Recovering data from a 2019 MacBook Pro (Touchbar)

[marktuk]

Is it possible to access the data storage on these MacBooks without powering them on? My work MacBook has failed (doesn't power on at all) and getting an Apple repair at the moment is proving to be a nightmare. Ideally I'd like to retrieve some files from the device before it goes anywhere, is this possible at all?

This has really knocked my confidence in Apple, this MacBook is less than a year old and it's been plagued with issues. I was planning to renew my personal 2015 MacBook at some point in the future, but with the spiralling costs and quality/reliability issues it's hard to justify.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm wondering if the problem could be failed/corrupted firmware in your t2 chip.

I suggest that you read this carefully:

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator 2

In rare circumstances, Apple computers may become unresponsive and the chip’s firmware must be revived.

support.apple.com

This URL provides a path to get the Apple Configurator 2:

‎Apple Configurator

‎Apple Configurator makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices in your school or business. Use Apple Configurator to quickly configure large numbers of devices connected to your Mac via USB with the settings, apps, and data you specify for your students, employees...

apps.apple.com

A web search may provide you with more info on addressing this problem.

Other than that, you'll probably have to take it to Apple to get it going again.

As for getting the data off one of these t2-controlled SSDs -- I have no personal experience, but I sense that without a backup, your chances are about "zero"...

 

[marktuk]

I'll give this a try. I wonder how that could have happened, I guess maybe if it tried to run an update while it was sleeping and the battery died?

Hardware shouldn't be bricking itself, this is pretty poor from Apple.

I noticed the guide says this:

WARNING: Back up your data before you restore the firmware on your Mac. When you restore the firmware on a Mac that contains an Apple T2 Security Chip, you are restoring the firmware on the T2 chip and on any volumes on your internal SSD storage. When this process is complete, any data on any SSD volumes is unrecoverable.

How would I back up the data if I can't boot the machine, is it possible to do it as part of this process?

 

[magbarn]

I'll give this a try. I wonder how that could have happened, I guess maybe if it tried to run an update while it was sleeping and the battery died?

Hardware shouldn't be bricking itself, this is pretty poor from Apple.

I noticed the guide says this:


How would I back up the data if I can't boot the machine, is it possible to do it as part of this process?

If your T2 chip decided to poop on itself, you will LOSE all your data with no hope of recovery. Welcome to the age of soldered encrypted SSDs.
I just helped a friend do this procedure and it did wipe all his data.

My personal choice would be to have it non encrypted with the ability to restore my data on another computer by being able to remove the storage drive - just like the old days. Buying a modern Apple computer says this is no longer a concern and you should be using Apple's "excellent & well supported" Time machine /s (which continues to be slow as hell and seems to optimized for another era)
I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner on my Apple machines right now which the latest Catalina bricks as the last time I checked.

 

[marktuk]

My personal choice would be to have it non encrypted with the ability to restore my data on another computer by being able to remove the storage drive - just like the old days. Buying a modern Apple computer says this is no longer a concern and you should be using Apple's "excellent & well supported" Time machine /s (which continues to be slow as hell and seems to optimized for another era)
I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner on my Apple machines right now which the latest Catalina bricks as the last time I checked.

99% of what I do is in the cloud, but I had less than a handful of files on the device that I had been working on the day before and hadn't had a chance to copy/backup. Sods law I guess.

It does indeed look like the BridgeOS update has bricked my Mac. If I had realised apples OS updates included an automatic firmware upgrade I would have disabled them. Auto-updating firmware is a bad idea, period.

Well, at least it made my decision on renewing my personal MBP a whole lot easier. I was already struggling to justify ~2K on a new one, having had a taste of the latest generation devices I now know they aren't even worth the cost.

EDIT: FYI - I tried the revive option using the Apple Configurator on my personal MBP, no luck. I don't want to hit the restore (wipe everything) option just yet, I'd rather take it to the Apple Store and have them tell me the data is unrecoverable. It's going to be at least a month before it gets sorted as the Apple Stores here are struggling to cope with the demand after reopening.

 

[magbarn]

99% of what I do is in the cloud, but I had less than a handful of files on the device that I had been working on the day before and hadn't had a chance to copy/backup. Sods law I guess.

It does indeed look like the BridgeOS update has bricked my Mac. If I had realised apples OS updates included an automatic firmware upgrade I would have disabled them. Auto-updating firmware is a bad idea, period.

Well, at least it made my decision on renewing my personal MBP a whole lot easier. I was already struggling to justify ~2K on a new one, having had a taste of the latest generation devices I now know they aren't even worth the cost.

EDIT: FYI - I tried the revive option using the Apple Configurator on my personal MBP, no luck. I don't want to hit the restore (wipe everything) option just yet, I'd rather take it to the Apple Store and have them tell me the data is unrecoverable. It's going to be at least a month before it gets sorted as the Apple Stores here are struggling to cope with the demand after reopening.

Yeah, I've been trying to get a genius bar appointment for weeks!