How to exit recovery mode Mac?

How to exit recovery mode Mac?
I’ve encountered an issue where my Mac has gone into recovery mode, and I’m struggling to get it back to its normal state. I turned on my Mac and it unexpectedly booted into recovery mode without any prompt from my end. No matter what I try, I can’t seem to exit recovery mode. It feels like I’m trapped in a loop – every restart brings me back to the same screen.
I’ve tried looking up some instructions, but most of the guides are either too technical or don’t explain clearly enough for someone like me who’s not well-versed with advanced troubleshooting. I’m afraid that if I don’t handle this correctly, I might lose important data or cause more issues with my Mac.
I need to understand the steps involved in exiting recovery mode without causing any harm to my system. Can someone explain in a straightforward manner how to exit recovery mode on a Mac and what precautions I should take before attempting anything?
4 Answers

I’ve faced similar issues before. Here’s a slightly different tactic that helped me:
- Begin by turning off your Mac and turning it on while holding Command + R to boot back into Recovery Mode.
- From the Utilities menu, open Terminal and type
resetpassword
. Although we’re not resetting a password, this action opens a Reset Password window. Close it, then choose the startup disk to boot into normal mode.
This workaround helped me when simpler solutions didn’t, as it forces the Mac to re-evaluate the available startup disks and boot options.

First, you can try a basic approach:
1. Turn off your Mac by holding down the power button for several seconds until it shuts off.
2. Turn it back on and immediately press and hold the Option key to bring up the Startup Manager.
3. From there, select your primary startup disk (usually named ‘Macintosh HD’) and press Return. This should help exit out of recovery mode smoothly.

When my Mac ended up in recovery mode, this is what worked for me:
- Perform a Power Cycle: Turn off your Mac, hold the power button for about 10 seconds, and restart it.
- Engage the Safe Mode: Restart while holding down the Shift key until the login screen. Safe Mode helps to identify and fix issues during startup.
- Use Disk Utility: If still in recovery mode, choose Disk Utility, select your startup disk, and run the First Aid function. This can detect and repair disk errors that prevent normal startup.
Should these fail, consider consulting with Apple Support for additional assistance.

As an experienced Mac user, here’s an in-depth method:
– Start by shutting down your Mac completely. Press the power button to turn it on, and as it reboots, hold down Command + Option + P + R keys to reset the NVRAM. Hold these for about 20 seconds, then release them. This can often solve unexpected boot issues.
– If the problem persists, boot into Safe Mode by restarting and holding the Shift key until the Apple logo appears. Safe Mode runs a check on your system and makes necessary repairs, which might help.
If these steps don’t work, you may consider reinstalling macOS from the Recovery Mode menu, ensuring to select an option that doesn’t erase your data.