macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models

[mike...]

why? Do you believe M1 2.7 teraflops are gonna age better?

open to hear your recommendations

The M1 beats every Intel processor Apple has in a laptop right now.

I'm writing this on a perfecly functional and still fast 15" rMBP Late 2013 with a quad i7.

The M1 will age perfectly well because it's faster than anything Apple could have put in their new laptops if they'd stuck with Intel. It will age better than every Intel laptop ever sold.

Also some of the things in your comment were plain wrong, such as the M1 not supporting virtualisation. It does support virtualisation, Apple even said that at WWDC and showed bother containers and virtual machines running on a DTK Mac Mini.

 

[haunebu]

My Late 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro will not boot properly with the Apple Thunderbolt Display attached. Otherwise it seems to be working fine.

 

[Yorkieray]

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) and update went smooth, though Boot up does take longer than catalina,

Exactly the same for me on my late 2013 13" MBP. I must have been one of the first to download here in the UK and update when Apple restored their servers. The installation took about an hour to complete.
I too have noticed that boot up is slower, but all seems smooth once booted.

 

[wumpalumpa]

The M1 beats every Intel processor Apple has in a laptop right now.

I'm writing this on a perfecly functional and still fast 15" rMBP Late 2013 with a quad i7.

The M1 will age perfectly well because it's faster than anything Apple could have put in their new laptops if they'd stuck with Intel. It will age better than every Intel laptop ever sold.

Also some of the things in your comment were plain wrong, such as the M1 not supporting virtualisation. It does support virtualisation, Apple even said that at WWDC and showed bother containers and virtual machines running on a DTK Mac Mini.

you haven't heard about Tiger Lake I see, those are on the market, released weeks ago

nice how you don't answer to RAM limitation and non eGPU support

and no... it does not have CPU virtualization extensions

does not even have bootcamp support

 

[pshufd]

I have MBP 15s 2014, 2015. I'm running Big Sur in a Virtual Machine and like it - always safer to try new versions in a VM than live on a system.

 

[JY98]

It bricked on my MacBook Pro. For me it got to approx 95% and then just stuck there. Couldn’t turn off the computer or put it into safe mode. Through trial and error i ended up running the battery down to nearly nil (left on for 24 hours) and then kept running the “plug in power prompt” to put extra drain on the battery. Then plugged my DAC into the thunderbolt port. Either the extra drain or having a port active when I powered up helped fixed the bricking. Got the sound prompt and Apple symbol before Big Sur login prompt. Only 30 hours of trial and error ... but got there in the end!

 

[Zance]

Am I the only one having this issue on an iMac? Tried installing Big Sur. Ended up on a blank black screen and now it will no longer boot up. I left it on that black screen for ~2 hours and then tried to restart it. But it will not boot. Tried unplugging it for ~15 minutes and then plugging it back in. Still won’t boot. Screen does not light up. It does make a sound that kinda sounds like a camera shutter when you take a picture. But otherwise, it isn’t booting. This is on a 2020 iMac.

 

[mike...]

you haven't heard about Tiger Lake I see, those are on the market, released weeks ago

nice how you don't answer to RAM limitation and non eGPU support

and no... it does not have CPU virtualization extensions

does not even have bootcamp support

RAM is irrelevant. M1 is Apple's first chip for low-end machines. Chips with more RAM will appear soon. Those chips are likely to be even faster than the M1 too.

Yes it does support virtualisation. That's how M1 Macs are capable of hosting Linux virtual machines.

Parallels and VMWare are both coming to M1 Macs. Docker, containerisation software, is also coming to M1 Macs. To state, several times, after I've corrected you several times, that M1 does not support virtualisation is frankly incredible. Why are you insisting on telling people this when the facts clearly prove you wrong? Just because it can't host a Windows guest doesn't mean it doesn't support virtualisation. Virtualisation has more use than just Windows.


Bootcamp is not a CPU virtualisation extension, it is a software utility designed to make installing Windows on a Mac easier. Since Microsoft do not produce an ARM-compatible version of Windows that's available to end-users, there is literally zero point in Apple making Bootcamp for ARM Macs because nobody will be able to obtain a compatible copy of Windows.

 

[chucker23n1]

you haven't heard about Tiger Lake I see, those are on the market, released weeks ago

Leaving aside how wildly off-topic this discussion is, M1 beats Tiger Lake-UP3, despite drawing power closer to UP4.

nice how you don't answer to RAM limitation and non eGPU support

and no... it does not have CPU virtualization extensions

does not even have bootcamp support

I don’t know if M1 does virtualization, but since they specifically demo’d it, their first CPU probably supports it.

