hoakley March 21, 2024 Macs, Technology

How to recover Recovery

Macs never used to have a Recovery mode. For the first decade or so of Mac OS X, if you needed to check and repair the boot disk, or perform other surgery, you started up in Single User Mode (SUM), with the Command and S keys. Although powerful for the advanced user, this was hardly friendly, so in Mac OS X Lion, Apple introduced Recovery Mode, engaged by starting up with the Command and R keys held, and that has since developed into the full environment now provided in current macOS.

recovery01

You normally start a Mac up in Recovery when there’s a problem. But what if that doesn’t work, and that Mac won’t enter Recovery?

Intel Macs

If your Mac’s still running, perhaps displaying a folder with a question mark ? superimposed, force it to shut down by pressing the Power button until it does.

Then disconnect all non-essential peripherals, leaving just the Mac, any required display, a mouse or trackpad, any wired Ethernet connection, and its keyboard. If the latter is wireless, connect it to the Mac using its charging lead so that it’s no longer reliant on Bluetooth. Then try again using the Command and R keys.

That should enable it to start up from the secure disk image in its paired Recovery volume, and enter local Recovery mode. If it doesn’t, it suggests that isn’t available, and the only way to enter Recovery is using its Internet or remote version, holding the Command, Option and R keys during startup. This is notoriously slow, as it first has to download a disk image of the recovery system before running it.

Rarely, the Recovery volume becomes deleted, or the secure disk image it should contain gets removed. Unfortunately the only means of restoring it is to perform a macOS update, and even then some Macs seem unable to recover Recovery without the boot volume group being deleted and installed from scratch, best performed when booted from an external disk. Unfortunately, on Intel Macs with T2 chips, you might need to enable that using Startup Security Utility, which is, of course, only available in Recovery. You may now scream if you like.

Apple silicon Macs: Paired recovery

If your Mac’s still running, perhaps displaying a folder with a question mark ? superimposed, force it to shut down by holding the Power button until it does.

Then disconnect all non-essential peripherals, leaving just the Mac, any required display, a mouse or trackpad, any wired Ethernet connection, and its keyboard. Then try again by pressing and holding the Power button until the display shows that it’s loading Options.

This should load its primary or Paired Recovery system, from the Recovery volume that’s paired with the last version of macOS that your Mac was running before it was shut down. If that doesn’t work, then the next step is to try Fallback Recovery, so shut your Mac down again by pressing the Power button.

Apple silicon Macs: Fallback recovery

When the Paired Recovery system on an Apple silicon Mac is updated in a macOS update, the Recovery system from that should be copied to the Recovery volume on one of its two hidden containers, named Apple_APFS_Recovery. In the past, that process has been unreliable, but Apple has improved that, and your Mac should now have a good chance that Fallback Recovery is available. Apart from Fallback Recovery being older than your current version of macOS, it also doesn’t offer the Startup Security Utility, so can’t be used to change Secure Boot settings, its major disadvantage.

recovery13

With your Mac shut down, instead of pressing and holding the Power button once, press it briefly first, then immediately press it again and hold it, with a di-dah rhythm and timing. Keep the button held until the display reports that it’s loading Options.

Apple silicon Macs: Refresh firmware

If neither Paired nor Fallback Recovery are available, the best way to restore them for an Apple silicon Mac is to put that Mac into DFU mode, connect it to another recent Mac using a USB-C charging cable (not a Thunderbolt cable, which won’t work), then run Apple Configurator 2 on the other Mac. In that, download the current IPSW image and use that to refresh the ailing Mac’s firmware. This is explained in full detail in Configurator’s Help book, and can also be run from the Finder in Sonoma if you prefer.

Refreshing the firmware isn’t destructive, and should leave both macOS System and your Data volumes intact. If that too doesn’t work, though, the only remaining option is to perform a full restore, which will wipe absolutely everything on the internal SSD.

Apple silicon Macs: Which Recovery?

You may notice that Fallback Recovery is significantly slower to handle user authentication, and may display an ‘authorisation succeeded’ window before proceeding to the main Recovery window. There are two ways to tell for certain which Recovery mode your Mac is running:

In Terminal, type sw_vers to see the macOS version. If that’s the same as the normal version of macOS you use, then it’s most probably Paired Recovery; if it’s an older version, then it’s Fallback Recovery.
Try opening Startup Security Utility. If it’s Fallback Recovery, you should be informed that it’s not available; if it opens correctly, then that should be Paired Recovery.

Rarely you may start your Mac up in Paired Recovery, only to find that Startup Security Utility isn’t available. This seems to occur if you’ve just had the Mac running Fallback Recovery, or when it hasn’t run regular macOS since starting up from cold. Either way, the solution is to restart it normally, leave it running for a few minutes, shut it down, then after 30 seconds or so start it up in Paired Recovery again.

