Macbook Pro (2016) can only enter Verbose Mode and no other boot settings

I have a Macbook Pro (2016) that I let the battery die overnight. When I plugged it in to charge for a while, it wouldn't load past the Apple screen. I tried these boot commands and the only command that worked is Verbose Mode.


  • Command (⌘)-R: Starts up from the macOS Recovery system
  • Option (⌥) or Alt: Starts up to Startup Manager
  • Option-Command-P-R: Resets NVRAM or PRAM
  • Shift (⇧): Starts up in safe mode
  • D: Starts up to the Apple Diagnostics utility
  • N: Starts up from a NetBoot server
  • Command-S: Starts up in single-user mode
  • T: Starts up in target disk mode
  • Command-V: Starts up in verbose mode


When I am in Verbose Mode, I get the attatched screen but cannot type any prompts. I plan on getting a new laptop, but would like to access the data to my hard drive. Is there anyway I can access my laptop or can I pull the hard drive to put it in an external enclosure to get my data? Thanks for helping!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Mar 8, 2025 7:01 PM

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Posted on Mar 9, 2025 11:38 AM

ThyAllMighty wrote:
Is there no way I can pull the hard drive in order to put into an external enclosure and plug it in via USB-C to the new laptop?


Other than that there is no hard disk drive here, and no easily-swappable SSD storage, sure. Not Touch Bar models can be swapped, but Touch Bar storage AFAIK cannot. And storage is usually encrypted, regardless. In far fewer words, swapping an HDD or SSD into a sled isn’t a path here.


Target Disk Mode might get you access.


Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


There are also no backups here, or no recent backups, presumably.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 9, 2025 11:38 AM in response to ThyAllMighty

ThyAllMighty wrote:
Is there no way I can pull the hard drive in order to put into an external enclosure and plug it in via USB-C to the new laptop?


Other than that there is no hard disk drive here, and no easily-swappable SSD storage, sure. Not Touch Bar models can be swapped, but Touch Bar storage AFAIK cannot. And storage is usually encrypted, regardless. In far fewer words, swapping an HDD or SSD into a sled isn’t a path here.


Target Disk Mode might get you access.


Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


There are also no backups here, or no recent backups, presumably.

Mar 9, 2025 9:29 AM in response to MrHoffman

I'm no expert on verbose messages...but this looks like very early ROM boot - possibly the messages related to finding and loading the Preboot Volume, which seems to fail...


That said, RBSDP in the line starting #[EBIFS:RBSDP] usually stands for Remote Boot Server Discovery Protocol, so the boot might have failed a few lines earlier at #[EB.CS.AUVIVU!] Err(0xF) 0x00030000 and tried to automatically look for a netboot server because local booting failed.


Regardless, it doesn't look good - although even letting the battery die and then plugging it in shouldn't damage the system like that, unless something else was already wrong.

Mar 9, 2025 8:38 AM in response to ThyAllMighty

of those, the simplest you could invoke is holding Option at Startup, to invoke the startup manager, aka Boot Picker.

This should draw blank gray screen, and over the next several minutes, add an Icon for each potentially-Bootable Volume. (There may be none bootable.)


To get the gray screen, no drives are required to be working. The code that runs this feature is all ROM.


Slightly more complex is Recovery Mode. it unpacks a 2 GB disk image from ROM, then starts up that MacOS Base System to support Utilities, including Disk Utility. Again, no drives are required to be working, but you must be patient.


with Boot drives integrated onto the mainboard, these subtle distinctions are not so valuable as in the past.


Just as MrHoffman suggests, Your Mac likely needs service, and if your mainboard is replaced, your files may not be returned to you.

Mar 9, 2025 10:48 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I have tried holding Option at Startup and a 20 second hold does not get it to go to the gray screen. I've heard that if the hard drive is indeed the issue, I could try pulling it from the laptop and then turning it back on to see if it loads?


Is there no way I can pull the hard drive in order to put into an external enclosure and plug it in via USB-C to the new laptop?

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Macbook Pro (2016) can only enter Verbose Mode and no other boot settings

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