If you’re running into problems with your M1 Mac, you don’t need to panic and call Apple just yet. Like Intel Macs, your computer has a mode called “macOS Recovery” that you can use to run emergency maintenance on your Mac. However, the method is different for Apple silicon Macs, so the old keystrokes won’t work.
Mac Reset Password In Recovery Mode
If you do have connected an external drive with Time Machine backup, then you are. Leaving Recovery on a Mac is easy: simply reboot the Mac again to leave Recovery Mode. As long as you don’t hold down the key options, the Mac will boot up as usual. You can restart the Mac while in Recovery Mode by going to the Apple menu and choosing “Restart” from the menu options. That worked, sudo nvram recovery-boot-mode=unused and sudo reboot does indeed boot to recovery. I did not run sudo nvram -d recovery-boot-mode to reset nvram, I just simply rebooted the machine and it put me back into the OS. – as134user3693277 Aug 23 '19 at 17:08. There are a bunch of other great macOS Recovery tools, including the Terminal and Network Diagnostics. Basically, macOS Internet Recovery is the same as the internal recovery mode. There is one key difference, however: if you try to install macOS, you will end up with the version of macOS that came with your Mac, rather than the latest version.
You may remember that you could get to Recovery on an Intel Mac by holding down Command-R on the keyboard as the Mac boots. Here’s how it’s done on an M1 Mac:
Restart Mac In Internet Recovery Mode
- Turn off your Mac. As you power it back it on, press the power button and hold down the button while the Mac boots.
- The screen will show icons of the bootable storage devices connected to your Mac, plus an Options icon. Select Options and click Continue. This puts the Mac into Recovery mode.
- Enter your Mac’s admin password if prompted.
Internet Recovery Mode Mac
Then you’ll go to the Recovery screen, where you can choose from a selection of apps and perform certain maintenance tasks. You’ll also be able to reinstall macOS and run disk maintenance if needed.
Fallback recovery OS
If that’s not working, M1 Macs actually have a second recovery mode that Apple calls “Fallback recovery OS.” As the name implies, this is another recovery mode you can use in case the regular macOS Recovery mode doesn’t work.
To boot into Fallback recovery OS, double-press the power button and hold down the button while your Mac boots. According to Apple’s Platform Security document, Fallback is “a second copy of recoveryOS that is kept for resiliency.” It offers the same options as Recovery, but doesn’t allow you to modify the system security state, which you can do in the regular macOS Recovery.