You will see the Apple logo on your screen. Step 1: Start your Mac and hold down the Shift key. That means you can reboot normally and your system should be back to normal. If the issues you have during normal startup don't show up in Recovery Mode, they are most likely fixed. It can also help you isolate the issue depending on whether or not the issue goes away in Recovery Mode. Recovery Mode will only allow required kernel extensions to load, preventing login items and startup items to load automatically. This will allow the system to automatically detect and repair directory issues.

Boot Mac from USB Option 2: macOS Recovery ModeĪs an alternative, you can start your Mac in Recovery Mode. It will appear as EFI Boot, and it works on all computers running macOS 10.9 or higher. If you press and hold down the Control key while making your selection, it will be saved, and your computer will boot from the USB every time, as long as it is left in the computer.Īt this point, you can also use the Mac installation disk to boot your Mac from. If you click on the Up arrow right below the icon for the USB, the computer will only startup once using this disk. Step 3: You will now see the various startup disk options, and your USB will be listed there. If there is a firmware password on your Mac, hold down the Option key until you're asked to enter that password. Step 2: As soon as the startup process begins, hold down the Option (alt) key and keep it depressed until you see the Startup Manager on your screen. Step 1: Insert the bootable USB into Mac and power it on. As long as you have the bootable installation USB, you can start your Mac from the USB by accessing the Startup Manager. The drive will have to contain a version of the OS that is compatible with the Mac. If your Mac won't boot up normally, you can set it to boot from a different drive, such as a USB stick containing macOS installation files in bootable format. The following example is taken from a M1 MacBook Air that is booting from macOS Monterey USB installer.īoot Mac from USB Option l: Startup Manager Wait about 30 seconds, and you will see the USB name on screen, usually the name begines with Install macOS. Then keep pressing Power key to bring up Start options. : For Apple Silicon Mac, currently M1 and M2 Mac, you have to shut down the computer first.

This article shows you two ways to boot Mac from external USB stick, as well as some troubleshooting tips in case Mac won't boot from the target USB. In such cases, you might need to boot your Mac from a USB install media to fix the problem.

While it's safe to say that macOS is more stable than Windows, it can still be affected by issues that prevent your computer from booting up. 4, 2021Įach operating system could crash at one time or another.

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