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macOS Catalina Black Screen after Login

I have a very odd and perplexing situation with a late 2013 iMac. It currently has macOS Catalina and I have not wanted to Big Sur for software compatibility reasons. As of the other day, the device gets to the user selection screen. After logging in, the status bar slowly grinds to a stop about 60% of the way and freezes there for while. Then the screen changes to just a black screen. The cursor is visible but nothing else shows up. I've left it there for hours and still nothing. I thought it might be a corrupted update. I've done NRVAM and SMC resets but nothing changed. I ran First Aid on the disk with no issues. I've tried reinstalling the macOS through Command + R. I've decrypted the drive through terminal and tried reinstalling the macOS again. I've even taking an older Catalina installer on bootable drive to reinstall. All macOS reinstalls end up doing the same thing. It acts as though it installs but produces the same black screen with movable cursor at the end of the install. I've also tried booting into Safe Mode but can't seem to get into it. My last resort will be to wipe the drive and do a fresh install. Any available insights or solutions would be greatly appreciated.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 10:30 AM

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Posted on Feb 11, 2022 11:45 AM

You appear to have tried just about everything you could to try resolving this issue ... except running the Apple Diagnostics.

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macOS Catalina Black Screen after Login

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