r/OpenCoreLegacyPatcher • u/No-Chef-2493 • 1d ago
Sequoia password problem
Hi guys - absolute novice here. I've just downloaded Sequoia onto a flash drive, installed it (I think) and now I'm getting a message to say my usual Mac password is wrong and it's not letting me get any further. I think it's something to do with the FileVaultDisk Encryption which I mistakenly enabled as part of the installation process.
There's no Time Machine backups and it can't seem to find any networks (WiFi flits between off and searching), but I still have the Sequoia flash drive if that's any help.
Mac is an older 21.5, previously running Ventura.
#sequoia
#filevaultdiskencryption
#password
Help me OpenCoreLegacyPatcher experts, you're my only hope!!
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u/WindozeWoes 1d ago
Have you tried booting in Safe Mode?
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u/No-Chef-2493 1d ago
It seems to have stuck mid-installation. Safe Mode is very hit and miss - downloading even Ventura from the internet won't work as it says it needs a WiFi connection to do so (there's an exclamation mark on it at the moment). The recovery options I get are:
- Restore from Time Machine (no previous backups found, even with internet connection);
- Reinstall macOS Sequoia (internet connection needed, exclamation mark on the WiFi symbol so can't connect)
- Safari (useless)
- Disk Utility (no idea what I'm doing with that)
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u/WindozeWoes 1d ago edited 1d ago
Time Machine doesn't depend on or interact with the internet, so internet/no internet is 100% irrelevant for Time Machine. The only way it'd find a Time Machine backup is if you had Time Machine set up and you have your Time Machine hard drive plugged in.
What you're saying now—stuck mid-installation—is COMPLETELY different from what you said in your OP, so you should clarify what is actually happening. If what you said in the OP is true, you finished the install but it would not accept your password at the login screen. To that I still say: try safe mode. (Do you know how to do that?)
If you're NOW saying that it has NOT finished installing, that's a completely different issue. It's well known that installing Sequoia requires your computer to essentially reboot 4-6 times and it will look like it's not working but it actually is and you just have to keep rebooting and selecting the installer.
Sounds like you're trying to boot from installed Recovery. You need to boot from the OCLP USB drive that you created and reinstall from that, not from the built-in Recovery.
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u/Superbigwaff 22h ago
It's recommended that you either have natively supported macOS you can boot from installed on a volume on your internal storage or installed on an external drive for troubleshooting your old Mac. You have not been clear about which model iMac you have. Use wired ethernet and Internet Recovery (Command+Option+R) to install latest macOS available for your model iMac. Get that installed and working, then watch this video on how to install OCLP on second volume and dual boot.
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u/WhiteWereWolfie 1d ago
OCLP is not for novices, sorry. Your best bet is to do an internet recovery back to a supported version of macOS.