***ATTENTION*** 16" MacBook Pro Left Powered Off - Won't Charge and Won't Boot

[evets777]

Hi Mac Admins,

Just a heads up for all admins who have 16" MBP in storage as a result of COVID-19. If you leave your machines in long-term storage and the battery drains completely you may never be able to boot or charge them again. There is an unconfirmed Apple bug that these models when discharged completely and left to sit, will not boot. I have one in my possession that is in this state. A user left it in their drawer during COVID and it sat there for months and when they tried to start it, nothing. Using 96-watt charger and plugged into different outlets and different chargers, and different ports. All you see is a battery icon that has a sliver of red, it then disappears and shows up when you press the power button. Did an SMC and an NVRAM reset and it did nothing. Let sit plugged in and charging for two days. I opened it up and reseated the battery and TB3 ports to no avail. The only thing you can do is send it back to Apple for replacement.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/brand-new-macbook-pro-16-inch-not-charging-and-booting.2247824/

[andrew_nicholas]

Could be totally unrelated but have you tried a DFU revive? I've had four of the 16" brick seemingly dead and need to be shipped back from remote staff only to be fired back up once a DFU applies. Full disclosure I also had one that totally ate it and had to be sent to Apple for repair. I've never had the icon on the screen you mention but thought I'd throw it out just in case.

[sdagley]

@VXevets777 You might give this a try before you ship the Mac back to Apple: How to Restore BridgeOS on a T2 Mac + Boot a Mac to DFU Mode

[macmanmk]

Interesting post. This just happened to one of our 16-inch machines that came out of storage this past week. We set up a mail-in repair with Enterprise AppleCare. I just got the e-mail yesterday that the repair was completed and the machine was being shipped out. I should have it back tomorrow. Will be interested to review the repair summary and see what was done.

[kissland]

We have had this same issue with 15 of our 2019 16" MacBook Pros which sat on the shelf since February this year. I thought it was only us who had a faulty batch! We had to call Apple Support and get them replaced. The repair summary mentioned they reseated the RAM modules and wiped the OS.

[georgecm12]

Is it just the 16" or does it also affect this year's 13" models?

[PhillyPhoto]

We had some not booting fresh from the shrink wrap. We have an ACE case opened. If anyone else has ACE, you should open one too so they get more visibility into this.

[CostaDelSol]

We have this kind of issue with our Macs.
We let quite long (six months+) some 13' 2018 MacBook Pro stored and when we tried to power on them, they didn't.
It resulted for most of them a damaged battery, with no ability to power on again, or if so; when disconnecting the power supply, the Mac suddenly shuts down.
I think (for our case) this is not anormal, this is how these kind of batteries behave.
According to the Apple documentation:
https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/
If you plan to store your device for longer than six months, charge it to 50% every six months.**
Okay, it doesn't tell your battery will be damaged, but Apple gives anyway recommendation to follow and this is probably not for nothing.

[macmanmk]

Sorry. Call me cynical, but if leaving a brand new $2000+ laptop in storage for more than six months is going to render the machine useless, then Apple needs to be upfront with their customers about that. At the start of the pandemic, we pulled used machines that had been in storage for years that had no problem powering them up and charging them. New laptops not starting up at all from a depleted battery is not normal.

[bradtchapman]

I think I have just come across one of these in the wild. Wife had this 16" MBP at home since the start of COVID, new in box, still shrinkwrapped. Today she said "I'm testing Jamf Connect and haven't used it yet. Can you do me a favor and do an internet recovery up to Big Sur?" Sure thing, honey. I plug it in, battery's dead. I wait an hour. Press the button. Still getting the red battery charging indicator. OK, maybe it was really really dead, but this is odd for a new Mac.

It has been 10 hours charging and still gives me guff about the battery. It will respond to an SMC reset and attempt to go into DFU. If I hold down the special key combo for 10-15 seconds, there is a "huff" of air from the internal fans bursting up to 100% and then back off.

I'm going to try DFU now with Apple Configurator 2. If that fails, it's off to Apple.

