Boot Into Recovery Mode to Repair Your Mac

Recovery mode is a special version of the Mac operating system that, when you boot into it, allows you to: repair your boot disk, replace the operating system, and other emergency maintenance.

The problem is that it is hidden by default and, with the release of M1 Macs, Apple changed how we access it.

ACCESS RECOVERY MODE ON INTEL MACS

To access Recovery Mode on an Intel Mac:

• Restart your system.
• Immediately press and hold CMD + R
• Continue holding until the thermometer gets about halfway across the screen.

BIG NOTE: Cmd + R requires using a wired, not wireless, keyboard.

ACCESS RECOVERY MODE ON APPLE SILICON MACS

To access Recovery Mode on an Apple silicon Mac:

• Shut down your system.
• Wait about 30 seconds.
• Press and hold the power button on your Mac until you see “Loading Startup Options.” (It will take about 15 seconds for the message: “Continue holding for more options.” to appear.)
• Click the Options icon, then click Continue.
• If asked, enter your administrator password.

NOW WHAT?

Once you are in Recovery Mode, both Intel and Apple Macs have several on-screen options:

• Restore your system from a Time Machine backup
• Reinstall the operating system
• Access Safari for researching repair options
• Repair the boot drive using Disk Utility

Several additional options are hidden in the Utilities menu at the top, depending upon your computer and the version of macOS you are running:

• Startup Security Utility lets you set or change security settings for your system
• Terminal lets you change settings via the command line
• Share Disk lets you share the internal storage of a Mac started in Recovery mode
• Startup Disk lets you change which drive the computer starts from

For both computer systems, Disk Utility is the option I use the most.

USING DISK UTILITY

(This screen shot is from macOS Monterey running on an M1 MacBook Pro.)

(This is from macOS Big Sur.)

When Disk Utility starts, on the left side, you’ll see either a Macintosh HD container (see top screen shot) or two hard disks in the sidebar: Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD – Data (lower screen shot). Apple changed the way the operating system is stored when it moved to APFS. The Macintosh HD partition is read only, to prevent damaging the parts of the OS that don’t change. The bottom partition is where all your data is stored. (There may be others storage drives on your computer, but these are the only two we are concerned about here.)

• If you see the Macintosh HD folder, select it and run First Aid. This checks the storage container for problems.
• Select Macintosh HD, then click the First Aid icon at the top center.
• Read the onscreen message then click Run. This process will be quick.
• When that process finishes, run First Aid again, this time select either the Macintosh HD – Data or Data partitions, whichever your system uses. This process could take up to half an hour. Don’t panic, things are going OK.
• When that second repair process is finished, go to the menu bar and restart the computer.

Things should now be working better.

My recommendation is to run Disk Utility whenever you have problems, or every month or so as preventative maintenance. Running Disk Utility won’t hurt your data.

ADDITIONAL STEPS from Apple’s KnowledgeBase.

• In the Recovery app, select Disk Utility, then click Continue.
• In the Disk Utility app, choose View > Show All Devices.
• In the sidebar, select a volume, then click the First Aid button .
• In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
• When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.
• Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each volume on the storage device.
• In the sidebar, select a container, then click the First Aid button .
• In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
• When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.
• Repeat steps 7 through 9 for each container on the storage device.
• In the sidebar, select the storage device, then click the First Aid button .
• In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
• When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.

EXTRA CREDIT

Something I didn’t know until I was researching this tutorial: Apple created a “Fallback Recovery OS,” for those very unlikely situations where the Recovery disk is corrupt.

To access this, double-press and hold the power button to boot into the fallback.
I’m pleased to report that I’ve never needed the fallback. (Knock on wood.)

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