Learn about the boot modes in macOS

You might be accustomed to using only the power button on your Mac to turn it on, but in case you need to boot your Mac in another mode, you'll need to press a specific key combination to do this.

MacOS has different modes for troubleshooting problems that you can trigger by pressing specific key combinations during boot. The article will cover macOS boot modes and their specific keystrokes just below. Join TipsMake.com to find out immediately!

How to enter a specific boot mode

As mentioned earlier, to enter any specific mode using the keystrokes below, you first need to turn on your Mac with the power button and then immediately press the desired key combination.

Recovery mode Recovery

Recovery mode allows you to access Terminal, repair drives with Disk Utility and reinstall macOS with Recovery Mode, located on a separate partition of the hard drive.

To enter Recovery mode, press Cmd + R on boot.

Select the boot drive

If you want to choose a boot drive or boot from a portable USB, just press Option while turning on the Mac.

Booting from optical media (CD / DVD)

If you have an old Mac with an optical drive, you can choose to boot from a CD / DVD containing the installation media.

To do so, press the C key at startup.

Push the optical media out

Similarly, to eject the optical media stuck in the Mac out, press the Eject button, F12 or mouse / trackpad button at startup until the disc is ejected.

Apple Hardware Test (Apple Diagnostics)

Depending on the version of Mac you are using, you can access Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics tool to detect any possible hardware problem.

To access it, press the D key at startup.

Safe Mode

Safe Mode allows you to start your Mac with only the elements needed to boot the operating system. In Safe Mode, you can check the boot drive and apply the appropriate repair measures. This mode will prevent all startup / login items from loading and will also clear the system cache.

To start the Mac in Safe Mode, just press Shift on startup.

Target Disk mode

Target Disk mode allows you to easily copy files from one Mac hard drive to another. When in Target Disk mode, simply connect your Mac to another Mac with the appropriate cable and transfer the files to another hard drive.

Target mode only works when you use one of the following cables to connect your Mac:

1. Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
2. USB-C
3. Thunderbolt 2
4. FireWire

To enter Target Disk mode, press T when booting.

Single User mode

Single User mode boots the Mac into a basic text-based environment with a Unix prompt, in which you can enter commands. Single User mode is for advanced users who are trying to fix a Mac that won't boot. There is no GUI or drive mounted when booting in Single User mode.

To enter Single User mode, press Cmd + S at startup.

Verbose mode

Verbose mode replaces the Mac boot screen with a status report for the ongoing processes during boot. If your Mac hangs during startup, you can use Verbose mode to see what is happening and what is causing the computer to crash.

To start Verbose mode, press Cmd + V on startup.

Network mode

If you have a client computer on the network image, you can use the NetBoot service to customize macOS and create custom images for specific users. This will allow you to deploy images throughout the network without having to modify each machine individually.

To boot into Netboot, just press the N key when booting.

Reset SMC

Apple Macs have SMC chips - System Management Controller that controls various hardware tasks like fan speed, power management, etc.

You can reset the SMC by pressing Shift + Control + Option .

Leave your comments in the comment section if you have any other boot methods!

Hope you are succesful.