

MacOS startup modes can be quite helpful.

Our prior tutorials educated you on the ways to start up your Mac from a bootable media, pick a startup disk at boot time or after the fact, mount another Mac’s startup drive on your desktop in Target Disk Mode and boot your computer in Safe Mode or Verbose Mode. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to enter Recovery Mode at boot time and use the built-in recovery tools to bring your Mac in perfect working condition.

It is typically your last chance to repair the startup disk, reinstall macOS or restore from a backup after a fatal failure that prevents your Mac from starting up properly.

Prevent automatic login: If you enabled the option to automatically log a specific macOS account every time your Mac starts up, you can override this setting by holding the left Shift (⇧) key after the macOS boot progress indicator appears.Prevent Login Items from opening: To override your current settings and prevent Login Items and Finder windows from your last session from opening when you log in, hold down the Shift (⇧) key after clicking the Log In button in the macOS login window until the desktop appears.macOS Startup Volume: X will start up your Mac from an macOS startup volume when it’d otherwise boot from a non-macOS volume, like a Windows partition.Eject removable media: Media Eject (⏏), F12, mouse button or trackpad button.Boot from NetBoot server using the default image: Option (⌥)-N.Apple Hardware Test over the Internet: Option (⌥)-D.Internet Recovery OS: Command (⌘)-Option (⌥)-R.The following options do not exist anymore on Silicon processor based Mac : Once you see the Options menu, press Option (⌥)-D to start the Diagnostic Mode. You can access boot mode and recovery options by holding the power button when starting the Mac. Apple Silicon based Mac (MacBook Pro M1, …) Those are some of the key you need to press when powering up your mac to perform certain actions.
