MacBook Pro bricked after failed Big Sur update 😵 ⚰️

While my clean install of Big Sur via USB drive on my MacBook Pro 2018 went without any Problems, I had my own little adventure when updating to Big Sur beta 4 and 5 this summer. After this Big Sur beta install the Macbook was not able to play certain videos anymore, for example any video on twitter. I thought ok, it's a beta, this can happen, I just go back to Catalina, so I did a fresh reinstall of Catalina. But the video problem persisted. After some research I read somewhere that the T2 chip got promoted to handle videos on Big Sur. And since the Big Sur update also updated the T2 chip I figured that this T2 chip is the culprit. At the end I had to downgrade the T2 chip with Apple Configurator 2 utility with the help of my Mac mini 2018 with Catalina installed. It is very important that both Macs, host and target, have the same OS otherwise the T2 downgrade might brick the T2 chip beyond recovery. But thankfully it worked out fine for me. Not sure if this helps with the black screen problem here.

Haha classic...

While what's happened is a terrible Apple's mistake. I still don't understand what people thought when they worked as software testers _for free_. In fact, new operation systems rarely have new features that people _really_ need. Most people update just because... "New" does _not_ mean "better". If that was true, operation systems would become waaay better since 2000. Being a Mac user since 2009, I don't really see anything really important for me in Catalina (for example), if compared to that old MacOS I used in the past. It's all just marketing BS, all you get is just a different (different does not mean better!) graphical design, mostly.

Never, never ever update your software to new versions "just because". We are not paid for being software testers here

I updated last night and when the screen went blank I figured it was busy so left it overnight. By morning, 8 hours latter nothing had changed. Been on the phone with apple support doing all the reboots with the key combinations and nothing at all works. Its been booked in for repair tomorrow. Fingers crossed they can sort it out, and they best not be thinking about charging me. It was working very nicely till the update. For what its worth since someone mentioned it above, I had an sd card plugged in at the time.

13" MBP Late 2013

Maybe is just a matter of fact that many people is using SD cards to have a bit more storage since HDD and SSD Macbook capacity has being ridiculous since ever... I don’t see this relevant for what is about the update. For me, now, what is crucial is if I can continue to trust Apple or not. My MBP is bricked and I have Genius Bar appointment tomorrow. Keeping me as customer or not will depend on tomorrows answers from Apple Service... If I have to pay 1 dollar/euro I will stop buying Apple laptops. Live is like that!!! We’ll see...

Could you write here about your visit to Genius Bar and solving the problem? I think many users will be very grateful to you if you leave here your impressions of visiting Genius Bar. Maybe you can share what they advised you and what you can do at home with MBPs to bring them back to life!

Unfortunately, some people will not be able to visit Genius Bar soon (perhaps until the end of quarantine restrictions and the return of the possibility of flights to other countries). 😔

Thanks for the information! 

I look forward to hearing from you regarding your visit to Genius Bar and how to resolve this issue. 

Hope you don’t need to change the MBP hardware parts to fix the issue, much less pay for repairs and hardware parts.

Yesterday I tried to update my wife's September 2014 MacBook Pro with Big Sur. Download went fine and installation began. Shortly after accepting the agreement system began the installation and then went to a black screen and became unresponsive. After waiting hours for some indication of life, I contacted Apple support and was guided through all possible steps to bring the mac back. Nothing worked, support said they'd get back to me.... ☹️☹️😡🧱🧱

Same here.

MB pro 13" late 2013

SD Card inserted while Updating.

Bricked with black Screen.

But...as there are a lot of Postings with the IO Card Error the Apple Moderators began ti delete those Postings.

Looks like Apple will not read about there own Error!!!!

They offer automatic updates for there Systems, my MacBook did so..and now there is this big mess.

thought about buying an new MacBook but now i think about getting rid of my Ipads, Iphones, Watches and some other Apple Hardware....i´m very very angry about what is going on here

[Edited by Moderator]

I have the same problem with my MBP 2014. i had an sd card plugged in, while big sur should be installed. Unfortunately, i can not try the usb clean install, because i have no other mac. Every other recovery failed. I hope the guys at gravis can help me on thursday (there is no genius bar in my city).

Trully sound advice everyone should listen!

But getting to the point of a significant number of macchines being bricked because of software upgrade, really goes beyond reasonable faillures, specially in non upgradable/closed architecture machines.

I confess this issue is making me skeptical of new apple silicone...

200% agree. Here we don’t have Official Istores hence no genius, so I’m still waiting on response of officicial repair shop. But won’t accept hardware faillure due to software upgrade! Really Apple!?

All this is making me questioning transition to Apple silicon...

After calling Apple yesterday they booked me in for a service today at an authorised repair shop. When those guys called me today before the appointment they said they would be charging me to even look at it. I cancelled the appointment.

Its crazy apple expect me to pay to fix a machine they clearly broke !!!

About to call them up again to see if I can get them to sort it out. Getting really angry now !!

Come on apple, this is dreadful customer service, give the price of the kit I expect better !!!

Hello gupta009,

I also have a ticket. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Apple. It was escalated to one step before engineering. So it’s in a pile for engineering to look at. Apple will be contacting me Thursday. I will provide this discussion with an update.

mic anyone else makes progress, please post.

I have also spent close to 2 hours with Apple support and and hour that their service centre. Nothing till now.

Have a phone call with Apple Support scheduled in another 12 hours.

Guys,

Please post the status of your service requests on this thread. Would definitely help others.

I had FileVault enabled on my 2015 MacBook Retina 12”. I have no clue what to try as obviously on this MacBook nothing is removable...I feel like my only options are to try to reset the SMC but so far no joy.