safe mode

If your Mac is experiencing problems running, one step for determining the problem is to boot the system into Safe Mode, which is a limited environment that only loads Apple-provided software for basic functionality. To get into Safe Mode you simply restart your Mac with the Shift key held; however, in some cases this will not work and the computer may simply boot normally or experience a problem and hang without booting at all.

The inability to boot into Safe Mode may happen because the system is configured with encryption or other security settings that prevent booting to such modes, … Read more

A rare but potentially frustrating issue you might run into after upgrading to OS X 10.8 or after applying an update such as the most recent 10.8.2 release is that a number of applications in the system may start crashing when launched. This does not happen to all programs, and those affected may appear to be a bit random; however, it is likely they share common ground in all being 32-bit programs.

If this happens to you, a potentially quick way to manage it is to reboot the system into Safe Mode by holding the Shift key … Read more

When a problem arises in OS X because of a software configuration error, often one troubleshooting step to take for clearing the issue or at least investigating it further is to boot into Safe Mode; however, sometimes Safe Mode may not work.

Booting to Safe Mode in OS X is done by holding the Shift key at startup, which triggers a minimal boot environment where only basic Apple-supplied extensions and services are loaded. This will help you determine if problems are happening from peripheral devices or third-party extensions such as those supplied by some security software packages. In addition to … Read more

Apple's Safe Mode option will boot OS X to a minimal environment where only a basic set of kernel extensions are loaded, disabling unnecessary services like Bluetooth and support for third-party add-ons that might be causing problems for your system. To get to Safe Mode, you simply hold the Shift key down at startup; however, there are times when systems might appear to be stuck in Safe Mode and always boot to it, regardless of whether you command it to do so.

If this happens, there are several approaches you can take to tackle the problem.

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about a Mac continuously booting to Safe Mode, an apparent missing option to ignore ownership on an external volume, where and how to look up Mac model information, and ways to prevent OS X from reopening programs and windows at startup. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions then post them in the comments!

Question: Mac continuously booting to Safe Mode MacFixIt reader Andreas asks:

When you boot OS X 10.6 to Safe Mode by holding the Shift key after hearing the boot chimes, you will see a gray progress bar appear at the bottom of the initial gray Apple screen. While this bar is showing the system will run various maintenance tasks such as checking the filesystem and clearing some caches, after which it will load into Safe Mode. This process should only happen if you intentionally boot into Safe Mode, but there may be instances in which you see it happen at each boot, even if no keys are held during bootup.… Read more

Often when troubleshooting systems, you might wish to boot into Safe Mode to run in a minimized boot environment to test if a third-party extension or add-on is causing problems with your machine. In addition, booting to Safe Mode also runs some cleaning and maintenance routines on your system, which can help iron out problems.

Most people know about using the keyboard to boot to Safe Mode, by pressing the Shift key down after hearing the boot chimes, and holding it until you see the grey Apple icon with the spinning indicator below it. You may also see a progress … Read more

Many users are aware of some boot commands for Mac OS X that provide different functionality for your system. The following is a more comprehensive list of the keyboard commands you know and many you may not.

A recent tweet from @superfetz reminded me of several boot commands I've learned over the years, so I thought a more comprehensive list would be useful for MacFixIt readers.

While you cannot run any code from Terminal or otherwise to set an order of boot devices, you can easily control where your Mac boots via keyboard commands. The following key combinations can … Read more

Sometimes problems happen for what turn out to be rather bizarre reasons. Recently we were contacted by MacFixIt reader "Frank" who had a long-standing problem where his Mac Pro would not accept boot arguments such as booting to Safe Mode when holding the Shift key.

Many times when boot commands are not working people suspect either the PRAM, the SMC, or an enabled firmware password is the root of the problem; however, this is not always the case. Sometimes incompatible hardware or faults in hardware can interfere with the ability to pass boot arguments to the system, though … Read more