As for eGPU, my guess is we’ll see that coming back on bigger CPUs.

 

[hot-gril]

Big Sur is sure looking like a huge headache more and more by the day. First the Apple servers crashed on launch day, and now this debacle... I usually am the first the jump ship to the latest OS, but gonna wait a bit for this one

This kind of stuff happens every time. Last time I jumped quickly was Mountain Lion.

 

[Doryds]

Not Big Sur, but I upgraded my mid 2014 MacBook pro to Catalina a couple of months ago and it was a world of pain. The screen would freeze for one second every ten seconds without fail. Didn't matter what programs or add-ons were open. I had to go back to Mojave (lucky I saved the installer). Not fun. I also updated my near new MacBook Air to Catalina and I started to get predictable kernel panics when the computer woke from sleep. Went back to Mojave, which fixed the problem. It seems to me that Apple's releases have lately been poor. I've been with Apple since OSX appeared and I don't ever remember releases that were this buggy. I'm not going beyond Mojave any time soon.

 

[Serban55]

Every single device has ram limitations
Even the mac pro or any win device
You cant place infinite ram
Jesus christ these hate about apple or Microsoft or etc..even in 2020
Instead working and not let this issue go away easy and found a solution for people who has this issue, we chose to cry and insult one another
Grown up man or woman never come to forums to cry or attack a person or a company..he or she go talk to people responsible to this issue, and if with good words or nature they cant fix their issue , they take legal actions.
Nothing in this life is perfect

 

[novakk86]

yes, it is 650$ GPU = 20 teraflops

still 849$ for the rest of the hardware

Apple M1 GPU offers 2.6 reraflops, 17.4 teraflops difference

to do not speak about 380$ Gen i7 you could get as soon as they release

Intel Gen11 i7 8 cores when they release between January-March

but you can go for cheaper options like

6800 non GT, i5 Gen11,... that would still be more powerful than M1 and also cheaper (if that is what you are worried about)

a PC like that should last you 7 years providing best you can get during those years, hardly you would need more

if you buy one of those M1 macbook pro it is already obsolete ("Pro" line speaking)

** after that wrote, anyone telling M1 is more powerful or has same power force as stated configuration doesn't know anything about hardware (without aim to offend anyone)

you cannot use new ARM Macs as "Pro" machines

if you want to use it as mid-end computer then I guess is fine

but at the end you would be paying muuuch more (quality/price) than if you build a custom desktop PC with this money

I understand what you are getting at, but these are mid range devices. 16" MacBook pro, iMac, Mac pro will be more powerful options. Anyways you can't compare desktop vs laptop as within laptop world performance is not the only factor. There are also battery life, heat, screen, keyboard, track pad, speakers, Webcam, overall portability... and I believe new MacBooks will prove to be a decent package. If only they were more repairable and cheaper to "upgrade".

 

[dashard]

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.

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

Happened to me.

Pressed the power key until the laptop went down.

Restarted. Mac acted like nothing happened.

Restarted the System install (I always download and save). Ran perfectly the second time.

Note: during the course of the install there are several reboots and several black screens. Mine took about 30-40 min. As long as it's doing stuff, let it run.

And no one asked but I'm amazed: first OS update in a good while where the new OS feels head and shoulders snappier then my previous.

 

[hot-gril]

What do you want Jimmy, wait few months and get a new PC with AMD 6800 XT, 32-64GB DDR4 RAM? or get a new shinny Apple Mac ARM computer with no professional software for it (apart from your phone apps), without cpu virtualization extensions and a GPU that dreams to reach those 20 teraflops?

did I mention the price is the same?

That's out of touch with the vast majority of users, who aren't pro video editors and aren't training ML models at home (and pros don't do that either). You're also comparing a desktop to a laptop. The most important features of the MBA is that it'll 1. last very long on battery 2. run iOS apps, which are numerous 3. still be faster CPU-wise than a desktop.

I'm not a post-stalker but wonder what you were saying before M1 performance was announced.

 

[ikramerica]

I guess I’m lucky that Catalina only does a complete reinstall with any minor security update. (MBP 15” core i7 - last non-retina version)

 

[Maconplasma]

It bricked on my MacBook Pro. For me it got to approx 95% and then just stuck there. Couldn’t turn off the computer or put it into safe mode. Through trial and error i ended up running the battery down to nearly nil (left on for 24 hours) and then kept running the “plug in power prompt” to put extra drain on the battery. Then plugged my DAC into the thunderbolt port. Either the extra drain or having a port active when I powered up helped fixed the bricking. Got the sound prompt and Apple symbol before Big Sur login prompt. Only 30 hours of trial and error ... but got there in the end!

