MacBook Pro bricked after failed Big Sur update 😵 ⚰️

Hello guys

I will revisit the Genius Bar in Düsseldorf, Germany to pickup my unresponsive MacBook Pro 2013 after installing BigSur OS.

The Tech Team refused to send me a protocol about the procedures they tried out for the recovery. The only solution from their perspective is to pay 500€ and get a completely new IO Connector & Case.

What are you recommending? Should I pay this money and for a downgrade to the Catalina OS and a Firmware Update?

Thank you!

Iulia

Hi Iulia,

500 EUR is crazy as you can buy a working used Macbook Pro for that.

Better you convince Apple to take the repair cost.

Commercially it does not make sense to pay Apple 500 EUR if you can buy a working used Macbook Pro that is newer for 500 EUR.

Kind regards from Neuss near Düsseldorf

Markus

[Edited by Moderator]

I agree with Markus. 500 EUR is just too much to pay for a problem THEY created. I would start using social media to highlight your problem and tag Apple in all posts -- until Apple responds. Good luck and sorry for your problems.

Hello!

I also agree with Markus, and I wouldn’t pay that crazy amount.

Please be aware that Apple release a new updated package for upgrading to Big Sur that now exclude 2013/14 machines suggesting Apple’s awareness of the issues affecting this machines and is actively preventing it from happening to more customers. Hopefully this will also translate into some kind of response from Apple to already affected customers.

So Ask to escalate your situation to Apple Homebase, and ask for alternative on the basis “they broke it, they fix it”, maybe if you’re lucky and can afford it they might give you a trade inn option for the new M1 chip machines.

good luck

I would not pay Apple €500 to fix an issue that they caused and obviously have yet to work out the root cause of it.

There is hope.

My mid-14 Macbook pro was dead for 2 weeks with black/grey screen. I tried every thing in the various forums with no success. I left it alone and it ran down the power to zero; not even the dead battery symbol. I had some spare time yesterday and plugged it in and charged it. This didn't take long as the battery is done! I then tried a couple of SMC resets and it sprang to life with the Apple symbol and progress bar.

The bar progressed to the end the machine tried to restart but got stuck on grey screen again. I did some more SMC resets and eventually got the Apple symbol and progress bar again. Eventually, after much chugging away, the machine started, loaded with Big Sur.

This all suggests that the issue does not relate to hardware and there is no justification to charge you €500. I suspect that the issue relates to dodgy firmware or similar and that there is a software fix....see fix further above.

Apple need to get on and determine the root cause and roll this out to their "Genius" bars. Otherwise, their customers will paying for hardware fixes that they do not need.

As an aside, I had USB HDD plugged into both ports in the course of the successful SMC reset. Not sure whether this was a factor or not but always worth a try.

iulia161 wrote:

Hello guys

I will revisit the Genius Bar in Düsseldorf, Germany to pickup my unresponsive MacBook Pro 2013 after installing BigSur OS. The Tech Team refused to send me a protocol about the procedures they tried out for the recovery. The only solution from their perspective is to pay 500€ and get a completely new IO Connector & Case.

What are you recommending? Should I pay this money and for a downgrade to the Catalina OS and a Firmware Update?

Thank you!

Iulia

Please see this post towards the bottom of Page 28 of this thread:

"After handing in my macbook pro 13" late 2013 this tuesday at my local apple store in Germany with the black screen issue and telling them that unplugging the I/O-board resolves the boot issue, they reproduced the solution and escalated my problem "to Cupertino/engineering". Today on friday I got a call, that they already ordered the replacement parts (I/O-board) and will fix the issue free of charge until the mid of next week. I hope this information is helpful."

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-big-sur-update-bricking-some-older-macbook-pro-models.2268438/page-28

Thank you very much, guys!

It is an incredible support - thank you for all the messages. I will share my result after I visit the Apple Genius Bar is Düsseldorf.

I really hope Apple respect his customers/users who were trustful and supporting even in times when the company wasn’t doing so well as right now.

Thanks!

Iulia

So just had the strangest thing happen.

See my earlier post but in the main MB Pro bricked, not stuck on install as some people have had no logo no chime no ability to recover. Calls to apple support and the a trip to the apple store where they said they'd fix it for £500. Followed by an official complaint

Picked it up today and was planning to run the battery down as someone found a workaround with this, the machine came on black screen then the apple logo came on asked for my login and started install!!! was not expecting that. I'm letting the install run rather than trying to reboot in to recovery its got 25 mins left i will let you know how it goes.

