BridgeOS Crashes Happening on 2018 MacBook Pro with TouchBar

Same error again. This time it wasn't plugged into the charger. It went to sleep with the lid open. When I came back after about a half hour it had crashed. I could get the thing to wake up or show any signs of life until I held the power button down for a while.

The battery had 77% when I rebooted so I know the battery didn't die. And I had no peripherals connected at all.

I also don't have Power Nap enabled, and never did. Time to contact Apple Support...

I think this is related to secure boot (full security at the very least).

I've disabled most of the T2 functionality. Power nap is disabled. Disk encryption was disabled, but I went a few days without it crashing during sleep so I re-enabled that. That ran fine for a few days. Then I turned on Secure Boot with Full Security. I got a kernel panic in the middle of the night while it was sleeping.

I can confirm that the Bridge OS crashes happen with just the power cord plugged in. It happened to me overnight. I put the computer to sleep with nothing but the cord attached and woke up to the Apple logo and message that my Mac restarted due to a problem. The logs show the same Bridge OS 2.4.1 bug type 210 crash.

Note that it took 6 days for this to happen. Previously, I had 5 crashes in the first 7 days of ownership. For those first 7 days, I kept my Thunderbolt 3->2 adapter plugged in during sleep.

Just got off the phone with Phong at Apple Support.

They want me to try to get the sleep crash to happen again with just the Mac and Power Adapter. If it happens, I am to get a full System Diagnostics report archive (using the key stroke combo: Shift, Control, Option, Command, Period) and then send that to a log collector URL that will connect the log archive with my case number. I did send them a System Profiler log file earlier today. Then they will begin the process of a machine exchange where the one that fails goes to a specific tech support capture point AFTER I get a new one shipped to me with an identical configuration to the one I have. Perhaps that newer one will have updated T2 firmware.

The sleep restarts, for me, are rarer lately than they were at first but I did have one fairly recently after a several hour sleep period.

Phong said he would check in tomorrow to see what the status is.

I guess this problem is not universal affecting all 2018 machines but it is extremely annoying nonetheless. I really was looking forward to retiring my mid-2012 Retina Pro Mac for this new one...

I was trying to get into the Startup Security Utility from recovery mode.

I am told I need to supply an administrator password. I do enter the correct password but the password is rejected.

I do have a fairly short password and perhaps there is some unknown (to me at least) password complexity checking going on that fails. I am sure I am entering the right password. This password works for me for ordinary login but not for the Security Settings app available from recovery mode.

There is only one administrator user set up.

Any ideas?

They asked the exact same thing of me. I already sent them logs of the first crashes (with stuff attached). Now they want me to see if it crashes with only the power adapter attached (which it did last night).

Did your Apple rep give you any indication that a replacement machine will fix the issue? Mine didn't seem optimistic that it would. I'm worried I'm setting myself up for another round of reinstalling and wasting my time.

No. my rep did not indicate the likelihood that a replacement machine would fix the problem. But I did not ask this specific question.

Just that the next step upon another sleep panic was Apple's desire to "capture" my machine for further trouble-shooting and that in exchange I would get a new machine.

James,

I got the same offer. Keep in mind you could just return your machine and repurchase (or not). You aren't obligated to do Apple's troubleshooting for them. I was a bit irked that I was being made to jump through these hoops just to get a new machine ordered. It seems that they should at least throw in free AppleCare or give you a partial refund for agreeing to go through all this.

My machine was a custom build (extra RAM and higher capacity SSD). I could not walk in to an Apple store and get this machine off the shelf. I have not migrated my stuff yet to the new machine so there is not yet lots to re-do. And I don't want to acquire a machine that maybe has the same firmware in the T2 chip and hope for the best. A newer custom build MIGHT have newer firmware. But no one is saying this for a fact.

I think the problem is solvable but it may take time.

I know T2 issues for the new iMac Pros have not been totally eradicated after quite some time so that's another negative.

James Solderitsch wrote:

My machine was a custom build (extra RAM and higher capacity SSD). I could not walk in to an Apple store and get this machine off the shelf. I have not migrated my stuff yet to the new machine so there is not yet lots to re-do. And I don't want to acquire a machine that maybe has the same firmware in the T2 chip and hope for the best. A newer custom build MIGHT have newer firmware. But no one is saying this for a fact.

I think the problem is solvable but it may take time.

I know T2 issues for the new iMac Pros have not been totally eradicated after quite some time so that's another negative.

I realize this. I was just pointing out that the process you're going through still requires you to wait a week or so to exchange your machine, and Apple is making you provide them all your diagnostic info for the privilege of an exchange you could do yourself under the normal return policy.

I'm also curious why you think the replacement machine could have different firmware. There is no indication that Apple has even acknowledged this problem, much less updated firmware behind the scenes just two weeks later.

There's little doubt this will be fixed. How soon is the question. Based on what they wanted from me and what you see posted in forums, they are going about it the right way. They no doubt realize the pressure has just dialed up and resources are being applied. iMac Pro is probably a bit of a niche product but MacBook Pros aren't. So as the MBPs roll out, the visibility of the problem may start to ramp up. Like they say, "you always find it in the last place you look." An engineer may find a bad pointer tomorrow and suddenly we all have a fix. Or not. It seems clear there is no one-to-one correlation to a single factor like wake on watch, power nap or the other half dozen settings metioned. I've tried them all. Similarly none of the external device connections I've tried make it go away. The one correlation I can think of is that bare machines are better for everyone, but still don't prevent the occasional restart. This experience has taught me how much I am used to doing at night in terms of housekeeping tasks after I walk away. Things like backups and large file transfers that I routinely start, sleep the display and go to sleep knowing it will be doing something for a couple of hours and then sleep. If not for that, and the fact it does it to me at lunch once in a while, I would just shutdown at night and wait however long it takes. I am thankful that as long as the machine is awake and I am actually using it, I am good to go without a single restart, so far. I'll keep uploading crash reports and diagnostics, but I imagine they are pretty much the same and don't tell them much beyond a certain point. I'm still digging how noticeable the difference is of 6 cores and 32 GB in my work so that is some consolation for the time being.

I just experienced Bridge OS crash for the first time last night. I did browse through this thread for any useful information and so far my crash appears to be the same as mlsfw.

It happened while the MacBook Pro was asleep. I was watching TV at the time so I wasn't paying attention. I only noticed after the fan started to spin very loudly. I looked at the display and saw user login screen with a message that I must enter password after a restart. That was when I realized that something had gone wrong (Bridge OS crashed).

Peripherals connected at the time of crash:

- Two external USB hard disks via USB-C to USB adapters (at left Thunderbolt 3 ports)

- Belkin Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (at right Thunderbolt 3 port)

- 87W USB-C Power Adapter (at right Thunderbolt 3 port)

I've had this MacBook Pro for 22 days without Bridge OS crash so I thought I was lucky, but I guess not. 😟

I contacted Apple Support and they will call me at 11 am today. They also gave me a case number (100608375220).

Just a quick follow up on my call with Apple Support today.

They only asked me if I was running the latest macOS (10.13.6). It is a bit odd thing to ask because the macOS 10.13.6 that comes with MacBook Pro 2018 is newer than the one available in App Store. App Store does not allow me to download macOS High Sierra installer from App Store). Perhaps the Apple Support meant to ask if I installed the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update for MacBook Pro 2018.

Anyway, I'm supposed to call them with the case number and ask to speak to senior advisor when the Bridge OS crash again.

You'll find the logs for these — at least for a little while — in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ProxiedDevice-Bridge

Happens to me every few days. Contemplating returning this and trying an alternate, identical sample to see if it's perhaps hardware-related.