Ventura would not boot

Question

Level 1

6 points

Ventura would not boot

My MacBook (Intel, late 2020) suddenly stopped booting - it asks the password, show the progress bar, and then it stops midway and makes no progress for couple of hours at least. I've tried resetting NVRAM, checking for disk errors, running diagnostics (D button on boot) and finally reinstalling Ventura, only to have reinstall hang in a similar way.

Rebooting in verbose mode (Cmd-V), produces a pile of messages, the last of which reads:

Couldn't alloc class "AppleKeyStoreTest"

There are several Google hits for those message, but most of them are from people who try Ventura on non-Apple hardware.

Any idea where to go from here?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jun 20, 2023 11:53 PM

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Answer 1

Owl-53

Level 10

100,801 points

Jun 21, 2023 2:46 AM in response to vprus

Suggest the User start with Points 1 to 4 and then Test

Still having issues, move onto Steps 5 and 6 and Test Again

Still no resolve - move onto Step 7 and follow instructions therein

1 - Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.

2 - Safe Mode will also eliminate Third Party Software, extensions and drivers from loading. It will only load the Minimum amount of Core Apple Processes to allow the the computer to function at a reduced Level of Performance

3 - Does the issue present in this mode ?

4 - Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.

5 - If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

6 - If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.

7 - Download the Application Etrecheck directly from the Developer.

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.

It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer

The application is free or paid from added features.

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.

Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last ) <<<<

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

100,801 points

Jun 21, 2023 3:38 AM in response to vprus

Perhaps the User would know just How Much Empty Space was on the Drive Before this issue occurred ?

If and only if the computer Does Not enough Empty Space to allow the Operating System to Actual Launch, the computer will fail to Boot Up At ALL

To possible salvage some of your data >> Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support (CA)

This may allow you to get some data off the drive and hopefully all the computer to at least startup normally.

Thereafter a Major Clean up would be required

Should none of the above apply to this situation >>

The drive may have failed

Then >>

Have the computer evaluated by the Professionals who have the Special Hardware Software and Expertise to diagnose the issue and offer possible solutions

Make an Appointment at the Apple Genius Bar and have them evaluate the computer

EDITED

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Answer 3

vprus Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 21, 2023 3:27 AM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for the suggestions. Safe boot does not fix the problem. Sadly, the rest of recommendations cannot be applied if I can’t boot in the first place- it seems I can’t create a new user from recovery and surely cannot run third party apps

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Answer 4

vprus Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 14, 2023 1:22 AM in response to Chavri

Sort of. I booted in recovery, and moved /Library to /Library.backup, and /Users/<me>/Library to /Users/<me>/Library.backup. After that, reinstalled Ventura again. That worked, and seemed like a clean install, but the old disk content was at /System/Volumes/Data/Previous\ Content/ . Then, I was able to copy the necessary applications to /Applications and their settings to /Library or /Users/<me>/Library.

Not the most pleasant experience, and frankly no guarantees, but worked for me.

Another alternative is to create a new volume group, and install Ventura there. It also worked, but it is somewhat more awkward to live with two volume groups

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