far better recovery strategies.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 6
    
    JR on May 27, 2021 at 7:10 pm
    
    Wonderful, I look forward to reading it. Thank You.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
7

Jean-Claude Moeyensoon on May 27, 2021 at 3:10 pm

Translated into English by Google translate!
Hello, would that allow me, therefore, once the installation and settings are complete to use my current iMac as an external monitor (2017 – 27 “- 16 GB ram) and that I DO NOT WANT TO AT ALL RESELL? I specify that I have a 2TB external HDD (bootable Carbon Copy Cloner) and a 1TB external SSD with Time Machine or, I am waiting for the output of a mac mini M2 or Mx? Thank you for your answers !

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 8
  
  hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 4:54 pm
  
  Thank you – well done, between you and Google, you did great!
  I have sad news, though: the use of your iMac’s display in what is known as ‘Target Display’ mode isn’t possible. It only worked with iMacs up to around 2014. Once Apple introduced the 27-inch Retina display, it was dropped as that display has too high a resolution for it to work.
  So if and when you get an M1 or later Mac, you’ll need to buy a new display. Sorry.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 9
    
    Jean-Claude Moeyensoon on May 27, 2021 at 5:36 pm
    
    First of all thank you for your reply ! Having said that, do you think that I could possibly use my television (Philips Smart TV – Android – OLED 903 series – 55 inches – purchased in January 2020) as an external monitor of the Mac mini M1 and via the HDMI ports … maybe definitely? And, of course, configure and configure the mac mini M1 by this means or, it will be wiser to wait for the successor of the mac mini M1? Thank you for your reply !
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 10
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 6:46 pm
      
      Thank you.
      The M1 Mac mini does good HDMI, although whether you’d be happy with the resolution of your TV I don’t know. I use mine with a fairly cheap LG display which is excellent, and supports both HDMI and mini DisplayPort, so I can use either.
      I suggest that you wait a couple of weeks to see what, if any, Apple Silicon models are announced at WWDC. I’d expect the next batch over the summer, or by September.
      I have no idea whether they will include a new Mac mini, but the current M1 model is wonderful anyway, almost as good as my $5,000 iMac Pro!
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
11

Ed on May 27, 2021 at 5:18 pm

I am very happy about this. Thank you for reporting.

LikeLiked by 1 person
12

BruceLD on May 27, 2021 at 6:32 pm

Hi, great article – thanks.

Forgive my naivety, but I understand that if anything happens to the SOC internal SSD, you’re looking at a new motherboard (!). For that reason, I’ve been planning on a M1X Mini (soon I hope), with an internal 256GB SSD just configured ‘base’ for emergencies/troubleshooting, and an external thunderbolt 1 TB SSD as my regular boot and storage drive.

Is there a way to quantify the performance using an external vs using the SOC SSD? Will I be losing many of the Apple Silicon benefits using an external for booting?

Thanks

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 13
  
  hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 6:51 pm
  
  Thank you.
  Yes, that’s true for most recent Macs: the internal SSD is soldered in, so if it fails, a whole new logic board is required.
  I don’t understand why you then propose having a small internal SSD. It’s a false economy. To get anything like the performance with an external SSD, you’re looking at Thunderbolt 3 model which will cost almost as much as a larger internal SSD. And smaller internal SSDs are just as likely (if not more likely) to fail – although the chances are very small.
  Much simpler and better is to get the internal SSD you need, boot from that, and pay for AppleCare.
  I have no idea whether Apple intends releasing any more Mac mini models in the near future, but we should learn that from WWDC.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 14
    
    BruceLD on May 27, 2021 at 10:01 pm
    
    Hi – the thinking is, that if I use an external SSD, I’d limit wear/tear on the internal, and if the external fails, I’d simply replace it with another.
    
    If the internal fails, I believed Apple Silicon won’t allow booting via an external SSD (unless something has changed recently). I’m also assuming (can you verify?) that if you boot from an external SSD, the OS doesn’t touch the internal SSD (swap memory etc.) – unless you choose to use it for storage. If correct, then the internal SSD would remain relatively pristine while booting from an external SSD.
    
    I’m not looking at this as a cost saving exercise, more about extending the longevity of the Mac Mini (but only if a thunderbolt SSD would deliver good performance). I’m speaking as someone who is using a 2011 MBP – I tend not to swap to a newer model very often!
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 15
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 11:06 pm
      
      Thank you. I understand where you’re coming from, but disagree. It’s like driving around in a sports car but never doing more than 30 miles an hour so that it lasts you many years.
      If you get an M1 Mac with sufficient RAM and a large enough SSD for your use, your SSD will host only occasional VM, and will probably last over 10 years, which is the nominal life for SSDs anyway. I fear that you have been scared by the few users with M1 Macs who reported accelerated ageing of their SSDs. Those aren’t the norm by any means, and if some are to be believed, this was the result of a bug in memory management which has been fixed in 11.4 anyway.
      You’re correct that a bootable external disk keeps its VM volume on that external volume, which is another problem as you really want access to that to be as swift as possible.
      Selecting an external SSD for this isn’t easy either: sustained writes to compact Thunderbolt SSDs will eventually result in thermal throttling, because they can only cool passively. To match the performance of your Mac’s internal SSD, you’d need the external to be housed in a powered case with a fan. So things aren’t so simple, unless you run from the internal SSD as Macs are designed to.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 16
      
      Bruce Davies on May 28, 2021 at 11:19 am
      
      Thanks. I’ve been trying to determine IF booting from external thunderbolt SSD would be like driving a sports car at 30 mph but nobody has ever answered that; now you’ve implied it, so thank you. I did recently learn of the thermal implications of an external thunderbolt SSD, and have therefore reached the conclusion that my plan is a non starter; thank you for assisting in that conclusion.
      
