iMac 17,1 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) EFI firmware update failures

[Philuk20]

We have lift off! A big thank you to Philuk20 and many others on this and other sites. I can now confirm that Apple is blocking the EFI update, if you have an Apple blade SSD. Apparently, the chipset in this model is limited so they blocked upgrades with the SSD installed. Once I took the machine apart (I can now do it without instructions), removed the blade SSD, installed a SATA SSD and installed Big Sur from USB stick.... the firmware now reads 429.60.3.0.0!

Apple should have owned up to this a long time ago. They have fixed other design flaws. I don't even want to count the hours I have invested in fixing this problem. So, If you want to upgrade the firmware from 170.0.0.0.0 - you know what needs to be done.

Interesting... I didn't know the FW update was being actively blocked. I thought it was just a stubborn partition in the SSD preventing the FW from updating. thanks for the info.

Also I believe not All 17,1 SSD iMacs are affected by the FW not updating so it's just us unlucky few. It was also thanks to Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co/2020/03/30/some-macs-dont-update-their-firmware-when-they-should/ who also highlighted this issue.

 

[rgmenke]

Interesting... I didn't know the FW update was being actively blocked. I thought it was just a stubborn partition in the SSD preventing the FW from updating. thanks for the info.

Also I believe not All 17,1 SSD iMacs are affected by the FW not updating so it's just us unlucky few. It was also thanks to Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co/2020/03/30/some-macs-dont-update-their-firmware-when-they-should/ who also highlighted this issue.

Hey Philuk20,
Howard absolutely gets credit. He was the first place I noticed others with the same issue.

 

[DimaVR]

I have iMac late 2015 SSD and HDD I split the fusion and my firmware always updated and runs the latest

 

[rgmenke]

I have iMac late 2015 SSD and HDD I split the fusion and my firmware always updated and runs the latest

You gave me the idea to look into the feather turbo SSD. I’m going to install it today. I guess it’s still working well for you? We'll see how it goes.

 

[hoodafoo]

Has anyone here tried updating while booted off of an external drive?

Install the latest version of El Capitan on external drive
Boot from that external drive and try updating that external drive OS to Mojave or Catalina

 

[rgmenke]

Has anyone here tried updating while booted off of an external drive?

Install the latest version of El Capitan on external drive
Boot from that external drive and try updating that external drive OS to Mojave or Catalina

Yes, many times with no success. Even with the SSD blade pulled, I tried upgrading and clean install on a external drive with no success. I had to use an installed internal SATA drive to achieve the upgrade.

 

[zorinlynx]

Well this thread is informative! Thanks for everyone who figured this out; I can relax now knowing that being stuck at 170.0.0.0 is intentional on behalf of Apple and not some weird thing with my machine.

Upgraded to Big Sur today and it's running great. I guess I'll make sure to keep a bootable recovery installer around.

 

[rgmenke]

Well this thread is informative! Thanks for everyone who figured this out; I can relax now knowing that being stuck at 170.0.0.0 is intentional on behalf of Apple and not some weird thing with my machine.

Upgraded to Big Sur today and it's running great. I guess I'll make sure to keep a bootable recovery installer around.

There usually is another way but in this case, I couldn't find it. That plus Apple's steadfast refusal to even admit there was an issue lead me down this path. Thanks for starting the thread.

 

[rgmenke]

After the EFI upgrade and making sure the iMac including the Apple SSD worked fine, I replaced the SSD with a Feather M13 Turbo to get a speed increase. The good news is, it works! No crashes, sleep problems, etc.

There is some interesting behavior though. The speed seems to fluctuate some and I'm not sure why? At it's best, the new SSD operates at twice the OEM drive or around 3 gb/sec read / write max. Sometimes though, it will slow down around the OEM speeds. I'm getting this using utilities (Blackmagic, EtreCheckPro, ATTO Disk Benchmark). I'll try to contact Fledging and see if they know why. It maybe why they excluded my EMC # from the upgrade list?

Other than that everything is still working great and the extra speed is welcome.

 

[hoodafoo]

Sorry, but why are so many interested in getting the EFI update? What can Boot ROM Version: 428.0.0.0.0 do that that 170 couldn't?

 

[Philuk20]

Sorry, but why are so many interested in getting the EFI update? What can Boot ROM Version: 428.0.0.0.0 do that that 170 couldn't?

