Unable to boot Macbook M4 from new external drive.

TWPotter wrote:

Macbook M4 Pro. Sequoia 15.2

External disk is Samsung T-9 (4T)

Boot/recovery/Security was set to reduced security. No “boot from disk” option in menu.

Erase disk (expanded menu, erased from top of disk).

Formatted APFS with GUID partition.. Name is 7 characters with no spaces or special characters.

Run OS installer from boot up recovery. Install to external disk.

Upon reboot external disk shows volume on disk as “Bootable = Yes" in Disks.

When rebooting and selecting the drive, it spins for a moment and then no change.

If I go to options, select startup disk, I get an error. “The selected version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled”.

Upon reboot, looking at the external disk I see the system folders.

My first Macbook and first attempt booting from external disk. I've tried many times. I'm missing something here.

I have also tried this with different SSD drives, different cables, and connected to different ports. Same results.

use an external startup disk, see if this gets you any further

M-series Mac

ref: Change security settings on the startup disk of a Mac with ...

Select ”Allow booting from external media.” 

TWPotter wrote:

I have updated the Security Settings for the internal disk. There is no "Allow booting from external media" option in the menu (same as image in linked document).

Yep that seems to be more applicable to the T2 chip...

See what electric light has to say—

https://eclecticlight.co/2024/03/15/apple-silicon-6-security/

further—

Call Customer Support  (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line  https://getsupport.apple.com/

Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support 

Unfortunately booting from external drives on an M-series Macs can be complicated. It sounds like you did everything correctly. It is very refreshing to see such a well formatted post with clear details.

I actually just learned something by trying to find an Apple article for booting an M-series Mac from an external drive. In the following Apple article it mentions that when you install macOS to an external drive on an M-series Mac, that you cannot connect the drive to the DFU port during the install. Once macOS has been installed, then you can connect the external boot drive to any USB-C port on the M-series Mac.

I wonder if you happened to have used the DFU port during installation. Unfortunately Apple doesn't provide details on what may or may not happen in that circumstance. I did find the instructions in this article to be confusing since it tries to be work for any Mac, but there are some portions that are misleading such as the file system that must be used for an M-series Mac or for installing macOS 10.15+.....they require using the APFS file system.

Install macOS on an external storage device and use it as a startup disk - Apple Support

If you did use the DFU port to install macOS, then trying performing a clean install again with the drive connected to another USB-C port.

I don't think you need to change any security settings to boot from an external drive on an M-series Mac.

Make sure to connect the drive directly to the computer. If you have done this, then perhaps try connecting the drive through a USB hub. I have some recent reports on this forum where people have had issues with external data/backup drives when connected directly to an M-series Mac, but seem to work fine when connected to a USB hub.

TWPotter wrote:

Last message in install log:

Checking ownership status on

disk5s2

Failed checking disk disk5s1 for local users - no OD database was found

Disk disk5s2 has secure tokens, but no local users. User will need to erase the volume before it can be used.

I was afraid this might have been the case, but the error message noted in the OP had me thinking this was not the case. M-series Macs have introduced a new concept of ownership and this "ownership" must be transferred to the external boot drive when you install macOS on the external drive. Usually you are prompted at the beginning of the installation process to choose a valid admin user account as the "owner" for the external boot drive. This means the internal macOS boot drive must have at least one admin user account configured.

You can try a DFU Firmware Revive to reset the security enclave to see if that resolves your ownership problems so that you can confirm ownership to the external drive as you begin installing macOS onto it. Plus sometimes the security enclave chip can become corrupted & confused. You will probably need to perform yet another clean install on the external drive after the DFU Firmware Revive.

If the DFU Firmware Revive doesn't help, then try the more drastic DFU Firmware Restore which will also reset the internal SSD & push a clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD after which you can restore from a backup. Then try performing a clean install to the external drive.

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Last message in install log:

Checking ownership status on disk5s2

Failed checking disk disk5s1 for local users - no OD database was found

Disk disk5s2 has secure tokens, but no local users. User will need to erase the volume before it can be used.

I think you caught it red-handed. Installer failed to add a an Open Directory (OD) database of Users when installing a new MacOS. it likely can't find that database, so says the Install image is damaged.

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To file a Bug Report, contact support, work with the first responder to go through their checklist of obvious issues (¿is it plugged in properly?).

if no solution, be polite and professional, and ASK FOR A SPECIALIST.

The specialist will probably have to contact you again later.

Specialists are more knowledgeable in their areas of expertise, but far less patient. You can freely reference things posted on the forums, but they never take out word for things, they have their own more rigorous methods for data collection and analysis.

Your installer log will be very important.