How to Boot a Mac Into Safe Mode

ID: 157469

Description: Is your Mac experiencing issues booting,...

Steps:

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. If you cannot boot your Mac to shut it down properly, press and hold the power button for 15 seconds. Your display, keyboard backlight and any fans should be off.
  3. If you have an Apple Silicon based MacBook (any model newer than Late 2020), skip ahead to Step 5 since the process is a bit different.
    4. Step image
  4. Once the computer is completely shut down, press the power button, then immediately press and hold the Shift Key.
    5. Step image
  5. The Apple logo and progress bar appear, just as they do in normal boot mode.
  6. You may get a brief flash where the Apple logo turns red, or another color. This is normal.
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  7. The macOS login screen will appear, as normal, but Safe Boot should appear in the upper right corner of the screen.
  8. If FileVault is enabled you may need to log in twice. The first log unlocks your disk. The second times logs in your user account and is where the Safe Boot text will appear.
    9. Step image
  9. Apple Silicon Macs use a slightly different process for accessing Safe Mode.
  10. As with Intel based Macs, power your Mac off.
  11. Press and hold the Power button on your Mac until you see the "Loading startup options" text on screen.
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  12. Once startup Options loads, you will see any valid startup disks connected to your Mac and the Options menu.
  13. To access Safe Mode, select the disk you wish to boot from.
  14. Press and hold the Shift key, the Continue button under your startup drive should change to "Continue in Safe Mode." Click it to initialize Safe Boot.
  15. Everything after this point mimics the Intel method. You'll need to wait for the device to boot and login.
    16. Step image
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