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

I give up ... now that I have the 4th MacBook Pro 16 "device (three replacements) fully equipped.

That is not possible.

I tried a lot/everything... over several weeks = no chance that the MacBook Pro 16" works reliably in conjunction with an external Thunderbolt display (not Apple Thunderbolt Display and not Apple Pro Display XDR).

I keep my Apple Pro Display XDR and am currently operating it with 5K on my Mac Pro (Late 2013)... until Apple can deliver a working MacBook Pro 16".

=== German ==

Ich gebe auf... nachdem ich jetzt das 4. Gerät (dreimaliger Austausch) des MacBook Pro 16" in Vollausstattung habe.

Das geht so gar nicht.

Ich habe vieles/alles versucht... über etliche Wochen hinweg = keine Chance, dass das MacBook Pro 16" in Verbindung mit einem externen Thunderbolt Display (nicht Apple Thunderbolt und nicht Pro Display XDR) zuverlässig funktioniert.

Mein Pro Display XDR behalte ich und betreibe es derzeit mit 5K an meinem Mac Pro (Late 2013)… bis Apple ein funktionierendes MacBook Pro 16" liefern kann.

I have a MBP 13” that I bought in November of 2019. Since day one it has restarted randomly with the BAD Magic error. This MBP does not have Automatic graphics switching. This unit restarts almost exclusively when it is in sleep mode. I have had it happen while attached to a dock with two monitors and while the laptop is detached from the dock. The frequency has slowed over the past few weeks, but it happens a couple times a week.

By the way if anyone is curious, it happened same way as previously - after opening the lid from sleep. No apps were opened, froze for 5-10 seconds, fans were spinning fast for a sec, turned off, and turned back on. Log appeared.

Sooooo, after three weeks of flawless operations, my replacement macbook pro 16 did it again. Freeze upon waking up from sleep with iPhone 11 connected and on battery power, high-rev fan spin, crash, and the dreadful Bad Magic message upon reboot. Contacting Apple support tomorrow, really ****** that there is still no fix for this!

I have faced with the exact shameless act for my two computers. After talking to some 11 representatives and numerous genius bar visits per each mac, only then could I get the units replaced.

Don’t think replacing solves the issue in a guaranteed fashion. The protocol is there. They reject the existance of this issue.

This is what this company has become...

This is exact behavior I got from the dutch customer care support APPLE! When I confronted him asking "how come you can't find any issue about it in your database he got offended that I am doubting his technical ability" :P :P They are all useless. If my replacement also has this problem i will return it and get my old macbook display fixed

Personally, I purchased an imac “pro” and a macbook “pro” with the following mindset.

• These are professional grade units with professional support ( Accused of schizophrenia, because I said there is a thing called as Bad Magic. Last time I checked I did not code Catalina!)
• They play along well with peripherals (Magically and terribly mistaken. Plug an HDD - Apple’s solution do not plug, plug an external monitor- Apple’s solution: do not plug an external monitor)
• Reliable and durable ( ha! Bad Magic )
• I am paying more for the same performance because of all above. ( Is there anything left above?)

We all need to visit mental hospital according to Apple. Because they are doing all this for “customer satisfaction” not that we are experiencing this issue but rather we are spoiled adults who want to call Apple for replacements.

It is impressive that a company that size acts this way! I would respect them way more if they just said, we know this is an issue, but we are still looking into it and can't recommend a permanent solution right now. Perhaps try this and this, would you like us to reach out to you once we get to the bottom of this issue?

Instead, they just order their tech support to play dumb with us and utterly waste our time with that sharade.

THis is also my second unit, my first one went into a boot loop after 30 and got replacement the next day.

The second unit works good, it is 1 month now and no crash, i still think the cpu temperatures are odd. One time it did something strange, screen didnt turn on, but i didnt get any forced shutdown error or error log at all. This is my info, i think the first unit was the same:

localbridge      iBridge2,14  J152fAP  4.2 (17P2551/17.16.12551.0.0,0)

I have connected all 4 usb c - power, 4k LG monitor with usbc to hdmi cable, and 2x dongles

It is a systemic perk, they basically have to prepare another invoice for the new unit. So this puts you in a category of someone who got a new unit. (Get 1 year of Apple TV+ free when you buy an Apple device.)

Why is this important? I hate to say but THEY DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR “BAD MAGIC”.

My Macbook Pro is very unstable and I'm running iBridge with 13050:

iBridge2,3   J680AP   4.2 (17P3050/17.16.13050.0.0,0)

For me the crashes happens during normal browser activity, or when in sleep mode.

It means : return to square one.

For documentation i join a screenshot of yesterday Bad Magic instant reboot after doing, nothing. Look at those gorgeous lines : T° is still 100° / Cores maxed out / Frequencies locked at 5 and then 3ghz for a moment... (MBP15 / 2019)

My 16" had been stable for over a month but yesterday, bad magic returned and recurred about every hour for several hours. I updated to 10.15.3 and it worked for about an hour, then crashed again so that does not fix it for my unit. It crashes even when I'm just have a static webpage on the screen and no music, video or other UI interaction happening.

So something that could be related to this happened. My replacement MBP16 (10.15.1) only had the Bad Magic crash once, upon waking up, after a month of smooth operations.

But since, I had this "rebooting instead of waking up" crash twice, only these times I got a log entry upon restart, pasted below:

I don't know if this can help anyone make more sense of it. I thought it could be related since for my machine it's the exact same symptoms/context as the Bad Magic crashes after sleeping.

Bad Magic!

Just happened to me for the first time.

1 second fan rev then it rebooted. Only things plugged in to the USB ports were the power adaptor & Beats Pro headphone case. It had just woken from sleep.

Is there an official fix yet ? Brand new computer, I've only had it for a couple months.

I have a live streaming situation I do once a week....this CAN NOT happen in the middle of that :(

PLUS, with the money I spent on this thing...shouldn't have to deal with it at all.

...doesn't sound like the issue has been resolved on the software side of things.

Should I go straight for a replacement unit since I'm under warranty ?