Some Mac owners report that upgrading to macOS Monterey bricked their computer
now it's bricking people's Macs Jacob Siegal / BGR : Apple's new macOS Monterey update is reportedly bricking older Macs TechRadar : Apple's macOS Monterey update appears to be bricking some Intel Macs David Matthews / Digital Trends : This memory leak bug is killing performance in MacOS Monterey Adam Benjamin / CNET : People are reporting that MacOS Monterey is bricking their laptops Ewan Spence / Forbes : Millions Of MacBook Pro Users Face Serious Warning Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica : Why macOS updates might brick your Mac, and what you can do about it Alex Gatewood / KnowTechie : Apple's macOS Monterey update is killing some people's iMacs and MacBooks Tony Polanco / Tom's Guide : macOS Monterey is bricking Intel Macs — what you need to know Brandon Hill / Tom's Hardware : macOS Monterey Update Blamed for Bricking Older Macs Chandraveer Mathur / iPhone Hacks : macOS Monterey Is Reportedly Bricking Some Older Macs Rob Thubron / TechSpot : Be careful if you own an older Mac: macOS Monterey could brick your machine Mahmoud Itani / XDA Developers : macOS 12 Monterey is bricking some older Macs, so you may want to hold off on the update Karthik Mudaliar / Neowin : macOS Monterey is reportedly bricking old Macs Omar Sohail / Wccftech : Older Macs Are Bricking After Installing macOS Monterey, Claim Several Owners Tweets: Freddy Mini / @freddymini : @Apple So, installing #macOSMonterey literally killed my 2020 16in #MacBookPro . No boot. No nothing. Dead. 18mo old... How long is it supposed to work these days? :( Guys, update at your own risks... Susuya💫 / @susuyachan : @AppleSupport ever since downloading Monterey OS my macbook pro doesn't turn on anymore 🥲 Daniel Lin / @itsdannylin : 2019 #Apple #MacbookPro bricked again, second time in two years. Wow. Ports continue to stop working, not allowing charging, which bricks this. Can't reset SMC because there's no power going in. What else could help me determine I bought a lemon??? #applesupport @AppleSupport Ken Lyons / @kenlyons : @AppleSupport @Apple this is not the way a simple OS update should go on a Mac. On my 50th restart with some sort of incremental install of #Monterey and a dead iMac. Can't even restore from TM because I can't even get to the migration app. Crazy @dangeredwolf : Discord audio sharing notwithstanding, macOS Monterey has overall been a joy to use on my Hackintosh. Them breaking Intel Bluetooth FINALLY lets me use the Broadcom Bluetooth controller without crazy ACPI shit. Frank Eno / @xscoder : After a bunch of tries, restart errors and 5 hours, my Mac finally could upgrade to Monterey 😅 Never had such pain while upgrading to a new macOS version, did you experienced the same? https://twitter.com/... Grady Booch / @grady_booch : That would be me. But with a late 2019 MacBook Pro. https://www.macrumors.com/... Jeremie Berrebi / @jberrebi : Be careful if you want to install Mac OS Monterey. It could break your Mac! By the way, anyone found an interesting feature in it? I upgraded and found nothing https://www.macrumors.com/... @spitf1r3 : @AppleSupport my MacBook Pro 2108, 13" 4 Ports not turning on at all since yesterday's update. I've called yesterday, and again today, no other information than “an update is going to be released ‘soon’ that should resolve issues”. How am I going to install that on a dead Mac? Chezee / @i_chezee : Hey @AppleSupport what's going on with Monterey on my MBP Pro 19? Just installed rebooted and bricked Ben / @bdav : @MacRumors @SamiFathi_ Can we be careful with our use of the term “Bricked”? If you can restore the firmware and get working again, that's not bricked. Sami Fathi / @samifathi_ : New Story: macOS Monterey is bricking some older Mac computers as they try and update to the latest macOS version, rendering them entirely unusable. Newer Apple silicon-based Macs are not seeming to have any issues. Details: https://www.macrumors.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Monterey had already drawn a dividing line between Apple silicon and Intel systems: several new features were withheld from Intel Macs in the earlier Monterey feature split. The bricking reports turn that compatibility gap into an upgrade-reliability problem for some older Intel owners.
The incident also follows similar Big Sur upgrade failures reported by older MacBook Pro owners. Subsequent coverage identifies a firmware issue involving Apple’s T2 security chip and says Apple fixed it, tying the reports to a specific recovery path rather than a general Monterey failure.
First-order effects
- Affected Mac owners can lose access to their computers during the Monterey upgrade, shifting immediate remediation to Apple and its support channels.
- Apple’s later T2 firmware fix addresses the reported failure mechanism for Macs hit during installation.
Second-order effects
- Owners of older Intel Macs have a stronger reason to delay major macOS releases until early-installation failures are resolved, slowing adoption among the machines already excluded from some Monterey features.
- Because T2 and M1 Macs require an internet connection to restore to factory state in the related coverage, recovery from low-level failures gives Apple’s support infrastructure a more central role.
Third-order effects
- Repeated upgrade failures across Big Sur and Monterey make firmware and recovery design part of the practical support lifecycle for older Macs, not merely a background implementation detail.
- The pattern reinforces a bifurcated Mac transition: newer Apple-silicon systems receive more Monterey capabilities while older Intel systems face both feature limits and greater perceived upgrade risk.
The trend: Apple’s Mac transition is concentrating product capabilities and recovery control in newer hardware and Apple-managed support paths, while older Intel systems become harder to treat as equivalent upgrade targets.