      Just for the record: aware of the elevated write cycles to SSDs reported, but that hasn’t been an imperative to my thinking. My concern relates to, should anything go wrong with the internal SSD, the modern Mac architecture does not offer the option to boot from an external drive; my thinking, therefore, was to ‘preserve’ the internal SSD as much as possible, to avoid the risk of it failing and rendering the device ‘landfill’ (or close to it).
      
      Thanks
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 17
      
      hoakley on May 28, 2021 at 9:36 pm
      
      Thank you.
      There’s no evidence that modern SSDs are any more likely to fail with use, at least until the point that they reach the limit of erasures, or ten years plus. Rotating hard disks wear out because they’re mechanical. As there are no moving parts in an SSD, there’s nothing to age in that sense.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
18

Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 7:38 pm

I applaud your posting saying this external booting for you is working, and implying it should also work for other people.

However, I have to say, I’ve been trying ALL of the tricks you’ve mentioned, including using CCC’s “legacy…” mode, and even with Big Sur 11.5 can say creating external boot devices for the M1 Macs is not for the faint of heart.

The one big stumbling point I reached after various tortuous approaches getting things to work, similar to what you’ve posted, I found I simply could not setup Reduced Security for the external device. This aspect meant I could not install my 3rd party trusted Promise extension to allow me access to my Pegasus units. This was a show stopper, along with the huge amount of effort to get through all the other hurdles, that to some extent you make ‘light of’.

Be aware that Apple has said unequivocally, that they make no guarantees that booting from externals will be supported in the future, and most likely will be prohibited for security reasons presumably. Surely this is a dire warning to us to adopted a different approach for using external bootable devices for the M1 Macs.

Personally, I have adopted to use my M1’s internal SSD for having multiple macOS Big Sur versions. Also, take note as you’ve posted before maybe, that if the M1’s internal SSD fails (hw or some other weird issue), an external boot will be totally impossible. My advice is to abandon the use of externals for boot, as we’ve been doing for years past.

I now divide my M1’s internal SSD into a minimum of two partitions; SSD-A and say SSD-B. I install my macOS Big Sur onto each of these with ease, can setup Reduced Security, can load my trusted 3rd party extensions, periodically c lone the SSD-A’s Data volume to the SSD-B’s Data volume each day, and have my backup macOS within a few seconds if the primary SSD-A gets hosed up in some way. The downside to this is that I must now ensure I have a much larger internal SSD compared to what I’m used to in the past.

Having abandoned my use of bootable external for the M1 Macs, my life is actually simpler, it works, it’s fast, no longer need expensive Thunderbolt externals, can save on a USB-C and/or a TB3/4 port use, and for a laptop model there’s no need to haul around an external device to cover emergencies.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 19
  
  hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 7:57 pm
  
  Thank you.
  I need no tricks: I have listed the steps which I use with a Samsung TB3 and no-name SATA/USB-C enclosures. With 11.4 I haven’t had to use any of the ‘tricks’, just a straightforward install and the other steps given at the top. What could be simpler?
  Please explain where in those steps you had problems. As you can see, I have now installed versions of Big Sur from 11.2.1 to 11.4, and some of the older versions I have updated to 11.4 using Software Update to confirm their full functionality.
  I’d be grateful for a reference to where Apple makes that statement about booting from external disks, please. Not only am I not aware of any such words, but don’t you think that for all the effort it has had to get this to work, Apple has a pretty solid commitment to its future? Hell, they even wrote a brand new kernel extension for it.
  I’m delighted that you found solace in changing the configuration of your internal SSD to solve your problem. By ‘partitions’, I presume that you mean ‘containers’? It’s not a solution I’d ever wish upon anyone, and having to have two Data volumes and keep them in sync by cloning isn’t something I’d ever do by choice. But each to their own solution.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 20
    
    Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 8:20 pm
    
    If you have access to and abide by Apple’s NDA then read my post at https://appleseed.apple.com/discussions/topics/90669/posts/797012#post797012
    
    Mike Bombich (CCC author) has stated that Apple has not made any guarantees to him for M1’s having the capability of booting from externals in the future, and quite likely it’s foolhardy IMO to rely on Apple ever allowing this. Also, note that if the internal SSD fails the external boot device is useless to you.
    
    I’m now of the opinion the best approach to alternative external boot devices is to rely on using my internal SSD as a means to have a ‘fall-back’ plan, as Apple is bound to ALWAYS support this without any ambiguity.
    
    Yes ‘Partitions’ and ‘Containers’ are analogous for APFS. Note that to create Containers using Disk Utility, the term ‘Partition’ is used, and the result when viewing all devices in Disk Utility’s side bar will show Containers have been created after partition a device.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 21
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 8:37 pm
      
