User profile for user: Hazel Greenberg
Hazel Greenberg Author
User level: Level 1
40 points

How to Boot into Recovery Mode

It seems as though there is a different way to boot into recovery mode based many different things about your Mac and I cannot remember mine. I have an iMac that I bought in May of 2023. It's an M3, 8 GB, now running Sequoia 15.6.1.


I have 2 back up disks that won't record backups and Disk Utility won't work in regular mode, so I am hoping that it will work in recovery mode. It seems unlikely that it would be a disk problem since the problems are happening at the same time.


I checked the Internet, but there are so many ways of getting into recovery mode that I simply do not know which one is appropriate for my iMac.

iMac 24″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 9:25 AM

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User profile for user: Mac Jim ID
Mac Jim ID
User level: Level 9
58,250 points

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 9:32 AM

  1. Make sure that your Mac is turned off. If you can't shut it down normally, press and hold its power button for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.
  2. Press and hold the power button again. As you continue to hold it, your Mac turns on and loads startup options. When you see “Loading startup options” or the Options icon, release the power button.
  3. Click Options, then click the Continue button that appears beneath it.
  4. If asked to select a volume to recover, select your startup disk, such as Macintosh HD. Then click Next.
  5. If asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter the password they use to log in to this Mac.
  6. When your Mac has successfully started from Recovery, it shows a window with utilities. Use any utility, or quit Recovery by choosing Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu .


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User profile for user: Mac Jim ID
Mac Jim ID
User level: Level 9
58,250 points

Oct 21, 2025 9:32 AM in response to Hazel Greenberg

  1. Make sure that your Mac is turned off. If you can't shut it down normally, press and hold its power button for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.
  2. Press and hold the power button again. As you continue to hold it, your Mac turns on and loads startup options. When you see “Loading startup options” or the Options icon, release the power button.
  3. Click Options, then click the Continue button that appears beneath it.
  4. If asked to select a volume to recover, select your startup disk, such as Macintosh HD. Then click Next.
  5. If asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter the password they use to log in to this Mac.
  6. When your Mac has successfully started from Recovery, it shows a window with utilities. Use any utility, or quit Recovery by choosing Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu .


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How to Boot into Recovery Mode

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