Apple’s 2018 MacBook may not be able to have data recovered if the unit’s logic board fails. Apple has long been known to make it difficult to repair their devices, and many times, owners are forced to go to a nearby Apple store to have their Apple devices repaired.
Consumer backlash has done little to deter the first publicly-traded trillion-dollar company from taking a step backward.
Reports suggests that a logic board failure will make it impossible for repair shops, including Apple Stores, to recover data from a MacBook. The company has been known to solder non-removable SSDs to their logic board, but even with this past version, recovering data has always been possible.
Apple, has in the past, offered special tools to authorized service providers that would allow technicians to recover data from the drives, soldered to the logic board, if the SSD was still intact.
The tool, which technicians have relied on since 2016, does not work with the 2018 MacBook Pro. Consumers report that the data recovery connector on the logic board has been removed. The data recovery tool, called the Customer Data Migration Tool, relied upon the connector to transfer data from the SSD to another MacBook.
The tool seems to be rendered useless, according to reports. The 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar features hardware encryption for the unit’s SSD and has incorporated the company’s custom T2 chip into the design.
“Any frequently-used data type can be recovered by this data recovery software, such as pictures, songs, videos, documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, TXT, RTF, etc.), emails and other files,” comments Apeaksoft Data Recovery.
Data recovery experts have been able to recover data from 2018 MacBook’s using advanced logic board technology.
Apple suggests that users use the company’s Time Machine to preserve data in the event that a logic board stops working. The company’s reliance on soldering components to the logic board is not a problem on PC or other devices.
Technicians recommend a backup drive for home use.
Internal reports from Apple also suggest that there has not been an upgrade to the company’s migration tool. No other alternative solutions have been offered by Apple. Third-party data recovery specialists have had success restoring 2018 MacBooks, but they will require the entire device to be sent to the specialists.
Logic board failure happens on a very small percentage of units, but if a failure does occur, users can expect to pay a hefty price to have the data restored.
