When your Mac like MacBook is stuck on loading screen, you cannot shut it down from the Apple menu. But you can press and hold the power button for a few seconds to turn off the Mac. Then, you can disconnect all peripheral devices from your Mac. This will isolate the problem and leave the Mac alone. Here's another frozen curser challenge. I've got a MacBook Air, Mid 2013. As soon as I input the user name and password the curser freezes. The boot process continues behind the frozen curser. When I'm asked to select an option the curser stays frozen and I'm out of business.
What should you do if your MacBook Air cannot recover from Recovery Mode?
Recovery is a set of tools that you can rely on in the case of an emergency. This can include a drastic situation where you cannot get into OS X. Although it looks a great deal like OS X proper, Recovery's capabilities are confined to essential maintenance tools to help you recover from a critical issue.
However, you may find that your MacBook Air or any Mac computer stuck in Recovery Mode. Here are some expert tips and advice on what to do if Mac is stuck on Recovery Mode.
What Is Recovery Mode?
macOS Recovery belongs to the built-in recovery system of your MacBook or computer. The different utilities in macOS Recovery help you:
Pro Tip: Scan your Mac for performance issues, junk files, harmful apps, and security threats
that can cause system issues or slow performance.
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- Get help online
- Reinstall macOS
- Restore stuff from Time Machine, and
- Repair or erase a hard disk
Without much difficulty, you can start up from it and use its utilities to recover from software issues or take other actions.
To use Recovery, just turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R. You may also use one of the other designated key combinations on your keyboard. Continue to hold until the Apple logo or a spinning globe appears.
Once you have started up successfully from Recovery, choose from the different utilities and then click Continue:
- Reinstall macOS or OS X – Download and then reinstall the Mac operating system.
- Restore from Time Machine – Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup of your computer.
- Disk Utility – Repair or erase your startup disk or another hard disk.
- Get Help Online – Using Safari, you can browse the web to find help for your computer, including Apple Support. The system, though, disables browser plugins and extensions.
- Other Available Utilities – Firmware Password Utility, Network Utility, and Terminal are also available from the Utilities menu in the menu bar.
If you want to quit Recovery, you simply need to hit Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu.
How to Get Out of Recovery Mode
There are times, however, when you get stuck in Recovery Mode for an unclear reason.
Newer Macs and certain older ones automatically attempt to start up from macOS Recovery over the internet when they fail to start up from the built-in recovery system. In this instance, a spinning globe shows up instead of an Apple logo when it's startup time.
Some MacBook and Mac users have reported that they got stuck in Recovery Mode. One was in the process of installing macOS High Sierra on his MacBook Air. Suddenly, his computer restarted and couldn't boot up. He was then trapped on the Recovery page and couldn't reinstall any operating system at all.
According to the system, there isn't enough storage on his hard drive. To make matters worse, he didn't have any Time Machine saved OS either.
The main problem here is when you are stuck, you cannot re-download an operating system. Relax, though, because we just might have an expansive list of potential solutions for you.
Before getting to work with these solutions, make sure to always clean up your Mac using a reliable Mac optimizer tool. This will help avoid junk files and other space hogs from getting in the way of your Mac's processes and causing errors.
Try the fixes we listed below to get out of the Recovery rut:
Restart Your Mac
Shut down your machine, wait 30 seconds, and then restart it. You may also start your computer in Safe Mode, and then restart normally afterwards. Note that this is slower than your standard computer startup.
Create a New User Account
Follow these steps:
- Open Users & Groups Preferences.
- Click on the lock icon. Afterwards, enter your Admin password once prompted.
- On the left side under Current User, you'll find an Add [+] button under Login Options. Click on it.
- Create a new Admin user account.
- Once done, log out of your current account and log into the new one.
If the problem stops, you might want to try migrating to the new account, transferring your files there.
