Please open an AppleCare case on this. We are seeing the same, as are other customers.
Disclaimer: The thoughts below are from someone who only partially understands what he (me) is talking about. You have been warned. No warranties implied. When it doubt, call Apple.
Hi. Let me tell you we just went through this with Apple. After a bit of head scratching we got to a solution. Here is what we did (in the end). The following thoughts are my after-thoughts from three support cases with Apple in the last two weeks about the M1 Macs and recovery of the OS.
To address your specific question (i.e. my three hours with apple yesterday) consider the following:
- In ASM, unassociated the device serial number from JAMF.
Reboot to recover mode, erase, reinstall the OS*
Setup Mac as a local, non-MDM-managed Mac to confirm local accounts work again.
In ASM, re-associate the device with JAMF.
Reboot to recover mode, erase and reinstall the OS.
A few notes about erasing these Apple Silicon M1 Macs
1. If you get to the very first recovery screen and it is NOT the list of four programs to run (disk utility, reinstall OS, etc) you should check the menu at the very, very top of the screen and look for ERASE MAC. Run through that process. It does some magic that dimply deleting the volumes does not appear to do.
2. When in Disk Utility be sure to blow away all volumes, including both Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data. If you miss the Data drive you will end up with another set of problems to resolve.
3. There is a terminal command 'reset password' that you may wish to run that will reset some more things.
Basically, if you try really really hard you can get the Mac to be back to a factory default state and reinstall the OS. By itself, this does not resolve your issue with the local accounts, though. Those require the steps we took with ASM as listed above.
**
PS: I cannot make the online webUI WYSIWYG editor do correct number of my bullet points. Sorry about that.
I had the same issue and larrysteinke's suggestion was a great help for me.
Now I can create a new account successfully through DEP enrollment.
Had the same issue with the local accounts. I currently do not have access to Apple Business Manager and I am in the process of getting access. Once I do, I will have to unassign the serial number in ABM, reinstall the OS, and then reassign it.
@larrysteinke , question for you. After unassigning the Mac, are you formatting the disk using disk utility both times or are you just re-installing the OS without formatting?
I'm having the same issues. I followed the below steps in ABM and I'm still having the same issue.
I unassigned the machine from the JAMF mdm in Apple Business Manager
I did an erase(Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data) and install.
I attempted to go through setup assistant to create a new account and i'm still getting the unable to create account error.
I did not use the reset password command in terminal, so i'll be trying that next.
To address your specific question (i.e. my three hours with apple yesterday) consider the following:
In ASM, unassociated the device serial number from JAMF.
Reboot to recover mode, erase, reinstall the OS*
Setup Mac as a local, non-MDM-managed Mac to confirm local accounts work again.
In ASM, re-associate the device with JAMF.
Reboot to recover mode, erase and reinstall the OS.
@LovelessinSEA Hi I also experienced the same, let me know if recovery password helps! I am stuck with a machine that doesn't work unfortunately. I will be trying Apple Configurator 2 tonight as well!
@lostradamus Unfortunately nothing I have tried works. Do you have documentation for the AC2 method?
I have had the same issue.. I can recover the Mac though.. thats easy, but I have the same issue in the create computer account.... I did get it to work by using a super simple id and password like. Jim, and apple as the password.. but thats not ideal...
by the way.. I just redid my M1 air with full enrollment, and using 11.1 Big Sur, and the issue seems to have now gone away........ so thats great......
message me if you are still having an issue maybe I can help
Jderlatka@loyalty.com ( work )
Jim.derlatka@me.com ( Personal )
I just received an M1 macbook air for testing and I am hitting this issue no matter what I do. I removed it from ASM and erased and reinstalled but no users can be created. if I reboot I see that the users are there but the passwords don't work. Not sure what else to do to get this computer back to working order I have clean installed it about 5 times now.
@mmcchesney I was having the same problem with my test M1 MacBook Air. What finally worked, and allowed creation of accounts when enrolled via Jamf Pro MDM or not, was doing a DFU Restore with Apple Configurator 2
EDIT: I can't say with 100% certainty it's what triggered the issue, but prior to the repeated failure to create an account I had booted from a Big Sur 11.1 USB installer and used Disk Utility to erase my M1 Mac's SSD, but failed to select the erase volume group when erasing "Macintosh HD". I did erase the volume group on multiple subsequent boot from USB, erase, and re-install Big Sur 11.1 cycles, but never got past the account creation process until doing a DFU Restore.
I have since done multiple boot from USB, erase, and re-install Big Sur 11.1 cycles while making sure to use the erase volume group option when erasing "Macintosh HD" and haven't seen a repeat of the account creation failure.
@mmcchesney @sdagley I'm hitting the same issue. MacBook Pro M1 - removed from our Jamf in ABM, but I erase & install comes back with users whose passwords don't work. Trying to reset it in Apple Configurator 2, I get errors like...
Edit - I had to update to the newest Configurator... working on it...
The System cannot be restored on this device. No applicable System images were provided. [ConfigurationUtilityKit.error – 0x263 (611)]
I also had this same issue. Previously, to erase / re-install / reset the device, I was booting from an external USB Big Sur installer and manually erasing the volume group and then re-installing. This lead to the 'Cannot create user account' error. After restoring via the latest version of Configurator 2, the issue no longer has appeared. This guide worked perfectly : https://mrmacintosh.com/restore-macos-firmware-on-an-apple-silicon-mac-boot-to-dfu-mode/
@AdminIA I got it to work after going through a restore with Apple Configurator 2. It seems to be ok now. Though I need to try a few more times to be sure its truly gone.
Having the same issue but also cant seem to get it into DFU. Followed the instructions per apple and nothing happens. It does show in configurator with the lock icon if I let it power up though. Anyone else run into issues getting the MacBook Air into DFU?
Yes, it finally worked for me as well. Quite the PITMac.
@abutterman its a bit tricky but you plug it in to another Mac then shut down then hold Power Right Shift, Left Control and Left option for 10 seconds then let go of everything but the power button. And you should get there.
For anyone struggling with the DFU Restore process, @ClassicII has written an extremely comprehensive guide: Restore macOS Firmware on an Apple Silicon Mac + Boot to DFU Mode
Turned out I had bigger issues. DFU was hosed and if I tried to run nvram -c in terminal in recovery I would get a permission error. I ended up going through the steps outlined in Apple's article to fix the issue they had with the OS not reinstalling at all after wiping it on 11.0.1 and that cleared up the account creation issue.
We're having this issue as well and have opened an AppleCare case. I'll update if I'm able to figure out anything. I have noticed the account we create as part of our PreStage enrollment does work at the login window after a power cycle but as mentioned up top, none of the accounts we attempt in Setup Assistant work.
I can't remember where I found this solution, but it works for me :
- shut down computer
- hold the power button until the "options" icon shows
- select the "options" icon
- when next screen loads, select menu item to launch terminal
- in terminal type "resetpassword" and hit enter
- when a reset password box appears, select menu item to erase Mac (see note below)
- in new pop up confirm option to erase Mac.
- once erased, exit back to recover
- reinstall the operating system
- once installed, create the account.
No need to remove the computer from ABM or use AC2, it's just a little longer to wipe a computer.
Jim @jimderlatka
you solution works. Thank you so much for your help and quick response.
I tried many of the responses here(minus removing from abm) and the only one that worked was a DFU restore in apple configurator
I ran into this issue as well and tried every approach suggested here. The only thing that worked was the DFU restore
Unfortunately per AppleCare there is no update on restoring M1 via non-DFU means.