[bradtchapman]

Update: the Apple logo briefly appeared on the 16" MBP while AC2 showed "Step 4/4: Installing System..." Then the screen went blank and nothing else happened. Apple Configurator 2 now shows the padlock / Apple Controller, as if the system is out of DFU and no longer available for reprogramming. I wonder if anyone else with a similar problem witnessed a similar sequence of events.

Anyway, this "workhorse" is decidedly not working anymore, so it's off to the glue facto—I mean, the repair depot.

[arpierson]

Can confirm. I had one brought to me last Friday that wouldn't boot. Left it on a 96W charger all weekend and still nothing. I'll give DFU a shot, but it's not looking good.

Anyone who's worked with Apple, are they admitting this issue and replacing the MacBook or are you having to pay for the replacement?

[Dylan_YYC]

We've had similar issues on our 13" as well, only issue major differences are the users are using them up till the battery dies, then it never powers on again other then the trackpad continues to click but no other signs of life.

[tomt]

This is highly disconcerting as I have a 5 foot high pallet of 16" MBPs that are slated to roll out over the next 3-6 months.

[bradtchapman]

UPDATE - IT'S ALIVE.

I left it charging at least 24 hours, attempted DFU a couple of times ... and it finally woke up. Had to perform Internet Recovery and now the Mac is fine.

FYI, I am using an Anker 60W USB-C charger with an Anker USB-C cable, not the Apple 96W unit. It would appear that 60W is enough to charge this laptop, albeit a little slower, but certainly enough juice to keep it full under all but the most extreme circumstances.

[arpierson]

@bradtchapman, I was able to get the same results with the dead one I have. It took trying off and on all day to actually get it to go into DFU mode. It kept showing up in Configurator 2 for about 1 second and then disappearing again. When I finally got it, I had to do a DFU restore twice to get it to take. I'm installing the OS in Internet Recovery as I type this. I was using the Apple 96W charger.

[DavidN]

Having the same issue. I pulled 4 from stock, all are dead and cannot be powered up despite SMC reset, charging all night, and trying DFU mode.

[swiercs]

Had the same problem and had to have two repaired by Apple

[obi-k]

I had this problem on 6 brand new 2019, 16-inch MBP. I was able to revive all of them, but lost some hair in the process.

• On 1 of the 6, I used the restored bridgeOS as stated above: https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-restore-bridgeos-on-a-t2-mac-how-to-put-a-mac-into-dfu-mode/. This worked fine, but read every detail.

• On the rest of the 6, I reset the SMC over and over and over. Changing power outlets or charging cables didn't matter. I reset the SMC over and over until I saw the battery icon. Once you see the battery icon, try to move the USB-C charging cable to another slot. Keep doing this until the battery icon changes and you hear that awesome "boink" charging sound. I did this over and over for hours. Charging the 6 overnight did nothing. Once you hear the "boink" sound, allow it to charge for 20 minutes or so. Eventually, they all came to the Welcome Screen.

[DavidN]

I found that I needed to have power into one port as well as a data port connected to my host computer. Because the battery was only 1%, if I did not have the power connected I could not get it into DFU mode. I was then able to "revive" the laptops and all are working!

[mhasman]

We had similar issue before COVID with 13-inch 2017-year models (our 2018 year purchase and inventory). We have to plan the budget, and purchase only once a year, usually on the end of the year as one big order. Then taking from inventory whenever some are needed to be deployed. At the end, about 25-30 of those MBPs were not turning on. Sure, when we found it, the year warranty passed for a month or two, and Apple wanted us paying $200 for battery replacement + service fees. We had long fight explaining the situation that for us those devices were brand-new-in-plastic-never-opened. Finally, we've got those serviced for free, but it was a lot of frustration, escalations, waste time and pain

[Maclete]

To back up Mark on this it was close to 80 systems between 2018 model 13 inch and 2019 model 16 inch. About a third got new logic boards, the rest maybe a DFU that we couldn't get to work. We have started to charge all systems that are sitting on the shelf more than a few months.