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

Same issue on my side. Getting the error on a regular base. My 2018 MacBook Pro (i9, 32GB, Vega20) is plugged in a Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro connected to 10GB and a 4K monitor. Before this error message I already had issues with the machine... What happened to the reliability of Apple computers??? I can't recall any issues with my MacBook Pro 15 from 2013 or 2014....

One more addition. The error seems to be happening when the machine is sleeping. Never happened to me while it was actually in use. Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter is switched off.

I have a Mac mini doing the same thing. Took it to the  Store and they wiped the machine and reinstalled Catalina. Brought the computer back home and within 15 minutes the Mac Mini had shut down again and the BAD Magic error was showing up.

Called  Care and they are setting up a replacement computer.

I know someone earlier said that this was a hardware issue but, I believe it is a peripheral issue. (Touch Bar, multiple screens, etc..)

Goodness! The same thing is happening to me. I purchased two 32" HP monitors to have a dual monitor set up, and ever since, I have been experiencing the same issue! Although, I turned off nap time and wake for network access and it did not crashed for 2.5 days.

2018 MPB Touchbar 16gb RAM and 512gb SSD

That is correct! It is the issue I am experiencing. With me, it only happens when the laptop is left plugged to two monitors and to the power cord. If I unplug it from the monitors, the MBP works fine.

I purchased a new 13" macbook pro 2.8ghz i7 /16gb/ 1Tb in November. Machine came with Catalina. Used migration assistant to move my data from my early 2015 MBP running Mojave. I have a 3rd party docking station with two monitors at my work desk. The migration went fine and everything seemed to work...until I hooked the MBP up to my docking station at work. After working for awhile from the docking station, I put the MBP to sleep and left the office. Upon returning, I woke the machine up and discovered it had restarted. Got the BAD MAGIC message. It now happens almost every time I put the machine to sleep and wake it up on the docking station. It has now happened when the MBP is in sleep mode off of the docking station. I guess from reading this thread, I have no choice but to go to the Apple store and get this replaced. I have had this machine for one month and have suffered through multiple daily BAD MAGIC restarts. I haven't been so disappointed in an Apple product since my Titanium Powerbook that lost physical connection to the battery due to the frame flexing every time I picked it up.

Same happened to me on Macbook Pro 16-inch while I was editing in Final Cut Pro X. Apple support suggested erasing everything and reinstalling MacOS, I had issues erasing the ssd tough, but it finally succeeded and guess what? Those kernel panics happened again even after I reinstalled MacOS. It would just freeze and then turn off. I replaced that model and now today (December 20), it happened again on it's own while it had no opened apps and I wasn't even touching it. I don't know if it froze, but it just started spinning fans fast for a sec and then rebooted and I got that same crash log message. Apple doesn't seem to be bothered though, I have to sit there without using my accessories, deleting apps, and reinstalling Mac OS to figure out what the issue is. Thank you Apple.

The problem is that at first, I thought it happened because of Final Cut Pro X, then I thought maybe updating to 10.15.1 would solve the issue, nope it happened many times during the update, then I reinstalled MacOS, it happened again during Final Cut, then they replaced it, now it happened again while I wasn't doing anything on it. I'm trying to provide as much information as possible for Apple, I still hope they would care or gave us information on what is wrong, maybe they won't because it's a hardware issue (let's hope it's not).

Just received a new 2019 Macbook Pro 16" on Monday and this has been happening every day. Mostly in the middle of the night while I'm asleep, or while I'm out, but it just happened while I was using it. Did the same thing. Froze, even the touch pad was totally unresponsive, then fans loud for a second, then reboot. So, doesn't seem much point in my reinstalling OS or whatever other pointless, time consuming things Apple Support would have me do, eh?

I'd say they are but this is such a clusterhump all they can do is watch and despair at their own lack of testing and macOS engineering team. You couldn't say they have those teams when errors most users find within minutes of using the system are showing up en masse.

So now apple have waves of refunds for "no reason", since the reissued macbooks suffer the same error.

What's worse, is older machines can downgrade but 2019 16" macbook pros are stuck with Catalina, so there's no way out of this nightmare.

