Mac Inside & Out · Updates, Time Machine & Recovery · Lesson 3 of 5

macOS Recovery

Open the Mac's repair tools and pick the right fix when it won't start.

Getting into macOS Recovery

macOS Recovery is a set of repair tools built into your Mac. It works even when macOS won't start normally. You saw it mentioned next to the Windows recovery tools earlier.

How you open it depends on the chip, the main brain inside the computer. To check, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac.

• If it says Chip with a name like Apple M1, you have Apple silicon, Apple's own chip.
• If it says Processor with the word Intel, you have an Intel Mac.

It's good to check this now, while the Mac still works.

On a Mac with Apple silicon:

1. Shut down the Mac.
2. Press and hold the power button.
3. Let go when you see Loading startup options.
4. Click Options, then Continue.

On an Intel Mac:

1. Shut down the Mac.
2. Press the power button, then right away press and hold Command and R.
3. Let go when you see an Apple logo or a spinning globe.

You may be asked to choose a user and type its password. Pick an admin account, the kind that can change settings.

Then a window of utilities appears. Opening Recovery doesn't change or erase anything by itself, so it's safe to look around.

On Windows, the matching place is Advanced startup.

Repair, reinstall or restore

In Recovery you see a few choices. Start with the gentlest one that could fix the problem.

• Disk Utility checks and repairs your startup disk, the drive macOS lives on. Select the disk, click First Aid, then Run. It can fix damage from a crash or a sudden power cut.
• Reinstall macOS puts a fresh copy of macOS on the Mac. It needs an internet connection. Apple says it doesn't remove your files, but back up first if you can.
• Restore from Time Machine brings back the whole Mac from a Time Machine backup. It replaces what's on the Mac with the backup. Use it when the disk was erased or replaced, or when nothing else worked.

A good order to try:

1. Run First Aid, then restart.
2. Still stuck? Choose Reinstall macOS.
3. Still stuck, or the disk is empty? Restore from Time Machine.

Disk Utility also has an Erase button. It deletes everything on the disk, so only use it when you truly mean to.

If First Aid finds problems it can't fix, the drive itself may be failing. Copy off anything you can and get help, for example from Apple Support.

On Windows, Reset this PC with Keep my files is the closest match to Reinstall macOS.