For me I was getting erratic OS behaviour when I upgraded from High Sierra. If you are not having any issues then I wouldn't worry about being on 170

 

[hoodafoo]

For me I was getting erratic OS behaviour when I upgraded from High Sierra. If you are not having any issues then I wouldn't worry about being on 170

Is it preventing people from going to Big Sur?

 

[rgmenke]

Sorry, but why are so many interested in getting the EFI update? What can Boot ROM Version: 428.0.0.0.0 do that that 170 couldn't?

In my case, I couldn't use Internet Recovery. If you read through the thread you will find it spelled out. Other than that, I would say the computer was working with the latest OS.

 

[rbart]

From Big Sur 11.1 to 11.2, the firmware has been upgraded from 429.60.3.0.0 to 429.80.1.0.0
iMac 17,1 late 2015

 

[pwm86]

From Big Sur 11.1 to 11.2, the firmware has been upgraded from 429.60.3.0.0 to 429.80.1.0.0
iMac 17,1 late 2015

From Big Sur 11.1 to 11.2, the firmware has not been upgraded, still at 170.0.0.0.0.
iMac 17,1, i7 4GHz, 512 GB SSD

 

[nholm]

From Big Sur 11.1 to 11.2, the firmware has not been upgraded, still at 170.0.0.0.0.
iMac 17,1, i7 4GHz, 512 GB SSD

Exactly the same setup and result here.

 

[cromagnontech]

I think we're probably deluded at this point if we think that any future OS update is going to 'kickstart' the firmware to update. Can anyone who has updated to 11.2 on an iMac stuck at 170.0.0.0.0 confirm whether booting into local Recovery (Cmd-R at boot) and Internet Recovery (Cmd-Opt-R) are still broken? For me, on 11.1, local recovery - Cmd-R - triggers the El Capitan version of Internet Recovery instead, and Internet Recovery - Cmd-Opt-R either boots into the Catalina version of IR, or errors out.

 

[rgmenke]

I can also confirm the firmware upgrade - with 3rd party memory and SSD. So I guess, once you get past the block(170.0.0.0.0), updates return to normal(429.80.1.0.0).

 

[zorinlynx]

My suspicion is that there's a tiny chance that a late 2015 iMac (17,1) will be bricked if a firmware update is attempted on the PCIe SSD. Since each bricked iMac costs Apple a great deal in repair costs and pissed off customers, they figured the right course of action was to blacklist the update.

As for sticking their heads in the sand, they probably (rightly) figured only us enthusiasts are really going to care or raise a stink about it. 99.9% of iMac 17,1 units out there are running just fine, some on 170.0.0.0.0 without the owners knowing or caring.

 

[BKDad]

My suspicion is that there's a tiny chance that a late 2015 iMac (17,1) will be bricked if a firmware update is attempted on the PCIe SSD. Since each bricked iMac costs Apple a great deal in repair costs and pissed off customers, they figured the right course of action was to blacklist the update.

As for sticking their heads in the sand, they probably (rightly) figured only us enthusiasts are really going to care or raise a stink about it. 99.9% of iMac 17,1 units out there are running just fine, some on 170.0.0.0.0 without the owners knowing or caring.

That doesn't excuse them from telling the truth.

I think us enthusiasts might respond better to "Sorry - due to the limitations of the hardware on the iMac 17.1 model, we can't upgrade the firmware beyond the 170.0.0.0 revision. This will not affect computer performance nor will it affect your ability to update the operating system. The only downside is that Recovery from a local source and via the internet is a little more complicated. Please see (put weblink here) for a procedure in case you have this problem with this model. Reliability is a primary concern at Apple, so we have chosen this approach."

Instead, we get...

I'd point out, again, that there is a reason they have upgraded the firmware. I don't think they did it just for fun. So, there is something lost, missing, or potentially a problem somewhere.

 

[rgmenke]

That doesn't excuse them from telling the truth.

I think us enthusiasts might respond better to "Sorry - due to the limitations of the hardware on the iMac 17.1 model, we can't upgrade the firmware beyond the 170.0.0.0 revision. This will not affect computer performance nor will it affect your ability to update the operating system. The only downside is that Recovery from a local source and via the internet is a little more complicated. Please see (put weblink here) for a procedure in case you have this problem with this model. Reliability is a primary concern at Apple, so we have chosen this approach."

Instead, we get...

