"BAD MAGIC! (flag set in iBoot panic header)" — Catalina freezing all the time!

This question has already been answered in the thread, this bug has no regional limit.

What defines this kernel panic :

• Recent hardware with T2 chip on MacOs Catalina (starts late 2018, includes new MBP16 & new MacPros) Some reported the same bug with a different name on HighSierra
• Common triggers : sleep-wake mode + external devices connected (any device, from hub, to screens and hard drives)
• Some have short burst of high temperature + maxxed fans + global freeze, right before sudden reboot
• Non working fixes : Flashing T2 firmware / Changing unit or motherboard
• Short lived fixes : SMC + PRAM reset / T2 security disabled / HD encrypting disabled
• More solid fixes : Disable all HD & Screen sleep (energy saver panel) / Screen sleep via shortcut or hot corners works / Disconnect all external devices if you don't disable the energy saver mode while away
• Note : passes the Apple Service hardware tests but is easy to reproduce once you are plagued with it and know how to trigger it

An update regarding the Bad Magic crashes on my macbook pro 16

After I reinstalled macOS many times, including after a complete wipe of my disk, as instructed by apple support, Apple replaced the unit. I insisted on the fact that the crash still happened while there was 0kb of my data (or any data except macOS) on the computer.

My new unit has been running since January 3rd, 0 crash so far. Note: I did NOT upgrade to 10.15.2. Last time around it's right after I upgraded that Bad Magic **** started for me. So I'll be sticking to 10.15.1 until I see this issue fully resolved.

Another thing worth noting: on my previous unit, while I was getting crashes as often as every three minutes running macOS, the unit worked flawlessly for hours on end running windows 10 in bootcamp, including under heavy load. So to me Catalina 10.15.2 meets T2 chip is the likely culprit.

I hope this helps

Update

Unfortunately, the issue happened again and again! Its a pity that macbook and apple has become such a bad product. I called up apple and in Netherlands they do a free replacement if the device is within 14 days old.

My last macbook pro which was a 2013 model in the span of 6.5 years has never done a reset more than like 3 times. Just look at the log below. I showed this info to the apple guys and they were like please return this macbook. They are giving me a new one now ! :)

How to reproduce this problem ?

1. Open Safari and open netflix on that
2. Start streaming a movie on that
3. The issue happens almost instantaneously

Interesting find here, as someone mentioned earlier, disabling the Automatic Graphics Switching (prefs > Energy Saver) seems to have fixed the instability for me. Note that I am using a MBP15 (2019), not sure all T2 units plagued with the BadMagic bug have a primary / secondary graphic cards like MBPs.

That find maybe pinpoints the culprits :

• Energy management (through the sleep and wake mode)
• Graphic card switching (might provoke a significant energy change)
• Third party external devices (screens, ext. hard drives, hubs....people on this thread have no problem with Apple monitors, all other third party devices seem to cause instability)

It all can be narrowed down to the way the units manage energy, T2 / Bridge seems to be somehow involved but that not proven yet. I'm not entirely sure it's only Catalina / HighSierra related because we don't have case of new units (2018+) with older MacOS (Sierra and below), that would not make much sens.

This is a cheap fix. I'm still waiting for the incoming Catalina update to see if it's totally fixed (expectations are low). If not i'll ask for repair / change / refund until it's 100% stable.

I wanted to share my experience of this because it ****** me off so much.

So, I bought a new MacBook Air (2019 model), stoked new fresh unit latest specs, apple never has problems.

4 charges in I have the freeze, restart and BAD MAGIC error report happening EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRY TO USE MY DEVICE.

So frustrating, Apple products never have a problem.

I contacted Apple Support on Twitter, they instructed me to use the website to resolve the problem.

The website instructed me to take it to the nearest OFFICIAL device support service place.

Did that.

Two weeks later they inform me that the logic board AND the finger print thing has been replaced.

They replaced the logic board and fingerprint thing.

I am 3 charges in and it and my device is operating like the product I originally purchased.

Although I am ****** that I had to go through that, my device has a 1 year warranty and it was fixed and it now working.

If you are suffering from the BAD MAGIC error report just take it to an OFFICIAL APPLE PRODUCT PLACE.

Hope that helps :)

Possible Fix/Work Around!

I have the same issue. My MBP 16 inch works completely fine on its own (no monitors plugged in), but when I connect any of my monitors (I have three) then eventually it crashes. I have spoke with phone support and performed all the diagnostics and resets they asked me to do and none of them worked. I am running bootcamp as well and noticed that my computer does not crash when using windows through bootcamp exempt on occasion when running games, but it doesn't happen often. On MacOS it has happened on every session when connected to external monitors.

I am not sure if this is the case, but I figured it might be graphics related through the software automatic graphics switching since bootcamp does not have this feature and seems to run fine. So I disabled this in system preferences>energy saver and unchecked the box next to Automatic graphics switching. So far I have been primarily using MacOS to see if it worked and so far NO CRASHES!! It has only been a few days but I could have never gone this long before.

