MacBook Pro bricked after failed Big Sur update 😵 ⚰️

It sounds like you interrupted the install process, and now it's checking - bit by bit - what has been completed so that it can install the balance of the OS.

My install froze almost right before it finished installing. I left it overnight and in the morning it was in the same place. So I rebooted and it took a while to find where it left off at, but then it finished the install and now everything is fine.

First of all just because the screen is 'black' doesn't mean your computer is bricked, or that it's not installing code in the background. I'm seeing a lot of people who come across the black screen and they suddenly panic, and reboot or interrupt the install process in other ways. You're only making things worse.

Big Sur is not just an upgrade to 10.x.x, it is a completely rewritten set of code for a whole new generation of Macs to come, so it's going to take some time to install it. Installing on a external hard drive might be the quickest way to get your Mac back up and running, and then you can go back and figure out what is wrong with the current install that you're having problems with.

Hi My Apple8MyPC,

Thanks for letting me know that my Macbook Pro is not bricked and the suggestion that I install to an external hard drive. I have a hard drive plugged into a Macbook pro (not bricked) with a black/grey screen. As you are an expert, can you advise what I do next to install to the external hard drive?

Also, you appear to have ignored your own expert advice on all these non-bricked machines and interrupted your install before it was finished.

My laptop has been broken by an Apple recommended software upgrade, which is something I have never come across in over 30 years of Microsoft and Apple updates. Apple really need to step up to the plate and sort it out. Hiding behind the word "vintage", which now appears to be corporate policy is not acceptable.

Yes GlasgowRoss, I ignored my own advice because as a responsible computer user I actually have a backup of my system. If anything would have happened I simply would have reinstalled the backup, and the computer would be back up and running, so I wasn't worried. Did you have a backup of your computer system before you installed Big Sur?

I agree with you that Apple should step up, and I feel that they are working on a solution. These things take some time to sort out, that's just the nature of weeding through code.

I am sorry but Apple has not. ;)

Apple „updated“ this page on November 17th, yes. But if you compare the site to for example international versions of it, or you archive.org, you will find that this particular site was already there before the final version of macOS Big Sur was even released.

Apple just added the information regarding the black screen for the M1 chip on November 17th, but the update is not related to the problem some people are describing. This behavior happened prior and can also probably happen in the future with different updates.

Hi,

Yes I have a back up of my system. But I have no way of restoring it due to my entirely unresponsive computer. A bit like my response to install from an external HDD.

The affected machines are totally BRICKED despite your suggestion otherwise.

I reset my MacBookPro 2010 4 GB ram because it was getting slow. It asked for reinstalling the software.. So I clicked yes. It said the software will be updated (Nothing wrong with it..I thought)

So I let it.. A couple of hours later I realised, it had a black screen and was non responsive. Tried pressing the on / off button, nothing happened. It's been like that since then. Then I read about the Big Sur Update and the issues.

Now I am left with a dead machine. I had nothing attached to it.

☹️

Restoring from a HD, and booting up from a HD, are two totally separate things. Are you saying that you have no access to System Preferences?

Also, a "bricked" machine cannot be repaired.

A non-responsive machine is not necessarily bricked.

Apple, traditionally, will not say anything about any given situation. They will simply, behind the scenes, find a solution, and then release it.

Saying your machine is "bricked" is misusing the term. While your computer might be currently unusable, that does not mean that in the future a solution won't be found to get it up and running again.

Update: I just restarted MacBook and it fixed itself.

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My MacBook Pro 2015 (A1502), also stacked on the black screen after the upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur.

Googeling solutions and people say:

"The only way out of this for me was to login into Recovery MacOS (by keeping cmd+r pressed during reboot), then format the Macintosh HD (inside Disco Utility) and finally re-install Big Sur (again from Recovery MacOS). The main drawback is that all my apps (either purchased or downloaded for free) were erased by Hard-Disk formatting."

I am glad I took a backup of my data before the upgrade. Always do your backups, make it a habit.

Just an update with my MacBook Retina 12” 2015. It’s been plugged in, SMC reset yesterday around this time. It’s been going from warm to hot back to warm throughout the last 24hours but still nothing on the screen though it seems the CPU is processing something and definitely is not idle but what it’s doing I have no clue! Tried other things with Apple support but none of that worked.

This is a hot topic right now. My MacBook Air also bricked with the update. Blank screen, no start up disc, no ability to recover anything. This is a terrible, inconvenient, and untrustworthy experience. My MacBook worked fine until the install. Any news on what Apple may do to remedy this dilemma?

Apple, come on. The 2013 and 2014 macbooks are vintage, that is not your fault. My eight your old Thinkpad got broken because of an overheated grafic chipset. But there is a big difference between your hardware and Lenovo. It took me half an our to order a new mainboard because spares are easy to get.

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My MacBook Pro 2015 was completely corrupted and ruined during the Big Sur installation. After the update the MacBook hits at the black screen, the Apple Supports have no idea after trying several diagnositc steps in almost two hours, all Apple stores online appointments are full in next several weeks due to the COVID. Please DO NOT update the macos.

I was on the support chat for 20 minutes explaining everything I had tried and was told to try one more thing.... after rebooting and rejoining I was told that my Vintage MBP wasn't entitled to chat support and that I would have to phone up (which is always fun trying to get an English speaker on the German support line)

the chat agent signed off with:

"I want to thank you for being the best part of Apple, and a 5 star (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) customer! Have a fantastic rest of your day"

WTF!! thanks for that. Now I will start again on the phone....