But if you've left your mac for a week like I have, try it again just in case.

KevKir this is almost what happened to me. I had the black screen with a logo but the bar not moving for days on charge past a 3rd way through. I put it in recovery but had not time to recover my data. Accidentally lost battery power and upon charging, the installation process burst into life and all is well.

I took the gamble to upgrade the other half’s MBP, which I think is late 2013 or early 2014 and painstakingly sat through the upgrade. I can see why an unattended install (which by the way has worked fine all these years since new ownership) is such a problem and likely the MBP falling asleep whilst connected to the power outlet is a concern. Attended restarts and logs in I thinks about 3 times which I don’t ever recall in the past.

Sounds familiar. Same situation in Perth, Australia. It’s like dealing with a different company. I needed a computer so bought an HP Envy laptop — had absolutely no intention of switching back to PCs but needed a working computer. Flabbergasted and stunned Apple aren’t owning this problem and apologising.

Very odd. The comforting thing however is it appears a battery drain and recharge kicked our installation back into life. Really hope it helps others. Reading all the $500 repair costs would cause me to go DIY too

I also managed to get my Macbook Pro Mid 20014 to continue the installation after being completely dead for several days. The installation finished and everything was running smoothly. Just until first restart. Then it was totally bricked again. What eventually helped me was a new IO board, which I had replaced at a local repair shop for, equivalent of, 70 usd.

I have the same issue.

A week ago I was using my Macbook Pro (running Catalina, if I remember correctly) as normal when suddenly it said it encountered an error and needed to restart. It never did. Loading bar, apple logo, but then nothing. It would load 90% of the bar fine but the last 10% would take a long time, and when it finally reached the full bar, nothing happened.

I had to pay $200 to get as much data pulled from it as I could (not all of it was saved), and then I was able to get it to launch back into Mojave. But some of the files I have were saved in newer versions of software - software I couldn't even re-download from Mojave due to the issue with the AppStore - so I backed up everything onto an external HD and then went to update the software back to Catalina. And it wouldn't finalize. Can't save to disk, can't find this, can't restore that. WTF?

I started in recovery mode but running First Aid doesn't fix anything, I can't boot from my external HD backup, trying to reinstall to Mojave doesn't work, and now I'm back to being unable to even start up my laptop. What in all **** is going on with this? Granted, I've never experienced this issue with Macs before, but the attempted auto-update to Big Sur has effectively ruined my laptop, unless I'm forced to work only in Mojave moving forward (and thus not have access to a number of my files).

Is Apple going to buy me a new computer for the trouble? Of course not.

I tried all the key combinations possible - recommended by Apple Support.

I cannot go further - the blue screen persists. It seems to be a hardware issue.

Next week I will try to reach out the apple genius bar in Düsseldorf, Germany again. This time with a case number from Apple Support.

It seems that going to apple genius bar on your own will not bring much. The guys over-there will not report anything to Apple - at least this is my current experience in Duesseldorf, Germany .

They don’t feel responsible/ or in charge to report this issue further. It looks like a management problem there. This is what the manager Tobias (probably a nickname, he wasn’t wearing any badge) - from Apple Shop Genius bar Düsseldorf told me: „ I am not responsible for customer satisfaction“. :)

Take care!

Since I only what to escalate this problem - I will at least try to make sure that Apple is aware of this issue and can start taking care of it.

Hi all,

I have also a MBP 15'' late 2014 (16GBRAM, 256GB, etc...). I have not installed yet the Big Sur update because I'm used to wait a few days.....and then I saw rumors abut this, so I decided not to install it.

I am in Spain, and I haven't heard any concern about this problems from any other spaniard, nor I've seen (at least until 3 days ago) any information regarding this issue, and I think is so important it should be taken into account here.

My question are: Is the problem currently solved?, I mean, with any latest update -11.0.1- the problem still happens?. Which are the exactly models affected?

I guess Apple has not recognised the error yet, so my best bet is still reading this post until there is guarantee an installation won't convert my MBP (which I'm really happy with) in a MacBrick.

Thanks!.