A growing number of Mac and Macbook owners report that their devices become unbootable after attempting to update to the latest version of macOS, codenamed 'Monterey.'
Apple released Monterey last week and made it available to all MacBook Pro and Macbook Air models that came out after 2015 and for the iMac (2015 and later) and the Mac mini (2014 and later).
However, it appears that many of these older devices (between 2015 and 2019) fail to upgrade correctly to the latest OS version. As a result of this failure, some are no longer recoverable.
Some claim Macs bricked, others put in limbo
The term "bricked" denotes that an electronic device has suffered a catastrophic problem with no way to make it work again.
It usually happens when something flashes the firmware or other low-level system code or when the voltage on the device's circuits goes beyond safe operational limits.
Since macOS Monterey has been released, social media is filling up with a growing number of complaints about their devices becoming "bricked" or unbootable after upgrading.
Source: Twitter
Source: Reddit
While some users are stating their systems are bricked, most of have been able to recover their devices using the Apple Configurator utility.
Furthermore, this issue only affects Mac devices before 2019 and does not appear to affect newer Macs with M1 chips.
Although many users report an inability to restore or boot their devices, some have reported success after multiple tries.
Others found a way to revive their devices by booting into DFU, so clearly, not all of the devices that failed to upgrade got bricked.
For those affected and attempting to restore your Mac or MacBook, check out this guide by Apple.
Applying macOS upgrades on older hardware
There’s a long history of problems around older Apple Macs attempting to update to newer macOS versions, so what's happening now isn't unprecedented.
That is not to say that older MacBooks are not officially supported, but newer software isn’t as thoroughly tested on older hardware.
As such, if you are using an older Mac, it may be wiser to hold off on upgrading to Monterey until it is determined what is causing these issues.
With macOS 11 (Big Sur) and macOS 10.15 (Catalina) still supported with regular security updates, you are at no risk of using these older versions for the time being.
If you absolutely need or want to upgrade to Monterey, it would be wise to wait for a couple of weeks for the "bricking" bugs to be squashed.
Comments
mrsleep - 2 years ago
Huh, there must be some mistake.
Mac users regularly assure me macs don't have these kinds of problems...
Knight_of_BAAWA - 2 years ago
Apple techs saying that "OS updates can cause a system to undergo abnormal stress"....
Also: I find it amusing that the "revive/restore" process in the link is basically jump-starting.
Wolverine 7 - 2 years ago
The Apple IBrick,..once again,untested and unstable updates cause chaos,..great job apple,..
dogsofhellfire2600 - 2 years ago
One other significant problem is Monterey has bricked a lot of USB hubs which are essential for some. There seems to be general instability being experienced with some USB devices with the upgrade that has not been addressed by Apple as of yet, so people are working on their own to fix the problem.
TylerLarson - 1 month ago
I had such a problem with my Mac after that update, and it made me very stressed. Luckily, I managed to fix it with some professional help because I didn't want to buy a new one or pay a lot of money for some repair. And of course, I was a little bit shocked because Macbooks are supposed never to have such problems, but it's technology; things like this happen. And with further updates, I face no troubles at all. Some time ago, I was looking for something related to macOS and the updates and came across this article https://setapp.com/how-to/full-list-of-all-macos-versions with very useful and interesting information about all the updates. You can see there how each was changing and evolving, and also find some info about troubles and how to fix them. I think it's very useful for all Mac users to read.