New MBP 2016 Crashing During Time Machine Backup

[AussieMacUser]

There shouldn't be an error with the files. The hard drive is full of instrument samples from a pretty big name company. I've used this drive for years without issue, and haven't heard of complaints about the drive the company shipped.

After I got the error, I used my 2015 15" MacBook Pro to make the disk, which it did fine.

The error I got was the: CATERR detected! No MCA data found.

I am getting the same "CATERR detected! No MCA data found." quote too.

Very annoying - I have had 6 crashes today trying to back up using a brand new drive as well as a tried and tested drive too. Never had a single crash with this on my previous MacBook Pro.

I have bought the top of the line version of the MBP too with everything added. I expect better than this from Mac.

 

[shareef777]

Yes...did not help. And did not migrate either...had to bring over stuff piecemeal.
[doublepost=1480611493][/doublepost]Even have an issue with Wacom Intuos plugged into USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter - Apple. When I plug in external monitor via HDMI and regular USB cable to Intuos drawing pad that has a battery, crash takes place after some period of time.
Guess is USB issue not so much a copy x amount of data issue.

Thanks, I relayed that Apple and they seem to just want to replace my laptop. I don't really want to go through that process and will just wait for a software update. First week of January I will delete my TimeMachine drive and run a full backup in safe mode with nothing plugged in but power and the USB drive. If it crashes, I'm returning the laptop.
[doublepost=1480613715][/doublepost]Ugh, not looking good for us fellas.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200553

Note: If you find the term "machine check" in the "Problem Details and System Configuration" field of this report, it may indicate a hardware-related issue. See the Additional Information section of this article for guidance.

 

[AussieMacUser]

I am getting the same "CATERR detected! No MCA data found." when I am backing up using Time Machine. I have had 6 random crashes just today. As soon as the back up drive is plugged in, it only takes about 15 minutes before it crashes the whole computer. Very annoying!

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

A few updates:

Tried copying same files from same drives on my 2009 17" without issue. I also tried copying the files while having both plugged into a USB 2.0 hub plugged in via adapter to my 2016 MBP and had zero problems. When I tried it with only one drive plugged into the hub the Mac crashed again.
[doublepost=1480618695][/doublepost]So words you don't want to hear at the Apple Store..."I had to go back to my colleagues and explain it to them. We're all perplexed." It was even replicated on a store demo machine.

Update 2: Apple took a report and a photo of the error after replicating it multiple times. Speculation is that it is a firmware issue. Sending report to engineering. Advice is to continue doing what you are doing except run it through a hub. In this case a USB 2.0 hub.

 

[joedec]

A few updates:

Tried copying same files from same drives on my 2009 17" without issue. I also tried copying the files while having both plugged into a USB 2.0 hub plugged in via adapter to my 2016 MBP and had zero problems. When I tried it with only one drive plugged into the hub the Mac crashed again.
[doublepost=1480618695][/doublepost]So words you don't want to hear at the Apple Store..."I had to go back to my colleagues and explain it to them. We're all perplexed." It was even replicated on a store demo machine.

Update 2: Apple took a report and a photo of the error after replicating it multiple times. Speculation is that it is a firmware issue. Sending report to engineering. Advice is to continue doing what you are doing except run it through a hub. In this case a USB 2.0 hub.

My experience was the failure occurs on USB 3 or higher, USB 2 works.

*** MCA Error Report ***
CPU Machine Check Architecture Error Dump
CATERR detected! No MCA data found.

FYI a Machine Check is a hardware error, or in modern machines firmware as well. The question is, can Apple update firmware with a software update on an I/O device, or do they recall? Personally I returned it and will rebuy after the dust settles.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

My experience was the failure occurs on USB 3 or higher, USB 2 works.

*** MCA Error Report ***
CPU Machine Check Architecture Error Dump
CATERR detected! No MCA data found.

FYI a Machine Check is a hardware error, or in modern machines firmware as well. The question is, can Apple update firmware with a software update on an I/O device, or do they recall? Personally I returned it and will rebuy after the dust settles.

Short answer is that they can via software update. They've done it in the past...Mid 2009 MBP to update SATA to accept higher than 1.5. Quick search also points to one for the SMC & USB on the Mac Pro's. So it's possible...still remains to be seen what it is in actuality. Fingers crossed!

https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-issues-mac-pro-smc-firmware-update/

 

[wilsonjchan]

This is looking like a bug triggered by specific data pattern at specific speed. I hope the firmware fix doesn't involve degrading the performance of the system.

 

[mgw38]

Update: putting a USB 2.0 hub between the MacBook and the external drive has proven to be a consistently successful workaround for me. No issues so far.