      Thank you.
      No, I don’t access seed software currently, and others reading these comments don’t usually either. So I’m afraid I can’t read what you’ve written there, nor can they.
      Regarding what Mike Bombich has written, he has recently stated unequivocally:
      “Apple has made clear that they will continue to support “external boot” on Apple Silicon Macs, but the reality is that it will be more limited in what it can do.”
      So what you have written isn’t supported by him, or what he reports that Apple has told him. In his case, because his product is CCC, he’s not so interested in bootable external disks themselves, but the subject of that blog post, which is the bootable backup. That’s quite different, and something which I’ve long been reporting here as not a good way ahead with M1 Macs. Furthermore, I pointed out to Mike over a month ago that, when an M1’s internal SSD fails, it will inevitably be unbootable. That is obvious from understanding how an M1 boots.
      However, a lot of people want bootable external disks, for example to be able to run older versions of Big Sur for testing purposes. Splitting your internal SSD into a dozen different containers isn’t a sensible way ahead if you’re a developer, researcher, or sysadmin who needs that facility. Neither is it a good way ahead for testing and developing macOS 12 betas when they start arriving very soon: a lot of indie developers only have one M1 Mac, so being able to boot it from an external disk is very important to them.
      Finally, I refer you to the APFS documentation, where the term Container is preferred for APFS. In fact, Partition is confusing, as in HFS+ Partition and Volume are synonymous, which I think is why Apple has tried to replace the old term where possible. There’s no ambiguity as to exactly what an APFS Container is.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
  - 22
    
    Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 8:40 pm
    
    Howard: What’s the difference between keeping the internal macOS Big Sur’s Data volume in sync with the backup external’s Data volume vs. doing the same for an internal Big Sur’s Data volumes and the Data volume associated with a Big Sur in another internal SSD’s Container ? I see them essentially the same, and I might add the data cloning for ‘internal to internal’ is mighty faster that internal to external.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 23
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 8:47 pm
      
      Two obvious differences:
      – if you’re using multiple boot volumes for testing/research/etc. you don’t sync their Data volumes. What’s the point?
      – if you’re using the second Data volume as a backup for the first, keeping them on the same disk is a fundamental mistake, as you have no cover at all in the event of losing that disk, either from hardware failure or because you have to perform a DFU restore, which will blow away your container structure and its entire contents.
      So just what is the purpose of the clone of the Data volume?
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 24
      
      Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 9:52 pm
      
      In reply to…
      “Two obvious differences:
      – if you’re using multiple boot volumes for testing/research/etc. you don’t sync their Data volumes. What’s the point?
      – if you’re using the second Data volume as a backup for the first, keeping them on the same disk is a fundamental mistake, as you have no cover at all in the event of losing that disk, either from hardware failure or because you have to perform a DFU restore, which will blow away your container structure and its entire contents.
      So just what is the purpose of the clone of the Data volume?
      Howard.”
      
      1) I simply want a backup for my primary Big Sur system.
      2) My assumption is that the internal SSD will remain operational for the life span of my M1 Mac.
      2a) If the M1’s internal SDD goes ‘south’ it’s a matter of replacing the M1 Mac as best I know at this time.
      2b) With 2a) in mind I plan on having Time Machine and CCC Data volumes backups as my fall back.
      3) I agree, that in the past keeping multiple backups on the same physical disk is foolhardy. This is very true for a spinning disk, and for an external spinning disk, but no so per 2).
      4) I’m not wanting various macOSes as maybe developers need.
      5) I maintain a very skinny Data volume as the bulk of my user data is either in the ‘Cloud’ or located on large external RAID-5 storage devices. My OS + Data volumes require no more that around 110 GB at best.
      6) Given all the above, it’s far easier for me to have my backup on the internal SSD and with the knowledge Apple will fully support this, and will have no need to employ the macOS Recovery mode -> Options… to switch between my internal SSD macOSes.
      
      `Tis a shame Apple has made the traditional system backups much more complex with their M1 Macs for the lay person and the developers. Explaining the backup bootable process you’ve posted here is surely a nightmare for the lay person when compared to the traditional and easy use of CCC and SD! for creating external bootable backup devices.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 25
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 10:01 pm
      
      I’m really sorry, but one of the fundamental rules of all backups is that the only backup worth making is to a separate physical disk. It’s not just hardware failure of your internal SSD which will take out that copy: what if you install a macOS update which is disastrous, forcing you to roll back to the previous version by DFU restore? What if the partition table on that disk is damaged? Both of those are far more likely than catastrophic hardware failure of the SSD, and in both cases all your effort spend syncing two Data volumes has been wasted.
      Traditional System backups are now completely unnecessary. They’re wasted disk space, when in a short space of time you can obtain a fresh, sealed copy of the System from Apple. You don’t back up other immutables like firmware, so why back up the immutable snapshot that is the Big Sur system?
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 26
      
      Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 11:02 pm
      
      In response to this… (as I’m unable to find a ‘Reply’ link to click on!
      “I’m really sorry, but one of the fundamental rules of all backups is that the only backup worth making is to a separate physical disk. It’s not just hardware failure of your internal SSD which will take out that copy: what if you install a macOS update which is disastrous, forcing you to roll back to the previous version by DFU restore? What if the partition table on that disk is damaged? Both of those are far more likely than catastrophic hardware failure of the SSD, and in both cases all your effort spend syncing two Data volumes has been wasted.
      Traditional System backups are now completely unnecessary. They’re wasted disk space, when in a short space of time you can obtain a fresh, sealed copy of the System from Apple. You don’t back up other immutables like firmware, so why back up the immutable snapshot that is the Big Sur system?
      Howard.”
      
      In fairness to you and myself I will work through the procedure you outlined in your OP and post back my results and encounters. Thank you for your attention.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 27
      
      hoakley on May 27, 2021 at 11:09 pm
      
      Thank you. You don’t have to quote the whole of a comment you’re replying to – all the original comments are retained in full, so the reader can always refer back to them. There are limits to the depth of threading though, largely because many users run out of screen space once they’re indented more than 3 or 4 times.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 28
      
      Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 12:10 am
      
      I followed your procedure as posted in your OP, as follows
      
      My M1 Mac is running Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1.
      
