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

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!!

I had this very same problem.

I'd had enough so took it to the nearest official Apple Support place after consulting them on Twitter.

I have the 2019 MacBook Air so it is still under the 1 year warranty period (I'd only charged it like 4 times before this issue started happening).

They ended up replacing the logic board and the finger print thing.

Now it works like it should!

Bad Magic finally stopped. My MacBook Air, that is. Dozens of random shutdowns, dozens of error reports sent to Apple. Send those error reports to Apple ... I went to the Apple store and they replaced the logic board within 3 days ... backup everything if you can while your machine is still operating ... my MacBook totally died, fully charged ... but if you’re under the one-year manufacture warranty you’re ok ... I barely made it!

I had this issue today. I reset the NVRAM / PRAM and SMC, and so far, so good. Similarities to the above issues were the 2x Samsung 4K via Thunderbolt to DisplayPort x2 and a thunderbolt hub with a bunch of accessories and peripherals.

Leading up to the intermittent shut downs were the monitors not being remembered in their positions, then, for about 3 weeks, the wifi would drop for no apparent reason, and then not reconnect. Finally, the shutdowns started yesterday.

Reseting PRAM / NVRAM and SMC are kinda old-school tricks for old-school MacBooks, but it appears, at least so far (1 hour), to have done the trick.

Reset key-combos are found here: https://macpaw.com/how-to/reset-pram-and-smc-on-your-mac

I think it could be a software problem for Catalina in conjunction with the T2 chip. Turning off FileVault fixed it for me.

I have the same setup. I bought a 16" and plugged in to my 2 x ultrafine 5k monitors, and it would crash endlessly. I took it out with me all day to work (no ultrafine monitors), and zero crashes. Back home and plugged in, and the crashing resumed. I took it back to Apple who swapped it out. I have had the replacement machine for about a week and a half and have had two of these crashes since, but far reduced since my first 16". I know that 2 x ultrafine displays was a factor with my first one.

Having the displays connected makes the fans run audibly non stop, no matter what else the machine is doing.

After apple replaced the logic board and the touch bar in my 2018 MBP, I haven't had the bad magic issue in probably a little more than 2 weeks.

that said I think there are probably multiple issues that lead to this bad magic panic. so while the hardware replacement I hope has fixed my problem, it might not be the fix for other people's problems.

unfortunately unless apple releases a software updates that allows detailed crash reports to get generated for people we might not know which things are what problem.

I would say that for anyone still under harwdware warranty to start getting apple to replace parts since that worked for me.

Exactly the same config, same year, same problems. Gladly my macOS is still pristine, no drivers / third party program or hardware installed that i could suspect. My notes for the moment, after 3 weeks of random freeze before hard reboots :

• Sleep mode with usb-c or hdmi screens seems to trigger the crash
• When the fans starts to go full steam for no reason with no program launched, the freeze + reboot is near
• Connecting an external hard-drive (usb-c Lacie 2big) seems to consolidate the crashes in sleep mode (i disabled the HD sleep, ofcourse, tested the Drive Alive mode with Amphetamine)
• I started to monitor programs and temperature activity with iStats, no real pattern visible except the hyper sensitivity to sleep mode and usb-c devices connected (screens and ext. hard-drives) those two things seems to make the kernel unstable after a while. I used Mac computers for the last 15 years and never saw such thing... At that price point it's a shame :(
• Now to be sure to have no crash during the night, i disconnect all my usb-c devices. In the morning : no crash

I don't think it's only software related, i'll keep an eye open for recalls and maybe schedule an appointment with Apple in the near future.

I posted earlier. Like sea206 above my Mac Pro 2019 "Bad Magic" issue seemed to be triggered when the machine went to sleep. In System Preferences > Energy Saver I checked "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" and I have not had another incident in 3-4 days. This may not be ideal solution for everyone but may be a workaround for some like myself until the issue is identified and addressed with an OS update.

True that's what the support guy told me in the Apple Store to turn off FileVault and that's whatt I did, but so far I didn't have any crash in 3 days already, and I use to have it everyday in my MacBook Pro 16 (except when I reset SMC and VRAM last for 4 days crash free). Anyway it's worth a shot at least for a temporary fix.

FYI. My Macbook Pro 16" Bad Magic:ed about once a day when it was connected to two external HiDPI displays via Thrunderbolt. Now I have disconnected one of them and it has only Bad Magic:ed once in 10 days.

My money is on the problem being related to Thunderbolt and/or extra displays. I do however also have Parallels installed, but it has rarely been running then I got the Bad Magic.

So far since disabling graphics card switching i have had no issues... going on three days now... and i have connected via 3rd part hub to a TV and a projector for work with no problems in this period.