MacOS Recovery (also known as Mac Recovery Mode) was first launched with OS X 10.7 Lion in 2010. It's a feature that a majority of Mac users generally don’t use to boot unless one of the following scenarios occurs:

Press the power button and hold it until the startup disks and options appear.

Here’s how to boot an M1 processor Mac in safe mode:

If FileVault is enabled, you may need to log in twice.

Release the shift key when the login window appears and log in.

The Apple logo will appear on the screen.

Turn on your Mac and press the shift key simultaneously.

Here’s how to boot an Intel Processor Mac in safe mode:

If your Mac is sluggish (booting in Safe Mode will delete the cache and could speed things up).

If you believe an app is creating issues with the startup.

It allows you to safely boot your Mac if you’re troubleshooting certain issues on it. Using this mode is recommended only if you’re facing issues like: Safe Mode is a stripped-down version of macOS. You can use one of the multiple Mac boot options listed below to start-up an unbootable Mac. Therefore, you should apply tried and tested macOS boot options demonstrated in this post.

However, forcefully booting into the system without proper technical know-how can result in overwriting of new data over the previous data, making it unrecoverable. The best solution is to find alternative ways to boot into the system and recover important data from it. When a Mac system crashes, it often fails to boot or start up properly. If you’ve been facing this too, you should know that it could be due to a system crash. While it has been a smooth transition for most users, some have reported that ever since they’ve installed upgraded macOS versions like Big Sur and Catalina, their machines are having trouble booting. Since the official version of macOS 11.0 was released, many Mac users are looking to upgrade to this version. Problems arising in this step need to be resolved at the earliest. Once the laptop has completely booted, you can see the home screen of the respective OS and kick-start your work with the help of different pre-installed applications.Įvidently, booting is the very first step that needs to be executed successfully to make a computer functional. When the computer boots up, its operating system (OS) is loaded into its primary memory, and several other necessary tasks are completed to make it ready and workable.

It can either be triggered directly with the help of hardware like a button press, or through a system command. The process of starting up a computer is known as booting.

Boot mac option key