Thank you for your time! The result is too long to be pasted here...
unable to connect it to Bela.local.
cat: /Volumes/BELABOOT/bela.version: No such file or directory
Did you willingly eject that partition? Unplug the board, plug it in again, wait 30 seconds, then run
ls /Volumes/BELA*
cat /Volumes/BELA*/bela.versionEcho he result is too long to be pasted here...
run this then:
ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 -l | grep -i belagiuliomoro ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 -l | grep -i bela
MLO am335x-bone-bela-black-wireless.dtb drivers uEnv.txt
System Volume Information am335x-bone-bela.dtb u-boot.img
zsh: no matches found: /Volumes/BELA*/bela.version
(base) echoho@Echos-MBP ~ % ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 -l | grep -i bela
+-o Bela@14310000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10009c3c8, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (2 ms), retain 25>
"USB Product Name" = "Bela"
"kUSBSerialNumberString" = "bela"
"kUSBProductString" = "Bela"
"USB Serial Number" = "bela"
as far as I can see you may be using a veeeery old version of the Bela image, which won't work after macos 10.15 (the infamous Catalina) without drivers (and I am not sure it can work with drivers either). I would recommend you flash a newer image instead, see here: https://github.com/BelaPlatform/bela-image-builder/releases/tag/v0.3.8h
Although of course that doesn't quite square with the fact that you just bought the starter kit. Did you purchase it from the Bela shop? Or did you get it used?
I purchase it directly from the Bela shop 
Uh ok, it seems that somehow it ended up shipping with an old wrong image on it. You can take the SD card out of the BelaMini and put it on the Bela. Then use Option A or Option B here to force it to boot from the SD card and follow "common steps" to flash the content of the BeagleBone's on-board memory with the SD card. Once that's done successfully, reboot without the SD card and it should work.
I haven't experienced any connection issues with the Bela Mini, which I purchased in 2022. However, I haven't yet attempted to insert an SD card into the larger Bela model. I will go to purchase an SD card and follow your suggestion to flash the new image onto it. I'm hopeful this will resolve the problem. Thank you so much for your help, I will update you on the outcome after I try it tomorrow. Cheers
The solution I suggest here should avoid the need to purchase a new SD card or flash it.
giuliomoro
I understand. I'll give it a try tomorrow; it's quite late now, and my brain is starting to slow down 
giuliomoro Dear qiuliomoro, thank you so much for your help, I follow the instructions you've recommended, and it worked! Best wishes
giuliomoro added the Solved tag .