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User profile for user: FrazzleDancer
FrazzleDancer Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Is it possible to recover a missing start-up volume without erasing it?

My wife found that her 2016 MacBook Air (Monterey, Intel) laptop would no longer accept her login password. She tried selecting the "reset using Apple ID" option, and it restarted to the Recovery Assistant, which said "Password reset complete" (without her having to supply a new password), but also said "Your Mac has no volumes to recover." All of the support documents suggest starting Disk Utility to check the start-up volume, but if your Mac has no volumes to recover, the Recovery Assistant doesn't even show a list of utilities. She's tried resetting PRAM, to no avail. She can get back to the login window again, but is still trapped in this loop.


Is there a way to recover the start-up volume short of erasing it, when Recovery Assistant doesn't recognize there is a volume?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jun 6, 2023 5:48 PM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,398 points

Posted on Jun 7, 2023 6:07 PM

First, there is no 2016 MBAir. There is a 2015 model and a 2017 model.


What happens if you try to log into the macOS user account(s)? Make sure to try an external keyboard in case the built-in keyboard is not working correctly.


Is there only one macOS user account on this Mac?


Is Filevault enabled?


What OS installer was present when she booted into Recovery Mode or did no one try to access Recovery Mode? A 2015 Mac would have shipped with an older OS (10.11) which is not able to recognize an APFS volume so that OS installer would not see any recoverable volumes. You need to try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS 12.x Monterey installer. Unfortunately some Macs will boot into the older online installer no matter which startup keys are used.


You should be able to boot to Internet Recovery Mode to make sure the partitions (aka Container) is still there and that a "Macintosh HD" volume and possibly a "Macintosh HD - Data" volume is present (the latter will only be available if macOS 10.15+ was installed). Try running Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if there are any unfixed errors listed. Never assume anything without checking things yourself. macOS is not always very smart when something unexpected occurs.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,398 points

Jun 7, 2023 6:07 PM in response to FrazzleDancer

First, there is no 2016 MBAir. There is a 2015 model and a 2017 model.


What happens if you try to log into the macOS user account(s)? Make sure to try an external keyboard in case the built-in keyboard is not working correctly.


Is there only one macOS user account on this Mac?


Is Filevault enabled?


What OS installer was present when she booted into Recovery Mode or did no one try to access Recovery Mode? A 2015 Mac would have shipped with an older OS (10.11) which is not able to recognize an APFS volume so that OS installer would not see any recoverable volumes. You need to try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS 12.x Monterey installer. Unfortunately some Macs will boot into the older online installer no matter which startup keys are used.


You should be able to boot to Internet Recovery Mode to make sure the partitions (aka Container) is still there and that a "Macintosh HD" volume and possibly a "Macintosh HD - Data" volume is present (the latter will only be available if macOS 10.15+ was installed). Try running Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if there are any unfixed errors listed. Never assume anything without checking things yourself. macOS is not always very smart when something unexpected occurs.

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Is it possible to recover a missing start-up volume without erasing it?

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