Reset Your PRAM and NVRAM
Nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM) is a small amount of memory. Macs use it to store settings and access them right away. Settings stored in NVRAM include sound volume, time zone, display resolution, and startup-disk selection.
Parameter RAM (PRAM) stores similar information. Take note that you need to follow the same steps to reset both.
Here are steps to reset your NVRAM properly:
- Shut down your Mac.
- While turning it on, immediately press and hold the Option, Command, P and R keys together. Release these keys after 20 seconds. During these times, your computer might appear to restart.
- Once your Mac has started up, open System Preferences. Adjust any settings that have been reset, such as sound volume and display resolution.
Reset the System Management Controller
The System Management Controller (SMC) is responsible for a number of functions on Intel-based Macs. These functions include responding to power button presses, battery management, thermal management, and ambient light sensing. They also include keyboard backlighting, battery status indicator lights, and Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS).
There are several indicators that it's time to consider resetting the SMC. These include your Mac not responding when you press the power button. A reset is also potentially helpful in certain situations, such as when your Mac:
- Sleeps or shuts down unexpectedly
- Performs unusually slowly
- Gets stuck in Recovery
On a Mac notebook with a removable battery, restart the SMC with these steps:
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- Get help online
- Reinstall macOS
- Restore stuff from Time Machine, and
- Repair or erase a hard disk
Without much difficulty, you can start up from it and use its utilities to recover from software issues or take other actions.
To use Recovery, just turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R. You may also use one of the other designated key combinations on your keyboard. Continue to hold until the Apple logo or a spinning globe appears.
Once you have started up successfully from Recovery, choose from the different utilities and then click Continue:
- Reinstall macOS or OS X – Download and then reinstall the Mac operating system.
- Restore from Time Machine – Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup of your computer.
- Disk Utility – Repair or erase your startup disk or another hard disk.
- Get Help Online – Using Safari, you can browse the web to find help for your computer, including Apple Support. The system, though, disables browser plugins and extensions.
- Other Available Utilities – Firmware Password Utility, Network Utility, and Terminal are also available from the Utilities menu in the menu bar.
If you want to quit Recovery, you simply need to hit Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu.
How to Get Out of Recovery Mode
There are times, however, when you get stuck in Recovery Mode for an unclear reason.
Newer Macs and certain older ones automatically attempt to start up from macOS Recovery over the internet when they fail to start up from the built-in recovery system. In this instance, a spinning globe shows up instead of an Apple logo when it's startup time.
Some MacBook and Mac users have reported that they got stuck in Recovery Mode. One was in the process of installing macOS High Sierra on his MacBook Air. Suddenly, his computer restarted and couldn't boot up. He was then trapped on the Recovery page and couldn't reinstall any operating system at all.
According to the system, there isn't enough storage on his hard drive. To make matters worse, he didn't have any Time Machine saved OS either.
The main problem here is when you are stuck, you cannot re-download an operating system. Relax, though, because we just might have an expansive list of potential solutions for you.
Before getting to work with these solutions, make sure to always clean up your Mac using a reliable Mac optimizer tool. This will help avoid junk files and other space hogs from getting in the way of your Mac's processes and causing errors.
Try the fixes we listed below to get out of the Recovery rut:
Restart Your Mac
Shut down your machine, wait 30 seconds, and then restart it. You may also start your computer in Safe Mode, and then restart normally afterwards. Note that this is slower than your standard computer startup.
Create a New User Account
Follow these steps:
- Open Users & Groups Preferences.
- Click on the lock icon. Afterwards, enter your Admin password once prompted.
- On the left side under Current User, you'll find an Add [+] button under Login Options. Click on it.
- Create a new Admin user account.
- Once done, log out of your current account and log into the new one.
If the problem stops, you might want to try migrating to the new account, transferring your files there.
Reset Your PRAM and NVRAM
Nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM) is a small amount of memory. Macs use it to store settings and access them right away. Settings stored in NVRAM include sound volume, time zone, display resolution, and startup-disk selection.
