Mac wont boot up, stuck at progress bar, shuts down, disk full.

If you could log in:

delete everything in the Downloads folder. By definition all those items came from the internet, and can be re-downloaded later if any were really essential. That might get you un-stuck, but it won't get you no 47 GB more space.

In recovery, you can choose Terminal, and navigate to

/Users/your-login-name/Downloads

make sure you are in the right place by showing all the files there:

ls -ale

There is no UNDO. MAKE CERTAIN that's the right place.

rm *.* this will remove every file in the current directory, with NO UNDO

choose Restart and see if your luck improves.

alexsasdi wrote:

It’s been about a week of trying every possible thing to get my mac to boot past the loading bar.

Is this an Intel Mac or an M-series Mac? From the mention of what I assume is supposed to be a PRAM Reset, it would indicate an Intel Mac since M-series Macs do not have a PRAM Reset as a startup option. Plus a PRAM reset on an Intel Mac is Command + Option + P + R.

-i have an external ssd but it won’t let me download it onto there, how can I utilize this external ssd to either backup my data or make a bootable drive of some sort

If this a real SSD and not a USB stick or SD Card, then make sure you have erased the whole physical SSD as GUID partition and APFS (top option). Once you have erased the whole physical external SSD, then the macOS installer should allow you to select the external SSD as a destination for the install. Many times external drives come preconfigured from the factory with weird partition layouts & incompatible file systems....it is always a good idea to use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive.

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Otherwise, exactly what happens when you attempt to install macOS to the external SSD (including error message)?

The problem installing macOS to the external could be the same reason your Mac is not able to boot to the internal drive.

What is the exact model of your Mac? You can get this information by entering the system serial number on the check coverage page here (please don't post the serial number on the forum since it is considered personal information):

Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support

And what version of macOS is currently installed on this broken Mac?

I JUST NEED MY LOGIC FILES AND PLUGINS. This is has been a loop. thank you!!!!

Does this mean you have not been backing up this computer? All these things should be included in your backups whether you are using Time Machine which Apple provides for free with macOS, or third party backup software such as Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) you mentioned.

FYI, there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes.

I cannot login. I can use target disk mode though. To be safe, how can i make a complete backup using target disk; is it just copying and pasting the user, library, and 2 other folders? Or is there another way.?

Personally I would use CCC to make a backup image of your entire home user folder. Of course this means you need a large enough destination drive to hold everything. CCC does allow you to select & deselect items, so if you know there are items you don't need you can leave them behind, or you can just select exactly which items you want to save. I would have CCC save everything into a read-only DMG archive file so it doesn't get mixed up with other items and to minimize permissions issues later on. I highly recommend buying a large enough drive if necessary in order to make an image of the whole user folder on the broken system so you don't have to worry about missing anything.

You might be able to boot into Target Disk Mode on the full Mac and connect and remove files with the other Mac. The Mac with the full disk will look like an external drive to the other Mac.