Transfer of data from a Macbook (thunderbolt touchbar) that won't turn on at all to a new M1 Mac

If the broken laptop can be put into Target Disk Mode the laptop's SSD will appear as a standard external drive. If the SSD has Filevault enabled, sometimes the host Mac won't prompt you for the password to unlock the encrypted drive so you may need to launch Disk Utility to manually mount the encrypted volume. If the broken laptop was using Catalina, then you will need to locate the mount point for the "Macintosh HD - Data" volume (this is the default name unless you changed it to something else). You should be able to click on this volume within Disk Utility and right-click or Control-click on the volume and select "Show in Finder", otherwise it should be located under "/Volumes" with "/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data" being the default unless you changed the volume name.

If the laptop won't power on to access Target Disk Mode, then you will need to have Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider connect a special adapter to the Logic Board to recover your data. If they are unable to access the data due because the SSD is inaccessible, then you will need to contact a professional data recovery service.

The best & easiest option is to recover your data from a backup made before the laptop failed. Having backups is very important and even more so with later 2018+ Apple laptops where Apple or an AASP will be unable to access the SSD because there is no special connector on the Logic Board.

Keep in mind some USB drives may not be compatible with an M1 Mac, so make sure the drive you use is compatible before having Apple or an AASP transfer files to it from your broken laptop.

drdzem wrote:

Thank you so much for the information HWTech. It's confusing that there are tutorials that seem to make it sound like you can use Target Disk Mode/Mac Sharing Mode even if the older Mac can't power on. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

A lot of people will say their computer won't power on even it is actually powering on with an LED, backlight, or fan, or sometimes even begins to boot. Many times people confuse (or considers) booting with "powering on".

Target Disk Mode is a low level activity that doesn't need to have the whole Logic Board working. The board just needs to power on just enough to activate the drive and the I/O ports. Unfortunately with the USB-C laptops many times the circuitry for the I/O ports gets damaged since they are also used for power so it is less likely Target Disk Mode will work (even when there are four ports).

Good luck.

drdzem wrote:

Hello to the community,

My 2016 Macbook pro with thunderbolt ports and touchbar died. Just turned off, never to be able to boot again, ever. I've tried all the fixes and resets. I've called Apple (who said they'd possible fix for $600) but after talking to a local repair shop, the guy said this is probably not a model worth fixing. In his words "this is likely the worst Mac model ever manufactured" and fixing the problem would likely just be throwing money at a problem child situation.

Sorry for the lengthy introduction to the problem. I have had no other computers in the house with thunderbolt ports, until now. I just bought a M1 macbook. I'm trying to figure out if I can transfer the data off my 2016 Macbook pro to my new Macbook. It's hard to figure out for 2 reasons. 1) Now there's the issue with one being Target Disk Mode and one being Apple Silicon with Mac Sharing Mode and 2) all the tutorials online that talk about transferring data off a broken Macbook seem to at some point assume the broken computer can boot up. My 2016 is dead as a door nail.

If there's anyone who can help guide me on figuring out the way to get the data off my old Macbook onto the new M1 computer I'd really be grateful. I did buy a thunderbolt 3 cable to try to help the situation but still am stuck on what to do. Thank you to all who read this!

Target Disk mode has been deprecated past 2014.

Maybe this is for external screen use only....(?)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252350238?answerId=254457874022#254457874022

Since the Big Sur link above seems to indicate it is possible?

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/transfer-files-a-mac-apple-silicon-mchlb37e8ca7/11.0/mac/11.0

leroydouglas wrote:

Target Disk mode has been deprecated past 2014.

Maybe this is for external screen use only....(?)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252350238?answerId=254457874022#254457874022

You are confusing Target Display Mode in that link with Target Disk Mode. I've been guilty of mixing them up too ;-)

I've used Target Disk Mode on 2017 MBPros and even on one 2018-2020 model as well.

HWTech wrote:

leroydouglas wrote:

Target Disk mode has been deprecated past 2014.

Maybe this is for external screen use only....(?)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252350238?answerId=254457874022#254457874022

You are confusing Target Display Mode in that link with Target Disk Mode. I've been guilty of mixing them up too ;-)

I've used Target Disk Mode on 2017 MBPros and even on one 2018-2020 model as well.

Thanks for the clarification HWTech !