I'd point out, again, that there is a reason they have upgraded the firmware. I don't think they did it just for fun. So, there is something lost, missing, or potentially a problem somewhere.

I agree. The statement Apple made to me several times was that my "model was on the proper firmware version 170.0.0.0.0". The statement obviously isn't true because the firmware was updated again this morning with 11.2. My computer is running as well as it ever has and Recovery works as it should. I was willing to take the risk to force the upgrade from 170 but I'm not suggesting everyone should. Apple seems unwilling to address this so the choice is left with the customer.

 

[BKDad]

I agree. The statement Apple made to me several times was that my "model was on the proper firmware version 170.0.0.0.0". The statement obviously isn't true because the firmware was updated again this morning with 11.2. My computer is running as well as it ever has and Recovery works as it should. I was willing to take the risk to force the upgrade from 170 but I'm not suggesting everyone should. Apple seems unwilling to address this so the choice is left with the customer.

It's hard to believe that this is the only situation like this within Apple. We just happened to stumble across it through dumb (bad) luck. It makes me wonder...

 

[kju-one]

Hi everyone,

like many other users I noticed that my iMac 27“ Late 2015 (17,1) never got any newer firmware update than version 170.0.0.0.
I read several articles on blogs and posts in forums like macrumors.com, apple.com and reddit.com. There are a few users who escalated this issue to Apple’s 3rd level support, but the all got the same message: this particular iMac (17,1) does not need any newer firmware updates.

I think this is ridiculous. So I invested a whole weekend to discover this issue on my own and to find a final solution - which I did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

First of all, I tried to get the firmware updates by reinstalling macOS on a formatted ssd. I began with Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11.6) and from there on I went through every major Mac OS version up to Big Sur.

Once I updated to a new major version (e.g. from 10.11 to 10.12), I additionally extracted the firmware files from the OS installer, trying to install the firmware manually by using the bless-command.

Always following this procedure:

• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• …

I started with 10.11.6 and ended up by 11.1. No surprise: The firmware did not change and was still at 170.0.0.0

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using USB boot sticks​

After the Mac OS Upgrade marathon, I tried to install every major Mac OS version (beginning at 10.11.6) by using a USB stick. This also did not work at all.

From my point of view I did everything I could to get the firmware update using the official upgrade path from Apple.

Since I read that some users who replaced the built in SSD with a 3rd party model got the newest firmware, I began to focus on the SSD.

I bought my iMac with a 256GB NVMe SSD (no fusion drive or HDD). The first thing I tried was to use a PartedMagic USB stick to wipe the internal SSD using the ATA sanitize commands. I used this procedure on many other Macs to speed up the built in SSDs. Unfortunately I was not able to unfreeze the built in SSD in my iMac 17,1.

I tried many different PartedMagic versions but nothing worked.

So I decided to disassemble my iMac and to replace the built in NVMe SSD. I hoped to get the newest firmware by using this procedure since some users successfully did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with an OWC NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

I used an OWC Aura 2 NVMe SSD to replace the built in Samsung SSD. Again: No luck. My iMac still stuck with version 170.0.0.0.

To make sure that I tried everything I could, I went again through the whole Mac OS upgrade-chain from El Capitan to Big Sur. Still at 170.0.0.0.

The 10 seconds of darkness​

During the many Mac OS reinstalls I did, I noticed a point in the installation procedure where the iMac restarts, shows a black screen (no logo, no progress bar) for about 10 seconds and immediately restarts again. These „10 seconds of darkness“ are part of every Mac OS installation. I figured out that this is the point in the installation procedure where the iMac tries to install the firmware update.

I was able to reproduce this behavior by using the bless command to install the firmware manually.

Apple said that this iMac does not need any newer firmware update - the truth is that the iMac indeed tries to install the newest firmware, but fails.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with a classic HDD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

The last option I tried was to remove the built in SSD and attach a HDD to the unused SATA port on the mainboard. This time I tried to install Big Sur right away. Guess what? 40 minutes later my iMac ran Mac OS Big Sur (11.1) with the firmware version 429.60.3.0.0!

Success!​

Now that my iMac got the latest firmware, I reinserted the original Samsung NVMe SSD and reinstalled Big Sur. The iMac worked perfectly with the newest firmware without any problems. The only fear I had was that - since the problem seems to be SSD-related - my iMac won’t get any firmware updates in the future (again).

