Macbook Pro will not log in

Question

Level 1

83 points

Macbook Pro will not log in

When I restart, I get to the main screen where I log in, I can then log in, but when it changes to the progress bar, nothing progresses and it just sits forever. I have tried booting into recovery mode and using first aid. I have also reset PRAM, but nothing helps. I also can't boot into safe mode. Holding shift just gets me to the normal startup screen with my user account. It does accept the password, but then nothing.

I am on El Capitan and my Macbook Pro is about 2 years old. It has an SSD drive. This happened before about a month ago and I had to reinstall everything. That worked, but it has now happened again. Any idea why this is happening and how to fix it?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 3.4 GHz, Fusion drive

Posted on Nov 14, 2015 4:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

morrispe

Level 4

1,224 points

Nov 14, 2015 4:17 PM in response to Cartoonguy

See if you can boot your Mac and login successfully in Safe Mode. Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

If safe mode works then reboot again and try a normal login. If that fails then try logging in with another account. If you don't have a secondary account active you could create on via safe mode. If an alternate account works after a normal boot then there could be something starting up via your login session that is hanging the Mac.

If you determine this to be the case then login again via safe mode and check your user accounts login items under System Preferences - Users and Groups. You can uncheck startup items listed there and then reboot normally and see if you can login.

Reply

Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Nov 14, 2015 5:28 PM in response to Cartoonguy

Startup Issues - Resolve

Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

Startup Issues - Resolve (3)

Reply

Answer 3

Cartoonguy Author

Level 1

83 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:58 AM in response to morrispe

The problem is that I can't boot into safe mode. It just won't do it. Tried pretty much everything else. Called Apple Support and they basically said I needed to reinstall the OS and then import my files, but don't restore from back up. That way, I don't import whatever system issues may have caused this. So that's what I've done, which is tedious, but at least it feels nice and clean.

Reply