Workaround for macOS Sequoia login screen reboot loop

A number of people have encountered a particularly severe bug with macOS Sequoia. After completing the upgrade to Sequoia from an earlier version of macOS, you can get to the user login screen, enter your password, and then the screen goes black and the Mac reboots with the error, "Your computer restarted because of a problem. Press any key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up." Even if you boot into safe mode, the same reboot loop occurs. I tried a few recommended fixes involving macOS Recovery's Terminal, but none of those worked for me. I even tried an in-place Internet recovery of Sequoia on top of the existing Sequoia install, and that also didn't work.

My ultimate goal was not having to wipe the Mac and start all over, and with much prayer and perseverance, I finally found a workaround to keep my data. It involves creating a second clean install of Sequoia next to your broken install of Sequoia. All of these steps were performed on a MacBook Pro 2018 13", but they should hopefully apply to any MacBook, iMac, or Mac that is encountering this issue.

Before you begin, I would recommend having at least 50GB of storage free on your Mac; if you do not have at least 50GB of storage free or if your existing Sequoia install is larger than the amount of free space you have, I would not recommend this method. Also, please have your user profile password and your Apple ID password; you will need one or both of them depending on your setup. Finally, if you do not feel comfortable using Disk Utility, do not use this method.

1) Boot into macOS Recovery and select your current "Macintosh HD" volume and user profile to view the recovery options. If built-in recovery does NOT show Sequoia as the reinstall option, boot into Internet recovery, which may take a while to load but should show Sequoia as the reinstall option. Guides on macOS Recovery for Silicon are here and for Intel here.

2) In macOS Recovery, open Disk Utility, and in the Disk Utility sidebar, click on your existing internal top-level macOS volume (typically named "Macintosh HD"). Then, do the following:

At the top menu bar, click Edit > Add APFS Volume, or click the add volume button (+) in the Disk Utility toolbar.
Type any name for the new volume (I recommend naming it macOS Sequoia or macOS Install 2 so you know it is your new second volume), do not set any size options, and then click Add.
When done, quit Disk Utility. (source here)

3) While still in macOS Recovery, click "Reinstall macOS Sequoia," and select your new second volume as the install location. If you are using Internet recovery, make sure you are on a fast and stable Internet connection to speed up the process. If you receive error messages during this process, verify that you are connected to WiFi or are connected to a wired Ethernet connection using a compatible adapter.

4) After at least 30 to 90 minutes and several restarts, you should be at the macOS Sequoia first-time setup screen. As you click through the prompts, Migration Assistant will eventually appear and ask if you want to transfer information "From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or Startup disk". Bubble in that option, click "Continue", and select your original "Macintosh HD" volume. When it asks what data you want to transfer, you should generally be okay leaving all options selected (unless you do not want your personal data, applications, or system settings transferred). Once you confirm what you want to transfer, buckle in for another 30 to 60 minutes depending on the amount of data, and be prepared to enter your original user profile password and your Apple ID password to complete the transfer process.

5) In the best-case scenario, you should arrive back at the Sequoia user login screen, except this time, entering your password should result in your Mac actually logging you into your user account. If the transfer was successful, your documents, pictures, applications, Safari data, Passwords app information, and other personal data should be present. By default, your Mac should always boot into this second Sequoia install.

Note: Once you are reasonably sure the second Sequoia install is functional and contains everything you need, you can consider deleting the original Sequoia install in Disk Utility. However, if you have plenty of storage, I would not rush to delete it as your original install and its data would become unrecoverable. It is also possible that Apple may release an update that could fix the reboot loop issue on the original Sequoia install via a macOS Internet recovery in-place reinstall, so if you can afford to wait a few weeks, you may have a much easier fix for the issue.

Note 2: The above steps are meant for emergency situations where no Time Machine or iCloud Drive backups are present. For future headache alleviation, before performing a macOS upgrade, please create a Time Machine backup of your Mac or verify your personal data is backed up in iCloud Drive.

