Maguire beat Barry Hawkins to make the quarter-finals of the Indian Open and lost 4–1 to Anthony McGill. He made a 147 and two other centuries in his 5–0 wildcard win over Xu Yichen at the Shanghai Masters. He then whitewashed Shaun Murphy 5–0 and defeated Hawkins 5–3 and Michael White 5–1 to reach the semi-finals, where he lost 6–3 to Ding Junhui. Luca Brecel beat Maguire 6–3 in the fourth round of the UK Championship and he was defeated 5–1 by Mark Selby in the quarter-finals of the China Open. Maguire was unable to break back into the top 16 during the season and so needed to win three matches to qualify for the World Championship. Victories followed over Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn, Nigel Bond and Li Hang and Maguire faced McGill in the opening round. From 2–2 Maguire scored 447 points without reply and went on to triumph 10–2 in what was his first win at the Crucible since 2012. He then thrashed Rory McLeod 13–3 with a session to spare to reach the quarter-finals and came from 5–1 down to draw level with Barry Hawkins at 6–6. However, from 9–9 Maguire lost four frames in a row to be beaten 13–9.