Firmware bug after downgrading from Sequoia

[uacd]

Hi dear MR users!

So, I’ve pulled the trigger and finally decided to update my MBA M1 to Sequoia from Monterey. And it was instant regret: macOS Sequoia is RUBBISH. Animations work at 10FPS, apps take ages to open, laptop feels like if it is booted in safe mode, Macbook started overheating for the first time in its life. Hadn’t ever seen such a weird behavior on Monterey.

I downgraded back. But I got a nasty bug: brightness controls no longer work. The only “bugfix” is to put MacBook into sleep mode and out of it (or close the lid and open, which effectively does just that).

Since this Mac no longer can SMC or NVRAM reset (and believe, I’ve tried it thru Terminal - no luck), have you had similar bug? I had already sent bug report to Apple but since they usually “take their time” to look into these bugs, no longer expecting anything from them.

So I’ve tried restarting and even reinstalled macOS again via recovery mode: nothing.

I believe Sequoia updated my firmware drivers and Monterey didn’t roll them back. And thus it creates some weird conflict.

I wonder did anyone else have this bug? Did you find the solution? I’ve googled but the only solution people found is to create a terminal command and run it as automation when Mac boots, so it would put it to sleep and out of it automatically

 

[Bigwaff]

I downgraded back.

How did you "downgrade back"; via DFU restore?

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Rarely, a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip might stop responding and need its firmware to be revived or restored by another Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[uacd]

How did you "downgrade back"; via DFU restore?

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Rarely, a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip might stop responding and need its firmware to be revived or restored by another Mac.

support.apple.com

Thank you. I will definitely try it. In a month will have an opportunity to use another new Mac with USB-C ports, unfortunately don’t have another Mac to try and restore DFU. Hoping it helps, will report back if it does work!

UPD: instead of jumping thru DFU hoops and waiting for the moment I can use other Mac, decided to upgrade to Sonoma instead. It works surprisingly similar to Monterey, no lags and battery drain, brightness control finally works as before. I will settle with this OS for now, at least browser won't stop working in a year or so

 

[tizzi91]

Thank you. I will definitely try it. In a month will have an opportunity to use another new Mac with USB-C ports, unfortunately don’t have another Mac to try and restore DFU. Hoping it helps, will report back if it does work!

UPD: instead of jumping thru DFU hoops and waiting for the moment I can use other Mac, decided to upgrade to Sonoma instead. It works surprisingly similar to Monterey, no lags and battery drain, brightness control finally works as before. I will settle with this OS for now, at least browser won't stop working in a year or so

if you don't have another mac try to clean install sonoma. it doesn't have the firmware bug. Ventura unfortunatly has the same bug as monterey with brightness

 

[uacd]

if you don't have another mac try to clean install sonoma. it doesn't have the firmware bug. Ventura unfortunatly has the same bug as monterey with brightness

I had tried clean installing Sequoia twice (made installer via terminal) to no avail. But recently being sick and tired of this stupid bug (already on Monterey) I thought “hmm, what if I update to Sonoma instead of Sequoia?”. I simply installed it like update, no clean install and the firmware bug also finally disappeared. I tested it many times and finally everything works like before. What is more interesting, MacBook works like before.

It is a pity tho I won’t be having newest features and newer OS, but on the other hand Sonoma is already new enough for browsers to work good for many years in advance as well as better software compatibility.

I just don’t get what’s so different in Sequoia that it lags much more than previous Sonoma, weird behavior. But anyway, thanks for your suggestion!