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Recovery reboots while "Examining Volumes" - 2019 MacBook Pro 16" - Normal boot works fine.

I have a MacBook Pro 16" i9 990k processor, 16GB RAM and 1TB onboard SSD.


I am able to successfully reboot into recovery mode, however as recovery starts up I get to the "Examining Volumes" part where recovery is starting and then my Mac reboots. This happens every time I try to start my Mac in recovery. Normal boot works fine.


I'm on the most current OS, MacOS Ventura 13.2. I've updated MacOS successfully through System Settings and although I thought this may fix the issue, it has not. I have all of my data backed up, so I'm not worried about losing anything. However I still am experiencing this issue.


Because this is an Intel Mac, I have the T2 security chip. By default, booting from USB is not allowed. I didn't know this until I tried booting from a MacOS install USB I made on my MacBook Air 2020. Since I'm unable to get into recovery mode, I can't enable booting from USB.


What I've tried:


1.) Reinstalling MacOS to the latest version


2.) Starting up in Target Disk Mode and running Disk Utility command RepairDisk from a different Mac to check and repair errors on the SSD (errors were found and repaired successfully with this command)


3.) Starting up in Single User Mode - This mode fails to boot and instead the Mac boots normally


4.) Starting up in Verbose Mode - This mode fails to boot and instead the Mac boots normally


5.) Internet Recovery - This mode has the same behavior. Reboots at "Examining Volumes"


6.) Resetting NVRAM


7.) Resetting SMC


Because I can't get into recovery mode, I'm unable to enable booting from USB to reinstall MacOS and erase the Mac.


I'm afraid of erasing the Mac or returning it to factory default state as Recovery is an essential part of this process. Right now it's working and I'm able to use it. I don't want to have a brick that cost me $3000 on my hands. I'm also not interested at this time with investing in another motherboard as that would cost as much or more than a current new Mac.


I'm at a loss. I'm currently posting this on the same MacBook I'm having issues with, so the MacBook is working fine for my tasks and computing. However I'm worried about it's longevity and I would like to restore recovery mode to working condition if at least just to enable booting from USB.


Google has not bore much fruit for me and Apple Support says I'm experiencing a hardware failure and that I need to send it in for repair. The SSD may be failing, but I just want to enable the ability to boot from USB to have the option in case I experience a corruption of files that causes me to be unable to boot.


If there are any software engineers who can explain to me why the reboot is occurring and if there's any other options to help change the flag on my T2 chip to enable boot from USB I would be very grateful.


Any and all help that doesn't involve things I've already tried would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 1, 2023 4:54 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 24, 2023 8:49 PM

So I was able to fix the issue. I connected my MacBook Pro to my MacBook Air and ran Apple Configurator and restored the MacBook Pro. This corrected my issue. I had made a backup the day before trying this, so after my system was restored I was able to get into a simple mode of recovery. It had to download a full update of Ventura (12.6 GB) and Wifi wasn't working so I had to use an adapter to plug in ethernet in order to install MacOS. Once those steps were completed I was able to reinstall MacOS. I just verified that Recovery is now working and I have enabled the ability to boot from USB.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 24, 2023 8:49 PM in response to Music_Man22

So I was able to fix the issue. I connected my MacBook Pro to my MacBook Air and ran Apple Configurator and restored the MacBook Pro. This corrected my issue. I had made a backup the day before trying this, so after my system was restored I was able to get into a simple mode of recovery. It had to download a full update of Ventura (12.6 GB) and Wifi wasn't working so I had to use an adapter to plug in ethernet in order to install MacOS. Once those steps were completed I was able to reinstall MacOS. I just verified that Recovery is now working and I have enabled the ability to boot from USB.

Recovery reboots while "Examining Volumes" - 2019 MacBook Pro 16" - Normal boot works fine.

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