UPDATE: April 28, 2021
With the release of macOS 11.3 yesterday, Apple has now fixed the bug that prevented the SoftRAID driver from loading on M1 Macs. After updating to this new macOS release, the SoftRAID version 6 driver will load correctly, and you will be able to access your SoftRAID volumes.
Though we are always excited when Apple rolls out a new OS update, we are also cautious about what it means for our OWC hardware and software. Earlier today, Apple released macOS Big Sur 11.2. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the latest changes that Apple has implemented, we advise that if you are running SoftRAID on an M1 Mac, do not install the macOS Big Sur 11.2 update.
Why not? Due to certain OS modifications made by Apple, SoftRAID will not operate properly. As always, we are working diligently with Apple’s engineers to rectify the problem and will keep you posted with any—and all—updates as they become available.
Already Updated?
No worries, you can revert your system to the latest version of macOS 11.1 you had installed on your system before you updated to 11.2.
How to revert to macOS 11.1 using Time Machine
Here are instructions for using Snapshots to revert macOS to a prior version.
Note: When using this method, any changes made to user files will be reverted to their previous states before updating to 11.2. As the name states, it is a “snapshot” of your entire system at the specific point and time you choose to restore.
- Shutdown your M1 Mac
- Restart and hold the power key until you see “Loading startup options”
- Click on “Options” and “Continue”
- Click on your startup volume
- Select your admin account and enter password
- Click “Restore from Time Machine”
- In the info window, click “Continue”
- In the “Select a Restore Source” window, Select your startup volume and click “Continue”
(This brings you to the “Select a Local Snapshot” window) - Select the desired Snapshot
(Generally, this is the last Snapshot on the list, i.e. you need to select the last Snapshot with 11.1, which will revert the system to this point in time) - Click Continue, and affirm again by clicking “Continue”
The system will automatically restart and startup from the restored Snapshot.
NOTE: If you are a SoftRAID user, we encourage you to sign up to receive SoftRAID Critical Updates via email to be alerted of issues as quickly as possible.
Good news for users running SoftRAID on M1 Macs…
Related Links
This is not at all what I expect nor what I experience in testing. Please contact our support team for help with this. My suspicion is that you have run into one of the several bugs in macOS 11 (Big Sur) which prevent the SoftRAID driver from loading. We have characterized these bugs, reported them to Apple and have steps to help you get up and running again.
To start a tech support incident, go to our support web site and fill out the web form to start the process. One of our support staff, most likely Mark or James, will contact you within a few hours to get you sorted out.
Tim
Being an early adopter… headaches since MacOS 7.5 (and before?)
I agree that your warnings do not arrive in time. I get so many emails from OWC, mostly advertising, that I often do not look at them quickly, or at all.
You should create a clearer differentiation for warning emails, or perhaps add an SMS warning.
I am constantly terrified at losing my Thunderblade data, controlled by SoftRAID, even though I back it up regularly with CCC. Especially now that I am using a beta of SoftRAID 6.
I just looked into this and all of our warnings about major problems with macOS or SoftRAID have a subject line which starts: “SoftRAID Critical Update.” Please check that you received an email with this subject and that it did not end up in your junk mail folder. If it did, you might want to white list these emails based on their subject line.
If you have not already signed up for the SoftRAID Critical Updates emails, I suggest you sign up for them now at: https://www.softraid.com/news/softraid-news/
If you want to receive an SMS warning, you can sign up for the SoftRAID Critical Updates email and just convert your phone number into an email address that your cell phone provider will understand.
I searched on line for “att sms email” and found these instructions for AT&T: https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1061254/ This page gives instructions on how to convert your cell phone number into an email address. Any emails sent to the email address will get delivered as an SMS messages to your phone. Your cell phone provider should have similar instructions.
Let me know if you think there are other ways we can make these emails more effective.
Thanks,
Tim
I never received your email and I installed it. I spent the entire day yesterday (including listening to your horrible hold music for 45 minutes) trying to deal with the aftermath of this. Mac OS 11.2 is a dog.
Now I need to downgrade so I can use my Thunderblade again. But these instructions won’t work. If you go into recovery mode and try to follow the above directions, Time Machine will tell you that it can’t restore the OS from that earlier snapshot. Instead, it cheerfully says that you need to install the OS separately. Apple mistakenly told me that recovery mode would have the OS that came on my M1 Mac on it. But that isn’t true. I erased my M1 Mac’s SSD and, after jumping through two hour’s worth of hoops, installed the OS and, once again, got 11.2.