Future firmware updates work as well!​

Two days later the Mac OS update to 11.2 was released. I installed the update and a couple of minutes later, the firmware of my iMac was upgraded to version 429.80.1.0.0!

From my point of view, there seems to be an issue with firmware 170.0.0.0 and built in NVMe SSDs. The iMac tries every time to install the lates firmware but fails. Using a HDD enables the iMac to install the latest firmware an after that the iMac seems to install future firmware updates even with built in NVMe SSDs.

Kind regards from Germany!

 

[rgmenke]

Hi everyone,

like many other users I noticed that my iMac 27“ Late 2015 (17,1) never got any newer firmware update than version 170.0.0.0.
I read several articles on blogs and posts in forums like macrumors.com, apple.com and reddit.com. There are a few users who escalated this issue to Apple’s 3rd level support, but the all got the same message: this particular iMac (17,1) does not need any newer firmware updates.

I think this is ridiculous. So I invested a whole weekend to discover this issue on my own and to find a final solution - which I did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

First of all, I tried to get the firmware updates by reinstalling macOS on a formatted ssd. I began with Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11.6) and from there on I went through every major Mac OS version up to Big Sur.

Once I updated to a new major version (e.g. from 10.11 to 10.12), I additionally extracted the firmware files from the OS installer, trying to install the firmware manually by using the bless-command.

Always following this procedure:

• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• …

I started with 10.11.6 and ended up by 11.1. No surprise: The firmware did not change and was still at 170.0.0.0

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using USB boot sticks​

After the Mac OS Upgrade marathon, I tried to install every major Mac OS version (beginning at 10.11.6) by using a USB stick. This also did not work at all.

From my point of view I did everything I could to get the firmware update using the official upgrade path from Apple.

Since I read that some users who replaced the built in SSD with a 3rd party model got the newest firmware, I began to focus on the SSD.

I bought my iMac with a 256GB NVMe SSD (no fusion drive or HDD). The first thing I tried was to use a PartedMagic USB stick to wipe the internal SSD using the ATA sanitize commands. I used this procedure on many other Macs to speed up the built in SSDs. Unfortunately I was not able to unfreeze the built in SSD in my iMac 17,1.

I tried many different PartedMagic versions but nothing worked.

So I decided to disassemble my iMac and to replace the built in NVMe SSD. I hoped to get the newest firmware by using this procedure since some users successfully did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with an OWC NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

I used an OWC Aura 2 NVMe SSD to replace the built in Samsung SSD. Again: No luck. My iMac still stuck with version 170.0.0.0.

To make sure that I tried everything I could, I went again through the whole Mac OS upgrade-chain from El Capitan to Big Sur. Still at 170.0.0.0.

The 10 seconds of darkness​

During the many Mac OS reinstalls I did, I noticed a point in the installation procedure where the iMac restarts, shows a black screen (no logo, no progress bar) for about 10 seconds and immediately restarts again. These „10 seconds of darkness“ are part of every Mac OS installation. I figured out that this is the point in the installation procedure where the iMac tries to install the firmware update.

I was able to reproduce this behavior by using the bless command to install the firmware manually.

Apple said that this iMac does not need any newer firmware update - the truth is that the iMac indeed tries to install the newest firmware, but fails.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with a classic HDD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

The last option I tried was to remove the built in SSD and attach a HDD to the unused SATA port on the mainboard. This time I tried to install Big Sur right away. Guess what? 40 minutes later my iMac ran Mac OS Big Sur (11.1) with the firmware version 429.60.3.0.0!

Success!​

Now that my iMac got the latest firmware, I reinserted the original Samsung NVMe SSD and reinstalled Big Sur. The iMac worked perfectly with the newest firmware without any problems. The only fear I had was that - since the problem seems to be SSD-related - my iMac won’t get any firmware updates in the future (again).

Future firmware updates work as well!​

Two days later the Mac OS update to 11.2 was released. I installed the update and a couple of minutes later, the firmware of my iMac was upgraded to version 429.80.1.0.0!

From my point of view, there seems to be an issue with firmware 170.0.0.0 and built in NVMe SSDs. The iMac tries every time to install the lates firmware but fails. Using a HDD enables the iMac to install the latest firmware an after that the iMac seems to install future firmware updates even with built in NVMe SSDs.

Kind regards from Germany!

