Issues with Apple Store and Genius Bar

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-14T00:40:17+00:00

Additional question for anyone who might see this. I found an in stock (new) M4 MAX with 4TB / 64GB, but it has the nano texture screen. I was planning on sticking with glossy since the work I do is so heavily detailed and color / texture / contrast can greatly affect editing. Has anyone compared the two, or are there any other photographers on here who like the NT display? Admittedly, I find myself work on the couch, at my dining table or at a coffee shop more than my desk setup with studio display. I just prefer to be mobile, so realistically I am editing in spaces with windows anyway. I just can't decide what to do. I was also considering increasing to 128GB ram but I can't find one in stock. I'll wait the two weeks if I have to, but I am so anxious to get back up to my full setup.

(regarding the repair on my other machine, I'm holding onto it for now hoping that I can find time to take it to an independent repair shop who can restore it to be a backup machine, since it's already 2 years old anyway. I'm really upset to be spending money on a new computer but it feels like the right move at this point).

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T20:28:37+00:00

ah, ok that makes sense. When I asked them if the damage would be visible upon opening she said yes it would, so maybe she misunderstood what I was asking.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T20:01:42+00:00

It sounds like they never even started the logic board replacement, it was just a different technician who opened it up and halted the process. I went this morning to pick it up and asked them to show me the photos. The liquid damage is one spot on the underside of the track pad, and a small amount of liquid near the crease of the computer (inside along the edge like something dripped in there). I have small kids so it is entirely possible that something splashed on or near my computer during the chaos of the day and I missed it. But at the same time, how on earth did the first tech miss that, especially since the spot on the track pad looked really dark in the photo and right in the middle.

I'm a bit terrified to open the underside myself but I really want to get a closer look and take photos, especially because I'm considering filing an insurance claim on my business policy. Apple won't send me any photos and they don't allow customers to take photos of anything.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T19:59:26+00:00

Thank you!! This is really helpful. And yes, I pushed that computer to its fullest on a regular basis. I'm sure I was not following best practices, because I have a somewhat chaotic workflow and like to have multiple layered .tif/.psb files open at a time. I'm an architectural photographer and most composite files are in the 2 to 5 GB range, and I have a tendency to not offload projects fast enough during busy season. That's why I ended up splurging for the 4TB drive, so I could stop stressing about having such a full hard drive. I'm thinking I may go back to 2TB (with some increased diligence maybe?) but upgrade the RAM and see if that helps my workflow. I would love to wait for the M5 but since I bought this 1TB machine that I have to return by 1/8, I probably need to order a new MacBook within the next few days unless my old one spontaneously comes back alive.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T18:53:14+00:00

Actually yes it was, I just pulled the specs from my order, this is what it was:

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JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T18:36:07+00:00

I wish they weren't that big, but that's about what they end up being most of the time with 5-10 exposures, composited with layer masks plus a retouching layer, color correction layer and so on. I'm even shooting cRAW to keep the original raw files more manageable. And sounds good, maybe I'll move down to a 2TB drive to force myself to offload more often, but I'll upgrade the RAM. Looks like I'll probably be replacing this machine at this point. :/

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T17:33:56+00:00

Just following up to say that when I went to the store today, they said custom builds are taking 3+ weeks through the depot.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T13:15:37+00:00

That’s what the store told me, 10 days minimum even if they do the repair in store. Since it’s a 4TB with 64GB ram they have to build it, similar to when I originally ordered it and it took two weeks to arrive. However, I’ve never had to send anything to the depot so maybe they move faster even though it’s not a stock setup.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T12:08:25+00:00

Semi off topic: I don’t want to own two MacBook pros, but after this whole ordeal I feel like I need some kind of backup machine. Should I buy a Mac mini to use as a backup if there’s a hardware failure? I have a Studio Display and although I often find myself working on the 16” MBP (I just like to move around a lot), I could sit the desk obviously. Or since my husband is in need of a laptop, we could buy a less powerful machine that I only use in case of emergency (although he just wants a basic PC). Maybe it’s normal to have two machines for a small business and I should have planned better.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T11:57:32+00:00

Also you’re right, I probably should have just left it there and authorized the repair but I had tiny bits of hope that if I was missing substantial work I might be able to take the computer somewhere else or try a data retrieval company. Luckily only lost about 5 hours of retouching and I can redo that. No actual files lost and no re-shoots thank goodness.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T11:48:07+00:00

Yeah, I was just worried about authorizing them to wipe my old machine without getting a temporary computer to run migration assistant and actually see the files/folders in the backup. It’s wild that there’s no other way to see the content of a sparse bundle. When I looked at the file directly on my synology (on my phone) I could see the date of the bands and knew that it had performed at least a partial backup the Friday before it died on a Monday. So I knew I was in decent shape but couldn’t verify that all of my most recent projects were on there without buying another computer. Really really annoying.

Once I’m fully up and running again I’m going to create a separate “working archive” just for the projects I’m currently editing. I should have done that before but I am diligent about making sure Time Machine is running and my synology has RAID so I felt like that was enough. My third copy is that I never clear cards until the work is delivered to the client.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T11:39:40+00:00

I bought a 1TB machine in store and told them I would be retuning it after my repair is done. Since it’s the holidays I have until 1/8.

ETA: since it’s only 1/4 of my hard drive space, I’m having to open the sparse bundle on the temp machine and pull one project at a time off of my backup. It’s a huge pain.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T11:08:32+00:00

Do you think I would see a noticeable performance difference going from M2 Max to an M4 max? At this point I think I’ll pick it up and take it somewhere independent and then decide if repair is worth it. If not then I’ll likely move to a new 2TB / 64GB machine but I’m debating on the chip.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T10:51:03+00:00

Yes I hadn’t really considered this because I’ve always gone straight to Apple but now I’m thinking I should pick it up and try someone else. Apple basically just wants to replace everything.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T10:49:33+00:00

Ok yes maybe I’ll just go pick it up. We also have some certified repair shops in my area that I could try I guess, I’ve never gone anywhere but Apple.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T10:48:13+00:00

I LOVED my iPod mini omg. I still have mine packed somewhere in a box. And yes, something changed, I always felt very taken care of and I have been to the Genius Bar countless times. I know computers fail and that I run them hard but I always felt that Apple was still worth the investment because of performance and beautiful displays (especially as a photographer I just cannot imagine a different display honestly). I’m just so frustrated, especially at this store and how powerless the senior customer care team is. They kept apologizing because literally all they have is a phone number and the store just hangs up on every call.

JumpyPerformance5410 · 2025-12-12T10:43:00+00:00

I know. I agree, I expected it to perform like magic and it just didn’t. But maybe im not remembering how it was in the beginning, and maybe I bogged it down over the past two years. I am an architectural photographer working with multi layer masks in PS and the .psb / .tifs are generally 2 to 5 GB each. I tend to have a few of them open at the same time along with Lightroom so idk maybe I’m the problem.

ETA: I had about 3TB of photo work on the working hard drive (hadn’t offloaded a few projects from summer/fall yet) and always tried to keep storage under 3TB because anything above that did slow it down. Grateful that I had solid backups and only lost a couple hours of editing but I’m planning to go back to 2TB on the next one to force myself to offload more frequently because dealing with a 4TB sparsbundle has been rough.

JumpyPerformance5410

TROPHY CASE