Who would have thought that that cheesy little 5$ hub I almost threw out multiple times would come in handy one day.

While this is by far the most severe bug I ever encountered in an Apple product, this is a satisfactory workaround for me for the moment being. I am confident that there will eventually be a software fix.

 

[AlanDD]

I'm having the same issue while using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to create a full clone.

MacBook Pro 15" late 2016 w/touchbar. 2TB SSD. I am attempting to back up to a 3TB LaCie using apple's USB-C to USB3 adapter.

Everything seems like it is going fine, until the system freezes up. CCC shows a message that the destination volume dissapeared. The OS displays a message that the disk was not ejected properly. CPUs are pinned. Then the machine restarts.

Mine is a 512GB SSD, and I'm copying around 18gig files, and it crashes reliably with these same symptoms.

 

[deparko]

What ethernet adapter are you using?

--wilson

I have the Cable Matters USB-c Hub (HDMI, USB, VGA and Ethernet), plugged into a time capsule with an external drive..that seems to work. At least I backed up a couple of hundred gig..if I go directly to the external drive..it crashes pretty fast

 

[Peppery]

I can confirm that swapping the USB 3 cable out for a Micro USB 2.0 cable with the Apple USB-C adapter works fine, and doesn't crash the machine. Apple still want to replace my laptop, but I get the feeling that the new one would have the same issues.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

I can confirm that swapping the USB 3 cable out for a Micro USB 2.0 cable with the Apple USB-C adapter works fine, and doesn't crash the machine. Apple still want to replace my laptop, but I get the feeling that the new one would have the same issues.

I live in a college town...my local Apple Store is used to seeing everything under the sun a college kid can do (3 large colleges within a short drive)...none of the Apple reps had heard of this nor could figure it out. They opted to not replace mine for the very reason that it will most likely happen again. In my case I was able to find the exact file that caused the crash and isolate it. Without that file it worked fine at USB-C speeds or 3.1 depending upon the drive. The second I tried copying that file to a drive it crashed. When I introduced a USB 2.0 hub it solved the problem.

 

[Peppery]

I live in a college town...my local Apple Store is used to seeing everything under the sun a college kid can do (3 large colleges within a short drive)...none of the Apple reps had heard of this nor could figure it out. They opted to not replace mine for the very reason that it will most likely happen again. In my case I was able to find the exact file that caused the crash and isolate it. Without that file it worked fine at USB-C speeds or 3.1 depending upon the drive. The second I tried copying that file to a drive it crashed. When I introduced a USB 2.0 hub it solved the problem.

Actually, the fact you're trying to copy a .CR2 file is interesting. I'm trying to sync my Google Drive which has around 500GB of.... .CR2s. However, the drive instantly crashes my machine when it tries to mount, so this is probably more of a coincidence than anything.

 

[phototrek]

I have been getting this on two machines to no end. Then I realized that each time, either the source or destination drive was encrypted. So I used only unencrypted devices for a test, and I successfully piped two multi-terabyte disks to /dev/null without any issues.

Does anyone experience this in cases where both the source and destination are unencrypted? I.e., no file vault.

 

[Peppery]

Does anyone experience this in cases where both the source and destination are unencrypted? I.e., no file vault.

Both my internal and external drives are encrypted, just FYI

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

I have been getting this on two machines to no end. Then I realized that each time, either the source or destination drive was encrypted. So I used only unencrypted devices for a test, and I successfully piped two multi-terabyte disks to /dev/null without any issues.

Does anyone experience this in cases where both the source and destination are unencrypted? I.e., no file vault.

In my case neither drive was encrypted & I read enough to not attempt filevault on my MBP. At this point there isn't anything I'm that worried about on here anyway.

The only semi unusual part of my setup was the external I was copying from is NTFS formatted since I had just scanned a number of ancient photos & copied my backup directory of recent photos to it. I was using the MBP to transfer them to a Samsung SSD external in an ExFat format. I might try it with a different mac specific drive and see if that file still manages to hang the system.

 

[Sohappy]

In my case I was able to find the exact file that caused the crash and isolate it. Without that file it worked fine at USB-C speeds or 3.1 depending upon the drive. The second I tried copying that file to a drive it crashed. When I introduced a USB 2.0 hub it solved the problem.

What's the best way to find the faulty file fast ?

 

[mgw38]

What's the best way to find the faulty file fast ?

It looks as if the files that have been reported were all visual media files (images, videos). Copy all your files onto an external drive and it will actually tell you what file it could not copy before it freezes. There have been screenshots posted here that show how that looks.

Be aware that even if you remove the file, the system might still have a copy of it in a local Time Machine snapshot which would still crash the backup.

