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

Fixed my 2014 MBP with the above issue.

My issue was the same as the OP: Flashing ? folder and computer unresponsive- no recovery mode, not bootable from USB.

Genius Bar answer was the same as we've heard- underlying hardware problem exacerbated by the update, only option being $600 logic board and SSD replacement.

Another thread suggested a solderless EFI unlocker chip, which I obtained from macunlocks.com (to which I have no affiliation.)

I was immediately able to boot into recovery mode, so was very encouraged.

I was initially not able to install from a bootable USB installer, getting an error that the hard drive needed a firmware update.

In Disk Utility (accessible from recovery) I erased the HD, then partitioned it from APFS back to MacOS Extended (Journaled).

After that, the bootable USB installer worked perfectly.

I hope this helps others. And for some of us, at least, this certainly is strong evidence that a firmware corruption is possible during the OS update, and not always an underlying hardware defect.

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.

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.

The EFI is a partition on the boot drive. That partition can be fixed by erasing and re-installing.

I expect some are using that term (EFI) when they mean to say Boot ROM or Firmware store, a persistent store (does not forget when the power is off) on the mainboard that stores the firmware in a few chips. It is almost the same as a Read-Only Memory (ROM), except that it can be re-written a small number of times, like a flash memory. This is sometimes referred to as the Boot ROM, and code will be executed directly from it when starting up.

On older Macs, a Firmware error would preclude booting and the power indicator would flash a small numeric code indicating firmware checksum error. I honestly do not know if that is still the case, or whether this has changed.

Suppose a certain bit is a Zero-bit for the Mojave firmware. If that bit failed in a way that left it stuck at Zero, the firmware store would pass all tests and work just fine under Mojave. That bit does not have to change state, it just has to remember its setting, and a failed bit stuck at Zero is just as good a Zero as a working bit set deliberately to Zero.

If there later needs to be a 1-bit in that position for the Catalina Firmware, the firmware update would fail, and there is no graceful way to recover. Apple does not have a graceful way to return to an older version of firmware, either.

So this may indeed be a Hardware failure. It may have occurred a long time ago or during the update, there is no way to know.

"If this many people are losing their Macs because of an OS upgrade that is *allowed* on those machines in the first place, this is Apples issue to fix."

I just went through a count of members here complaining, including the links they posted to other threads. I counted about 10 people. Each of the links they posted either had only one page of one person complaining or up to 3 pages of a few of the same people posting on this thread. All pages I checked equalled to about 10 people. Best of luck to them but chances are they already had a hardware failure and didn't know it. Often hardware failures rear their ugly heads during OS installs.

I had the same problems years ago with my new iMac. It was only 8 months old and Apple released their new OS. I installed it and the iMac came to a halt. Took it to the Apple store and the hard drive had failed. It had errors on the drive. The warranty covered it.

Apple (including many tech sites) explained that a hard drive failure may not be immediately present with application installs but when an OS install happens it scans the entire drive and hardware failure will become present. Facts are facts.

No Allan,

This is a failure to install EFI MBP12.1 187.0.0.0.0, a fresh wipe of the UEFI via the JTAG to EFI MBP12.1 186.0.0.0.0 allows the machine to boot as normal and upgrade to Catalina from Mojave. As this cures the problem, it is not a sudden fault, it is a fault of the update to EFI MBP12.1 187.0.0.0.0 that came with early versions of Catalina. From what I can see, EFI MBP12.1 186.0.0.0.0 is now the current version. Bear in mind, this is not an Apple part, this is an Intel part, like the Windows PC and its UEFI BIOS, it is possible to corrupt it by asserting a reset or entering into a low power S state. The process is much the same, serial number is required for Apple, Windows 10 product key is required for Windows UEFI. One wonders what went on in the early version of Catalina, is it lack of physical machine testing? Everyone seems to be using virtual machines to run testing these days... (sounds a lot like Microsoft...)

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.

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.

To those who've experienced this issue: please let Apple know today. These threads are not actively followed and the more users that report to Apple, probably the more likely that there will be some resolution.

I initiated a chat and was then called by a Senior Advisor. I reported the details of the update corrupting my firmware, and sent links to the relevant threads here. Be nice and don't expect a fix over the phone, but they need to be made aware of the number of users affected. For reference, here are the related threads I am following:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716026

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250745000

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250719221

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250728927

Have a look around other discussions.

I’m not the only one affected by this.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716026

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250745000

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250719221

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250728927

I’m bailing out of these discussions.

There are one or two people like you who cannot understand that all I, and other people have done, is try and upgrade to Catalina via Apple’s software update service and are left with a broken computer.

As I understand it, Catalina overwrites the EFI and clearly there is something awry there, especially with laptops.

That in itself is a problem that needs highlighting and was a fault hidden until now.

I have never had any problems 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.

Or maybe it's time to face the fact that indeed errors in the procedure of flashing of EFI firmware while updating OS, can cause entire system to 'brick':

https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/24/efi-firmware/

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

"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. "

The Genius Bar told you correctly. When a SSD or HDD is failing you won't know it until you perform a full new OS install. It's not the same as installing something like Photoshop. I've had this happen to me in the past. Tried installing the latest OS only for my Mac to fail. Apple had to replace the HDD and everything has been fine since then. OS's can't brick a system unless the install failed or it was improperly installed by the user.