Parameter RAM (PRAM) stores similar information. Take note that you need to follow the same steps to reset both.
Here are steps to reset your NVRAM properly:
- Shut down your Mac.
- While turning it on, immediately press and hold the Option, Command, P and R keys together. Release these keys after 20 seconds. During these times, your computer might appear to restart.
- Once your Mac has started up, open System Preferences. Adjust any settings that have been reset, such as sound volume and display resolution.
Reset the System Management Controller
The System Management Controller (SMC) is responsible for a number of functions on Intel-based Macs. These functions include responding to power button presses, battery management, thermal management, and ambient light sensing. They also include keyboard backlighting, battery status indicator lights, and Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS).
There are several indicators that it's time to consider resetting the SMC. These include your Mac not responding when you press the power button. A reset is also potentially helpful in certain situations, such as when your Mac:
- Sleeps or shuts down unexpectedly
- Performs unusually slowly
- Gets stuck in Recovery
On a Mac notebook with a removable battery, restart the SMC with these steps:
- Shut down your MacBook.
- Remove the battery.
- Press and hold the power button for some five seconds.
- Reinstall the battery.
- Press the power button again to turn on your machine.
On a MacBook with a non-removable battery:
- Select Apple menu > Shut Down.
- Once your machine is off, press Shift-Ctrl-Option on the left side on the built-in keyboard. Press the power button simultaneously. For 10 seconds, hold the keys along with the power button. If you're using a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, Touch ID also serves as the power button.
- Release the keys.
- Press the power button once more to switch on your Mac.
Find other instructions for resetting the SMC here.
Erase and Install OS X
Here are steps you should follow:
- Restart your computer.
- Immediately after the chime, hold down the Command + R keys until you see the Apple logo.
- Once the Utility Menu appears, select Disk Utility. Click Continue.
- When Disk Utility loads, choose the drive (out-dented entry) from the Device list.
- In Disk Utility's toolbar, click on the Erase icon. You will see a drop down panel.
- Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Click Apply, and then wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it.
- Quit Disk Utility.
- Return to the Utility Menu.
- Choose Reinstall OS X. Click Continue.
If you find the compelling need to reinstall macOS, you may also use a bootable installer. Here, you can use an external drive or secondary volume as a startup disk from which you can install the operating system. Follow the steps straight from Apple Support.
Final Notes
Recovery is a set of tools that aids you through an emergency. These dire situations include a critical problem that you need to recover from. MacBooks and other Mac machines, however, can get stuck in Recovery Mode and encounter boot-up problems. Use the solutions above to find the best fix for your specific case.
Have you ever come across this fairly common issue with Recovery Mode? Let us know more about your experience!
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You have encountered a severe problem. That is your Mac stuck on the loading screen for a long time, usually after a recent macOS like macOS Big Sur update or macOS reinstallation.
You may regard such a long boot process as a slow startup of your Mac and wait for hours. But the sluggish progress bar still remains on the screen without any change.
In fact, your Mac won't turn on at all and froze on startup. All the documents, photos, videos, etc. on Mac are in danger of loss. Rescuing data from your Mac is a primary task before fixing the issue - Mac stuck on the loading screen with Apple logo on startup.
- Restart your Mac
- Boot your Mac in Safe Mode
- Reset NVRAM/PRAM
- Reset the SMC
- Repair the startup disk
- Reinstall macOS
- Restore macOS with local APFS snapshot
Rescue data from MacBook/iMac stuck on loading screen
Save your important files now! Watch this video to rescue your data from Mac that can't boot past loading bar:
Tutorial to rescue your files with iBoysoft Data Recovery Software for Mac:
- Start your Mac and press Option + Command + R key combinations until you see the spinning globe.
- Make your Mac connected to the Internet all the time. You will see the spinning globe instead of the apple logo.
- Open Terminal from Utilities drop-down menu.
