How do I get to the recovery environment on a Mac?

Getting to the recovery environment on a Mac can be useful for troubleshooting problems, reinstalling macOS, and more. The recovery environment contains utilities like Disk Utility, Terminal,Restore from Time Machine Backup, and Reinstall macOS. There are a few different ways to access the recovery environment on a Mac, depending on your computer’s model and the macOS version installed.

Table of Contents

What is the Recovery Environment on Mac?

The recovery environment is a special partition on the Mac’s internal disk that contains essential utilities for troubleshooting and restoring your Mac. It is separate from the normal macOS operating system installed on your Mac. The recovery environment allows you to access tools like Disk Utility for repairing disks, Time Machine for restoring from backups, Terminal for command line access, and the option to reinstall macOS, even if you are unable to boot normally into the operating system.

The recovery environment is created automatically when you install or upgrade macOS on your Mac. It does not contain your normal files or apps, just the recovery tools provided by Apple.

Reasons to Use the Recovery Environment

There are several reasons you may want or need to access the recovery environment on your Mac:

Reinstall or reconfigure macOS – You can use the recovery environment to completely erase your disk and reinstall a fresh copy of macOS, or install a newer version of macOS over your current operating system.
Restore from Time Machine backup – If you need to revert your entire Mac to a previous state, you can restore from a Time Machine backup in the recovery environment.

Repair disk errors – You can use Disk Utility in the recovery environment to verify and repair disk errors that may be preventing your Mac from starting up properly.
Recovery mode – If your Mac encounters critical startup issues and will not finish booting, it may automatically enter recovery mode, allowing you access to the recovery tools.
Password reset – If you forget your account password, you can reset it using the recovery environment.

Format or partition disk – Disk Utility in the recovery environment allows you to erase, format, partition, and manage disks and volumes.

In general, if you are having issues with macOS that prevent your computer from being usable, the recovery environment provides a way to diagnose and fix the problem.

How to Get to Recovery Environment – Intel-based Macs

For Intel-based Macs, here are the steps to access the recovery environment:

Option 1: Reboot into Recovery Mode

Shut down your Mac, if it is already on.
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Command (⌘) + R keys. Keep holding until you see the Apple logo or spinning globe appear.
After a few moments, you should be brought to the macOS Utilities window with options like Restore From Time Machine Backup, Reinstall macOS, Get Help Online, and Disk Utility.

Select the recovery utility you want to use. For example, choose Reinstall macOS to do a fresh install.
Follow the on-screen instructions for reinstalling, restoring, or using the other recovery tools as desired.
When finished, select Restart from the Apple menu to exit the recovery environment and reboot back into the normal macOS.

Option 2: Boot from macOS Recovery

Fully shut down your Mac.
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Option (⌥) key. Keep holding the key until you see the boot manager screen.
Use the arrow keys to select the “Recovery HD” option, then press Enter.

After a few moments, you should be brought to the macOS Utilities window, just like in Option 1.
Select the desired recovery utility and follow the on-screen instructions.
Restart when finished to exit the recovery environment.

Option 3: Use macOS Recovery Over the Internet

For Macs running macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later, you can access macOS Recovery over the Internet to reinstall macOS and use the recovery tools. This allows you to access recovery even if your Mac’s Recovery HD partition becomes corrupted or damaged.

Connect your Mac to your Wi-Fi network and make sure it has an active internet connection.
Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘) + Option + R. Keep holding the keys until the spinning globe or Apple logo appears.

After a short time, you should see the macOS Utilities window and “Using macOS Recovery over the Internet” at the top. The recovery tools will download from Apple’s servers.
Select and use whichever recovery utility you need, then restart your Mac when finished.

How to Access Recovery on Apple Silicon Macs

The process is similar on M1 and M2 chip Macs with a few small differences:

Option 1: Boot to Recovery OS

Fully shut down your Mac.
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the power button. Keep holding until “Loading startup options” appears.
When the options menu appears, click on Options, then select Continue.

On the Startup Disk screen, select Recovery, then click the arrow button below to boot from the Recovery OS.
After it finishes booting, you will be in the recovery environment. Select and use the recovery utilities you need.
Click the Apple menu and select Restart to exit the recovery environment when finished.

Option 2: Use macOS Recovery Over the Internet

Connect your Mac to Wi-Fi and ensure an internet connection is available.
Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold the power button. Continue holding until “Loading startup options” shows.
When the options menu loads, press and hold the Option key, then click Continue.

On the Startup Disk screen, select Recovery, then click the right arrow button.
After a short time, the macOS Utilities window should appear, downloading over the internet. Use the recovery tools as needed.
Select Restart from the Apple menu when finished.

Using Disk Utility in Recovery Mode

One of the most common and useful tools in the recovery environment is Disk Utility. Here are some things you can do with Disk Utility while in recovery mode:

Format or partition your Mac startup disk – You can reformat or repartition your startup drive to resolve issues.
Erase and install macOS – Disk Utility allows you to erase your entire startup disk to do a clean install of macOS.

Repair disk permissions – Verify and fix disk permissions to remedy software issues.
Fix hard drive errors – Run First Aid to check for and repair directory errors and disk problems.
Securely erase data – Use Disk Utility to overwrite deleted files so they cannot be recovered.

