How To Start Up A Mac In Internet Recovery Mode Repair Guide

Difficulty

Very easy

Steps

Time Required

                          30 minutes - 1 hour

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How to Start Up a Mac in Internet Recovery Mode
5 steps

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Introduction

Follow this guide to boot your Mac to Internet Recovery mode and access recovery tools like Disk Utility, Time Machine, and the macOS installer.

Internet Recovery is only available on Apple computers made after 2009. If your computer was released in 2010 or 2011, you may need to update to the latest version of macOS and/or perform an EFI and SMC firmware upgrade to enable Internet Recovery.

Step 1

              How to Start Up a Mac in Internet Recovery Mode

Shut down the computer.
If you’re installing MacOS to a new drive with Internet Recovery, you can skip this step.

Shut down the computer.

If you’re installing MacOS to a new drive with Internet Recovery, you can skip this step.

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Step 2

Once the computer is completely shut down, press the power button, then immediately press and hold the key combination cmd + option + R.

Once the computer is completely shut down, press the power button, then immediately press and hold the key combination cmd + option + R.

Step 3

When the spinning globe animation appears, you can release the keys.
The globe will spin while Internet Recovery starts up. If you are not using a wired internet connection, a choose network prompt will appear. Use this menu to connect the computer to a WiFi network.

When the spinning globe animation appears, you can release the keys.

The globe will spin while Internet Recovery starts up. If you are not using a wired internet connection, a choose network prompt will appear. Use this menu to connect the computer to a WiFi network.

Step 4

Once a network connection has been established, a progress bar will appear underneath the spinning globe.
This process is prone to timing out. If you receive an error, try again using a cable connection to reach the internet rather than WiFi. Depending on your model, you may need an adapter to accomplish this.

Once a network connection has been established, a progress bar will appear underneath the spinning globe.

This process is prone to timing out. If you receive an error, try again using a cable connection to reach the internet rather than WiFi. Depending on your model, you may need an adapter to accomplish this.

Step 5

When Internet Recovery has loaded, you will see the macOS recovery screen.

When Internet Recovery has loaded, you will see the macOS recovery screen.

From the recovery menus, you can restore your data from a Time Machine backup, Reinstall macOS, get help online, and use Disk Utility to format and diagnose problems with any connected storage drives.

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                    Taylor Dixon

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72Yonatan - May 13, 2019

Apparently PowerBook G4 12” does not work for restoral based upon this exercise?

Taylor Dixon - May 14, 2019

Oh, I’m so sorry! I forgot to specify: internet recovery mode is only available on newer Apple computers. I’ve updated the intro now, sorry for the confusion!

Carlos Perdomo - Sep 27, 2019

So a mid 2009 computer won’t have internet recovery mode?

GBish - Oct 1, 2019

I bought a Asgard (seems operates from HongKong) 2TB NVME PCIe M.2 SSD that I installed into mackbook pro 15in mid 2015 with sintech adapter for conversion to MacBook AHCI controller. The disk utility does not show this SSD. Later I installed in same way another Sabrent SSD 2TB it worked fine.

What might have gone wrong in the fist SSD. Could that SSD itself faulty or incompatible? any fixes available?

Orlando Gomez - Jan 9, 2021

Two main reasons:

You aren’t pushing deep enough your new ssd drive into the slot. Please reopen your mac, unplug the battery connector and push the new ssd to a fashion position.
Your are missing the Alt/Option key. Please make the full shorcut: Alt+Shift+R.

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