2017 MacBook Bro only boots to ?-folder and internet recovery screens

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2017 MacBook Bro only boots to ?-folder and internet recovery screens

I received a Macbook Pro secondhand and it is my very first apple product. here we go.. upon initial boot, it brought me to the question mark folder screen that told me to go to support.apple.com/yaya. After doing the instructions on that page, I found. it to fail in the reisnatllation of High Sierra. I went to the disk utility. Erased the disk. Reformatted it ran the first aid kit or whatever they call it. Try the reinstallation process and it failed. with like one second remaining. So now I get a flash drive and I throw an install.dmg on there To try to use the plane restore option I seen in the disk utilities. That got me farther than I did last time I was able to complete successfully, but when I rebooted it rebooted me to that ?-folder screen. The only time that I don't move to that ?-folder screen is when I use the various key commands to use while you boot up. Every single time I'm taken to the Internet recovery screen where I have to enter my WiFi password. That is the only constant never fails.

Since then, here are some things that I've tried>

Resetting all suggested hotkey resets>each boot folder screen or Internet Recovery screen

Made A bootable drive formatted to GUID. Using Transmac. a program that I found wasn't suggested that if you didn't have access to another Mac> I've been through so many different boot cycles. I don't remember what happened When I booted that method.

I've tried various combinations of all tutorials that I've seen online to fix this. All have failed. Occasionally I will get a different type of screen after Internet recovery screen. It gives me an option to select the language. This time, the Internet recovery process takes a little while longer. But after I select the language, I get to the recovery screen> reinstallOS, time machine and. disk utility. yadda. I choose reinstall OS I go through the stops choosing desk, agreeing to everything, selecting an addition and all. this time it always seems. to fail with exactly 399 seconds left in installation every single time. I've had it to the point of killing itself with failure notice with as little as six seconds left.

I refuse to believe it as simply a dry failure. There has to be something I can do, and if there isn't. well, then that's dogsh*t. I read that these solid state guys are soldered right to the board. That is such a dumb idea. I've used windows and Android my whole life might have never been this frustrated.

MacBook (2017)

Posted on Sep 26, 2023 2:51 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HWTech

Level 9

56,102 points

Sep 28, 2023 12:17 AM in response to _anythingBUTapple

FYI, when posting, please provide some type of formatting to break up the text in more readable segments such as paragraphs which have an empty line separating them. I had to just skim through your post because it was so difficult to read.

Do you have the Touchbar model or the non-touchbar model? This may be important since the SSD on the non-touchbar model has an extremely high rate of failure compared to other models.

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online macOS 13.x Ventura installer. Unfortunately even with this key sequence, some Macs may still only boot to online installer for the version of macOS which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory. That is a problem since recently most people have been unable to install older versions of macOS such as High Sierra due to an Apple server issue.

Otherwise you will need access to another Mac compatible with an OS this 2017 laptop supports in order to create a bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Generally to create a bootable macOS USB installer you will need access to another Mac from (this other Mac can be running any version of macOS 10.6+):

Late-2009 to 2018 for macOS 10.13 High Sierra
2012 to 2019 for macOS 10.15 Catalina
2016 to mid-2023 for macOS 13.x Ventura

You can use the information in this article to confirm which Macs are compatible with various versions of macOS in order to identify whether you have access to any other compatible Macs:

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

You can also try going to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for assistance. Maybe they will be able to help you create a bootable macOS USB installer or assist you in reinstalling macOS with Internet Recovery Mode.

You cannot make a macOS bootable USB installer by "Restoring" a .dmg file. Technically there may be exceptions, but that really shouldn't matter here since you need one of these other Macs to download the necessary file anyway. Apple does not provide any bootable .dmg macOS installer images which can be restored using Disk Utility. Any macOS installers Apple provides in .dmg format are either update patches (non-bootable), or an extraction app to expand a macOS installer app into the Applications folder (again not bootable).

You can always provide Apple with product feedback here (Apple won't respond):

Product Feedback - Apple

You can also contact Apple corporate to voice your displeasure (Apple may respond):

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

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Answer 2

Sep 29, 2023 9:28 PM in response to HWTech

all right boss-man I really appreciate the pointer on posting formatting. I'll try to do a little better.

So I have the touch bar edition of the Macbook Pro I believe the touch part that you're referring to is the sleek glass looking bar that has an attached power button above the keyboard. If I'm wrong then ignorance is bliss and I do apologize.

OK so if i'm understanding what you're saying, Apple doesn't provide bootable dmg installers probably for obvious reasons to protect their brand, If I don't own an Apple I'm up schitts creek. I live in a rural area the closest Apple store to me is like two+ hours away. My local town has 300 people in it and our post office closes at 10:00 AM. Just to give you an idea of the backward savagery that happens here. Me taking the supper to a store or shipping it in is not worth it to me. I DIY everything I do.

So I query you this, in a magical fairyland of hypotheticals, what ifs, and beating around the bush. if there were a way to endow a macOS 10.6+ on a vm and have it Coincide happily ever after in this VM and do properly, would a bootable disk be able to be made for this computer?

I spin a yarn of Myths Lore and legend because who's say if it's true/false or could happen or not.

But if it were a simple yay or nay would suffice and one will go about a merry way and figure this out if ones own.

A few things have crossed an eye but who should say of the work or not words straight from the gurus Can help a wary nerd make due with what he has.

Any guidance that can be given as much appreciated on this country folks the journey into the Apple world thank you so much.

Very sorry I went in Middle Earth on you there.

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

56,102 points

Sep 30, 2023 1:56 PM in response to _anythingBUTapple

Yes, the bar above the keyboard which replaces the standard function keys is the Touchbar.

Technically Apple does provide a few much older macOS installers in .dmg format, but they won't help you because they are too old for your Mac and they also require a compatible Mac to extract the real installer from the .dmg file. Those .dmg files are not raw images of a bootable image, would be very nice if Apple offered such an option since it would make it very easy to create a bootable macOS USB installer using any computer or OS.

I have no idea if OS X 10.6 can be used in a VM, or even if it can whether it can allow you to access to an installer from the App Store needed for your Mac. I will say that it is against Apple licensing terms & conditions to use macOS on anything other than Apple hardware...even when using VM.

Your best option is to try using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS 13.x Ventura installer through Internet Recovery Mode. What happens exactly when you try to boot into Internet Recovery Mode now since it seems like it almost worked the first time with High Sierra. If you encounter a problem, it really helps to know at which point the error occurred and the exact error message.

Even if you don't have another Mac, do you have any family, friends, or co-workers who may have a compatible Mac who can create the bootable macOS installer for you?

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2017 MacBook Bro only boots to ?-folder and internet recovery screens

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