Manage disk volumes – Create, resize, erase or merge partitions on internal and external disks.

Disk Utility is very useful for diagnosing and resolving a wide range of disk, volume and filesystem issues with your Mac.

Reinstalling macOS from Recovery

You can reinstall the Mac operating system while in the recovery environment to fix software issues or do a clean install.

To reinstall macOS from recovery:

Boot to Recovery OS using the steps outlined earlier.
Select Reinstall macOS from the Utilities window.

Click Continue, then agree to the software license agreement.
Select your startup disk on the next screen, where you want macOS installed.
The installer will erase and reformat the startup disk if needed, so be sure to backup your data first.

Follow the prompts to complete the installation of macOS.
The Mac will reboot back to recovery after installing to complete setup.
After setup completes, you will be booted back to the new installation of macOS.

Recovering Data from Time Machine Backup

If you have a Time Machine backup available, you can use the Restore From Time Machine Backup utility in the recovery environment to restore your entire Mac to a previous state from that backup.

To restore from a backup:

Boot to the recovery environment using one of the methods above.

If prompted, select your language and other preferences.
Go to the Utilities menu and choose Restore From Time Machine Backup.
Select your Time Machine disk and backup to restore from when prompted.

The system will scan the backup and restore the entire Mac to the state captured in the backup.
After the restoration completes, you will be booted back to the restored version of macOS.

This allows you to recover your data, system settings, apps, and everything else from a Time Machine backup if needed.

Resetting a Forgotten Password

If you forget your account password for logging into macOS, you can reset it from the recovery environment.

To reset a forgotten password:

Boot to the Recovery OS.

Select Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
In Terminal, type resetpassword and press Enter.
Choose your startup disk when prompted.

Select the user account you want to reset the password for.
Enter and verify a new password when prompted.
Click Save. The password will be reset for that account.

Exit Terminal and select Restart from the Apple menu.
At the login screen, log in with the account and new password.

Starting in Safe Mode

As an alternative to the recovery environment, you can also start up your Mac in safe mode. Safe mode loads only essential software to help resolve startup and operating issues.

To start in safe mode, do the following:

Fully shut down your Mac.
Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold the Shift key. Keep holding Shift until you see the login window.

Let go of the Shift key and log into your account.
The words “Safe Boot” should appear in red text in the upper-right to confirm you are in safe mode.
Use your Mac and see if the issues are resolved in safe mode.

Restart back to normal mode when finished.

Summary

The recovery environment is an important troubleshooting tool built into macOS. It allows you to access utilities like Disk Utility, Terminal, macOS reinstallation and Time Machine recovery when you are unable to boot normally into the operating system.

To access recovery mode on Intel-based Macs, press Command + R while booting or boot from the Recovery HD volume. On M1/M2 Macs, press and hold the power button during startup, then select Recovery OS.

Some of the main uses for the recovery environment include:

Reinstalling or reconfiguring macOS
Restoring a Time Machine backup

Repairing disk errors
Resetting account passwords
Formatting, partitioning or erasing disks using Disk Utility

Knowing how to get to the recovery environment on your Mac is an important troubleshooting skill that can rescue your computer if you ever have system problems or need to access the recovery tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I access recovery mode on Mac startup?

On Intel Macs, press Command + R while booting. On Apple silicon Macs, press and hold the power button, select Recovery OS, then click the arrow to boot to recovery.

Can I reinstall macOS from recovery mode?

Yes, the Reinstall macOS option in the recovery environment allows you to erase your startup disk and do a fresh install of the operating system.

Is recovery mode the same as safe mode?

No, recovery mode and safe mode are different. Recovery boots separate diagnostic tools, while safe mode loads only essential software. Press Shift during startup for safe mode.

How do I access Terminal in recovery mode?

Open the Utilities menu at the top of the screen in recovery mode and select Terminal to open a command line interface.

Can I still get to recovery if my hard drive is erased?

Yes, the Recovery HD partition containing the recovery tools is separate from your main startup disk. So recovery is available even with disk errors.

What utilities are available in the recovery environment?

The main utilities are Restore From Time Machine Backup, Reinstall macOS, Disk Utility, Get Help Online, Terminal and Firmware Password Utility on some models.

Is my data accessible within the recovery environment?

No, the recovery environment does not contain your user data, apps, settings etc. It only has the macOS utilities for troubleshooting and recovery.

Conclusion

The recovery environment is a very useful feature of macOS for both troubleshooting issues and reinstalling or restoring your system. Knowing the different ways to access recovery mode on Mac ensures you have access to these tools if you ever experience problems with your Mac or need to reset your operating system. With some practice using the recovery utilities like Disk Utility and Reinstall macOS, you can quickly diagnose and resolve many issues, keeping your Mac up and running smoothly.

Action	Key Combination (Intel Mac)	Steps (Apple Silicon Mac)
Boot to Recovery OS	Command + R	Press and hold power, select Recovery OS
Internet Recovery	Command + Option + R	Press and hold power, Option + Continue
Boot to Startup Manager	Option key	Press and hold power button
Start in Safe Mode	Shift key	Shift key after startup sound