Mac restart loop, pink screen, SSD full, probably caused by Tuxera NTFS

Hello world,


I own a M1 iMac running MacOS Ventura.


I was using an old external HDD occasionally for a longer period of time with my Mac; Tuxera NTFS did the job well and I had no troubles. From time to time I was trying to copy the data to another HDD with a few methods but somehow it seems that there were some files that couldn't be copied (might have been corrupted).


Today I was trying to copy a big folder from the HDD onto my iMac (it was ‘preparing to copy’ large amount of data). I left the room and when I got back an hour later - I found my Mac restarted. When I tried to log-in, it logged me in only for just a few seconds and then a freeze and a pink screen followed and now there’s an infinite restart loop (once I enter my account password).


After a few restarts - it showed “Panic Media Boot” message, and it seems Tuxera is disabled and I cannot get it back on because there’s no time to do it via the System Settings.


I also tried:

  • disconnecting the HDD and everything connected to my iMac,
  • tried booting with "Safe Mode" - nothing,
  • tried "Recovery Mode" - nothing:
  • When using "Recovery Mode" I cannot re-install MacOS since the Mac’s SSD shows 994GB used out of 1TB. :(
  • "Restore from Time Machine" is not an option - I have no back-up.
  • Did "First Aid" from "Disk Utility" - nothing.
  • Did "Diagnostics" - no errors...
  • Changed some settings via the "Startup Security Utility" - nothing...


Bottom line, Tuxera seems to be disabled (cannot turn it back on) and the SSD looks full via the Disk Utility (994GB used out of 1TB).


One thing I'm assuming is that files copied from the external HDD were corrupt so it messed my iMac, or it happened that somehow Dropbox synced at the same time when I was copying files and it made the SSD full!


PLEASE HELP!!! :(


iMac 24″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Jan 3, 2024 5:41 PM

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5 replies

Jan 4, 2024 8:25 AM in response to internationalcookie

Your primary disk is probably just too full. macOS, like all operating systems needs a little bit of breathing space to work normally. Can you delete some of the files synced via Dropbox (or that you copied from the external disk) to make room on the disk? Probably your system will start booting up again once there is at least 10~15 gigs of free space, albeit traditionally you would keep at least 20% of the disk space clear for smooth operation and to not kill the SSD...

Jan 4, 2024 6:31 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for reaching out!


Tried to also remove it via Terminal, following these instructions from Tuxera's website but it seems I cannot reach it from Recovery Mode due to the MacOS protection (Terminal needs full access which can only be set via System Settings). So cannot remove it or delete any other file on my Mac. So I'm completely stuck...

Jan 4, 2024 12:44 PM in response to DrMacMD

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate your support.


Tried to also remove some files via Recovery Mode -> Terminal but it seems I cannot reach it from Recovery Mode due to the MacOS protection (Terminal needs full access to write/read files on my User which can only be set via System Settings - as far as I Googled...). So cannot remove it or delete any other file on my Mac (except the Shared User stuff). 


Do you perhaps know a workaround for this…? Much appreciated.

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Mac restart loop, pink screen, SSD full, probably caused by Tuxera NTFS

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