{"id":43516,"date":"2024-06-04T14:58:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=43516"},"modified":"2025-07-30T14:26:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:26:53","slug":"macos-installers-failed-to-personalize-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/04\/macos-installers-failed-to-personalize-error\/","title":{"rendered":"macOS Installer&rsquo;s &ldquo;Failed to Personalize&rdquo; Error"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/2024\/06\/03\/solving-the-macos-installers-failed-to-personalize-error-with-new-firmware\/\">Adam Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/2024\/06\/03\/solving-the-macos-installers-failed-to-personalize-error-with-new-firmware\/\"><p>Typically, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/mac-help\/how-do-i-get-firmware-updates-mchlp2609\/mac\">Mac firmware is updated<\/a> whenever a new version of macOS is installed, but if something goes wrong in the process, the Mac can be left with outdated firmware. When automatic firmware updates fail, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/108900\">the solution is to &ldquo;revive&rdquo; or &ldquo;restore&rdquo; the Mac<\/a> using another Mac running macOS 12 Monterey or later and a USB-C cable that supports data and charging, such as the Apple USB-C Charge Cable (Apple explicitly warns against trying to use a Thunderbolt 3 cable). Although Macs running Sonoma can update firmware using the Finder, <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/apple-configurator\/id1037126344\">Apple Configurator<\/a> is necessary for Macs running Monterey or Ventura, and LALicata&rsquo;s Apple rep said that this particular problem could be resolved only by restoring from Apple Configurator, not the Finder. (Reviving leaves your data in place and is worth trying first; restoring erases the Mac and reverts it to factory defaults.)<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>If you&rsquo;re having problems associated with startup or updating, compare your Mac&rsquo;s current firmware version with the latest version. Howard Oakley&rsquo;s excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/eclecticlight.co\/lockrattler-systhist\/\">Silent Knight<\/a> utility, which reports on the update status of various system settings, makes that easier.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;d argue that the problem here revolves around documentation. First, the error message is terrible. What does &ldquo;Failed to personalize&rdquo; mean (nothing, in at least this context, and not much in any I can imagine), and how is it related to firmware (it&rsquo;s not)? [&#8230;] The error condition might be rare, but it&rsquo;s not unheard of, so the second problem is that Apple&rsquo;s article about reviving and restoring Mac firmware doesn&rsquo;t include the error message text as one of the symptoms of corrupted firmware.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/26\/how-to-recover-macos-recovery\/\">How to Recover macOS Recovery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/17\/macos-14-simplifies-restoring-a-mac-in-dfu-mode\/\">macOS 14 Simplifies Restoring a Mac in DFU Mode<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/19\/owner-accounts-on-m1-macs\/\">Owner Accounts on M1 Macs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/08\/reviving-or-restoring-a-mac-with-apple-silicon\/\">Reviving or Restoring a Mac With Apple Silicon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/12\/how-to-restore-bridgeos-on-your-t2-mac\/\">How to Restore BridgeOS on Your T2 Mac<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"macos-installers-failed-to-personalize-error-update-2024-06-06\">Update (2024-06-06): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@pgor\/112560029613668546\">Paul Goracke<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@pgor\/112560029613668546\">\n<p>I had to <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@pgor\/112397552953662221\">DFU revive<\/a> to fix an even more generic install error. Unfortunately, it seems I need to do it again to update to 14.5 &#x1F62D;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Engst: Typically, Mac firmware is updated whenever a new version of macOS is installed, but if something goes wrong in the process, the Mac can be left with outdated firmware. When automatic firmware updates fail, the solution is to &ldquo;revive&rdquo; or &ldquo;restore&rdquo; the Mac using another Mac running macOS 12 Monterey or later and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-06-04T18:58:30Z","apple_news_api_id":"e728b340-e111-45c9-b0f8-2b08c0b676fc","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-06-06T13:23:50Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A5yizQOERRcmw-CsIwLZ2_A","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1850,2806,164,1780,30,32,2223,2385,2596],"class_list":["post-43516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-configurator","tag-dfu-mode","tag-documentation","tag-installer","tag-mac","tag-macapp","tag-macos-13-ventura","tag-macos-14-sonoma","tag-silent-knight"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43516"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43550,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43516\/revisions\/43550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}