      1) I connected my TB3 OWC 1TB Envoy Pro EX the disk to an available port on my M1 Mac, which could.
      2) I formatted the Envoy as APFS under 11.5 Beta 1
      3) I did not perform your “To install a fresh copy of any version of Big Sur since 11.2, run its full Installer app and select that external disk as the destination.” and simply skipped to step 4).
      4) I made a copy of an existing boot volume group on my current internal SSD with Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1 that was configured with Reduced Security, using the latest version of Carbon Copy Cloner 6 in ‘legacy’ mode.
      5) I did not perform your “Towards the end of the installation process, the installer may claim there’s about a minute remaining for many minutes. Give it time!” as it was not applicable having done step 4).
      6) Your step “Once installed, the Mac will start up in the newly installed macOS for you to configure it in the normal way.” was not applicable having done step 4).
      
      7) Now, the CCC clone made in step 4) did not display in the System Preferences -> Startup Disk. I’ve encountered this before and normally I have to boot into the clone that CCC created before it will display in Startup Disk pane (something to do with a forced boot on the clone to create a 5th volume named “Preboot”)
      
      8) I now Shutdown my M1 Mac, and invoked the macOS Recovery mode Options… which did display the clone that Step 4) above created.
      
      9) I selected the clone created in Step 4) to boot up the M1 Mac.
      
      10) I was now asked “Authtification is required to verify startup disk. Enter an administrator’s name and password to allow this.”. I entered my M1 Mac’s admin pw, and clicked OK.
      
      11) After awhile, the M1 Mac rebooted.
      
      12) The login screen now displayed, and I logged in.
      
      13) The System Preferences -> Startup Disk now displayed the cloned external Envoy device. It however did not display the macOS Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1 system I had cloned the Envoy from.
      
      14) While booted up on the Envoy Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1, System Information -> Controller stated Full Security was enabled, and consequently my Promise Extension was not loaded leaving me with no access to my Promise Pegasus units.
      
      15) In order to setup Reduced Security for the Envoy I have to again shutdown and reboot to Recovery mode to gain access to the Startup Security Utility.
      
      16) With Startup Security Utility I tried to Reduce Security to match what my internal SSD’s Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1 had.
      
      17) No matter what I tried I could not get to the Startup Security Utility. The Recovery mode only presented the “Recovery Assistant” -> macOS Recovery pane for the internal SSD’s Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1 volume to recover.
      
      18) At this point I gave up and assumed I had done something wrong by not following your exact steps.
      
      My next attempt will be to do my best to follow your steps as outlined in your OP.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 29
      
      hoakley on May 28, 2021 at 8:16 am
      
      Thank you.
      As you’ve read both my account of trying to clone my internal SSD and the CCC blog post about this, you’ll surely have been well aware of this current issue with those clones not being listed in the Startup Pane. You’ll also be well aware of Mike Bombich’s and my recommendations not to clone the internal SSD.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
- 30
  
  Barry Sharp on May 27, 2021 at 7:57 pm
  
  I’ll will say also with using my new adopted ‘go to’ approach to having a VERY fast recovery macOS Big Sur fallback plan, is that in all likelihood the internal SSD will last me the life span of my M1 Mac. If not, it’s back to Apple under the AppleCare+ program for resolving, and quite likely at zero cost to me. The alternative is of course to have a second M1 Mac to fall back to beyond the AppleCare+ expiration.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
- 31
  
  Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 12:20 am
  
  Correction to my last posting. I was able to get access to the Startup Security Utility after several attempts. I then selected Reduced Security and clicked OK, but it errored out with “Recovery is trying to change system settings. No administrator was found”. There was no way around this…. so gave up at this point.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
- 32
  
  Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 1:48 am
  
  In my attempt to follow your instructions as stated in your OP I did the following.
  
  My M1 Mac is running macOS Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1.
  
  1) I connected my 1TB TB3 OWC Envoy Pro EX to a spare port on my M1 Mac and erased it and formatted it as APFS with a single Container.
  2) I downloaded Big Sur 11.4 from the App Store, and installed it onto the Envoy.
  3) I went thru the installation motions to setup a fresh install of Big Sur 11.4 to the Envoy.
  4) Your step 4) where you mention using CCC’s legacy mode was ignored at this time as not being part of the initial setup for the Envoy. This step was confusing to me, as I thought you were saying this had to be done as part of the initial setup for the Envoy. My misunderstand I guess. I assume this is a post install operation if wanting to use CCC to clone an existing boot volume group using the CCC’s legacy mode.
  5) During the install I did decide to not transfer my user Data volume to the Envoy, just so I could get up quickly onto 11.4 running on the Envoy, but see step 11).
  6) Yes, the end point “About a minute remaining” does hang around for a while.
  7) The installer complained about a “System Extension Blocked” that was referring to an extension signed by Samsung Electronics. I ignored this and clicked OK.
  8) Finally, the Installer wanted to Restart, and it did.
  9) The Restart was a real laggard, and took several minutes with absolutely nothing display on the display..
  10) Now the real installation proceeded, starting with Select language, then Wi-Fi network, and so on.
  11) Eventually the Installer asked if I want to migrate data, and selected from This Mac.
  12) The Installer objected saying “This Mac can’t be used to migrate data. Due to an issue with unlocking this system, you can’t migrate. Please update this Mac and retry.”
  13) I assume this error was related to my M1 Mac having a Big Sur version greater than 11.4. So I ignore and skipped the Migration Assistant.
  14) I selected “Not Now”, and proceeded.
  15) I had to authorize due to my AppleID having 2FA.
  16) I now had to create a computer account, but it objected to me using my current account name so had to use a different one that was simply the same as my current but with a “1” suffix. The Installer still complained., so I changed the Full Name text to something else, and this worked.
  17) Eventually, got through the rest of the install stuff and was logged in.
  18) The Startup Disk pane did display my Envoy which stated it had macOS 11.4.
  19) So far so good I suppose.
  20) I now wanted to setup Reduced Security, so rebooted to Recovery mode, and selected Options.
  21) I found no way to get to the Startup Security Utility. It just took me to either Recovery Assistant with it displaying my M1 Mac’s internal SSD with 11.5 on it, or for me to Choose Startup Disk which only displayed my M1 Mac’s internal 11.5 system..
  22) I Shutdown, and tried again to invoke Recovery mode by holding power button down until Options icon appeared.
  23) At this point I decided to give up, even though previously when in this situation I was able to invoke Startup Security Utility, but this time not so.
  