You can also check the versions of Recovery currently installed on your Mac using my free utility Mints. Its Software Update button lists those versions, with sfrProductVersion as Paired Recovery, and recoveryOSProductVersion as Fallback Recovery. On both my Apple silicon Macs at present, Paired Recovery is 14.4, the same as their macOS version, and Fallback Recovery is 14.3, the previous version of macOS that contained a new Recovery system.

Summary

If you can’t start your Mac up in Recovery, shut down, remove non-essential peripherals, connect any wireless keyboard using its charging cable, and try again.
On Intel Macs, try Command-Option-R for Internet Recovery.
On Apple silicon Macs, try Fallback Recovery using a short press, long press and hold as di-dah on the Power button.
Fallback Recovery doesn’t support Startup Security Utility for changing boot security settings.
If neither Paired nor Fallback recovery work, try a firmware refresh in DFU mode.

15Comments

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1

WA2FLQ on March 21, 2024 at 11:56 am
Reply

Good Information. I recently struggled to do an Intel recovery. It was an older MacBook Air. Warning, pilot errors ahead. I was rushing it.and did not take good notes, but I finally figured it out that Command-Option-R gave you the latest version of the OS for the hardware. Then I wrestled with mounting a SuperDuper sparsebundle (newest backup) for some reason.

I should do more recovery testing as part of my backup strategy. But given the Intel/Silicon and OS differences, I have reached the point where there are too many permutations. If someone knows of a cookbook or flowchart to follow, that definitely would help. I did find the info I need by googling around, but I had sort out the process steps by myself.

Jerry

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- 2
  
  hoakley on March 21, 2024 at 12:40 pm
  Reply
  
  Thank you.
  If you’d like to search here for ‘recovery’ using the search feature at the top right of every page, you’ll see extensive articles about it for both Intel and Apple silicon Macs. A comparative overview with diagrams in this article might be a good starting point.
  Howard.
  
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3

Tristan Hubsch on March 21, 2024 at 1:18 pm
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“…using a USB-C charging cable (not a Thunderbolt cable, which won’t work)”

…why do I cannot escape the feeling that this TB/USB design is a purposeful torturing device? And a cause for my wife to make fun of the rats nest of spare cables I keep around, most of which have the exactly same (USB-C) plug on both sides… Some are labeled with that Neptune trident-like USB symbol, others with the thunderbolt and perhaps a number (3 or 4), others yet with only the company’s logo… And, why should a TB4 cable (supposedly sooo much more sophisticated—esp., supposedly, those sold for much more by Apple) not be able to do the job a cheap charging cable can do?! When in panic facing a non-starting computer, those …ah, “fine-print points of a profit-fleecing industry” are the last thing I would want to have to ponder. 🤬🥵🤬 </rant> </phew>

Sorry, Howard.

…and immense thanks for writing so clearly and very, very informatively about these topics!

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- 4
  
  Simon on March 21, 2024 at 1:34 pm
  Reply
  
  In DFU mode only a minimal set of drivers is available. So in this mode the Mac can communicate over the simple USB protocol, but not the more sophisticated TB.
  
  For data purposes, just stick to TB4 cables. They might be a tad more expensive, but they should be able to handle everything (unlike some USB cables).
  
  The only reason to use USB cables is for pure charging (due to cost) and for DFU mode (see above). Glenn Fleishman from TidBITS wrote an excellent article on this topic. He has a nice explainer video on his blog (search for “Glenn Fleishman 10 Minutes on USB and Thunderbolt Cables”) and his comprehensive TidBITS article can be found searching for “USBefuddled: Untangling the Rat’s Nest of USB-C Standards and Cables”
  
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- 5
  
  hoakley on March 21, 2024 at 7:42 pm
  Reply
  
  Thank you.
  As Simon has pointed out, this is an exceptional case.
  DFU mode is run entirely from the Mac’s ROM, so only uses very simple features. Thunderbolt 3 is a complex protocol requiring extensive hardware and driver support. Not only does this ensure that DFU mode will work when everything else is falling apart and the internal SSD isn’t available, but it also reduces the attack surface area, making it far more secure.
  I would add that, if you require cables longer than about 2 metres, then TB4 start to become significantly more expensive, and you may still want to keep longer cables for lesser protocols.
  Howard.
  
