2015 MacBook Air won't boot

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2015 MacBook Air won't boot

My 2015 MacBook Air 11” stopped booting yesterday, instead showing me the ?-folder.

I’m able to get into the various Recovery modes, but once there, have no ability to either First Aid the disk (all that shows is disk0 > MacOS Base System), or to reinstall MacOS (nothing populates once on the select disk page). Verify disk completes successfully.

I just tried running a Thunderbolt cable (brand new Apple cable MD861LL/A) to another Air (2014, 13”) with no success. The 11” will enter Target Disk Mode with T at startup or thru the selection from cmd+opt+R recovery and show the ⚡️ dancing across the screen, but the 13” host doesn’t see anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to try next? Most of my files are backed up…but of course there are a few that were sitting on my desktop that I’d hope to get back! Thanks for any help.

MacBook Air 11″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Feb 25, 2024 1:01 PM

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HWTech

Community+ 2026

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76,064 points

Feb 25, 2024 5:55 PM in response to Bagelboss

What version of macOS installer was being accessed when you booted into Recovery Mode?

And what version of macOS is your 2014 laptop using?

Does this laptop have the original Apple OEM installed or a third party SSD? If it is a third party SSD, then you need to be booted from a macOS 10.13+ installer in order to see a third party internal NVMe SSD.

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online Monterey installer. Unfortunately some Macs may only boot to the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory regardless of the keys used for booting. Since you have another compatible Mac, you can create & use a bootable macOS Big Sur USB installer if you are not able to access the Monterey online installer.

Within Disk Utility for macOS 10.13+, you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility.

If you are not seeing the physical SSD, then most likely the SSD has failed, although there is also a possibility the SSD support circuitry on the Logic Board is bad. All things being equal, the SSD is the weakest link assuming there is no accidental liquid damage or any severe impact to the laptop which may have dislodged the SSD. If the SSD has failed, then you won't be able to recover any data although you could try contacting a professional data recovery service to see what they have to say.

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2015 MacBook Air won't boot

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