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macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models

kemal said:
Will someone confirm that the laptops are truly bricked? Meaning the firmeare is corrupted and halting the CPU. Can you still put the laptop into Target Disk Mode?
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my mac mini 2014 is kinda bricked

mouse lags sometimes (not much)

plus those black glitches under GPU stress


it was working fine before update to Big Sur
 
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MacRumors said:


A large number of late 2013 and mid 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro owners are reporting that the macOS Big Sur update is bricking their machines. A MacRumors forum thread contains a significant number of users reporting the issue, and similar problems are being reported across Reddit and the Apple Support Communities, suggesting the problem is widespread.

macbookpro13large.jpg


Users are reporting that during the course of updating to macOS Big Sur, their machines are stuck displaying a black screen. Key reset combinations, including NVRAM, SMC, safe mode, and internet recovery, are all reportedly inaccessible after attempting to install the update, leaving no way to bypass the static black screen.

It appears that the overwhelming number of users experiencing problems are owners of the late 2013 and mid 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro, but it is unclear exactly how many users of these models have been affected. It is also of note that these are the oldest models supported by macOS Big Sur.

One commenter on Reddit said that they were told by Apple support to book their MacBook Pro in for a repair. Another on an Apple Support thread said that the issue has been escalated to Apple's engineering team, so Apple should now be aware of the problem.

Until it is clear what may be causing the issue and Apple releases a fix, late 2013 and mid 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro may wish to hold off on installing macOS Big Sur.

Article Link: macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models
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Same for me, my late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina is bricked.. Apple said they can’t support it, as it’s over the 5 years + 2 extended warranty.. I’ve booked it in for repair next Friday - at an Apple Authorised Support. Have to go a week without my MacBook.... not happy + they want to charge me...
 
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I think rounded corner icons are worth the risk of destroying your machine.

Just remember... That little red badge on the settings app is red for a reason - there might be blood
 
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Been using the beta from day 1 and now the final release and no major issues at all , all these "bricking" comments are a bit odd as I have it on 3 devices and all working fine. Maybe more user error to me
 
randfee2 said:
[...]

Last but not least... HUGE privacy concerns are popping up!
Apparently trustd and other Apple services and apps will now BYPASS firewall tools like little snitch and even VPNs. This is outrageous and I can confirm it. I had updated to little snitch 5 and it no longer can block any OS services from calling home. However, these Apple servers are constantly connected as indicated by my network firewall. I've now blocked them outside the machine.
This was brought to my attention in this article:
9to5mac.com

Potential Mac privacy concerns surface after server outages - 9to5Mac

Apple's servers had issues on macOS Big Sur launch day that impacted a variety of services revealing potential Mac privacy and security concerns.
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com

outrageous! This sound just like Microsoft's Windows 10 activity to me and should be boycotted by all of us users accordingly!!!
[..]
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This is a recurring red herring based on incomplete understanding.
Please research better starting here: https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/15/last-week-on-my-mac-making-essential-services-fail-safe/
 
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Did this truly brick the computers? It would not be possible at all to boot to a Mojave USB drive and install a previous OS?
 
joiwomcow said:
Never, ever upgrade to a .0 or .1 MacOS release.
Ideally, upgrade just before the new release comes out, after Apple has had a year to debug. Desktop operating systems are mature software. There's never any urgent or compelling reason to upgrade them immediately.
I'm still on Mojave. For Apple software, it's been reasonably stable and reliable. It's no server-grade Linux, but it's good enough.
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But then the Entitled wouldn't have higher version numbers than everyone else! Couldn't have that, the world would end.
 
My late 2013 MBP 13" got stuck in the reboot loop. It would fail to install, restart and then when i logged in, go right back to trying again and fail over and over again.

I was able to put it in Recovery mode, but it would not let me login telling me my password was wrong. Ended up somehow getting it to allow me to basically flash the entire hard drive and install the original MacOS. Once that was done, I was able to install Big Sur no problem. Since it is a clean install everything loads fine and works 100%.

I highly recommend if you want to install, backup all your data on an external hard drive, wipe your computer in recovery mode, and install Big Sur clean. Honestly, it would probably do your MBP a little good to wipe it and speed it up anyway.

Ive had this computer since new and other than the battery being at probably about 75%, it loads and is as fast as it was on day 1. Something I could never say about a Windows laptop (even if around the same price). My custom built PC though, I expect to hold out just as long!
 
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This is why I run one full release cycle and one full year behind. Tim Apple will vacuum the cash out of your wallet for beta (and now alpha-quality) hardware and software products.
 
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ProVideo said:
My Late 2013 MacBook Pro is still on Mojave. Ever since I installed a security update in July or September it will freeze for 1-5 minutes after restarting. I hope this isn't Apple programming planned obsolescence to get you to buy a new Mac.
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I've seen a similar issue after installing an update and found the drive was failing and the update made it more obvious. You may want to check your drive with Disk Utility and smartmontools.
 