- Run the following command and it will launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac in macOS Recovery mode.
If the above command doesn't work, try solution 2 at: How to run iBoysoft Data Recovery in macOS recovery mode?
Then, you can use iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery to scan, preview, and recover data from your Mac within a few clicks. If you think the above steps are complicated, why not watch video above instead?
How to fix Mac stuck on loading screen?
Whatever, when your Mac like iMac or MacBook stuck on the loading screen, you can try the 7 available solutions below.
Or you are one of the users as below whose Mac crashes during boot. Even though your Mac stuck on login screen or your Mac won't boot past the Apple logo. These fixes are also applicable.
- My iMac progress bar stuck at 100% after installing macOS Catalina. How to fix?
- MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen with Apple logo. Any suggestions? (running macOS Big Sur).
- MacBook won't load after a macOS update. Help!
- My MacBook Air stuck on loading screen (fully loaded progress bar) for one hour! Any help is appreciated!
Solution 1: Restart your Mac
Whenever you encounter the boot problem, you can try rebooting Mac. This way is easy and sometimes works.
When your Mac, like MacBook Pro, is stuck on loading screen, you can press and hold the power button for a few seconds to turn off the Mac. Then, disconnect all peripheral devices from your Mac. This will isolate the problem caused by peripheral devices and leave the Mac alone.
After a few minutes, press the power button to restart the Mac again.
Solution 2: Boot your Mac in Safe Mode
Mac stuck on Apple logo with loading bar could be caused by software conflict or incompatibility. So, to confirm it, you can boot the Mac into Safe Mode.
A safe boot will prevent your Mac from launching unnecessary programs and login items at startup. It also does a basic check of your startup disk and may solve the slow startup issue of your Mac.
To boot your Intel-based Mac into Safe Mode:
- 1. Force your Mac to shut down.
- 2. Press and hold the Shift key while tapping the power button to start your computer.
- 3. Release the Shift key until you see the Apple logo and loading screen.
To boot your Apple M1 Mac like M1 iMac into Safe Mode:
- 1. Shut down your Mac and wait for seconds.
- 2. Press and hold the power button until the startup disks and Options appear on the screen.
- 3. Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
If your Mac boots past the loading bar and enter Safe Mode successfully, it's surely the software or firmware conflict. Find out the conflicting program or software, usually the recently installed third-party software, and then uninstall it.
Next, you can simply reboot your Mac and find that the Mac stuck on the loading bar issue is fixed.
Solution 3: Reset NVRAM/PRAM
PRAM or NVRAM is a non-volatile random access memory. It is used to store system settings on Mac, including startup disk selection and recent kernel panic information. So, when Mac won't boot after macOS update but Mac progress bar stuck at 100%, resetting NVRAM/PRAM might help.
To reset NVRAM/PRAM, you can simply restart your Mac and simultaneously press Command + Option+ P + R keys. If you have an M1 Mac, you don't need to reset NVRAM. Because it is automatically run test and reset on startup if needed.
Solution 4: Reset the SMC
SMC (System Management Controller) is used to control a number of Mac core functions, including sudden motion sensor and thermal management. Typically, when Mac freezes on startup or stuck on loading bar, SMC reset helps to resolve such unresponsive issues related to power and hardware.
To reset the SMC on a Mac computer stops loading halfway, follow the way below. Note that there is no SMC on M1 Mac.
1. Reset SMC when MacBook Air and MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen
Restart Frozen Macbook Air
- 1. Force shut down the Mac that is frozen on loading screen.
- 2. Press Shift + Control + Option on your keyboard and press the power button at the same time.
- 3. Hold these keys for 10 seconds and then release the keys.
- 4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.
2. Reset SMC when Mac Mini, Mac Pro and iMac stuck on loading screen
- 1. Shut down your Mac and then unplug a power cord.
- 3. Wait 15 seconds. Then, plug the power cord in.
- 5. Wait several seconds and turn on your computer by pressing the power button.