Then your Mac was not bricked. You're using that term very incorrectly. You had an install issue only.

 

[Yorkieray]

RAM is irrelevant. M1 is Apple's first chip for low-end machines. Chips with more RAM will appear soon. Those chips are likely to be even faster than the M1 too.

Yes it does support virtualisation. That's how M1 Macs are capable of hosting Linux virtual machines.

Parallels and VMWare are both coming to M1 Macs. Docker, containerisation software, is also coming to M1 Macs. To state, several times, after I've corrected you several times, that M1 does not support virtualisation is frankly incredible. Why are you insisting on telling people this when the facts clearly prove you wrong? Just because it can't host a Windows guest doesn't mean it doesn't support virtualisation. Virtualisation has more use than just Windows.


Bootcamp is not a CPU virtualisation extension, it is a software utility designed to make installing Windows on a Mac easier. Since Microsoft do not produce an ARM-compatible version of Windows that's available to end-users, there is literally zero point in Apple making Bootcamp for ARM Macs because nobody will be able to obtain a compatible copy of Windows.

I've just watched Rene Ritchie's latest video on YouTube, where he explains the whole virtualisation issue.
The facility for virtualisation is already built into the M1 chip for companies like Parallels to develop applications for the end-user to be able to run Windows on an M1 Mac. Those apps for the M1 Macs will become available sometime in the future.

 

[queshy]

Uh, I guess safer to wait a couple weeks before installing? Can't afford to have a bricked computer...

 

[Ethosik]

My Logitech MOMO wheel can go 2 to 3 weeks working fine and then flip and be unresponsive because of an update only to randomly work fine after some time. It frustrating but no one at Microsoft or Logitech cares, and I honestly don’t expect them to.

That is something that Windows has been suffering with for a very long time and this is primarily why I prefer macOS. I have never had a mac randomly experience odd issues that were just completely random (not due to an OS upgrade is my point). However, time and time again, Windows 10 will be working completely fine Monday for example, and even with NO UPDATES/INSTALLS the system will experience problems like none other on Friday for example. I had had this happen way too many times with Windows computers. I have had dozens of systems all $1,000+ in price. Custom built and pre-built. Workstation level and gaming level systems.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

I think Big Sur had 10 betas. That's quite a bit of testing. There are always going to be bugs no matter when you decide to update.

Before Apple moved to annual free releases we had to test OS X betas every two weeks on a fresh wiped drive for 2-3 years. This allowed us to better debug the core OS without worrying third party apps and/or plugins were causing issues while also allowing us to better update our apps. Now it’s rushed. There are still open and acknowledged bugs from three OS’s ago. Big Sur has a lot of reported bugs, many lingering from Catalina.

Apple needs to get off the annual release cycle as it was a decision made by Cook to coincide with iOS releases and put more focus on the new Mac App Store. Jobs had slowly relinquished control to Cook. Around 2009-2010, Cook was mostly operating Apple. Jobs stayed on to oversee the launch of the iPad but at that time he wasn’t making the big decisions.

Apple without Jobs and Ive is becoming a shadow of its former self. There’s no visionary and focus as products have become fragmented again and no one to put their fist down and make the tough decisions. Jobs knew ideas and products came first, financial decisions always depended on the success of their products.

The Apple Watch was the last “new” product Apple truly launched and that was based off of Job’s medical device he designed for himself. Ive worked on that and produced the Apple Watch. Since then, there really hasn’t been a new product from Apple along the lines of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.

It shows.

 

[MacBH928]

What was the beta releases for then ?!
Seriously, by now Apple should fire whoever is responsible for their software. It doesn't "Just works" any more.

 

[Xack]

Apple’s support period for older Macs are causing a lot of emotional debate. Linux and Windows 10 mostly support older computers better.

 

[Ethosik]

What was the beta releases for then ?!
Seriously, by now Apple should fire whoever is responsible for their software. It doesn't "Just works" any more.

Mostly people use the beta to develop software - like Affinity so they can release their new updates day one or close to it. I seriously double the company Serif who is developing the Affinity software is using computers from 2013. Usually in corporations there is a 2-3 year computer cycle.

 

[Serban55]

I've just watched Rene Ritchie's latest video on YouTube, where he explains the whole virtualisation issue.
The facility for virtualisation is already built into the M1 chip for companies like Parallels to develop applications for the end-user to be able to run Windows on an M1 Mac. Those apps for the M1 Macs will become available sometime in the future.

The issue there is that not a lot of dev will bring apps for arm windows 10
So you will be able to use vm for win10 for arm but what apps will be there..is the question