Apple Intelligence now features Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools enhancements, seamless support for ChatGPT, and visual intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has also begun language expansion with localized English support for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How do you get out of recovery mode without restoring

On my mac i turned it on and it went into recovery mode automatically. How do i change back to normal without loosing anything?

iMac 27", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 4, 2019 1:28 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 4, 2019 3:24 PM

Power the iMac off. Then reboot and immediately press the option+command+P+R keys until you hear the second startup chime — then release the keys and see if it boots normally, or Recovery. Also, reset the System Management Controller (SMC):



If it still goes to Recovery mode, reboot and press and hold the shift key until you see the progress bar. This will be Safe Boot Mode, and it will take longer to boot, unless your Mac ignores this too.

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 4, 2019 3:24 PM in response to ambwng

Power the iMac off. Then reboot and immediately press the option+command+P+R keys until you hear the second startup chime — then release the keys and see if it boots normally, or Recovery. Also, reset the System Management Controller (SMC):



If it still goes to Recovery mode, reboot and press and hold the shift key until you see the progress bar. This will be Safe Boot Mode, and it will take longer to boot, unless your Mac ignores this too.

Jul 4, 2019 1:58 PM in response to ambwng

Your boot drive may either be toast, or corrupted to where the Mac flees to Recovery mode. Just let it boot into Recovery, and then Disk Utility First Aid on your startup drive. Provided you get a green result, exit Disk Utility and select Restart, using the ordinary startup drive as your choice.


Have you installed Linux or Windows directly to. your Mac drive recently?

Jul 4, 2019 2:38 PM in response to ambwng

In Recovery mode, the Mac will boot up to the mac OS Utilities panel. You run Disk Utility First Aid from there. Once you are done, you visit the menubar, select mac OS Utilities, and select Quit mac OS Utilities.


You will then get a sheet that asks: Are you sure you want to quit macOS Utilities? There, you can select the Choose Startup Disk…, or Restart button (to use the default boot drive). If you click the Choose Startup Disk button, a new panel appears with likely a single drive selection — by default Macintosh HD. Select it and choose Restart… . In either case, the Mac will make an effort to start from your default boot drive.

How do you get out of recovery mode without restoring

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.