Anyway, maybe you can try this and see if it works for you. I plan on taking my mac in to see if they will replace it as this should not be an issue for the price/it is marketed as a desktop replacement, but I figured I would post this for anyone not able to get there laptop replaced or repaired that maybe this fix will work for them as well.

Had the Bad Magic unexpected shutdowns ever since 10.14.5

Stand-alone MacBook Air 2019, no thunderbolt or USB peripherals - a straight-up stand-alone machine

10.14.6 didn’t stop the unexpected shutdowns

Here’s what’s worked for me:

Send the error reports to Apple. They’ll get the serial # of your machine, nothing more

Daily

Then, my MacBook Air stopped. Bricked.

Went to Apple store (with an appointment) they confirmed it was bricked. They didn’t want to talk about Bad Magic. Guess it’s like Fight Club.

They replaced the logic board and it was ready for pick-up in 3 days

I use Mojave not Catalina because I have too much 32-bit stuff

Back-up when you can, good advice forever, but this is a weird hardware thing that got kicked-in with 10.14.5 … that’s my experience

I had the same logs until it started with the Bad Magic log. I already has 2 days without having any crash since I reseted the SMC and VRAM, still keeping my fingers crossed, but before doing it the crashes appears every day and several times, so at least it's better now, hopefully its fixed for good.

Great summary of the issue and matches my experience.

Add in the "Sleep Wake failure in EFI" crash which some of us are experiencing prior to the "Bad Magic" crashes.

As a test that it may have to do with either the Sleep/Energy Saver functions or having multiple LG UltraFine 4k directly connected monitors, I started by disabling Display options to "never sleep" and turned off "automatic graphics switching". I then connected directly one monitor and left the laptop open with the screen as the second monitor. No crashes after 2 days, so then connected directly the second monitor while still keeping the laptop open. No crashes after 1 day. Yesterday I closed the laptop and now running both monitors. No crashes yet. So perhaps the sleep/wake settings are key?

4 days now since my last post without any further crashes (Both Sleep/wake failure & Bad Magic). Solution for me—so far—was to uncheck "hard disks to sleep..." on battery and power adapter tabs and change both "turn display off after..." sliders to "Never" under Energy Saver. Laptop connected to power directly with remaining 3 USB-c ports connects directly to OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock and 2 LG4K monitors.

I had the issue with 10.15.1and 10.15.2 without ever turning-on file vault. Turning-off automatic graphics switching appears to have resolved it for me. Been OK for the past 2 weeks. Fan speeds-up occasionally but slows down without a panic.

In my case, so far, it seems that a bad external Thunderbolt drive would crash the machine with the Bad Magic error. Maybe the drive is not "bad", but it's definitely corrupted. I went from many crashes each day to no crashes once I disconnected the drive. Fingers crossed.

Interestingly, I'm restoring the data using another MBP with Mojave, and I've had only a few crashes, and then the OS started reporting that there was a hardware issue with the drive.

The real bug seems to me that the Catalina OS does not adequately notify of such hardware or corrupted file issues and that it crashes with no good messages.

I wonder how many people here get a crash with zero external devices.

I had this Bad Magic for few first weeks. I had OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock (2 displays and other devices connected to it) and one other display in one USB-C port. I ran my MacBook Pro 16” lid closed. I disconnected the cables while the lid was still closed, put the MacBook to my backpack. Later when I opened the lid, it had rebooted and displayed the Bad Magic error.

But now I always open the lid before disconnecting the cables, and haven’t had a single Bad Magic since.

Ps. Don’t turn FileVault off, turn off most Energy Saving etc. Those things are pretty much the go-to solutions to all Mac problems nowadays but won’t help at all.

I'm running a 28tb DAS syncing with other NAS 24/7 and no problems tied to big file transfers via usb-c on a MBP15 2019.

What triggers the bad magic juju is the sleep-wake mode with any usb-c device connected. Once i disabled all energy savings that exist and never closed the lid, my crash rate dropped by 98%. I still get some random instability from time to time, but that's rare if respect "the ritual".

A real shame... I'm waiting to get a secondary work unit to send this one back to Apple.

Here is an update on my end.

I had originally posted about my 2018 13” Macbook pro running Catalina. I went ahead and reset my computer to factory settings and then added software one by one. I have not had a crash for two months.

Some context: My crashes occurred whenever I had two monitors connected. I would let the MBP go to sleep and then when I tried to wake it up from sleep, I would get the Bad Magic error. Again, it has stopped since I installed Catalina from scratch. I now can run my two monitors without any issues, in addition to a 8gb external hd.

Here is the crazy thing, at work, I have a 2018 15” Macbook Pro with similar specs. The only difference is that I have Mojave installed. That one just started experiencing the Bad Magic crash but under the name Bridge OS crash!! It is sooooo odd!!