Catalina bricked my 2015 MacBook Pro. What to do now?

Hey, my absolutely fine working MacBook Pro 2016 bricked due

to upgrading from Mojave to Catalina. During the installation process, MacBook

restarted and a blinking folder with a question mark showed up. Since then I

have tried every possible troubleshooting found on the internet, none of which

worked out.  A summary of my most

important actions described below.

I erased my internal HD to reinstall the OS through the

recovery mode, but an error occurred. After erasing the HD, I lost recovery

mode access. I guess I deleted too. Then I tried to do the same via Internet

recovery. Surprisingly, I saw my internal HD not detected on internet recovery

mode while it was completely Ok in recovery mode. Therefore, I tried to install

macOS Sierra on an USB attached to my MacBook. It successfully done. Then I

upgraded it to Mojave in order to update the EFI version. It also was successful.

Now my EFI version is 259.71.1.0.0. Then I created Bootable USBs to install OS

(High Sierra-Mojave-Catalina). My laptop got so hot and restarted after about a

minute of the installation process of all of them. I suspected to a hardware

related problem, so did AHT and it detected no hardware issue. Then I installed

DriveDX and Etercheck on the OS installed on my USB for a more throughout

check. DriveDX report indicates my internal HD is working just fine and no issue

detected. However, EtreCheck report shows that every time my laptop restarted

during the installation of OS on my mac a different error occurred. The picture

of the EtrCheck report attached.

When I called Apple support, they told me I have to bring my

device to an apple store for diagnosing the problem, but there is no formal

service of Apple in my country. They asked me to take it to the nearest

country. It will cost me a fortune to go to another country at the cost of

about 500$, deliver my device to apple store, let them diagnosis my device for

a while and then simply replace my logic board and probably SSD at the cost of

at least 600$ and then come back to that country to deliver my device again

with 500$. I have to pay at least 1600$ for just trusting apple to Upgrade a

fine working device.

I absolutely don’t know what to do now.

Hi, i have the same problem.

After the genius, like me, had done all the shortcuts, he said it might be the logic board. I can't imagine that, after all, the iMac has been running smoothly since 2014.

The Genius replied to my question what it would cost to replace a Logic board "about 700€". That's a bit much for just starting the installer for the official Catalina version.

I have written to Tim waiting for a possible answer.

Hi rkcomp,

I went to the Apple store today, and just as I feared, they quoted me to replace the logic board and SSD. $475 for something their software "upgrade" caused. Needless to say, I declined. They will probably tell you the same. Unless you have apple care (expired by now I am sure), you are out of luck as I am. That is, unless they declare this a known issue, and issue free repairs, which I doubt they will. I will probably buy a used logic board and replace it myself for 50% less.

If you need to install 10.15 Catalina on your 2012-2015 Mac, please wipe the drive and install fresh from a 10.15 bootable disk. Do not take the chance and end up with your Mac bricked as I, OP, and many others have. I have read this may be a way around the issue, but I am not sure 100%. I would recommend waiting until later releases to install 10.15 Catalina.

This "Bricking after upgrading Catalina" is spreading like the plague, it happened to my 2014 MacBook Air and I have two other friends with MacBook Pro 2015 that have the same issue. No keys are recognized by the device and 5 minute after turning it on the flashing question mark folder. Everything points to be a BIOS-EFI firmware corruption by the catalina installer.

Agreed. I even told the genius today that same exact thing. I am blown away that they can't reflash that firmware to an otherwise functioning board. Or they can, but would rather charge for a new one. I am hoping they make a statement about this... but I doubt it.

This is bad, very bad, Catalina upgrade is randomly bricking devices and forums online are starting to sum up with the exact same problem. Alex, keep us posted on how it goes with you, I will also contact Apple support myself tomorrow. Today I got a call from 3 friends who are facing the exact same problem, one with a MacBook Air 2014, other with a 2015 Air and another with a 2014 MacBook Pro 15". All the same symptom and happened just after upgrading to Catalina and asked to restart their computers.

At this point there is nothing else I can do. Today at the Apple store they did not seem to want to believe that the software was doing this. I mentioned multiple times that this is not restricted to my machine, and that there are lots of others having this issue as well. They more or less just shrugged their shoulders, told me it would be $475 to fix my computer.

I am really upset that just because these devices are a few years old, they seem to refrain from testing certain functions of software upgrades on them.. When someone buys a Mac, they do so because they are supposed to last many years. I will update here if I manage to learn anything new, but I am not incredibly hopeful at this point. Please do the same, I would be interested to hear what they tell you, and I am sure everyone else would be too.

I seem to be lucky as I only have a bluetooth and wifi radio problem. It consistenly disconnects and reconncts and bluetooth devices will no longer stay connected. these devices all working fine before the upgrade. I did notice the Catalina upgrade seemed to take an inordinate amunt of time to restart and then shut down and I had to do a manual restart. I have a 2014 15" MacBook Pro. I dare not upgrade my Mac mini. What a mess. This is the first time I have upgraded without waiting a couple of months. Never again. Apple I have bought 5 computers over the few years. Daughter, wife, work office etc. I am feeling unloved.

I have had the same problem. I’ have made a telephone call with the apple support and they coached me how to get back mojave. This was a bitcomplicated. First they downgrade me to the first mac os when I bought my laptop. Thereafter they sent me the link to update to mojave. You must do this by that link; [because when you ckick on update (only) the system wil update to catalina.] This works!

After this I used my time machine backup to get back my contents. Now it works fine again. With thanks to apple support.

I wonder if there are any shops near me that can do that EFI repair. It definitely seems like the Catalina installer is compromising that part of the system. Everyone is arriving at the same conclusion.

What is even more amazing is that this was not caught in any beta testing. What is the point of beta testing if you leave something out? We have to assume that this EFI upgrade was not in any of the beta tests.

the exact same happened to my 2015 MBP Retina 13”. I took it into the Apple store where the genius couldn’t diagnose it, so they kept the MB for a week or more. Apparently they claim the logic board to have become faulty during the update, but said I’m liable to pay around £600 for a replacement logic board. It’s evident to me now that this is occurring much more than Apple care to accept. To be absolutely honest, both Apple’s customer service and product refinement have stooped into the dumps.

Quite funny you mention that, as I recall an Apple support advisor saying that had I purchased the laptop from Apple directly, I could have proceeded further under consumer law. Sadly I purchased it from Curry’s but they’ve taken it in under the pretext of consumer and said that anything other than liquid damage will be regarded as a manufacturing defect and repaired if “economically viable”.

Just an hour ago Apple issued Catalina Supplementary Update under the same version 10.15 but different build number 19A602 vs. 19A583 (original one). I am wondering if this actually contains a fix to EFI issue while installing Catalina and such a prompt action from Apple (not waiting to 10.15.1) may leave anyone who used the original installation on their own unfortunately....