6. Fix incompatible firmware
Starting with macOS High Sierra (10.3), Apple upgrades the hard disk drive format from HFS+ to APFS. When you install or upgrade your Mac to High Sierra or later macOS, the installer will automatically upgrade the firmware (low-level system software stored in the ROM chip). If somehow the firmware fails to complete the update, you will get a flashing folder with question mark. This is because the old firmware does not recognise the new APFS format.
To fix the firmware issue, you need to install High Sierra or later macOS again on your hard drive and your data should be intact. If you really concern your data, you may choose to put in a new SSD hard drive and install the new macOS (10.3 or later).
If all these fail to update the firmware, you can update the firmware manually. This method is also suitable for the IT department in organisations who need to update a lot of Macs’ firmware at the same time and deploy new macOS without going through the installation process individually for every Mac.
1. Put in a new SSD hard drive in a MacBook.
2. Install any macOS older than High Sierra 10.3 e.g. El Capitan or Sierra.
3. Go to AppStore and perform a software update.
4. Choose High Sierra or later macOS and continue the update
5. Your Mac will reboot and start the software update.
6. Stop the update. Your goal is to download the macOS, not to update the macOS.
7. Now check the Application folder, you should be able to see the downloaded macOS file.
8. Open Terminal Utility and copy the following codes and enter. You will be asked to enter the admin password to complete the task.
echo “Mounting High Sierra ESD disk image…"
/usr/bin/hdiutil mount /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra*.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
echo “Expanding FirmwareUpdate.pkg"
/usr/sbin/pkgutil –expand /Volumes/InstallESD/Packages/FirmwareUpdate.pkg /tmp/FirmwareUpdate
echo “Running Firmware Update"
cd /tmp/FirmwareUpdate/Scripts
sudo /usr/libexec/efiupdater -p “$PWD/Tools/EFIPayloads"
9. The firmware in your Mac will be updated on the next startup, so reboot your Mac now.
10. Put back your original HDD and you will see the Apple logo. If your task is to update the firmware to many Macs at the same time, remove the SSD hard drive and put it in the next target Mac, repeat the steps 8 and 9.
Note: The above codes will compare the current firmware version of your Mac with the firmware version extracted from the macOS you have just downloaded. If the extracted firmware is newer than the current firmware, a firmware update procedure will be scheduled on the next startup of the Mac
The above picture shows that the extracted firmware version [007F0000] is newer than the current firmware EFI version [00770033] of your Mac. So the firmware will be updated to the new version on the next startup. Also, it is very important that you need to stop the upgrade process after downloading the newer macOS, as the download file will be automatically erased after finishing the software update. Our codes need to extract the embedded firmware from the file.
Mac question mark folder Firmware update screen recording:
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