Big Sur - will not boot with Thunderbolt monitor connected

ALL SORTED...

I spent hours on the phone with Apple Ireland about this issue last week and they remotely took over my Macbook Pro and did loads of unfathomable tech stuff as I watched, including taking time-stamps of actions they did, as they occurred in real time.

They rang me to let me know that they were about to release macOS Big Sur 11.1 and that the engineers had inserted some coding to hopefully sort my/your issue.

They rang again tonight and asked me to download, install and restart to test it, and they waited while the install occurred etc.

And it works.... Macbook now happily reboots with Thunderbolt monitor attached, etc

Happy Christmas one and all.

Giles

👍🏼Big Sur 11.1 fixed my issue. I am able to both Restart and Shutdown/Start with my Apple 27" Thunderbolt display connected.

My original issue: I could not start my MBP with the Apple 27" Thunderbolt display connected. I had to disconnect it, start, then reconnect it. I did not have any other issues.

Model: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

Processor: 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB

-Phil

My issue was my macbook air 2013 would not boot up if thunderbolt display was connected. Upgrading to Big Sur 11.1 has fixed this issue. I downloaded the update, disconnected my thunderbolt display, before installing the update. Let it go through the update process. Hooked up my thunderbolt display, and have tested several successful restarts with my macbook 2013 with the thunderbolt display connected. This Big Sur update 11.1 has fixed my only issue I had with Big Sur.

Apple issued 11.1 updates and after performing the update, my monitor is working as usual.

I have the same problem. I just get a blank (blackish but backlit) screen. I discovered it's a defect related to an external display. I must disconnect my Thunderbolt Display when I restart. I verified this by restarting my Thunderbolt Display connected (blank screen each time) and disconnected (successfully restarted) from my MacBook.

When it doesn't work, the macOS startup sound plays twice (with a few seconds in between.)

My configuration:

• MacBook Pro 15 (late 2013)
  • Processor: 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
  • Monitor: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB
• Apple Thunderbolt Display 27"

I don't plan to rollback if this is the only issue. I'll live with it until Apple fixes this defect.

-Phil

I reported the issue to Apple and had a ticket cut. I just got a phone call from apple support ...

They report that they are getting a lot of calls about this issue and they are investigating the root cause. I was instructed to make sure I keep up to date with software and firmware fixes as they expect to issue a patch to resolve the issue. I asked about timing but no timing was available from the developers yet.

I expect we'll all get the softward/firmware update relatively soon though - as my support analyst was quite sure this is a pretty broadly reported issue, now.

I just got off the phone with Apple support, they collected data from my system to forward to the engineers and have promised a call back and provided me with a link to contact them on this issue if I s=do not hear back from them.

I urge everyone to call apple support and wade thorough the menu and say "tech support" to get to a live body so Apple hears from more people about this issue and moves this up the priority list.

BTW, the tech said that apple does not monitor this forum, in fact he did not even have access to it. When we went into screen sharing I showed him this thread and told him to take a screen shot and add it to the files being send to the engineers.

He did also mention that he thought my MacBook pro(late 2013) was not in the list as comparable for the upgrade. I showed him a link where Apple says it does appear on the comparable list. I told him if the upgrade was not compatible Apple should have checks in the upgrade to make sure a install does not occur. He agreed and added that part of the conversation to the list.

I have rolled back to Catalina but the problem still persists, that to has been added to the files he submitted.

Cross your fingers we will see a fix, BTW this same event appears to have happened back in 2015 with another upgrade.

Fixed it for me as well. It did take two service tickets and a little hard noshing on the Apple Feedback assistant site, but, it was worth it. I recommend all who are still having issues, open a ticket.

Yes the Catalina update, I rolled back from big sur which is when I realised a firmware update was responsible for the issue as could not boot Catalina with thunderbolt monitor connected either.

but updated last night and it boots to either windows bootcamp or Catalina with no issues.

Everything is good camera, speakers,Ethernet and usb.

I have the same exact issue, my MacBook Pro is (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), same graphic chip with you.

No matter I upgrade the OS from Catalina or clean install to Big Sur, same issue...

I worried if it's my hardware problem, but right now I think it should be Big Sur problem.

Hope Apple can fix it..

I have the exact same issue - will Apple let us know if they find a fix for it.

For now - I can boot without the thunderbolt display and than plug it in afterward. It works fine that way but it is very inconvenient for automatic updates (which not work any longer as the Macbook just hangs then).

I called the issue into Apple Support. My case is now being reviewed by development engineering. A tool was used to obtain analytic information from my machine. They also took me through several troubleshooting steps including NVRAM, SMC reset, and restoring and installing Big Sur from their latest build store.

In the end, they told me that others have reported the same issue and it is possible that there will be a fix of some kind for me and others. I will learn more after the engineers evaluate everything - likely in a week or so.

I have the same problem too. :-(

Could you ALL please report your issues to Apple using the following online feedback form? The more bug reports they receive about an issue, the bigger chance they take actions fixing it. :-)

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

I have reported this Thunderbolt issue in two separate reports as an Apple Thunderbolt Display issue and a Drobo disk issue (because the system cannot recognize external Drobo Thunderbolt disks either – even after Drobo's latest firmware update downloaded yesterday).

Don't give up folks. And don't let Apple blow you off. I re-opened my case today with the following message:

I was working with "Dan" at Apple. He just closed the case stating that the problem cannot be reproduced and there are no other reported incidences. Read your own website or do a simple Google search to see how widespread this is.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252038098?login=true&page=2

Everyone has the exact same issue.

2013 MacBook Pro

27" Apple Thunderbolt Monitor

On reboot the computer goes blank, then it chimes twice, then sits dead.

You must unplug the thunderbolt display, and plug it back in AFTER boot up, then it works fine until you reboot.

There is nothing plugged into the monitor's ports and the MBP has only the thunderbolt monitor plugged in and a dongle for a Logitech mouse. The keyboard is a series 1 Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

I am NOT an isolated problem. There are plenty of us out there and many have complained on the Apple site with the exact same issue.

Exactly the problem I and many others have as well and documented multiple tunes on this site. This is apparent a known issue with Big Sur firmware and requires a fix. There is no getting around this. Just waiting for Apple to hopefully sort!!!