MacBook Pro 2019 16” logic board failure. Is data recovery possible for this?

Hi abhijit49,

Thank you for the detailed post. Unfortunately, in your situation, data recovery is 99% impossible.

Your Mac contains the Apple T2 Security Chip, which provides hardware encryption for all of your data. This encryption ensures that if an attacker or thief were to circumvent the protections provided by your Mac, the data inside would be rendered inaccessible. It also ensures that if you choose to erase your Mac, an attacker can't recover the data afterwards.

The T2 chip stores several important keys that are required to unlock your data. Unfortunately, if the main logic board is fried, the T2 Security Chip is already soldered to that board, and is most likely fried as well. If the T2 Security Chip is fried, that makes the required keys it holds inaccessible, rendering your data forever inaccessible.

In addition to all of this, your internal drive is also soldered to the main logic board, and is probably fried as well.

A successful recovery would require the following, which would be basically impossible:

• The T2 Security Chip is completely functional and all internal keys are preserved.
• The internal drive is completely functional and all data is preserved.
• Both the T2 Security Chip and the internal drive are successfully de-soldered from the main logic board without issue.
• Once de-soldered, the T2 Security Chip and the drive are successfully put on a new logic board.
• Apple then agrees to run its personalization software to tie the T2 Security Chip to the new logic board, allowing the Mac to boot normally again (or even just into Target Disk Mode).
• In all of this, the T2 Security Chip chooses not to cry foul and erase its keys.

If you get your Mac repaired or choose to purchase a new Mac, please be sure to make regular backups.

EDIT: If there is some way to perform an in-place repair on the faulted logic board itself, that would allow you to skip conditions 3-5. I highly doubt that such is even possible though. Your best bet would probably be Louis Rossman.

abhijit49 Said:

"MacBook Pro 2019 16” logic board failure. Is data recovery possible for this?: [...]For others who have experienced this, were you able to recover the data when you had similar failures? Any pointers from real experiences appreciated instead of generic support article links"

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Soldered-in Hard Drives:

Just how old is this MBP? Nowadays (and since 2015 or so), hard drives are soldered onto the LogicBoard. So, the only way to get it off of such a device, is to have Apple or an AASP(Apple Authorized Service Provider) unsolder it.

Recover Through an AASP:

Contact an AASP: 

1. Go Here: Find Locations - Apple Authorized Reseller
2. Click: Service & Support
3. Enter: your location information
4. See: if there is an AASP nearby
5. Contact: an AASP that shows up, and find out more about the services that they offer to fix the iPhone

abhijit49 wrote:

Your earlier answer said “I guess it may be possible if you were in a lab and had the tools to access a soldered drive and it was not the drive that was fried. “

This is now inconsistent with what you are tell me so I am the one who is missing the point.

My discussion post is *only* for folks who have had this issue with a MacBook Pro 16” logic board. If you don’t own one or never owned one, no point wasting your time on my thread

The post by BobTheFisherman above is on point:

[My "real" experience is that data is not lost if you maintain a backup.]

Computers with a T2 chip—including your 2019 16" MBP

Since 2018+ MBP with a T2 chip not likely to have the data recovered since it must be able to use the DFU restore mode where Apple or a AASP must use a special service utility to read the data from the SSD...

This requires a functioning Logic board—T2 security chip the Logic Board must be repaired at the board level in order to allow the T2 security chip to communicate with the SSD in an effort to decrypt the data on the SSD

Apple does not do board repairs. There are but a few shops doing board level repairs..

NYC shop does lots of board level repairs:

https://www.rossmanngroup.com/

Possible:

https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com

abhijit49 wrote:

Hi All,

Contacted DriveSavers and was given the below quote on the basis of the model (MacBook Pro 16” 2019 launch) and the storage capacity (512 Gb). I have read good reviews online of their service and they also claim to be Apple recommended. The Sales guy seemed quite confident as they had encountered several such cases recently.

But I am hesitant after hearing all the above expert comments.

Is there anyone who has used DriveSaver specifically for this MacBook Pro 16” and tasted success?

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/b529e4dc-da83-4ed2-b8f8-28a1e32523d9

?

I don't get it. You want your data back—because you have no other backups. It is a rarity for anyone who values their User data to have no viable backup plan in place.

Directly from DriveSavers image above—

It clearly states if no success, no charge..(?)

What else are you looking for here? What are your other options I wonder...

I haven’t used DriveSavers, but apparently they have an agreement with Apple that whenever they work on internal drives in their cleanroom, that work doesn’t void your Mac’s warranty.

For most services listed, there is no charge if they cannot recover the data, so that’s good. My only concern is if they treat recovering encrypted data without the keys as success, when such should actually be considered failure (since that data is inaccessible without the keys). In other words, they may successfully recover the encrypted data, but what good is that data if the T2 chip refuses to use its keys? Ideally, DriveSavers should verify that the T2 chip still unlocks the recovered data so that it is useful to you.

The real question at stake here boils down to three parts:

1. What data did you store on your Mac? How valuable is that data?
2. Of the data stored on your Mac, how much of it was also stored elsewhere (such as in iCloud)?
3. The most important question: How valuable is just the remaining data that was ONLY stored on your Mac?

If the data in Q3 is worth more than the fees charged, you should try DriveSavers.

Best of luck in recovering your data.

abhijit49 Said:

"MacBook Pro 2019 16” logic board failure. Is data recovery possible for this?: To the question: Just how old is this MBP? This is a Jan-2020 purchase (and Apple launched this currently (as on date) sold 16” model in Nov-2019)"

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Thank you for clarifying.

Get this Serviced:

So, take this in for service, as the hard drive is soldered in, and is not removable by the consumer.

If a logic board is fried, there is no way to retrieve data that was on the drive or in RAM. I guess it may be possible if you were in a lab and had the tools to access a soldered drive and it was not the drive that was fried. Very expensive and not a reliable way to try to retrieve data. Incremental backups are the way to preserve your data and to ensure data access in the event of a hardware failure.

They told you what went dead, the logic board. Data storage, RAM, charging system, ports, and all other components are integral to the logic board. Components are not independently analysed because they are integrated and not separately serviceable.

I'm sorry but I guess I'm missing your point. The logic board fried. You did not have a current data backup. You now want to retrieve your data from a fried board. That is not possible.

abhijit49 wrote:

Your earlier answer said “I guess it may be possible if you were in a lab and had the tools to access a soldered drive and it was not the drive that was fried. “

This is now inconsistent with what you are tell me so I am the one who is missing the point.

My discussion post is *only* for folks who have had this issue with a MacBook Pro 16” logic board. If you don’t own one or never owned one, no point wasting your time on my thread

Sorry I tried to help you. I've only supported or owned thousands of Macs and other computers. Your data is gone, irretrievable. I'm sorry you won't accept this response. If you have access to a forensics lab with specialized and expensive equipment I guess it may be possible to recover some data, but this expensive proposition is not guaranteed or likely.

Hopefully someone will drop in and tell you that your data is recoverable since that is the response you seem to be waiting for.

abhijit49 Said:

"MacBook Pro 2019 16” logic board failure. Is data recovery possible for this?”

———-

Based in Personal Experience:

To recover this may cost $500-$1500 USD. So, look into data recovery, rather than just blow it off. (it’s you call). Contact a retailer or an AASP. Ask them what they offer.

Protection Plan:

Getting an external hard drive from a Retailer, you’d likely be offered a protection plan of sorts for data recover. ($14.99 or so). So, if you were to back up a Mac again, get an external hard drive and see if you can get a protection plan of sorts with it for data recovery. It would save you lots, that’s for certain, should it fail.