  IMO, I’m sorry to report that setting up external bootable devices for M1 Macs for myself is simply not ready for prime time.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  - 33
    
    hoakley on May 28, 2021 at 8:29 am
    
    Thank you.
    I draw your attention to a major difference between what you did and what I have described. In the title of this article I explicitly refer to macOS 11.4. You’re using a first beta-release of macOS 11.5. Do you know that everything works in that beta-release?
    I’m sorry that you found my instructions confusing. I had assumed that the reader would know whether they were installing a fresh macOS or cloning from another bootable volume group, therefore which of those two entries to use.
    In your step 19, I detect a reluctance to believe that this had actually worked, rather than trying it out to see whether it did. Considering that you had at that stage achieved what you previously claimed didn’t work, I find that surprising.
    In your step 21, the Startup Security Utility should of course be offered as a menu command, which it is in 11.4. The fact that the menu item appears to be missing in this beta-release says nothing about its presence and function in 11.4, does it?
    Finally, I’d be interested to know which 3rd party kernel extension you need to use. As you know, developers are now supposed to have replaced those with system extensions.
    Howard.
    
    LikeLike
    - 34
      
      Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 2:37 pm
      
      Thanks…
      
      Sorry about some of my wording (ie Step 19 as you mentioned). You must appreciate that I’m getting pretty frustrated with Big Sur’s Recovery mode as there are times when what it displays and what it doesn’t display keeps changing and driving me nuts. At this point I simply cannot get the Startup Security Utility to launch nor can I see it mentioned in any menu bar. In the past this was not so, and I was able to set Reduced Security for my two internal boot sets of SSD-A and SSD-B being their respective containers and their associated Data volumes. Both SSD-A and SSD-B have Reduce Security and my Promise extension gets loaded for me.
      
      The 3rd party signed/trusted extension I have to have loaded is the Promise extension version 6.2.16, that is located in /Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext. Without this loaded I have no access to me Promise Pegasus units.
      
      Thanks for your patience with me, and you help and attention. This aspect of creating external bootable devices, and the use of 3rd party trusted/signed extensions seems to me to be an unfolding and not fully baked to consistently work in Big Sur. I simply feel very lucky if the Promise extension does get loaded either during the boot up or after I’ve had to use kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext followed by a reboot.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 35
      
      hoakley on May 28, 2021 at 9:46 pm
      
      Thank you.
      I share your frustrations: I have been battering my head against this brick wall since December!
      I understand the problem with your Promise kext, and that’s one reason why I retired my Pegasus RAID array; the other was to switch to all-SSD storage. I must admit if I were still running it, I think I’d attach it to an older mini and use that as a file server under 10.14, so that I could move my other Macs away from the problems of its kext.
      I don’t know why you’re not seeing the Startup Security Utility. It could be the beta, or you might have to boot from the ‘full’ system on your internal SSD, that’s the one directly linked with the recoveryOS system, and connect using its primary admin user and password. Or it could even be that, as they are both running at Reduced Security, access to that utility is denied now. Apple’s information becomes vague when you look for detailed answers to problems like this.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 36
      
      Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 2:55 pm
      
      Yes…. I am running Big Sur 11.5 Beta 1 on my M1 mini at this time. Of course this could be contributing to my problems compared to what you posted in your OP for Big Sur version prior to 11.5. Maybe it’s this that is inhibiting me from getting to the Startup Security Utility as well. In easier Big Sur builds and for my internal bootable volume groups SSD-A and SSD-B I had no problem in using Startup Security Utility to setup Reduce Security.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 37
      
      Barry Sharp on May 28, 2021 at 3:47 pm
      
      Yes, at my step 19 my Envoy was bootable with having 11.4 installed on it, and this was with me following your steps you outlined in your OP. The trouble came trying to set Reduced Security for the Envoy 11.4 system. I simply could not raise the Startup Security Utility when booting up into Recovery mode.
      
      I’m wondering if because I have two internal bootable volume sets in their separate Containers with them being at 11.5 Beta 1, and with Reduce security, that this is the reason Recovery mode inhibits me from accessing the Startup Security Utility so I can Reduce security on my 11.4 Envoy system ? Recovery mode allows me to select either one of the internal SSD-A and SSD-B for booting, as well as the Envoy to boot up from. However, beyond this I cannot raise Startup Security Utility now. I have to think that having 11.5 Beta 1 on the internal bootable volume sets has altered the workings of Recovery mode.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
38

Steve on May 28, 2021 at 5:36 pm

Thank you for your volumes of information. I’ve just succeeded in resurrecting my daughters M1 Mini’s ability to install and boot from an external USB after problems with updates. I ran into all of the problems mentioned in https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/17/updating-external-disks-and-1-true-recovery-on-an-m1-mac/.