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

I had everything organized into groups of folders. After the second time of it failing after copying 330-360GB over I just copied the folders over one at a time watching for the error message that I posted above. It will tell you which it is. I can't promise that it's the fastest method but it's what worked for me and made it easier to locate the offending file.

 

[Sohappy]

I can confirm that swapping the USB 3 cable out for a Micro USB 2.0 cable with the Apple USB-C adapter works fine, and doesn't crash the machine. Apple still want to replace my laptop, but I get the feeling that the new one would have the same issues.

If you use the charge cable USB-c Apple puts in the MacBook Pro box with a USB-c drive, does it work without crashing ( as it supports USB 2 only) ?
[doublepost=1480657516][/doublepost]

It looks as if the files that have been reported were all visual media files (images, videos). Copy all your files onto an external drive and it will actually tell you what file it could not copy before it freezes. There have been screenshots posted here that show how that looks.

Be aware that even if you remove the file, the system might still have a copy of it in a local Time Machine snapshot which would still crash the backup.

Thanks. Does the copying problem occur when copying from an external disk to the MacBook Pro too (and not only the other way round) ?

Some of you pinpointed a CR2 file. For those who found that the culprit was a jpg file, was it a direct jpg file ? From which brand camera ? Or a jpg coming from a raw ? A CR2 raw ?

 

[Kn!ghthawk]

Some of you pinpointed a CR2 file. For those who found that the culprit was a jpg file, was it a direct jpg file ? From which brand camera ? Or a jpg coming from a raw ? A CR2 raw ?

It was a CR2 Raw file from a canon DSLR.

On a side note after trying a few other things to check/clean that file I restarted the machine only to have it flash red & then green after I pressed enter to login. Wasn't the whole screen but just the highlights of the picture (clouds). So after a chat with Apple I'm reinstalling OSX while he got system reports and pushed all of it off to engineering. Said he contact me back when he's in again on Sunday with updates from them. I'll keep everyone posted with what comes of this.

Update: I can confirm that after a clean reinstall of OSX the issue with file transfer is still present. No issues with the screen yet but...we'll see.

 

[steve-p]

The drive I am using (LaCie Porsche Design) comes with two connector cables. One with USB-C both ends, and one with USB-C one end and old school USB on the other. Previously, I had only tried the USB-C to USB-C cable, which crashed the MBP within 30 seconds of plugging it in. Just for the sake of completeness, I tried Drive -> USB-C -> USB -> Apple USB adapter -> MBP. The results were exactly the same. Plugging in the drive crashes the MBP.

It's now been a week since I reported it and a technician collected crash logs. I'm not sure what kind of response I was expecting from Apple. After all, an issue of this magnitude with an Apple product is new territory for me. I wasn't necessary expecting a fix to be released in a few days, but it would be nice to know what is happening about it (assuming it's not just been added to a list of issues they haven't got round to looking at yet).

 

[Sohappy]

The drive I am using (LaCie Porsche Design) comes with two connector cables. One with USB-C both ends, and one with USB-C one end and old school USB on the other. Previously, I had only tried the USB-C to USB-C cable, which crashed the MBP within 30 seconds of plugging it in. Just for the sake of completeness, I tried Drive -> USB-C -> USB -> Apple USB adapter -> MBP. The results were exactly the same. Plugging in the drive crashes the MBP.

It's now been a week since I reported it and a technician collected crash logs. I'm not sure what kind of response I was expecting from Apple. After all, an issue of this magnitude with an Apple product is new territory for me. I wasn't necessary expecting a fix to be released in a few days, but it would be nice to know what is happening about it (assuming it's not just been added to a list of issues they haven't got round to looking at yet).

It seems that some files when copied in USB 3 speed cause the crash. Did you try with the charge cable (it's usb-2).
Have you CR2 files or jpg coming from CR2 ?

 

[steve-p]

It seems that some files when copied in USB 3 speed cause the crash. Did you try with the charge cable (it's usb-2).
Have you CR2 files or jpg coming from CR2 ?

I haven't tried that yet. I do have some Canon RAW files from an older DSLR, maybe a couple of thousand, but I think they might be CRW not CR2. Mainly I have Nikon RAW files. All the raw files are stored inside the Aperture/Photos library.

 

[RichMSN]

I've had the same problem. Same error message, etc.

I took the advice here and ran a $5 USB 2 hub between my USB-C hub (with USB 3) and my 3TB Passport drive. The backup completed and the system still crashed sometime after it had completed (and 2 more incremental backups completed). I ran a backup at that point and then unmounted and disconnected the drive and turned TM off entirely.

I've decided I'll simply do weekly backups until this mess is fixed. Hopefully soon.