Apple official procedure for creating a Big Sur external boot drive on an M1 running Monterey?

I have an M1 Mini, currently running Monterey, but I would like to be able to boot into Big Sur, the earliest OS I can use on it. In researching how to create an external boot drive for an M1 with an older OS on it, I have run into no information where I expected to find it, useless information, and outright wrong information, coming from formerly reliable sources: this forum, AppleCare, and The Genius Bar at the Apple Store. Is there any official description how to do that that someone can link me to? A choice of startup disks is still possible through System Preferences. Is it possible, or isn't it?

Mac mini, macOS 12.2

Posted on Apr 20, 2022 06:46 AM

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Posted on Apr 20, 2022 07:32 AM

I have not seen any "Apple" procedure for doing so. It appears that some external disks work and some do not with no pattern uncovered so far. I did it successfully a couple of days ago. That is documented in the following along with others users experiences.

on an M1, can a 2.5" SSD serve as an external boot drive?

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Apple official procedure for creating a Big Sur external boot drive on an M1 running Monterey?

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