What I think I finally noticed is that Apple must be marking a difference between an administrator account and the original owner account created on the internal Mac SSD. At some point my daughter noticed the machine was stuck at 10.2.# and wouldn’t update any more. I created an administrator account for myself on the internal drive, trying any number of options to install and boot from the external drive, erasing, partitioning, running into all the problems mentioned in the article referenced above. Things finally succeeded when I used my son-in-laws internal account since he was the first to set-up an account on the internal drive and installing from a full installer downloaded onto the internal drive.

Or perhaps I was just lucky and there is no rhyme or reason to what works and what doesn’t.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 39
  
  hoakley on May 28, 2021 at 10:00 pm
  
  Thanks.
  No – you’re correct and this fits with Apple’s standard model. The golden user, particularly for M1 Secure Booting, is the primary admin user, with the user ID of 501. Although you can create additional admin accounts, that’s the master.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
40

Barry Sharp on May 29, 2021 at 12:37 am

OK, was able to successfully create a bootable external on a 1TB OWC Thunderbolt3 Envoy Pro EX using CCC legacy mode, and setup Reduced Security for it. However, no mater how hard I tried I could not get my /Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext loaded. It appeared to work and the kernel cache was rebuilt to allow the loading, and I had to give permission in the System Preferences -> Security&Privacy pane and then Restart, but it simply will not load even with doing this. It repeatedly errors out with “System Extension Error”.

I repeated the above but used Recovery to install Big Sur on the Envoy rather than using CCC legacy mode.

Note that this is not a problem for a bootable volume set located on the internal SSD.

Apple still has work to do with regards to allowing 3rd party signed/trusted extensions to be loaded for an external bootable device. No problem for an internal macOS Big Sur volume set.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 41
  
  hoakley on May 29, 2021 at 6:26 am
  
  Thank you.
  Yes, others are still reporting problems getting old kernel extensions to load. It’s clearly an outstanding bug in Big Sur.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 42
    
    Barry Sharp on May 29, 2021 at 9:46 pm
    
    Another oddity for the M1 Macs (in my case an M1 mini) is that if the internal SSD is partitioned allow multiple macOSes to be installed the hardware/software associated with the M1 technology prohibits having different versions of macOS on them. This was my experience any rate trying to have 11.5 on one and 11.4 on another. I could have 11.5 on both but not 11.5 on one and 11.4 on the other. At first blush it seems to work but there were so many obstacles doing this, and I’m not going to detail them here and bore you. I threw the towel in eventully.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 43
      
      hoakley on May 29, 2021 at 11:02 pm
      
      Thank you. I suspect that’s a bug, and is going to cause severe problems for developers in a couple of weeks when many need to set up their M1 Macs to run betas of macOS 12.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
    - 44
      
      Barry Sharp on May 30, 2021 at 5:24 am
      
      One other thing… When I boot my M1 mini using an external device and then login, the system requires me to enter an admin password to unlock the internal SSD macOS volume set. I enter the pw in the supplied box but it’s rejected with the window jiggling. There’s a clickable “Show hint” box and when I click on it it display the hint. The pw that I entered for the admin account was entered correctly. No matter what I try, I cannot get the pw to be accepted and end up dismissing “Cancel” the window. Along with this when I use Disk Utility to look at the various internal Volume sets and select Info for the internal SSD’s macOS it shows “Encrypted No (Encrypted at rest)”. What does this mean ?
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 45
      
      hoakley on May 30, 2021 at 8:35 am
      
      That’s a longstanding error condition which I encountered in my early exploration of external boot disks – it used to happen routinely, and basically means that the LocalPolicy system and Secure Boot have failed. There seems no way to work around it either.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
46

Joe Bailey on May 31, 2021 at 10:11 pm

I have had better luck with bootable USB SSDs connected with a certified Thunderbolt 4 cable than either USB or Thunderbolt 3. It is faster and more reliable.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 47
  
  hoakley on May 31, 2021 at 11:13 pm
  
  Thank you.
  I did look briefly at that, and couldn’t see any difference, either in reliability or disk benchmarks. Which version of macOS was this?
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
48

M1 Macs & External Drives | on June 4, 2021 at 7:00 am

[…] that front. The most recent 11.4 Big Sur update fixes problems between M1 Macs and external drives. This article describes what is fixed and how it now […]

LikeLike
49

Arthur Kent on June 10, 2021 at 5:43 pm

Plenty of these posts are informative, but my situation is “somewhat” different. Let me explain the details.

I have a late 2018 Mac Mini running the latest version of Catalina (OS 10.15.7). When OS 11.4 was released last month, I downloaded it to the Mini. I also have an external Samsung 1TB T7 SSD. I have used one of its containers for testing prior versions of Big Sur. Additionally, my processing needs are not that drastic, and a 256 gig SSD and 8 gig of Ram works fine for me (in fact, on both the Mini and my mid 2017 Mac Book Air, I am using less that 100 gig of space).

After opening up OS 11.4, I used it to 1) Erase and Format that container on the external SSD, 2) installed a clean, fresh version of OS 11.4 onto that container, and 3) migrated files, folders, settings, apps, etc. from the Mini to that container. I then restarted the Mini from that external SSD, and have been testing OS 11.4. Except for SuperDuper! (apparently Dave has V3.5 B3 working fine), all my other applications are working fine (of course I needed to either “replace” some of them (like Onyx), or just upgrade them for Big Sur compatibility).

