macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models

[lartola]

When I installed Big Sur, there were fairly long periods of time where the screen appeared blank without a progress bar etc. and it wasn't an indication of something going wrong. The first attempt at installation was successful. That makes me think that some of the people having problems are just jumping the gun and interfering with the install.

I noticed the same, so that's definitely a possibility. At one point, my MacBook Air sat for over an hour with the progress bar at the beginning. I just let it sit all that time and it finished all by itself. This was with one of the final macOS Catalina supplemental updates which I installed just before upgrading to Big Sur, though, not with the Big Sur update which worked fine.

 

[lartola]

"It is also of note that these are the oldest models supported by macOS Big Sur."

Incorrect. I have installed Big Sur on a mid-2013 MacBook Air. No issues.

So did I.

 

[hvfsl]

That was looong time ago.

The reality is quite different.

On the real market professionals work with the best parts and those come from different manufacturers.

Thats why Windows and any other non MacOS Opersting System had been always a far more complex operating system.

As you tell if you work always with the same hardware is more easy to detect if something fails and to fix it

in short.

Nowadays Windows OS is a muuuuch more stable and professional Operating System than MacOS. Yes it is.

MacOS is dead friends.

Sure is a nice Operating System for phones and tables, but on desktop world it is dead.

and well... maybe for non demanding laptops....

but again.... ARM is not on Pro sector nowadays, maybe in the future. After 5 years? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ maybe... sure not in 2 years

I am sorry, but you are not telling the truth and I am someone who has a high end Windows PC I use for gaming/VR (before you tell me I am biased). Over the last few years, MS has had many updates that have completely broken machines, some have even wiped out all data on a PC and factory reset it. Then you have the MS office updates that keep on breaking Outlook (I have seen at least 3 this year). While this problem isn't good, lets not pretend that MS is any better.

 

[fbr$]

I know this thread is about older models, but I upgraded my 2017 MacBook Air non-Retina with only 8GB of RAM, no issues here. My 2019 MacBook Pro 16" is upgraded too.

I didn't like that the new UI is limiting the way I can customize the Toolbar on Finder: I cannot put the Path item next to the Back/Forward item anymore on the Toolbar as I did on Catalina, because now there's a folder name that's always there on the right side of the Back/Forward item.

 

[lartola]

It’ll be interesting to see if there are any issues with the new M1 Macs.

I wonder what people using boot camp and windows will do now when the time comes to upgrade their Macs. The new ones with Apple's own M1 processor won't support boot camp anymore and a virtual windows installation might not be the best for all of them.

 

[Macaholic868]

It’s simply Tim’s little reminder that it’s time for an upgrade. I kid ... I kid.....

 

[lartola]

That was looong time ago.

The reality is quite different.

On the real market professionals work with the best parts and those come from different manufacturers.

Thats why Windows and any other non MacOS Opersting System had been always a far more complex operating system.

As you tell if you work always with the same hardware is more easy to detect if something fails and to fix it

in short.

Nowadays Windows OS is a muuuuch more stable and professional Operating System than MacOS. Yes it is.

MacOS is dead friends.

Sure is a nice Operating System for phones and tables, but on desktop world it is dead.

and well... maybe for non demanding laptops....

but again.... ARM is not on Pro sector nowadays, maybe in the future. After 5 years? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ maybe... sure not in 2 years

You tell all that to the YouTube vloggers. They use Macs to edit their videos and many of them claimed they haven't found an equivalent option to edit videos using windows.

 

[ian87w]

I am sorry, but you are not telling the truth and I am someone who has a high end Windows PC I use for gaming/VR (before you tell me I am biased). Over the last few years, MS has had many updates that have completely broken machines, some have even wiped out all data on a PC and factory reset it. Then you have the MS office updates that keep on breaking Outlook (I have seen at least 3 this year). While this problem isn't good, lets not pretend that MS is any better.

Sure, Microsoft is not perfect. But it's somewhat understandable considering that Windows has a ton of hardware and different configurations to consider and support, and all the legacy stuff.

In contrast, on every keynote, Apple always brag how they are the best since they control both software and hardware. I mean there are only so many configurations of Macs that Apple have to deal with. Plus considering they already ditched 32-bit support and deprecated a lot of stuff like OpenGL and OpenCL, they have a lot less stuff to deal with compared to Microsoft. Add on their snobbiness, it's normal for users to have high expectations of Apple's software delivery. I mean this is already a .1 release, not a GM.

 

[ghboard2010]

All of you, and everyone else in this thread needs to stop pretending this is normal. It isn't. Some BUGS on release day are normal. BRICKING machines such that only Apple can restore them has, as far as I can remember, never happened before.

