If you have a 2013 or newer MacBook Pro, you may have noticed a black death screen when installing the latest macOS Big Sur update. You are not alone in that.

MacRumors reports that the black screen issue seems to be most common on 2013 and 2014 13-inch models. Author Hartley Charlton has seen complaints on Reddit, forums, and Apple's support site. However, the problem is not limited to 2013 and 2014 models, but also includes Apple's newest models.

Oddly enough, common troubleshooting fixes such as booting in safe mode, resetting NVRAM, resetting SMC, and internet recovery do not seem to be working.

So far, there seems to be no fix; according to a Reddit commenter, Apple Support suggested that a technician fix it. Also, according to the Apple Support thread, the issue has been escalated to Apple's engineering team.

Reddit users have also discussed other issues with the 2018 models, including loss of network connectivity and flickering of the external monitor; user Booty_Pincher, who owns a 2020 iMac, has also encountered the dark screen issue.

Another user was able to get past the black screen of death by rebooting several times in safe mode until it finally worked. That user immediately backed up with Time Machine. Another user also rebooted repeatedly until the installation was complete, but then the machine was stuck on the black screen of death.

Big Sur is a major update, bringing a host of improvements, including a revamped design, a much improved Safari browser, Control Center and widgets, Outlook, and security upgrades.

Given Big Sur's publicity, there has been a significant increase in downloads from users, slowing down Apple's servers. It also adds to the slowdown, given that new Macs now verify apps on Apple's servers every time as a security check for malware. Some users have been unable to fully install Big Sur and are seeing installation errors on their computers.

If you own a late 2013 to mid-2014 13-inch MacBook Pro, you may want to hold off on updating to macOS Big Sur for now. And honestly, given the wide range of problems users have reported with many models, you may not want to upgrade any of your devices until Apple issues an update.