macOS Utilities doesn't recognize internal ssd (but normal usage is working fine)

Question

I own an early-2015 Macbook Pro and by trying to format it for reselling purposes I've got faced with a curious and annoying problem. macOS utilities does not recognize my internal ssd. Be it by accessing macOS utilities's Disk Utility section or the "Install a previous OSX" one, my internal storage just isn't listed at all.

This is particularly weird given that the computer is working fine, and whenever I access the regular OSX's disk utility, my internal storage unit is being listed properly. Not only that, but the computer is working properly, so I know for a fact that it is no hardware issue that is causing it. I wouldn't even have discovered this issue hadn't I had to reformat this computer.

Does anyone have a clue on how can I get Macos utilities to properly track my internal SSD?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

If my suspicion is correct, your Mac boots to an older version of macOS Recovery and Disk Utility of that older version doesn't know APFS, so it just hides the partition.

First, make sure that View → Show All Devices is selected in Disk Utility. With this enabled, all drives should be visible – regardless if Disk Utility knows how to handle the filesystem. This should at least allow you to format the drive.

You may also try Internet Recovery. If you're starting your Mac with the keys ⌥⌘R held down until the Apple logo, it should boot into the latest macOS Recovery compatible with your Mac. From there, you should see all partitions and be able to reinstall the most recent compatible version of macOS.