Congratulations. You had the same experience that others experienced including me.

Removing the ssd and installing a sata drive (mine was a ssd) then installing the OS seems to bypass the block. Once done everything seems to operate normally.

It’s a lot of work to get there but persistence pays off.

 

[nholm]

Hi everyone,

like many other users I noticed that my iMac 27“ Late 2015 (17,1) never got any newer firmware update than version 170.0.0.0.
I read several articles on blogs and posts in forums like macrumors.com, apple.com and reddit.com. There are a few users who escalated this issue to Apple’s 3rd level support, but the all got the same message: this particular iMac (17,1) does not need any newer firmware updates.

I think this is ridiculous. So I invested a whole weekend to discover this issue on my own and to find a final solution - which I did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

First of all, I tried to get the firmware updates by reinstalling macOS on a formatted ssd. I began with Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11.6) and from there on I went through every major Mac OS version up to Big Sur.

Once I updated to a new major version (e.g. from 10.11 to 10.12), I additionally extracted the firmware files from the OS installer, trying to install the firmware manually by using the bless-command.

Always following this procedure:

• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Mac OS Upgrade (major version)
• Manual firmware update
• Additional Mac OS Updates
• …

I started with 10.11.6 and ended up by 11.1. No surprise: The firmware did not change and was still at 170.0.0.0

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with the built in NVMe SSD using USB boot sticks​

After the Mac OS Upgrade marathon, I tried to install every major Mac OS version (beginning at 10.11.6) by using a USB stick. This also did not work at all.

From my point of view I did everything I could to get the firmware update using the official upgrade path from Apple.

Since I read that some users who replaced the built in SSD with a 3rd party model got the newest firmware, I began to focus on the SSD.

I bought my iMac with a 256GB NVMe SSD (no fusion drive or HDD). The first thing I tried was to use a PartedMagic USB stick to wipe the internal SSD using the ATA sanitize commands. I used this procedure on many other Macs to speed up the built in SSDs. Unfortunately I was not able to unfreeze the built in SSD in my iMac 17,1.

I tried many different PartedMagic versions but nothing worked.

So I decided to disassemble my iMac and to replace the built in NVMe SSD. I hoped to get the newest firmware by using this procedure since some users successfully did.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with an OWC NVMe SSD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

I used an OWC Aura 2 NVMe SSD to replace the built in Samsung SSD. Again: No luck. My iMac still stuck with version 170.0.0.0.

To make sure that I tried everything I could, I went again through the whole Mac OS upgrade-chain from El Capitan to Big Sur. Still at 170.0.0.0.

The 10 seconds of darkness​

During the many Mac OS reinstalls I did, I noticed a point in the installation procedure where the iMac restarts, shows a black screen (no logo, no progress bar) for about 10 seconds and immediately restarts again. These „10 seconds of darkness“ are part of every Mac OS installation. I figured out that this is the point in the installation procedure where the iMac tries to install the firmware update.

I was able to reproduce this behavior by using the bless command to install the firmware manually.

Apple said that this iMac does not need any newer firmware update - the truth is that the iMac indeed tries to install the newest firmware, but fails.

The „upgrade-chain-procedure“ with a classic HDD using the built in Mac OS recovery​

The last option I tried was to remove the built in SSD and attach a HDD to the unused SATA port on the mainboard. This time I tried to install Big Sur right away. Guess what? 40 minutes later my iMac ran Mac OS Big Sur (11.1) with the firmware version 429.60.3.0.0!

Success!​

Now that my iMac got the latest firmware, I reinserted the original Samsung NVMe SSD and reinstalled Big Sur. The iMac worked perfectly with the newest firmware without any problems. The only fear I had was that - since the problem seems to be SSD-related - my iMac won’t get any firmware updates in the future (again).

Future firmware updates work as well!​

Two days later the Mac OS update to 11.2 was released. I installed the update and a couple of minutes later, the firmware of my iMac was upgraded to version 429.80.1.0.0!

From my point of view, there seems to be an issue with firmware 170.0.0.0 and built in NVMe SSDs. The iMac tries every time to install the lates firmware but fails. Using a HDD enables the iMac to install the latest firmware an after that the iMac seems to install future firmware updates even with built in NVMe SSDs.

Kind regards from Germany!

When will he get to the part where he reveals how to do it without opening up the iMac? ?

Nice job anyway!