Posted on Sep 28, 2024 9:31 PM

Top-ranking reply

NPC411 Author

Level 1

28 points

Posted on Sep 30, 2024 7:04 AM

I'm glad I could be of assistance! There are four possible workarounds for this scenario (though, given your predicament, I would wait for Option 4 as it is the least destructive and intensive):

Option 1): If you don't transfer any data during the first-time setup of your second Sequoia install, you can activate Migration Assistant later from within your second Sequoia install to transfer data from your first Sequoia install, though you're basically in the same space predicament.

Option 2): After completing your second Sequoia install (albeit skipping Migration Assistant), go to Finder, and in the sidebar, look for "Locations". You should see your original Sequoia install listed (more than likely called "Macintosh HD"). Go into that location, and in the best-case scenario, you should see your original Users folder and be able to manually copy your Documents folder, Pictures folder, etc., to your second Sequoia install's Users folder. Verify that the copied files are able to open up without errors. However, if the size of the manually-copied folders also exceeds the available space of your Mac, you could connect an external drive to your Mac (may require a USB-C to USB-A adapter), verify that you can access the external drive from Finder's sidebar, and manually copy the folders to there for now (once again, verifying that the copied files are able to open up without errors).

Option 3): After completing your second Sequoia install, connect an external drive to your Mac that is at least twice the size of your Mac's hard drive (may require a USB-C to USB-A adapter), and go to Time Machine and create a full backup of your Mac (additional information here). In theory, Time Machine should back up both Sequoia installs, though you need to verify this post-backup by opening Migration Assistant in your second Sequoia install and seeing if you see both Sequoia installs present as restore options (additional information here). Once you feel confident that both Sequoia installs are present in the Time Machine backup, safely disconnect the external drive using the Eject button in Finder's sidebar to keep the data safe for the next step. Then, you will need to open Disk Utility from within your second Sequoia install, and DELETE the top-level internal volume of the original Sequoia install (more than likely called "Macintosh HD"; additional information here). Before you do this, please note that the original Sequoia install will be permanently deleted and unrecoverable. Once this task is complete, verify that you now have enough free space on your Mac, restart to make doubly sure the space is freed up, reconnect your Time Machine external drive, and then open up Migration Assistant from within your second (and now only) Sequoia install. Then, select to restore data from Time Machine, select the original Sequoia install (more than likely called "Macintosh HD"), and allow it to restore your data to your new Sequoia install.

Option 4): If you can wait another few weeks, keep using your second Sequoia install for now, access data as needed from your original Sequoia install via Finder > Locations > Macintosh HD, create a Time Machine backup of your Mac using an external drive, and wait for Sequoia 15.1 or newer to go live. Once it goes live, boot into macOS Internet Recovery on your original Sequoia install, attempt an in-place Internet reinstall to your original Sequoia install (more than likely called "Macintosh HD"), and see if Sequoia 15.1 or newer will fix the issues with your original Sequoia install. If that fixes your original Sequoia install, then no other steps are needed unless you want to run another Time Machine backup afterwards (recommended) and then delete the second Sequoia install from Disk Utility (which you may need to do based on your space limitations).

I pray that at least one of these options is helpful!

View in context

20 replies

NPC411 Author

Level 1

28 points

Oct 3, 2024 5:28 PM in response to MrElsewhere

I’m so glad you were able to find a resolution, and I hope Apple will find ways to prevent this issue from happening for many other people. Still having your data intact is a wonderful outcome!

Oct 3, 2024 10:55 PM in response to NPC411

I’ve also been struggling with this all week. Luckily I had my data on an external drive so I could do testing and migrate. Newest update appears to fix issue.

Oct 22, 2024 9:56 AM in response to NPC411

Actually it broke again and I’m locked out of my main user account. Guest users work. This is so confusing. Some conflict with existing installed applications.

Nov 21, 2024 5:37 PM in response to NPC411

This issue is still happening on sequioa 15.1 and i am not able to log in. Device is 14 inch 2021 m1 macbook pro

Feb 19, 2025 5:36 PM in response to NPC411

Much Gratitude!!!

My problem apparently stared after not only an update, but a power failure some days after the update. I'm extremely grateful for your help. I seem to be up and running again after following your directives. THANK-YOU!

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Workaround for macOS Sequoia login screen reboot loop