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

Brand new MacBook Pro 2019 2 ports.

2 “Bad Magic” total freezes. Had a USB C hub plugged in. Took out, seemed fine.

yesterday was using an OFFICIAL APPLE USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter on an external HD and in the middle of using Lightroom 2020 on photos that were on the external HD, the screen froze half of it went black (the bottom half). I should’ve taken a picture with iPhone.

it shut itself off after 10 seconds.

At reboot the Lightroom archive I was working on doesn’t work. Got corrupted by the freeze/panic

There goes 8 hours of work out the window.

get your crap together Apple

Hey guys...I'm wondering if this BAD MAGIC bug is a problem related to machines in the US-Market. I'm quite active in the german community and there is no word about it.

Could you specify your location (roughly) ?

Update from me:

I am in Spain: first machine got replaced after 1 day, the second one it works looks like so, didnt have a single freeze or reboot.

I did turn off safe boot, and all secudity features from system pref., also running constantely on Raden gpu. I am also not migrating old system out of precausion because frist time i migrated and one program had to trigger BAD MAGIC right on the boot up.

I have noticed 1 thing, i dont know if its an issue or not with i9. Computer is runing quite hot, cpu is 98% idle and temperate of CPU is between 50-60, it has occasional spikes to 90+ for just a second and goes back to 60 without fans responding much. I have now installed temperature monitoring app and set up vents controlled by app not the system anymore. Anyone has insights into temperatures also ?

I'm also from Spain and has the reboot crash problem, but since I turned off the FileVault it's crash free (6 days already). My MacBook Pro 16 is also an i9, I use iStats and haven't seen high temperatures problems like you mention, only if I use a big project I work in on Xcode fans and temperatures get high, certainly I have been on vacations so I hadn't pushed my computer too much yet.

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.

Hi, I just bought 2 days ago a 16 inch macbook pro with i7 and AMD5500 8gb. The first day I plugged the computer in, used it for a while and closed the screen and went to bed. In the morning as soon as i opened the mac it froze, fan sped up for a second and BAD MAGIC! kernel panic occured... Do you still think that i should go issue a refund and wait until they definitely fix the issue, or will it take so much time that it's better off keeping this machine?

Personally, I would return it and wait until there is an official response from Apple on this matter, or find out if it was fixed after the release of MacOS 10.15.3. No one yet knows if it's a hardware or a software issue, unfortunately.... I mean if you have time to wait to find out what's the issue.

Let's see...

Did you install Parallels Desktop 15 with Windows 10?

When I run Parallels, I always have that Bad Magic... if Parallels isn't running, so it's finished, my MacBook Pro 16" and Thunderbolt Display XDR will work fine.

Is this a coincidence or possibly the cause?

Honestly it depends on the frequence of usage and if it's critical for work. If your answers are heavy + yes, i would not trust any unit plagued with that error. It's maybe software fixable, but as i understand it exists since High-Sierra under another name, it's less likely to be adressed anytime soon.

My bet is that it's both hardware (T2 + Bridge) and software (HSierra / Catalina) related but Apple can't acknowledge the hardware side without a massive recall, so they'll maybe try to disable some features quietly in a future update.

I'm very curious to know the percentage of units that have that problem, because simply put it means : no sleep mode with external devices plugged in.

Hi m4de, it also occurs to me when I am currently working with the MacBook Pro 16 ", so the sleep mode is not active.

Alone, if I have not connected an external display, it works without problems so far.

In the meantime I have done some surveys and there are users with external Thunderbolt displays who confirm that your system is working perfectly.

The Apple Store in Munich also confirmed this by phone. 24 hours around the clock: MacBook Pro and Pro Display XDR everything flawlessly.

However, they only have a standard configuration for the MacBook Pro 16 ".

I myself have the full equipment of the MacBook Pro 16 "with Apple Pro Display XDR.

=== German ==

Es tritt bei mir auch auf, wenn ich gerade mit dem MacBook Pro 16" arbeite, der Ruhemodus also nicht aktiv ist.

Allein, wenn ich kein externes Display angeschlossen habe, läuft es bisher ohne Probleme.

Inzwischen habe ich einige Umfragen gemacht und es gibt Nutzer mit externen Thunderbolt Display, die bestätigen, bei Ihnen liefe es einwandfrei.

Auch der Apple Store in München hat mir telefonisch bestätigt. 24 Stunden rund um die Uhr: MacBook Pro und Pro Display XDR alles einwandfrei.

Allerdings haben die dort auch nur eine Standard-Konfiguration des MacBook Pro 16".

Ich selbst habe die Vollausstattung des MacBook Pro 16" mit Apple Pro Display XDR.

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

All in all, I feel humiliated as a consumer. ”Pay thousands of hard earned dollars, and mess with all this on your own” is not my cup of tea.

Talking all about these on this forum on our own as if we are a small number of people who got affected is wildly unreasonable.

I would also return my units back, until I hear a solid confirmation of the issue from them.

Hello - I'm from and in Switzerland. Same issues here. I have the fully loaded (maxed out specs) MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2018 with the 2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9 processor.

About 13 month ago my problems with this then brandnew device were an absolute nightmare. I spent several weeks with Apple-Hotlines and private Mac-specialized IT-services to try to solve the problems. It always freezed and/or shut down. After we completely erased everything and re-installed every single program each individually (took a sh**load of work/time) it was definitely way better afterwards. But today it crashed again as I was about to start it. Then the "BAD MAGIC..." message appeared. I never had any trouble with my MacBook stand alone. But in my environment (EIZO-Display, several Thunderbolt 2 & 3 fast external drives, powered hub, Wacom-tablet, printers and speakers...) it crashes almost every time I had it shut down the night before and want to restart. ... Not sure what the problem is. I just live with it now - I'm used to have to start it always twice beacuse it crashes the first time. While working on it I mostly don't have any problems.

Justin > summarization has been done many times in this thread. Take a quick look at the last pages you should come across the last one in an instant.

I'm in the beta users program,10.15.3 is not available at the moment. Can't wait !

For me it's the other way around: Since Parallels and Windows 10 were completely removed, my MacBook Pro 16" has been running perfectly for the second day.

With Parallels and Windows 10 that never happened.

I would be interested to know if someone is using an MBP16 together with a Thunderbolt display and installed Parallels and Windows 10 - successfully, without problems.

=== German ==

Bei mir ist es genau anders herum: Seit dem Parallels und Windows 10 vollständig entfernt wurden, läuft mein MacBook nun schon den zweiten Tag vollkommen einwandfrei.

Mit Parallels und Windows 10 gelang das niemals.

Mich würde interessieren, ob jemand ein MBP16 zusammen mit einem Thunderbolt Display und installiertem Parallels und Windows 10 — erfolgreich, ohne Probleme, im Einsatz hat.