After converting SSD to APFS MacBook 2016 doesn't boot anymore

[Zettt]

Good morning,

My MacBook 2016 with TouchBar doesn't boot anymore when going from its original Sierra to newer operating systems, e.g. High Sierra or Big Sur. One morning the computer just refused to boot, and got stuck in the login process. I was able to still log in, sometimes, but after opening an app, the Mac gave a kernel panic. Various tests later, reformatting the drive, and resetting everything, eventually I was able to use Internet Recovery, to install the original Sierra OS, which still uses HFS+. Naturally I tried installing Big Sur first, but got the same issues right after upgrading. I then tried going in steps, using gibMacOS, from Sierra, to High Sierra. But even High Sierra produced the same issues. I was in Disk Utility that installing High Sierra, already formatted the drive to APFS, so my conclusion now is that something makes the computer stop working after the converting to APFS.

Ideally I would love to get Big Sur again up and running, but I don't know what steps I can take to make that happen. My hunch is that some sectors on the drive are just so damaged, because of wear and tear that it's now impossible to get it formatted to APFS. I hope I'm wrong though.

Summary:

MacBook refuses to boot after its drive gets converted to APFS it seems. Restoring Sierra makes the computer work again, but any upgrading attempts to High Sierra or Big Sur, resulted in the same issues the Mac had, which started this entire problem.

 

[Fishrrman]

If it was me (and I realize that you are NOT "me"), I'd upgrade it to Mojave and "leave it there".

You will probably have to create a bootable USB flashdrive installer of Mojave to do this.
Then, boot from the flashdrive
Erase the internal drive to APFS
Install Mojave.

BUT... BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING... I'd suggest downloading CarbonCopyCloner and creating a BOOTABLE BACKUP of the laptop's install onto an external drive.

Having a BOOTABLE backup makes it VERY easy to get up-and-running again when an OS upgrade fails or otherwise displeases you...

 

[Zettt]

Except, every time I try to install anything higher than Sierra, which all of theses OS's convert the drive to APFS, don't get anywhere, because trying to convert to APFS leaves the machine in a non-responsive state. The problem seems to occur every time when an installer converts the hard drive to APFS, which, in my view, is something that is not supposed to happen.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Except, every time I try to install anything higher than Sierra, which all of theses OS's convert the drive to APFS, don't get anywhere, because trying to convert to APFS leaves the machine in a non-responsive state."

A VERY IMPORTANT STEP you may be overlooking:

a. Create an external USB installer that you can boot from. I suggest using either DiskMaker X or Install Disk Creator to make it.

b. Boot from the installer and open disk utilty

c. VERY IMPORTANT: go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".

d. Now (on the list on the left) pick "the topmost line" that represents the physical drive inside the MBP.

e. Erase it to APFS with GUID partition format.

f. Now quit disk utility, open the OS installer, and try again.

WARNING:
Doing the above COMPLETELY ERASES the internal drive. Anything on it previously will get wiped out.

 

[Zettt]

A VERY IMPORTANT STEP you may be overlooking:

I'm not. What you're overlooking is where I say that this doesn't work. Whichever way you try to do it, the computer becomes unresponsive after its hard drive has been converted to APFS.

 

[Fishrrman]

OK. I really have no further advice, other than what I gave in #2 above...