MacBook no boot with red battery icon
The red battery icon with a lightning bolt on a MacBook screen indicates that the battery is low and the Mac is not receiving enough power to boot. This can happen with a malfunctioning battery, an inadequate USB-C charger, or a damaged USB-C cable. If only the lightning bolt is under the red battery icon, this means the MacBook is receiving power via the USB-C port but there isn’t enough power to boot the MacBook. If there is a plug and lightning bolt under the red battery icon, this means the MacBook is not receiving power via the USB-C port.
This issue can arise when the MacBook battery has run out (0% charge) and the USB-C charger is not providing enough power to boot the MacBook. A solution is to find a USB-C (USB-PD) charger with at least 90 watts of power output to charge the MacBook battery to say 5% to 10% so that the MacBook can boot. One can then switch back to the lower wattage adapter that may take several hours to charge the MacBook battery. When traveling, especially with a high powered MacBook Pro, carry a USB-C adapter with at least the wattage of the original power adapter to avoid this issue. A temptation is to use say an iPhone or iPad lower wattage 15 W or 30 W charger with a MacBook Pro that may need 60 W or 90 W to boot from an empty battery.
Using the no boot checklist from Apple is also useful to troubleshoot the issue. It is uncommon to need to reset the SMC.