I understand the pain and frustration you experienced.
I am working now on getting the instructions for resetting your M1 Mac using DFU mode added to this blog post. This will perform a complete reset of your M1 Mac and put it back to macOS 11.1. This is like doing a hard reset on your iPhone so all your data will be wiped from the Mac – so make sure you do a complete backup to another drive first.
Thanks for the honest feedback. It helps us improve our game and help others in the future.
If you have not already done so, you should sign up for the SoftRAID Critical Update emails. You can do so by going to: https://www.softraid.com/news/softraid-news/. Make sure to whitelist these emails so they don’t end up in your junk folder. The subject will always start with: “SoftRAID Critical Update.”
Tim
Any idea if the 11.3 beta resolves the issue?
This is terrible customer service and you need to email people. You can’t assume we are all reading your blog every day. Many of us updated our M1 Macs to fix the bluetooth and other issues and now we are stuck yet again with OWC drives that are useless and can’t access our data. I can’t believe what a mess this is. It is completely antithetical to the idea of RAID and drive security.
We actually did send out an email about this problem as soon as Apple allowed us to.
I really wanted to be able to send out this alert when we first discovered the problem with macOS 11.2 on M1 Macs a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, our membership in the Apple developer program prevents us from discussing any details about unreleased Apple software. This meant we could act until Apple actually released the macOS 11.2 update to customers.
We sent this email to everyone who has signed up for the SoftRAID email alerts. These alerts, which we call SoftRAID Critical Updates are sent anytime we find a problem with macOS system software or Mac hardware which could potentially affect users. The SoftRAID Critical Update for this problem with macOS 11.2 was sent within a couple of hours of when we noticed that Apple had released the macOS 11.2 update.
My hope is that all SoftRAID customers sign up for these emails. By signing up for the SoftRAID Critical Updates, you will hear about problems we discover with macOS and Mac hardware as soon as we are able to disclose them.
For more information about the email alerts, you can go to:
https://www.softraid.com/news/softraid-news/
Tim Standing
VP Software Development – Mac
“Though we are always excited when Apple rolls out a new OS update.”
Not me. I always have a sense of dread when Apple updates the Mac OS.
I always wonder what features or capabilities they have REMOVED.
I have OS 11.1, the best Mac OS Apple ever had was 10.6.8.
I am EXTRAORDINARILY disappointed with this. What were you doing while 11.2 was in Beta? Why didn’t you find this out BEFORE it was released?
I updated to 11.2 this afternoon because the Bluetooth problems on the M1 were untenable. I was already running on Beta 48 of SoftRaid 6.0 which had my Thunderblade working….and awaiting your formal, presumably heavily tested release of this.
So, let’s have some nitty gritty and give us an estimate of your solution to this. Another dot release for the OS; something you can patch in the driver? And how long you expect this might take ?
This causes data degradation and so does losing your mouse 6 times an hour while doing a drag and drop. I’ll keep 11.2 because right now the mouse problem is a big one for me and I’m not rolling back time machine.
But I really need your input on WHEN you will address this.
My ThunderBlade has been a disaster since the release of the M1’s – despite your reassurances on the main page that all OWC products are great with Big Sur. Will you please step up and tell us succinctly what to expect here.
jc
What does “earlier today” mean? I am not using a M1 – using an Intel Mini and the update appeared a few days ago.
Apple has not released ANY information through Feedback Assistant for the last three or so updates. There is info in the More Info of the Software Update when an update is waiting for install – the only Mac place. (Shown in your graphic.)
So, do you mean that there should be no problem if someone is not using SoftRAID?
“Earlier today” was approximately 10:00 AM PT.
This is an issue with SoftRAID on M1 Macs. Because you don’t have an M1 Mac and you are also not running SoftRAID, you are not impacted.
Yeah that was way too late. If you knew about this in advance, we should have heard the moment it dropped.
We sent out an email within hours of macOS 11.2 being released. This blog post was up later that same day. I really wanted to warn users a couple of weeks before 11.2, when we discovered the problem, a couple of weeks before Apple released the update, but the terms of our development agreement with Apple prohibit us from disclosing any information about unreleased software.
If you haven’t already signed up for the SoftRAID Critical Updates, I suggest that you do so now. You can signup at: https://www.softraid.com/news/softraid-news/
Tim