About 2 weeks ago, I purchased an M1 Mac Mini (excellent price at Costco). I have not hooked it up yet, as I want to “get all my ducks in a row” before I start the process of setting it up the way I want it. In the past, what I have always done was to restart the new machine from an external SuperDuper! backup, and use the information of that backup to get the new machine ready. That involved the same steps I mentioned above:

1. With the version of the new OS on that backup, open it up, select the internal SSD on the new Mac, Erase and Format it, and do a clean, fresh installation of that OS.

2. Migrate files, folders, settings, apps, etc. from that SD backup to the new Mac.

3. Restart the new Mac, and make any software “adjustments”.

Doing all of that has always led to success.

With an M1 Mac, however, I understand there are some restrictions. One is that I cannot restart the M1 from an Intel-based SuperDuper! backup (I make SD backups of both of my Intel-based Macs to other external SSDs once a week). Also, according to Dave, in order to use SD on an M1-based Mac, OS 11.4 is the minimum OS required. Additionally, I suspect the version of Big Sur on the M1 Mini is an earlier version (maybe 11.2).

It seems that I will be able to restart the M1 Mini from that external Samsung container that has OS 11.4 on it. But I guess I need to try and understand the steps I can take to basically get the M1 Mini to “look like” that external OS 11.4 container. Is it possible to follow the same steps I stated above in getting the new machine ready? If not:

1. How do I upgrade the OS on the M1 Mini to V11.4? (I’m guessing this can be done via Software Update).

2. Assuming #1 is successful, can I launch Migration Assistant to migrate the files. folders, apps, settings, etc. from that external container?

No matter which route I take to achieve success in setting up the M1 Mini, I of course will need to download V3.5 B3 of SD (Dave mentioned to me that it is working fine as is, and that he is in the process of developing V3.5 B4).

Would appreciate assistance with this. And hopefully my explanation is clear enough.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 50
  
  hoakley on June 10, 2021 at 6:22 pm
  
  Thank you. This should be straightforward.
  1. Start the M1 up and set it up. I try to use the same username and password as my previous system, which makes like simpler in several ways.
  2. Software Update will then offer you the update to 11.4. Accept, and perform the update.
  3. Once the M1 is all set up, connect your SD backup disk and run Migration Assistant from Utilities to migrate from that to your M1.
  You don’t need SD to do this.
  I wish you success,
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
51

Arthur Kent on June 10, 2021 at 7:14 pm

Thanks, hoakley. Those steps are what I thought of.

Believe it or not, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve done the setup from scratch. As I mentioned above, I had always restarted the new Mac from a SD backup, and then started the setup process using the information on the SD backup. That of course included obtaining the same username and password.

Is there a way to actually first upgrade to V11.4, then restart the M1 from that external container, and perform the migration from there?

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 52
  
  hoakley on June 10, 2021 at 8:53 pm
  
  I’m not sure what benefit there would be in booting from the external disk.
  Yes, you could set it up. You’d need an empty container to start with, then you can use the Installer app (or Recovery) to install 11.4 in that. Then you’d have to perform migration from your SD backup, and set that disk up fully before you could use that for migration. You could only do that once your internal SSD was updated and ready to use.
  It’s simpler just to cut out the middle man and migrate straight to the internall SSD, surely?
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 53
    
    Arthur Kent on June 10, 2021 at 9:33 pm
    
    Hers’s what I’d like to do using the OS 11.4 Container on that external Samsung 1 TB SSD:
    
    1. Connect the external SSD to the powered-off M1 Mini.
    
    2. Start up the M1 Mini, but hold down the Option key to see a list of startup disks. I assume that external OS 11.4 Container would be there.
    
    3. Re-start from that external OS 11.4 container.
    
    4. Use Disk Utility there (the one with V11.4 of Big Sur) to Erase and Format the internal SSD on the M1 Mini.
    
    5. Install a clean, fresh, virgin version of OS 11.4 onto that internal SSD on the M1 Mini.
    
    6. Perform the usual Migration of files, folders, settings, apps, etc. from that external container to the internal SSD.
    
    7. Restart the M1 Mini.
    
    I don’t mind doing all that, as I have been very successful in following that in the past. The only difference is that the restart was done from an SD backup (SD not needed any further for the steps above), whereas this would be done from an OS 11.4 Container on the external SSD.
    
    Would that work?
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 54
      
      hoakley on June 10, 2021 at 10:09 pm
      
      2 – doesn’t work. You need to enter Recovery mode, which is completely different on M1 Macs. To create a bootable container on that external disk, you’ll need to use macOS or Recovery on your internal SSD first anyway.
      3 – please read the above article which explains how to set that external disk up. You’ll need to configure your M1 Mac to operate from its internal SSD first.
      4 – you can only erase and fully reformat it in DFU mode from another Mac running Configurator 2. But do you really want to fully erase the internal SSD? Why?
      5 – Why? The System volume is sealed and is a snapshot. The Seal is checked against Apple’s master hash to confirm that every last bit in it is identical. Every bootable copy of 11.4 is completely identical. Why replace one identical copy with another?
      If you browse some of the articles listed in my M1 page (in the menu at the top), you should see some of the many differences between M1 and Intel Macs explained, which in turn explain why what you’re proposing is neither wise nor, in many cases, possible.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
55

Arthur Kent on June 10, 2021 at 7:19 pm

Forgot to mention that using that external container of course does not require the use of SD. Even if I could boot the M1 Mini from an SD bootable backup, the subsequent OS setup and migration would not involve SD.

