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

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.

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.

sea206 : I tried what you did and it worked for a few weeks, after that the kernel panics resumed as usual with external devices + sleep mode.

Test of the moment : another thing that seems to reduce crashes is to keep the fan at medium / high speed* to avoid the sudden flash overheating that happen always right before the "Bad Magic" reboot. (MBP users can feel it right above the touch bar when a crash happen, this zone is very hot and after reboot the CPU temp is around 100°, the unit is still unstable at this point)

* with the help of iStatMenus App

That's a good question and the answer is tied to the real world configuration of your office people computers, that thing, none of us here can check.

I worked with my unit (MBP15 2019) for 4 month everyday without any problem, how ? The devil is in the small details, i only used it traveling with just a mouse and a small external hard drive. After that time i used it as my main computer with 2 usb-c screens and a Lacie DAS, and then, only then all **** broke loose. If you read my past posts in this thread you know the rest of the story...

So if you want to answer your own question and have time, here is a quick check list of tests you can do :

• Randomly select a couple of computers that have a T2 chip. It means they where built and sold after 2018.
• Check those computers have MacOS Catalina (any version is ok)
• Be sure to have at least 1 or 2 screens connected to it and another external usb-c device (hub or harddrive, something that draw power from the unit)
• Let it have a normal day of work or at least some CPU action
• Put it in sleep mode for the night (no power off) - screens must stay connected and will shut off automaticaly
• Next morning, move a mouse or press a key : here you wake the unit and will propably have the dreaded reboot, let us know.

All parts of this test are mandatory if you want a thorough result. As far as i understand this bug, T2chip+Bridge and software power management are the culprit.

Shreyas, can you please check and share two things for me?

1) Make a list of your friends’ and your unit’s t2 chip hardware and software version (Go to terminal and type the following)

/usr/libexec/remotectl list

2) Any peripheral that you use specifically and different than others in your office.

Once again all of my own findings indicate this is a hardware issue. In the root of the cause lies the t2 chip, because never ever before had anyone tried to put a supervisor chip (t2 is ARM based) in between the data pipeline and the Intel chip which uses a completely different command set and language.

My replacement iMac Pro is running the exact same version. iBridge2,1   J137AP   4.2 (17P3050/17.16.13050.0.0,0) Mine had gotten into an infinite boot loop after numerous kernel panics.

You could try the following:

Revive T2 

firmware in Mac computers in Apple Configurator

Revive firmware in Mac computers in Apple Configurator

I do a lot of Apple repairs and the constant I keep seeing with this issue are Thunderbolt accessories like monitors and docking stations.

I keep finding personally that this issue relates to something with the thunderbolt 3 buses. Its not a logic board or graphic card issue as replacing them doesn't change the symptoms. It could be a software issue that releases to thunderbolt 3, but so far there has not been a good solve for it. If it was the T2 chip then turning off SIP and removing security restrictions should help ease this, which I also don't see resolving the symptoms. When I send in my BAD MAGIC crash log to apple I try to always add my computer specs, as well as my thunderbolt peripherals attached at the time, and I attach my email address in hopes the engineers reach out to actually try to solve this, but alas still no communication or resolve.

Just happened to me last night. 1st time (Only time-So far). My post is ^ 1 er 2 above your's.

Also a 2019 16" Macbook Pro.

I hope it's not as bad as this thread makes it sound :/ I don't seem to have as much trouble as others, yet anyway.

Maybe I'm being naive ??

...but I chatted with Apple last night. They had me do a SMC Re-set. The tech seemed to know what prob I was talking about right away....and was confident in the fix. Here's the instruction link >> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

My only concern is this thread....if a permanent fix was as easy as that....why all the trouble ?

There's folks on here having to have their computers rebuilt ... maybe I'm being led down the primrose path ? I'm not sure ?

..but it hasn't happened to me again/since.