MacBook keeps restarting even in Recovery Mode

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook keeps restarting even in Recovery Mode

I’m at my wit’s end here with this computer. It’s one thing after the other after the other with no clear solution in sight other than accepting the fact that I bought A $6000 paperweight with an Apple logo on it. Perhaps someone can help change my mind…

I have a MacBook Pro I purchased Directly from Apple in 2021. I’m not sure which model it is, but I purchased it in 2021, it’s got a Touch Bar and it’s running the new OS on it, which I updated About a month ago.

I left the room while watching some videos with a friend and was gone 5 minutes. After returning, I noticed it was closed partially. I opened It and about 30 seconds after that it restarted itself And gave me some error message about kernels and that my computer had restarted itself because of some error. I don’t Know if the “friend” did something or what they could even do to it that would make it restart itself every minute…

I contacted Apple support, which barely helped anything other than telling me the troubleshooting steps I had Already done with no results.

it restarts itself in safe mode. It restarts itself in recovery mode. I can’t Run diagnostics because it restarts itself before I can Even get to the run diagnostics option. Unfortunatley it was not backed up. Of course. And my Apple care expired 2 months ago. How typical.

I’ve done a number of searches on this topic here.. others have the issue but they also seem to either be ignored or the responses aren’t the least bit helpful…

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 1:05 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

60,290 points

Sep 19, 2024 8:27 PM in response to Dismalorb

You can get the exact model of the laptop by entering the system serial number on the check coverage page here (please do not post the serial number on the forum since it is considered personal information):

Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support

Also, what version of macOS were you using on this laptop? Just saying the latest is not good enough because that can mean different things for different people. It also complicates matters since Apple just released macOS 15.x Sequoia this week.....not everyone may be aware of this which another reason to be specific.

Make sure to disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing a problem.

If this is a 2018+ Mac, then try a DFU firmware Revive to reset the security enclave chip & system firmware. While this should not affect the data on the internal SSD, there is always a chance you could lose the data if the process fails to complete successfully.

Since you don't have a backup, you should try to access the data by putting this laptop into Target Disk Mode. May not be possible with these newer 2018+ Macs if they are having issues.

FYI, here is an Apple article for accessing the Apple Diagnostics (read it just to make sure you are doing so correctly):

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Also, with these 2018+ Macs there may be no way to recover the data stored on the internal SSD since they require being able to boot in some manner as well as successfully authenticate with the security enclave chip. While supporting my organization's Macs I have discovered that authenticating to the security enclave chip has a bunch of issues such as not showing a list of all admin users, or sometimes listing UUID codes of the user accounts instead of the usernames which makes it tricky or impossible to authenticate.

People should always have frequent and regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all the hardware, software, and security changes. Plus a hardware failure makes data loss even more likely if there are no good backups.

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

91,345 points

Sep 17, 2024 1:19 AM in response to Dismalorb

Kernel Error Messages are normally cause but a possible Hardware Failure and / or a combination of Hardware and Third Party Kernel Extensions installed by the User ( you )

As you have mentioned, need clarification on this, " it restarts itself in safe mode "

That seems very abnormal.

To engage Safe Mode would Require the user to purposefully boot the computer in this mode

What exactly happens when the machine starts in Safe Mode ?

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