LikeLiked by 1 person
56

Arthur Kent on June 11, 2021 at 4:26 am

OK, it looks like I will need to follow what you stated earlier:

“1. Start the M1 up and set it up. I try to use the same username and password as my previous system, which makes like simpler in several ways.
2. Software Update will then offer you the update to 11.4. Accept, and perform the update.
3. Once the M1 is all set up, connect your SD backup disk and run Migration Assistant from Utilities to migrate from that to your M1.
You don’t need SD to do this.”

First, I of course know that I do not need SuperDuper! at all while doing all that.

Secondly, as I have stated, that container on my Samsung 1TB T7 external SSD is already bootable (at least from my Catalina environment, ie, with the late 2018 Mac Mini running Catalina).

Third, as I mentioned, it’s been a long, long time since I went through an actual setup with a new Mac from scratch. Is the setup as simple as establishing an Admin account (and using the same Userid and password as I currently use)? I don’t use iCloud at all, and given the Mini (the one now and the new one) is directly connected to my router (which is connected to my modem), no need for WiFi setup. What else will I need to complete?

Fourth, again that external Samsung SSD has not been “touched” by SD. It has the OS 11.4 container, with all my files, folders, settings, apps, etc (the other 2 “containers” contain Movies and TV shows. Each of them are actually formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)). (The reason why two of those “containers” are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is that I can connect that SSD to the USB port on my Roku streaming device connected to our 65″ Samsung TV, and watch a movie or a TV series. The Roku software recognizes Mac OS Extended, but not APFS)

So, I assume I can migrate files, folders, settings, apps, etc. from that OS 11.4 container, right? If not, can I do the migration from my SD backup SSD (the backup done with V3.3.1 of SD)? Given that SD SSD is Intel-based, would the M1 Mini recognize it?

In summary, can I follow the steps 1 – 3 you already stated, except that for #3, I would connect the Samsung 1 TB T7 SSD to the M1 Mini, and it could “see” the container containing OS 11.4 and all my other items? Or can I use my Intel-based SD backup SSD? Using the T7 would be easier, as it already has everything that is compatible with Big Sur.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 57
  
  hoakley on June 11, 2021 at 8:27 am
  
  Initial setup is extremely straightforward – it’s designed to cater for every Mac user.
  For your migration, connect the disk with the Data volume you wish to migrate from. Migration Assistant will check it, and if it can will use that for the migration. Your fallback then would be to use your backup instead, but I see no reason that you should need to.
  Intel and M1 Macs use exactly the same versions of APFS and are highly compatible, except when it comes to making disks bootable. Then the M1 Mac’s Secure Boot has to do a lot more in terms of setting LocalPolicy for booting from that disk. That isn’t about access or formatting, but the boot process itself. As you’re not trying to boot from the external disk, that shouldn’t worry your M1 Mac.
  I wish you success.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
58

Arthur Kent on June 12, 2021 at 11:43 pm

OK, tomorrow I plan on taking the plunge! I will actually use your suggestion about doing the migration from my just completed SuperDuper! backup of my current (and up to date) Catalina environment. One question, though: if any of my apps also have “M1 Versions”, will that be made known to me? One example I am aware of is the Brave browser (I use it exclusively). An update came out for it earlier today, and when I wanted t start the download of the new version, it asked whether I wanted the Intel or M1 version. I chose the Intel version. Not sure how many other apps I have that have M1 versions.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 59
  
  hoakley on June 13, 2021 at 9:14 am
  
  I wish you success!
  The great majority of apps are now supplied as Universal, in that the one app contains both Intel and ARM code. Brave is an exception, as is CorelDRAW and a few others. Once you’ve migrated you can download and install any like that which are single-architecture.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
60

Arthur Kent on June 13, 2021 at 6:47 pm

Thanks. I actually utilize the site https://roaringapps.com/apps, and there it showed that 1Password, Firefox, and Handbrake have “pure” Apple Silicon versions.

LikeLiked by 1 person
61

Arthur Kent on June 14, 2021 at 4:25 am

OK, I was able to achieve success! I actually restarted by Erasing, formatting, and partitioning the external 1 TB T7 Samsung SSD , did a clean, fresh installation on the Big Sur partition, and migrated all my needed “stuff” from the 2018 Mini running Catalina. Did that yesterday, completed all needed software updates/settings, and ran some more tests. All went well.

Earlier today, hooked up the M1 Mini (even connecting my USB Hub), and started it up. Took a little time, but things got going. When it asked about the migration (after I plugged in the T7 SSD), it then informed me that the OS needed an update to V11.4. So, that proceeded, but it sure was slow! My internet speed is 200 Mbps, so no slow poke. But sure was disappointing that it took so long. Finally completed, and then proceeded with the migration from the external SSD.

The M1 is fast, but not blazingly faster than my late 2018 Mac Mini. Both have the same RAM and storage specs: 8 gig of Ram, and a 256 gig SSD. in the Catalina environment, was using about 97 gig. But with the M1 and Big Sur, using about 75 gig. Not sure where the savings are, but I’ll take it.

For application speed, startup is faster. When I launched Thunderbird, was informed that I needed Rosetta, so I let it install it. Subsequently, Thunderbird runs about the same as on the late 2018 Mini. Brave, which is native, is noticeably faster. Will continue to see how other apps run.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 62
  
  hoakley on June 14, 2021 at 5:10 pm
  
  Well done!
  I think you’ll find as you use native apps more there is an obvious performance difference. Remember that your copy of Thunderbird is actually Intel code, whose translation is being run on an ARM processor at about the same speed as it ran native of your Intel Mac.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
63

Arthur Kent on June 14, 2021 at 4:39 am

Forgot to thank Howard for all his help. Thanks, Howard!

LikeLiked by 1 person