Considering most professional workflows involve over 10 steps, and 1-2 of those steps trigger a freeze & restart (especially if one of those steps involves leaving your computer to render), it basically makes any professional work on this system impossible.

I've spent $7000 to refund the first and spend 2 weeks debugging the second.

My ultimate solution so far has been to install windows 10 pro under bootcamp, then install the popular 3rd party 'bootcamp drivers'. Now I'm playing Halo: Master Chief Collection at 4K enhanced graphics 60fps and can also do some professional work, leave the computer on for 3 days without restart (haven't tested longer).

So when that's my experience in bootcamp, I'm looking straight at apple here in regards to macOS. What. The. Duck.

Your customers aren't your testing team, not testing is wasteful to the environment (users get stuck in a return loop until they get a machine that "works"), and a computer system comprises a functional arrangement of hardware and a FUNCTIONAL operating system. Failure to provide either of these means you're not selling a computer, your selling a pile of expensive junk and WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME.

I can't even imagine how much money Apple wasted, I replaced my MacBook Pro 16-inch and yesterday same thing happened again (apple support calls it a kernel panic), it's been 2 months and Apple doesn't seem to be bothered at all. By the way Genius Bar didn't even bother to get more information from me about what happened, literally I entered the store and all I said that it has kernel panics and they immediately brought a replacement for me. Good service! Apple really shows that they don't care about their customers, but it's fine.... It won't be a problem for me to switch to a Windows based machines, at least it looks like they care about customers more than shoving their pockets with money.

Hello.

I am owner of MacBook Pro 16" since few days. It is BTO configuration with i9 CPU. I following this thread since friday when I had exatcly the same issue with "Bad magic" crash. It was happen when computer was in idle state (screen was on) and I back to him and try to use. Everything was frozen even the touch pad and then after few seconds fans starts on the full speed and computer was restarted. After all I seen the "Bad magic raport". I was little panic but I call Apple Support, explain eveything and they suggest me to start safe mode, reset SMC and NVRAM. I also send the screen from crash, they create the thread and suggest to observe machine.

Currently everything is fine. I have left my computer in sleep mode for whole night and half of day and I did not notice any crash after that. Will see in next few days.

I gues guys that you had those crashes few times per day even after replace your units? I have read on few forums that this crash is caused by 'serious hardware issue' and need to be replaced. But come on.. I have BTO model, you guys replaced your machines and still have those crashes. So right now I want to keep mine and observe it. As far as I remember I had this issue once on my 2018 15" BTO model but not sure if with the same crash log.

Same issue here, with a new 16”. It crashes randomly when I leave the laptop unattended, every day or two - I come back and it has shut down, “BAD MAGIC!” error when I restart.

I returned mine, and plan to wait until the issue has been fixed before I buy again. My 2013 MacBook Pro is still a reliable workhorse with a great keyboard. (but I already miss the 16’s speakers, and ability to use an iPad as a second display)

Looks like it’s not a hardware issue tough because many reported having those issues on old machines when they updated to Catalina. And I replaced my MacBook Pro 16-inch when I had those issues, month later, before yesterday, it happened again and so far 2 days later didn’t occur again. Apple’s quality control just went down the drain this year. Motion 5 has many bugs, final cut pro x also has bugs, Touch Bar has bugs, there are so many bugs.

Check your T2 model. J680AP seems to be the faulty one...

It seems that Apple has manufactured two kinds of _MacBookPro15,1_. One of them has J680AP T2 processor, which is distributed to the market at least before April 2019.  The other one has J780AP T2 processor, which should be distributed after that. 

It's not hard to find your T2 model:

Open file

/private/var/log/install.log

with Console App and search for

project = BridgeOSInstall

bridgeOS prepare summary: 16P6568 -> 16P6571, update = 16.16.6571.0.0, brain = 16.16.6571.0.0, variant = com.apple.bridgeOSCustomer, macOS = 18G87 (customer), project = BridgeOSInstall-56.4, userAuth = 0, prod fused = 1, model = j680ap, client = SoftwareUpdate, retries = 0