Solution 5: Repair startup disk in macOS Recovery mode
Sometimes, the Mac stuck on the progress bar because the startup disk is corrupted. Fortunately, you can use First Aid, a built-in disk repair tool on your Mac, to fix the errors on the startup disk that cause the Mac stuck on the Apple logo with a loading bar.
Firstly, boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode:
- Press and hold the Command + R keys when rebooting your Mac.
- Release the keys until you see a spinning globe or Apple logo on screen.
Restart Macbook Air From Keyboard
After booting into Mac Recovery mode, choose Disk Utility. Select the startup disk and click First Aid in the Disk Utility window. Next, click Run to check and repair the startup disk.
If First Aid successfully found the errors and repaired them, you can restart your Mac quickly without a slow startup. Disk Utility helps Mac boot up, and your Mac desktop or MacBook won't be frozen on the startup screen this time.
Macbook Frozen Screen
Solution 6: Reformat the startup disk and reinstall macOS
If you can't fix the Mac that stuck on the loading screen with First Aid, the startup disk is critically corrupted. In this case, you need to erase the startup disk in macOS Recovery mode. Disk erasure will reformat the hard drive with a new file system. And then, you can reinstall the macOS.
This usually will fix this issue. However, disk erasure will wipe all your files off the drive. So, if you have important files on this Mac, you should first rescue data from the Mac that stuck on the loading bar. It's necessary especially if you don't have any backup.
After data recovery, you can proceed with reformatting the Mac hard drive.
1. Reformat the corrupted startup drive
- 1. Restart your Mac into macOS Recovery mode.
- 2. Select Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities menu and click Continue.
- 3. Select the Mac hard drive (often named Macintosh HD or Apple SSD) from the left sidebar.
- 4. After clicking Erase on the top, you need to name it as Macintosh HD, and then give it a scheme and format.
- 5. Click Erase to confirm this operation, and then wait it to complete.
Now, you have an empty but workable Mac hard drive.
2. Reinstall macOS in macOS Recovery mode
After erasing the Mac internal hard drive, you can continue to reinstall a new macOS in macOS Recovery mode. Click the Reinstall macOS utility in macOS Recovery mode and then follow the instructions to reinstall the operating system.
Hopefully, it fixes the Mac that stuck on the progress bar at startup.
Solution 7: Downgrade macOS
It's inevitable that a macOS update is not compatible with your Machine. For example, your Mac stuck on the Apple logo when you proceed or finish the macOS Big Sur update. The updated macOS Big Sur software is not compatible with MacBook Air before 2013.
To make the Mac boot past the progress bar and won't stick on the loading screen anymore, you can revert it to the previous state. In other words, just downgrade the macOS. Downgrading macOS may erase your hard drive, so you also need to back up data on the unbootable Mac first.
• How to downgrade from macOS Catalina to macOS Mojave
• How to downgrade from macOS Big Sur to macOS Catalina
Why is my Mac stuck on loading screen?
Curious about the reasons why your Mac not loading? Go on reading to get the answers.
Normally, Mac would show the Apple logo at startup once it finds your local startup disk. Then, based on if you have encrypted the startup disk, a loading bar appears after or before you log into the Mac.
The Mac progress bar indicates that the system is checking and loading macOS from the startup disk. It involves macOS structure, corn components, file system, etc.
However, if something is not going well, like the corruption of the startup disk file system, your Mac will stick on startup.
Restart Frozen Macbook Air
Conclusion:
Reset Frozen Macbook Air
It's terrible if your Mac stucks on the loading screen or shows a folder with question mark at startup.
For the Mac that freezes on startup, you should first check if you have a backup of your data to avoid permanent data loss. If not, iBoysoft Data Recovery software will be a good helper to recover lost data from the unbootable Mac. Then, you can try out the solutions above one by one till your Mac boots up rather than hangs on slow startup.