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wumpalumpa said:
and you do not need CPU virtualization extensions ? it is weird...

or bootcamp?

then I understand yo have 1 machine to develop under MacOS and another under Windows

before M1 was possible to do bootcamp and/or virtualization (sure you know about it)
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M1 supports virtualisation. Apple showed Docker and Parallels running Debian at WWDC. I don't need to virtualise Windows, I can RDP in to a Windows PC on the rare occasion I need it (which is basically never).
 
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This is why it’s generally not a good idea to update to the newest OS version right away—especially if you rely on it for work.
 
incoherent_1 said:
Last year was the first year I skipped an entire OS version on my Mac since the early 00s. This doesn’t encourage me to change that trend any time soon.
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I'd have skipped Catalina completely save that it was finally time to buy a new laptop, and that meant only Catalina was supported. I certainly haven't installed Catalina on my iMac.
 
oldmacs said:
You seemed to be suggesting that people with 2013/2014 Macs should expect there to be major bugs with Big Sur on their Macs, as if it was their fault for not having a meow modern Mac.

You've missed the point. To average computer users, the way that Apple has presented major OS updates to users, is through the same control panel that minor updates and security updates are through. This mechanism hides minor updates, showing just the Major update. Thus uneducated users think they are installing a minor update. Have had this problem with numerous clients who accidentally upgraded to Catalina and lost important (to them) software, because they thought they were doing "the right thing" by installing what they thought were stability/maintenance updates.

If Apple's quality control is so bad that these sorts of issues are slipping through quality control, then Apple needs to a) make it clear that their major updates are major updates, and b) have a warning that updating might cause instability.


Yep they are. Windows 10 gets frequent feature updates, twice a year I believe. These work on machines going back to 2005/2006, and for people who had Windows 7, Windows 10 was a free upgrade for a deal of time. So yes, Microsoft is giving constant free upgrades to Windows 10 for very old computers. (and 2013/2014 do not qualify as 'very old')
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Not necessarily. There is one computer at work that cannot upgrade passed Windows 10 1803 and it was made in 2014.
 
Regardless of official support. Never EVER upgrade a mission critical system to a latest operating system. EVER. My 2019 iMac has major problems with Big Sur. If you depend on your system for anything critical, DO NOT UPGRADE. I don't care if its 10 years old, or 6 months old. If you are fine upgrading and dealing with problems, go ahead. If you depend on your system, don't upgrade. MANY businesses do not upgrade right away. They need to test the updates thoroughly. Major corporations are just now upgrading from Windows 10 1803.
 
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oldmacs said:
Yep they are. Windows 10 gets frequent feature updates, twice a year I believe. These work on machines going back to 2005/2006, and for people who had Windows 7, Windows 10 was a free upgrade for a deal of time. So yes, Microsoft is giving constant free upgrades to Windows 10 for very old computers. (and 2013/2014 do not qualify as 'very old')
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And MS "feature updates" to Windows 10 don't ever break anything. Uh huh. Yeah. What universe are YOU living in?

MS breaks things every update.
 
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reezekeys said:
Not to minimize this but people that "rely on these machines for their livelihoods more than ever" generally don't update a major OS update the second it's released. Or, they sure shouldn't – would you not agree?

As a musician using a laptop rig to do gigs (late-2013 MBP), I very much rely on my machine to earn an income (although that's not happening right now of course). I usually stick with an OS that gives me the most stable-running rig for my gigs, usually for a long time. I went from 10.9 to 10.11 to 10.14 and will stay here a while as I have 32-bit code hanging around in some of my music apps. When I update, I do a fresh install on a separate partition or external disk, load up the software I need to make my meager living, and run it for a while like that to make sure everything is hunky-dory. If everything checks out, then I update my internal SSD.

There is also the idea of cloning your startup partition to an external before you do an update. It's unclear if the bricking described in this article makes it impossible to option-start the affected machine from a clone though.
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The HDMI IC on the I/O Card has been bricket, i.e. no I/o working, for me e.g. not even the keyboard is working properly even if I unplug the i/o card.
So it is not about installing it on a second drive or not having a backup.
HW in the macbook pros has been bricked by the OS update.
 
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So 10.15 had the well publicised issue of wiping some users Mail.app archives, Big Sur is bricking some machines and some iOS 14 and watchOS 7 users had years worth of workout GPS maps wiped, myself included.

Bravo Apple, bravo.
 
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oldmacs said:
I'd happily go back to paying for MacOS if it meant more stable releases.


Ironic that Microsoft gives better software support to Macs than Apple does. My 12 and 13 year old Macs can run Windows 10 fine, but were dropped years ago by Apple.
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How? My 2008 mbp is not able to install windows 10 as bootcamp support is limited to windows 7, not 10
 
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