apple silicon macbook stuck booting to recovery

Question

Skhart Author

Level 1

4 points

apple silicon macbook stuck booting to recovery

Mac Model: MacBook Pro 13” M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, running macOS Sequoia

Symptoms:

Mac always boots into Recovery by default.

Able to boot into desktop only when holding Control + Option + Right Shift + Power.

Startup Disk settings (both in Recovery and desktop System Settings) do not stick.

Symptoms started after being rained on - didnt know for a day or so thats what happened so was still working on it. Would randomly boot itself - go into login screen but once desktop loaded it would reboot immediately. Found out about water damage, let dry for 5 days, upside down with silica. After the 5 days, its stuck booting to Recovery.

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Troubleshooting Steps Tried

1. Checked disk and APFS setup

Ran diskutil list and diskutil apfs listgroups.

Verified APFS container and volumes:

System: Macintosh HD

Data: Data

Both volumes intact, Data volume contains all user files (cloud-based, nothing local lost).

2. Checked if we could “bless” the volume

Outcome: Could not extract BSD name / failed — firmware wouldn’t allow it because the System snapshot is read-only and sealed. Looks like bless only works on Intel

3. Disabled and re-enabled SIP (System Integrity Protection)

Disabled SIP temporarily to see if I could disable keyboard ( I though cmd + r keys were held down “continue holding for startup options”)

Re-enabled SIP.

Likely caused the system snapshot to become “untrusted” for boot — may be contributing to the Recovery loop.

4. First Aid on all volumes in Disk Utility

Checked all containers and volumes (Macintosh HD, Data, Recovery).

No errors found.

5. Tried setting startup disk

From Recovery → Startup Disk → Selected Macintosh HD.

From Desktop (with key combo boot) → System Settings → General → Startup Disk → Selected Macintosh HD.

Outcome: Mac still defaults to Recovery on reboot.

6. Reinstalled macOS over the existing volume (without erase)

Let the installer run while Mac was on and observed the estimated time (~1–2 hours).

Completed, but after reboot, Mac still boots to Recovery by default.

Confirms the existing System snapshot remains “untrusted” and firmware won’t boot it normally.

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Observations & Notes

The Mac can boot into desktop via key combo, confirming the hardware and SSD are healthy.

APFS Data volume is intact and not the issue.

Likely cause: the System snapshot is sealed and untrusted, possibly worsened by temporarily disabling SIP.

Apple Silicon firmware enforces signed system snapshots; a manually “blessed” volume or reinstall over an existing untrusted snapshot cannot fix the trust issue.

What can I do so it trusts the snapshot?

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 7:10 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

31,373 points

Oct 21, 2025 3:15 PM in response to Skhart

Skhart wrote:

[...]

Symptoms started after being rained on - didnt know for a day or so thats what happened so was still working on it. Would randomly boot itself - go into login screen but once desktop loaded it would reboot immediately. Found out about water damage, let dry for 5 days, upside down with silica. After the 5 days, its stuck booting to Recovery.

[...]

What can I do so it trusts the snapshot?

Water and electronics do not mix.

Water damage will not fix itself. What typically happens is the damage gets worse over time. The symptoms might begin small as in what you are experiencing now, but eventually will progress until the machine no longer operates at all.

Take the opportunity now, while you still have the ability to read your data, and make two backups of your files. If you wait, you will lose all the data that is stored on that Mac.

Then, there is nothing to be done but to have the computer serviced by Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Get your Mac repaired and see how much will it cost: Mac Repair & Service - Apple Support

You can make a Genius Bar appointment for hardware/software service and support using this link: Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753) or on line /getsupport.apple.com/

or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

154,702 points

Oct 21, 2025 8:30 PM in response to Skhart

I understand that. ...

I respectfully disagree. You are able to start that Mac only by forcing an SMC Reset every time. That is only required when hardware that controls literally all the Mac's power functions became unreliable or suffered some degree of corruption from some unknown cause.

In this case though, the cause is known: liquid damage. Paraphrasing D.I. Johnson, that's not going to fix itself.

The Mac can boot into desktop via key combo, confirming the hardware and SSD are healthy.

That conclusion (boldface) is unsubstantiated. The contents of its flash storage is almost certainly intact, but the presence of hardware damage is certain. The only uncertainty is its extent.

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Answer 3

Skhart Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2025 9:29 PM in response to John Galt

✅The Mac boots predictably when using the key combo, every time — meaning power delivery and SMC are functioning consistently.
✅ The SSD and container structure are fully readable and mountable. If the logic board’s SSD controller were compromised, we'd see I/O errors or corrupted sectors in diskutil verifyVolume or SMART reports — and I didn’t.
✅ Liquid damage that affects the SMC or logic board typically causes random shutdowns, no power, fan cycling, or failure to detect storage. None of those symptoms are happening here.
✅ I’ve had the machine reliably reach macOS desktop and operate normally once booted. That wouldn’t be possible if the SMC or power circuitry were compromised at a hardware level.

You're not wrong that water can damage SMC-related circuits but to assert that your current symptoms dont prove it .They line up with a boot trust chain problem, which is entirely software-level. Which i believe weas a result of my incorrect assertion that the keyboard was sticking because of the 'Continue holding down' and disabling the SIP , therefore possibly untrusting the snapshot.

Im not saying you're wrong in any way. Its def a bad situation that is likely to get worse. There likely is hardware damage. I just dont think this loop is the result of it. Was hoping there was a command or a suggestion of what I could try prior to my appt to get it opened up.

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Answer 4

Skhart Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2025 7:49 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

I understand that. My question is what do i jave to do so that it trusts and signs the startup disk? So I dont have to bypass the security check every time with the key combo.

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