question
there’s a folder with a question mark inside of it
what can i do?
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14
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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
there’s a folder with a question mark inside of it
what can i do?
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14
Huge amount of information there.
If when you start your mac you see a folder with a question mark then your mac is reporting that it cannot find a valid
file system.
Restart your mac whilst pressing and holding down the Command and R keys. This will restart your mac to your Recovery HD.
When it restarts you should see a Utilities panel, select Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens click View in the menubar
and select Show All Devices. In the left hand panel select your HD and click on First Aid, run it and see if it reports any errors.
If it does report errors, repeat until the errors clear, you could also try running it on the other Volumes.
When you get the green check mark, just restart your mac normally to see if it will start up.
If you get no further you are probably looking at reinstalling the OS, read this.
Huge amount of information there.
If when you start your mac you see a folder with a question mark then your mac is reporting that it cannot find a valid
file system.
Restart your mac whilst pressing and holding down the Command and R keys. This will restart your mac to your Recovery HD.
When it restarts you should see a Utilities panel, select Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens click View in the menubar
and select Show All Devices. In the left hand panel select your HD and click on First Aid, run it and see if it reports any errors.
If it does report errors, repeat until the errors clear, you could also try running it on the other Volumes.
When you get the green check mark, just restart your mac normally to see if it will start up.
If you get no further you are probably looking at reinstalling the OS, read this.
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