This is completely unacceptable, particularly during a pandemic when its not safe (or at the very least far from ideal) for many people to to go out and people are relying on these machines for their livelihood more than ever.

Unless it can be shown that it is a small number of machines and or related to a factor completely out of Apple's control (I really can't imagine what that would be), this level of **** up is new territory for Apple and deserves to be recognized as such.

Don't normalize this. It's not normal. Apple deserves every ounce of heat they'll get over this and then some.

Amen to that!

 

[Joniz]

This is why I’m always stunned by the number of people who come on here and seem to compete on who downloads the newest system first.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me a dozen times, I’m an idiot.

But thanks for finding the issues for the rest of us!

 

[ian87w]

It’ll be interesting to see if there are any issues with the new M1 Macs.

I'm sure Apple prioritized Big Sure for the M1 Macs. It would be really embarrassing if Big Sure choked and stumbled on the supposedly "huge leap forward" Apple branded silicon.

It might be that Apple prioritized the M1 Macs so much that they didn't pay too much attention to the older intel Macs. They're going to drop these soon anyway, so it's less of a focus.

 

[4487549]

Look at those gorgeous ports!

 

[sirozha]

By the way, if anyone who is using virtualization hasn’t updated to Big Slur yet, be aware that nested virtualization is not currently supported in VMware Fusion on Big Slur. You will have to disable VT/X extensions in Fusion for each guest VM in order for them to start or even resume.
If you are running ESXi, GNS3, CML, KVM, etc. virtualization platform as a VM in Fusion, be advised that Big Slur will prevent you from running nested virtualization. I hear that Parallels is having the same issues. Of course , Apple never mentions this anywhere.

 

[decypher44]

I updated my late-2013 the other day for testing before updating my 2020 iMac. The install took a LONG time, but it worked. It’s been running just fine with everything working normally. Did I get lucky? Should have played the lotto that day.

 

[m2m2k]

Seems like a sour experience with Big Sur. I don’t know but I somehow feared this will happen. Feel sorry for those with bricked machines.

 

[Zwhaler]

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.

I doubt it, you have a 7 year old machine. Things will eventually slow down/not be as well-optimized no matter how you spin it.

No..
They're right, it's a known problem and affected many Mac Pro 5,1 owners as well. That security update introduced significant freezing issues. This is the first I'm hearing about it affecting MacBook Pros.

 

[ghanwani]

This made me sad for those that experienced this issue. What is Apple doing?

 

[N82]

No big issues at the moment, but non-Apple apps like Twitter and Spotify having lags, very slow at scrolling through my playlists or timeline. Other apps seems to work fine and smooth.

Let's hope an .1 update will fix it.

 

[lysingur]

Even though I love my Mac to death, Microsoft's way of rolling out updates and adding features incrementally with the ability to uninstall most updates seems way superior to how Apple is doing it. Most of the time, there might only be two or three features in a major macOS release that a person needs but he's forced to update his entire system (and risk things like this) every year. Worst of all, many apps raise the minimum system requirements soon after.

 

[LancesUK]

Wow, updated my mid 2014 13 inch MBP without knowing of this issue. Glad it worked fine. Guess I got lucky this time around...

 

[PureLogic]

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

My MBP 2013 late works pretty fine.
Installation worked smooth and everything works.

 

[falkon-engine]

Anyone with a near 7 & 8 year old Macs that instantly install the latest OS are taking their own risk, so offering sympathy is silly. This is not a psychotherapy thread. There is no real reason anyone with Macs that old need to install Big Sur on release day. I have a 2019 16" MBP and I am confident Big Sur will install without issue but I am not upgrading for at least a month. And yes the age of a computer does matter. Failing components such as hard drives don't rear their ugly heads until a big install like an OS happens. Furthermore it's common that many with old computers don't bother to ever clean up their system so with a new OS upgrade they may run into problems.

This comment is such BS. Apple states the operating system supports a certain series of macs. The users of said macs didn’t receive any warning from Apple that updating may brick their machines. I personally have had no issues with Big Sur.

At this point, the updater (probably a failed firmware update) is worse to these users than any malware. You may not have empathy for your fellow human, and that speaks very loudly of you, but hopefully this all sorted out soon.

 

[glowplug]

Hmm, feature or bug??

 

[glowplug]

Its a double edge sword. If nobody upgrades, none of these bugs are discovered.

Sounds good, you go first.

 

[Mr. Dee]

This Apples way of saying, buy the new M1 MacBook Pro this week and should resolve all your problems. I personally have limited my upgrades. Still on 10.13 which works great with my existing apps. I likely won’t upgrade unless they require me to, but will move to Mojave for sake of security in spring of ‘21.