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10.15 Catalina....bricked my Mid 2014 13" Macbook Pro? Blinking file icon

On 10/07/2019 I saw the update for 10.15 pop up in system preferences, and downloaded and attempted to install it. I clicked install once it downloaded and then walked away. Like I normally do.


When I return to my Mac, it is sitting there with the blinking file icon. here


WHAT I HAVE TRIED:

reset SMC

reset PRAM

Disconnected battery, held power button for 5 seconds (same as SMC reset I think)

(⌘)-R

(⌘)-R-option

(⌘)-R-option-shift

Removed SSD and tried to boot into internet recovery without it (done on the same machine in the past)


I also tried any and all other key combos I could find, but it seems it just does not want to boot into anything at all. I have a 10.14.5 bootable disk and time machine back ups, but cannot seem to get the machine to a point where I can use them.


The computer was perfectly fine before I pressed install, never had any issues with this machine. Any ideas? To me it seems the Catalina upgrade corrupted the firmware on my logic board. Did the Catalina update brick my logic board?


I also had a call with Apple phone support. They were not able to help me. They suggested it was hardware related and had nothing to do with the software. I disagree. Another user seems to have the exact same issue, linked below on apples website. If you have this issue it is not a hardware failure coincidentally at the time of the Catalina install! There are others with this issue. It is the 10.15 software that has caused this problem!

 link

Posted on Oct 9, 2019 5:23 AM

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1 reply
Question marked as Helpful

Oct 15, 2019 12:57 PM in response to DPJ

Catalina update process actually involves EFI update - the chip firmware that is soldered to the motherboard (so is considered hardware). I have independent service expertise that my EFI was corrupted - and this happened exactly while updating from Mojave to Catalina (as many of us here). Believe me I am Mac user from 2006 and have some decent knowledge of what the software compatibility issue is vs. hardware related problem caused by firmware update initiated by the software update process.

109 replies

Oct 11, 2019 3:37 PM in response to alexscheppert

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, alexscheppert.


If I understand your post correctly, after updating your Mac you see a flashing file with a question mark. I’d like to help.


It sounds like you've done some great troubleshooting so far. Make sure you've completed all the steps in this article:


If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac


Let us know if that resolves this issue for you. 


Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.

Oct 11, 2019 3:45 PM in response to Leanne_68

Hi. I have tried those steps, on my own and with Apple support on the phone. I am unable to boot into the OS. I am unable to use any key combinations, such as those shown in that link to access recovery. I cannot boot into internet recovery. I cannot boot off a bootable disk. I cannot access disk utility. This is a problem that I, and other users are experiencing when attempted to install the 10.15 upgrade. See here, here (from beta 7), and here.


Keep in mind that as far as I can tell, the update did not complete.

Oct 11, 2019 4:52 PM in response to Allan Eckert

I would normally agree Allan. However, I do not find it likely that the hardware coincidentally failed when I upgraded. This is further bolstered by the fact that there are other users experiencing the same exact issue, when they did them same thing I did. I will say all the cases I have seen have occurred on 2012-2015 retina Macbook pros. Haven't seen any cases of this on the post 2016 models or others Macs.

Oct 12, 2019 1:59 PM in response to alexscheppert

I had the same experience as the OP on my mid 2014 15” MacBook Pro and have followed the same troubleshooting. At the Apple Store was told that the logic board/SSD would need replacement (minimum cost $575.) As in the case of the OP, I had been running without issue prior to 10.15 update.


In my case though, I watched it happen: the update ran, advised of a pending restart, which happened after the usual countdown. I never got back to a chime, just a flashing question mark folder. So at restart the startup disk was corrupted or unable to be found.


I am pretty unhappy with the Genius Bar explanation is that the logic board and or SSD were already faulty and this only became symptomatic when “stressed” by the operating system upgrade. I had in fact done a clean install of Mohave a few months ago without issue.


Hoping for a Quality Program resolution. Longtime user here with bricked MBP

Oct 12, 2019 2:53 PM in response to Jaygrow

Jay, they quoted me to replace the logic board and ssd as well. $475 for my MacBook. Which is just worth that amount in functioning condition. Needless to say, I declined as well. I regularly performed demanding tasks on mine, so saying that is the cause is purely BS from them not knowing what caused it. It is unacceptable that a software upgrade has caused users computers to become useless. At this point, I’m not sure what else we can do.

Oct 13, 2019 7:02 AM in response to kk_id

Well, I have been monitoring this issue and it's growing everyday, since the first week of October. Either a complete corrupted EFI with the computer doing absolutely nothing but a flashing folder with question mark or partial EFI corruption damage (non working Bluetooth/WiFi or CD-ROM on older models) The huge problem here is that apple can easily allegate that this is a hardware level problem with the computer before the upgrade but trust me everyone says their computer was working just fine before the issue and so did mine.

Oct 14, 2019 12:00 PM in response to lmulim

You have critical data on your computer which is not being backed up. Not a very smart thing to do. You might try file recovery software to see what it can recover or you can send it out to a recovery service. Either of these methods will cost you and probably fail to recover everything.


It is always suggested that before undertaking anything with the possibility of data lose like an upgrade that the first step should be a backup.

10.15 Catalina....bricked my Mid 2014 13" Macbook Pro? Blinking file icon

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