installing big sur mac not starting

My wife's 13" Retina MacBook Pro (late 2013, Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM) is also stuck at a black/blank* screen during the upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur. The machine can be turned off by holding down the power-button, which makes the screen turn off (i.e. completely black), but when it's turned on again (i.e. pressing the power-button) the screen goes back to being black/blank.

I have tried resetting the SMC and the NVRAM, but this doesn't change anything.

Any bright suggestions?

* No image is displayed, but you can tell that the panel isn't off, as it is when the machine is powered off.

I spoke to Apple Support this morning and went thru the standard reset/recovery combinations but unsuccessful. My case has been escalated to "Engineering" and was told that I should hear something next Tues/Wed and will share that info. Good luck to everyone!

Mid 2014 MacBook Pro Retina

Note Apple has published a support document for those of you having install/boot issues with 2013-2014 13" MacBook Pros:

If you can’t install macOS Big Sur on certain 13-inch MacBook Pro computers from 2013 and 2014 - Apple Support

What I observe is that local Apple shop representatives and central Apple support staff do react differently

on these cases. I read about the following variations:

• The guy in Dubai store that got the i/o board replaced for approx. 100 USD
• The lady in the Düsseldorf shop and several others that got an offer of approx. 500 USD for Logic board replacement
• One guy in Germany that got an i/o board replacement free of charge.
• Another guy from Germany, I read on a Facebook forum that got the Apple support to admit its a i/o board issue,

where the support said they do not get spare parts for vintage hardware and they offered to potentially replace the MBP with another one but is waiting for their final offer.

To me handling these issues in such different ways seems wierd.

I updated my MacBook Pro and it is now bricked it won’t boot anymore and I have lost thousands of dollars worth of music. Being that I am a Dj this has completely shut down my only source of income until I can purchase a new laptop and try and get all of the music off of my MacBook. This was my back up being that all my accounts are tied to this laptop I have no other way to access all of my music.

Same issue for me..Late 2013 MacBook Pro that was working fine prior to the Big Sur update. Nothing works, no chime, no keystroke combination to reset PRAM or recovery mode will work.

Will try to replace the logic board tomorrow but this is terrible!

Same thing happened to me. Macbook Air 11" . Hasswell i5 (2013?)

After trying to update to Big Sur , I left it for several hours on "less than 1 minute remaining", but it did not finish after 6 hours, after powering it off and on, the problem came up.

reset NVRAM, reset SMC, internet recover... doesnt matter the keys you press, the screen just lights up and I hear the "ching" sound, but nothing is ever shown.

This issue is also affecting my MacBook Pro (13-inch Retina Late 2013) with Intel Core i7-4558U @ 2.80 GHz and 8 GB of RAM. However, it only happens when my MacBook Pro is connected to my Apple Thunderbolt Display and I boot it up. Black screen.

If the Apple Thunderbolt Display is not connected, it boots normally and works fine. If I connect the display after it boots up, it works fine. The issue only emerges when the Apple Thunderbolt Display is connected to my MacBook Pro and it tries to boot up (or restart with the display attached).

So, the Apple Thunderbolt Display causes the issue for me when it's connected to my Late 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro. Otherwise working fine here.

Hello,

I had the same problem on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13', mid 2014) with a Clean installation of Big Sur. But I had a new 512 GB SSD from Samsung which I wanted to install since weeks to get more space. I did this today and could then start the installation of BigSur again. It ran without any problems and I am writing from my freshly installed system.

Greets

i have a MacBook Air 13' and I have the same problem. I'm updating to macOS Big Sur and the screen stops in black and nothing happens. I try to enter em recovery mode, etc and my Mac is still killed. What I have to do? I'm anxious about this

MacBook pro 2013, black screen, try all the advice , reset NVRAM, rest smc, boot in recovery mode, the keyboard seem not responding, support told me to bring the Mac back for Hardware assistant.

Apple shop closed due to covid in Belgium!!!!! blocked cannot work!

thanks

Same on MBP late 2018, after 3 calls to support also sent to repair!? because of a software upgrade!? SSD all non upgradable architecture should translate into reliability, right? I guess not...new silicone sounds great but this issue really makes me skeptical...

Expecting troubles from Apple on my MBP late 2013 as I had with the upgrade to Catalina I chose to do it different with a CLEAN Big Sur install.

Big Sur works flawless so far! This is what I did.

-Download Big Sur from App store

-Make a Bootable USB with Big Sur on it with Terminal command (Google how to do this exactly)

Obviously if your mac doesn’t boot you will need to do the above steps on another mac.

I continued with:

-Reset NVRAM

-Start in recovery mode

-Open Disk Utility and erase internal SSD completely. (You should have an external backup, otherwise don’t...)

-Boot MBP from the bootable USB and install Big Sur.

Of course all the settings have to be done manually again.

Hopefully this can help you.

Thanks for the tip. It also worked here. The macbook was stuck on the black screen. I pushed the on/off button till it switched of. I pushed then the shift button and ON button the same time. After that the mac continued installing and everything worked again.

The same thing happened to me, it has been a complete nightmare installation! My MacBook Pro got stuck trying to install Big Sur, even after leaving it for hours. I then contacted support who suggested booting my laptop in safe mode, but safe mode didn't work. Then, they claimed I had a hardware issue and have to bring my laptop into the Genius Bar for support. The earliest appointment is 6 days later! At the time, I didn't have a working laptop at all after the Big Sur install nightmare.

I contacted support again and they suggested I restore from a Time Machine backup. I had to reinstall the Catalina OS multiple times and the first restore didn't bring back any of my music or photos. I then restored and was missing my Photos library. I am now on my 3rd attempt to restore from a Time Machine backup all due to Big Sur and each time it takes hours because I have almost 1TB of data backed up.

I have been speaking to Apple Support for 3 days now.

I'm definitely staying away from Big Sur and still have an appointment on Saturday at the Apple Store to deal with whatever hardware issue I now I have because of Big Sur!