When your Mac won’t boot or doesn’t perform normally, you may be advised to troubleshoot issues through recovery mode. You may know little about the mode or have never heard of it before. Considering that, I would like to talk about Mac Recovery Mode in this article. I will explain specific situations in which you may consider using it. Moreover, a detailed guide to boot into Recovery Mode on your Mac is offered.
Mac Recovery Mode is a built-in tool that lets you troubleshoot and repair your system. It provides a safe environment to troubleshoot system errors, reinstall macOS, fix usage issues, restore from a Time Machine backup, and more. You can boot your Mac into Recovery Mode to access various utilities, such as Disk Utility, Terminal, Time Machine, and others.
For different purposes, you might need to boot into Recovery Mode on a Mac. For instance, you want to reinstall macOS when your system becomes corrupted, fix issues with your Mac’s disk, restore your macOS to a previous state, or identify and resolve some hardware problems. As mentioned above, you can boot your Mac into Recovery Mode to access various advanced options, including Disk Utility, macOS Installer, Time Machine, Terminal, and Safari.
There are two common ways to boot into Recovery Mode on your Mac. Whatever the reason, when you want to enter the Recovery Mode, follow the steps below. Before booting a Mac into Recovery Mode, you’d better back up all the valuable Mac data first.
Suppose you are using a relatively new Mac device that comes with an Apple Silicon. In that case, you can easily access Recovery from the currently installed macOS.
After you enter the Recovery Mode on your Mac, you will see the macOS Utilities window. As mentioned above, you can select the specific utility you need.
To reinstall the macOS, choose Reinstall macOS [name] and then click Continue. To repair or erase your Mac disks, select Disk Utility. It is a powerful tool that can help you diagnose and repair various disk issues. If you have ever created a Time Machine backup and want to restore your Mac from it, you can go to Restore from Time Machine Backup. You can select Terminal to access the command-line interface. When you need Apple's online support resources, click Safari to get help.
When you want to exit the Recovery Mode, simply restart your Mac and boot normally into the regular macOS environment.
You can easily troubleshoot various issues by booting your Mac into Recovery Mode. However, reinstalling macOS, restoring your Mac from a previous backup, or formatting a disk will potentially lead to data loss. As I mentioned above, you should back up your Mac data before entering macOS Recovery.
If you have a recent Time Machine backup, you can restore lost files with ease. Follow similar steps to boot into Recovery Mode and choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Then, take the on-screen instructions to restore your Mac data. However, if you have no suitable backup to find your lost files back, you should consider using specialized data recovery software like Aiseesoft Data Recovery. These tools can scan your Mac disk for lost files and attempt to recover them.
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Download and open Aiseesoft Data Recovery on your Mac and select the specific data type and disk to start scanning. Once scanned, all files will be listed in data type or path. You can easily find these deleted or lost Mac data. Select the ones you want to find back and click the Recover All button.
Can I boot my Mac into Recovery Mode without a keyboard?
If you have a Mac with Apple silicon, you can boot it into Recovery Mode by pressing the power button. In that case, when you access macOS Recovery, you can use your cursor to select the specific option or feature you need. On an Intel-based Mac, you will need a keyboard to press the key combination, as mentioned above.
Does booting into Recovery Mode delete Mac data?
No, booting a Mac into Recovery Mode does not delete your data. However, if you choose to reinstall macOS, format your disk, or perform some similar actions, certain files will be removed from your Mac.
Why won't my Mac boot into Recovery Mode?
There are several reasons why your Mac might not be booting into Recovery Mode. When you fail to enter Recovery Mode, you should first check and ensure you press the correct key combination. Try using an external keyboard and try again. Sometimes, a damaged recovery partition may prevent a Mac from booting into Recovery Mode. What’s more, hardware issues may also interfere with the boot process.
Conclusion
After reading this post, I think you can get a better understanding of macOS Recovery. You can follow the steps to easily boot into Recovery Mode on your Mac. If you encounter any issues you can't resolve, consider seeking help from Apple Support.
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