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  - 6
    
    Tristan Hubsch on March 22, 2024 at 1:34 am
    Reply
    
    To both Simon and Howard: Thank you for the clarifications; I do get the difference in the USB and TB protocols and how/why the TB protocol is not available to the computer in its pared-down minimalistic DFU mode. What irks me (and I tried to state that, but evidently failed, so let me try again) is: “why can a (superior) Thunderbolt cable not do the (simpler) job a USB-C charging cable?!” (As stated by the quote from the article with which I started.) And, if TB4 cables in their superiority do not cover 100% of all the functionality of the simpler USB-C cables—why make them have the same-looking and physically interchangeable form?! That is what seems highly illogical to me. (Then again, I am a martian, albeit a more recent generation.)
    
    When panicking because my workhorse computer fails to even start up (and deadlines are looming), having to make sure I use the lesser-quality/sophisticated of the physically interchangeable cables seems like adding insult to injury. Thanks, computer industry!
    
    In turn, I highly appreciate the above article having brought to my attention such a tidbit, which I hope never to need, but which I appreciate even more as I would never have guessed it. (Again, I grok that the ailing computer cannot have access to the sophisticated TB protocol in DFU mode, but that the connecting cable must also be “dumbed down” floored me.)
    
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    - 7
      
      hoakley on March 22, 2024 at 9:10 am
      
      That’s because we assume that a USB-C port supports one standard set of connections. It doesn’t, and that’s why it’s such a non-standard.
      Howard.
      
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8

artiste212 on March 21, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Reply

Thanks so much for this important information. I hope I won’t need it, but it’s comforting to have just in case.

Also, do u speak Morse code? di-di-di-dit di-dit

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- 9
  
  hoakley on March 21, 2024 at 7:45 pm
  Reply
  
  Thank you.
  I’m a radio ham, callsign M1BWR. Although I didn’t attempt the code qualification, I had a smattering of Morse, and have even written about it here in the past – search on Morse.
  Howard.
  
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  - 10
    
    artiste212 on March 22, 2024 at 1:41 am
    Reply
    
    I passed my General license exam in 1963 or 1964 and am WB2HLX (13 wpm code proficiency, although when I was young, I used to copy up to 25 wpm). Back then, all the UK hams were G1 and the US hams were W#, WA#, WB#, or K#. My first license was a “Novice” in 1962-3, with only 5 wpm code required and transmit frequency was allowed to be controlled only by a quartz crystal. I bought up everyone’s used crystals for pennies and ground them until they reached the frequency I wanted, by trial and error of 10-50 steps. We were somewhat “resource constrained.”
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 11
      
      hoakley on March 22, 2024 at 8:48 am
      
      Thank you. My licence was gained when no-code resulted in a VHF-only licence. Then the rules were changed, and I gained full access. It’s a few years since I last enjoyed the licence privileges, though.
      Howard.
      
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12

joethewalrus on March 21, 2024 at 11:39 pm
Reply

I could probably take a couple wild guesses, but is there an official explanation given as to why paired recovery appears to be 1.1 GB but Fallback Recovery is 5.4 GB? This seems consistent on a couple of Macs I have running Sonoma.

/

   #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

   0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

   1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk2 524.3 MB disk0s1

   2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 994.7 GB disk0s2

   3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk1 5.4 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):

   #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

   0: APFS Container Scheme – +994.7 GB disk3

   Physical Store disk0s2

   1: APFS Volume Gravity 10.2 GB disk3s1

   2: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-… 10.2 GB disk3s1s1

   3: APFS Volume Preboot 6.3 GB disk3s2

   4: APFS Volume Recovery 1.1 GB disk3s3

   5: APFS Volume Macintosh HD – Data 236.6 GB disk3s5

   6: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk3s6

   7: APFS Volume Virtual Machines 256.0 GB disk3s7

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- 13
  
  hoakley on March 22, 2024 at 9:05 am
  Reply
  
  No. There’s no official map of the internal SSD either.
  macOS only started using this paired Recovery scheme in Monterey anyway: Big Sur doesn’t use it on Apple silicon Macs.
  Howard.
  
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14

Otgi on April 8, 2024 at 3:41 am
Reply

Thanks for your insightful blog! I’ve encountered an interesting issue and wonder if you might have insights. After attempting to install macOS Sonoma on my MacBook Pro late 2016 using Open Core Legacy Patcher, I reverted to Monterey. Post-reversion, I faced persistent recovery mode issues, despite multiple resets and formats. Interestingly, creating a USB installer on an Apple Silicon device for use on an Intel-based system seemed to cause incompatible Recovery modes, freezing at the Apple logo. However, when the installer was created directly from the Intel MacBook, recovery worked flawlessly. Have you encountered such a scenario?

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- 15
  
  hoakley on April 8, 2024 at 6:54 am
  Reply
  
  Thank you.
  I very seldom use USB installers now, so I haven’t come across this. However, as they work completely differently on Apple silicon Macs, it doesn’t surprise me that you had problems using one with an Intel Mac.
  Howard.
  
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