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

Apple store got me all fixed. Issue was the Catalina update. It created two extra hard drive partitions and caused a (T2) EFI issue. Had to erase and repartition the hard drive, set and remove EFI password and then restored Time Machine Backup. Took them two hours but it worked. No Apple Care and no charges. The people at the Apple Store are great. They said they have had five come in with the same issue this week so they were very familiar with the resolution.

DPJ is probably US based, their laws favour the seller of the item. In the UK you have six years. You have documentary proof that the firmware upgrade is causing problems and the solution does not require the replacement of the mainboard, just a reprogramming of the UEFI firmware flash IC. It is Apple that dumbs down the "Genius Bar" into a box shipping exercise. But Apple's lack of repair options does in no way affect your consumer rights. I got my MacBook Pro 2012 mainboard replaced with one month remaining of the six years as it had documentary evidence of early failure. I used this forum as evidence, all the Apple Store asked for is "do you have proof of a pre-existing defect" and I gave them a few URLs to visit. That laptop cost me £3k - it should be done when I decide it is done, not before.

There is a possibility of a SMC repair or flash at a custom repair shop. I am not even sure that I can say this on this forum. There is a user who reported successfully fixing their macbook through this method.

People like DPJ are good to have. They give you the other perspective.

I had similar problem. Apple first proposed to replace the logic board. I disagreed. Then they fixed it for me for free. I wrote an article describing this, proposing Apple's approved service as a first solution and also hinting alternatives and it was censored here in this thread because "following the procedures at the site you provided may lead to damage to the user’s device" :) So, my apologies, if you find my article anyway, be warned.

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I have a very similar issue with my 2017MBP that appeared during the update. System would not boot or charge, could not reinstall the OS, obviously battery died while troubleshooting. SMC reset didn’t help, that was before the battery died. When I called Apple they said it seemed to be an issue with the update. They told me that could be caused by several things from a drop in connectivity from their server to something hanging during the install. They made me an appointment today at the store and said they should be able to fix it as it is probably just a software issue causing all the problems that originated from the update. That was from Apple support over the phone. I will update the post tonight after I go to the Apple store.

Well nothing could be done apart from a £580 logic board replacement which I declined as I am not paying for an Apple update breaking my Mac.

The Genius Bar did a full diagnostic check and nothing was wrong, in fact it was commented on how little use the laptop had had it’s just the ssd can’t be seen at all now.

has anyone managed to work out a way of repairing, is it even possible or is it just a 1250 paperweight.

I’m sorry but this can’t be a coincidence that drives are failing after an update as there are too many of us.

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Troubleshoot on battery? Had to as update caused EFI issue, would not see charger. Install Catalina while on battery? Of course not, lol.... Update caused issue, check my reply on my post and hope you can figure out what I am saying.

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Well some how mine is part working after not touching it for 2 months.

I’ve gone from the flashing icon to it booted and I managed to get boot camp booting and windows installed and working.

It works and then I reboot and it’s not working, a few boots later it’s working.

Now I am resorting a 10.14 image from last year to see if that cures the booting for good.

I know it looks like a hardware issue but I never ever saw even a crash or freeze in the past, all my issues started with the Catalina update 🤷🏻‍♂️

Wow I have read all the replies here and some people are just accusing others of being basically thick...

My 2017 MacBook has just died the same, it was all working fine with not a problem, I did the update as I had been holding off and boom the flashing folder icon.

MUST be a massive coincidence that others have had the same problem or my hard ware has just died....

I have an appointment at an Apple shop and if they try and charge me I will be quoting the consumer law, which I suggest other people do.

“I have an appointment at an Apple shop and if they try and charge me I will be quoting the consumer law, which I suggest other people do “



I hope you truly understand how the consumer law works? You have to have reported the issue at hand to Apple within the first 6 months of ownership. A repair needs to be done and documented by Apple. Most consumer laws are 2 years in length. During that time if the same issue comes up again and the customer reports it to Apple then Apple is obliged to repair it.

"DPJ is probably US based, their laws favour the seller of the item."

That's a total assumption and in the U.S they have lemon laws just like every other country. The issue is some of the people here mistaken consumer laws for warranties which they are not. But good luck to the ones with problems here. I don't think they would be posting here if consumer laws were as simplified as you make them out to be. They would've gotten their problems handled if that were the case.

The reason I assumed you were in the US was this comment to a UK poster:

"I hope you truly understand how the consumer law works? You have to have

reported the issue at hand to Apple within the first 6 months of

ownership."

The majority of people in the UK don't know about their rights as a consumer and the retailer goes out of their way to try and avoid/obfuscate their responsibility. If the retailer plays hard ball, then the Small Claims Court is the next place to go. The Court will always find in your favour if there is a good body of evidence (as there is in this case) The retailer will then have a judgement against them which is public record.

I agree, these consumer protection laws are not a warranty at all, the purpose of these laws is to prevent the customer from requiring to go back to the manufacturer of the product, thus, making the retailer (in theory) become more accountable for the products that they sell.

A warranty could be offered by the manufacturer, independently from the retailer, thus if the retailer went bust, the warranty would still be valid. A warranty offered in this way is always "in addition to your statutory rights"

The key to this situation is the wording you use when you return a product to a retailer - don't say "warranty repair" say "I am exercising my rights under the Consumer Rights Act" they will then ask you for evidence, you provide it.

Indeed, it is not straightforward, as you rightly point out.

Most people I know, will just shrug their shoulders, then buy a new "thing" when the old "thing" dies. Apple will always be able to sell you a new laptop, desktop, phone or tablet...

"System would not boot or charge, could not reinstall the OS, obviously battery died while troubleshooting."

Why would you troubleshoot your Mac from a faulty install while on battery anyway? Were you also installing Catalina while on battery??

SenorRobot wrote:

Thanks. Is there a method that would limit likelihood of this happening? Something like full wipe first then internet restore to do full new install?

Just do the updates in the usual way. If there were procedural differences that were needed, these have already been incorporated into the process by Apple.

Just to follow on!

Well I don't know how but mine is working again on 10.14.6!!

How strange as the only option Apple gave me was new logic board or install the os to an external drive!

Well I turned it on a few days ago and it booted up, I did the Catalina update and it was appearing to be broken again 🙁

I tried the recovery a few times to no avail, the drive did not show up again.

But I noticed every now and again it would find the drive and boot, well again I did a restore from April 19 from my TM backup and all was OK till I restarted and again the drive vanished, I mean it ran for a good 10hrs restoring with no issue?

Again I was restarting, trying the recovery and every now and again it would boot and run fine as it saw the hard drive.

Well I managed to get 10.14.6 installed and ran for 24hrs without turning off and again no issues, I checked the drives and hardware and no issues were showing??

I started looking at uefi and efi but came up with nothing, what I did do though was to create a spare 10gb partition and now it seems to be back to normal, maybe adjusting the boot drive/container helped?

I have turned off and re-started several times and it seems fine again, all I can say is what the ****!!

I don't think I will risk Catalina!!?