Bootcamp not booting in Big Sur using Macbook Pro Late 2014

Hello everyone!

I just went some trouble with my bootcamp. Let me explain what happened (to see if you have the same problem) and what I did to fix it!

I installed my windows iso on my desktop, then using bootcamp I made the my USB into the windows installer (all is well). I did went and partitioned my drive to the size I wanted (all is well), but when the computer restarted, it went straight to mac. Just like nothing had happened. I then restarted the computer and held the "alt/option" button during restart, I saw the windows partition, selected it, and then it went to mac and my computer froze so I had to force shut it down.

Solution to my problem...

When I booted up my mac, I helped the command, option/alt, P, R keys all together, which is called a reset to PRAM. Hold these buttons for 20 seconds, and you will see your mac restart a few times. After I let go of these keys, I then proceed to hold the option/alt keys, and now there's a 3rd disk that appears that I can use to named EFI boot. Select on it, and you'll finally see steps to download windows!

From there, everything went smoothly!

Best of luck to all :)

I have found a solution for the exact same issue, thanks to one of Apple's senior tech support agents!

Please do the following steps:

1. Go to "System Preferences"
2. Select "Startup Disk"
3. Choose the "Windows" drive
4. Reboot for a couple of times until you can log back into Windows

I have followed those exact steps and it worked for me. So I hope it works for everyone too!

Try reinstalling the partition and if you have issues creating the partition, follow these steps. Had this issue myself and this fixed it.

This is the fix:

First run First Aid on the whole of the HDD/SSD

Then restart the Mac setting it to not open any services other than the base OS

Then only open the Boot Camp Assistant

(This will fail if you open anything even if it is as simple as OneDrive auto sync or Disk Utility)

This should work

Hi there,

I had the same issue and I just solved it by allowing the Terminal app access to the discs. Just that looked to be sufficient to boot from the bootcamp partition in the old traditional way of pressing the option key during startup

It worked for me on my Macbook Pro 15 late 2014. After a select the Windows disk I hold the option key again until it show the Windows booting up. First time it rebooted to the firmware again and then I choose the Windows Disk again and hold the option key and it worked.

Thanks for the tip!

You can check if resetting NVRAM fixes this issue.

To reset NVRAM you can refer to this guide:

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

Run a SMC and NVRAM Reset and re-test.

How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

sbisas wrote:

I had the same issue and I just solved it by allowing the Terminal app access to the discs. Just that looked to be sufficient to boot from the bootcamp partition in the old traditional way of pressing the option key during startup

There are many variants to the same problem. Missing EFI information for one, not being able to bless a legacy BIOS installation, EFI vs BIOS boot and various models. Third-party NTFS drivers also interfere with booting.

Do you have a 2014 Mac?

If macOS boots, can you see Windows files in macOS Finder? You can manually mount the teh EFI partition when booted in macOS and check.

kuda00 wrote:

I managed to get mine working by follow instructions from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdQ-MY0Myww Good luck.

You can do the same using

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

sudo diskutil unmount disk0s1

System Preferences needs Full Disk Access to be able to switch to Bootcamp.

z3thon wrote:

I lost the ability to see mine in Startup Disk and when using Option at Boot.

Can you still see files in the Bootcamp folder when you are in macOS Finder?

I am using Paragon NTFS, if I uninstall Paragon's NTFS software will this fix the issue? Gonna investigate further.

Paragon's NTFS causes more issues. You should uninstall it.

I managed to get mine working by follow instructions from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdQ-MY0Myww Good luck.

I always boot in Windows by pressing the alt key at startup. Since Big Sur it takes two attempts to start into Windows so I just keep my finger on the alt key until I see the window login screen.

I have the same issue on my mid 2014 Macbook. Default setting is changed to bootcamp but need to restart and interrupt (option button) and select again Windows/bootcamp. Sometimes even two attemps neccesary. And the startup takes a lot of time, before it was quick. Not know how to resolve!?