Intel Macs have but one local Recovery mode: when that doesn’t work, the only alternative is remote or internet Recovery. Apple silicon Macs nor

Recovery on Apple silicon Macs has changed again

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2023-03-14 15:00:06

Intel Macs have but one local Recovery mode: when that doesn’t work, the only alternative is remote or internet Recovery. Apple silicon Macs normally have two local Recovery modes, though. They’re also more secure as they require your physical presence and direct contact with the Mac, pressing its Power button for 1 True Recovery.

Recovery modes on Apple silicon Macs have also changed. In Big Sur, the primary Recovery system is stored in a hidden container on the internal SSD, and a fallback Recovery system in a volume alongside the boot volume group. Monterey swapped those over, so primary Recovery goes into the paired volume in the boot volume group, and fallback Recovery into the hidden container on the internal SSD.

Apple’s only documentation of fallback Recovery is in its Platform Security Guide, where it explains how to boot into it. Primary Recovery is entered by booting the Mac with the Power button pressed and held until the display reports that startup options are loading. Fallback Recovery is similar, except this time the Power button is pressed twice, once briefly before pressing it again and holding the button pressed. Trying either of those following a restart did nothing, though, and a normal startup took place. Until recently, probably with the release of Ventura, when it has changed again.

Now, at least in Ventura 13.2.1, and presumably in recent releases of Monterey with their firmware updates, you can enter fallback Recovery with a restart, instead of having to start up cold, but that normally enters fallback rather than primary (paired) Recovery mode. I’ve tested this on two Apple silicon Macs, and it works as expected on a MacBook Pro M1 Pro, but my Mac Studio M1 Max refused to enter fallback Recovery, despite it being available.

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