This is not something that happens to us every day, far from it, but it is possible that sometime you find yourself in this position and the problem has a solution. At first we may think that our Mac broke and we will no longer be able to use them, but don't worry, our Mac is not broken, it is simply that cannot find the system software required to boot.
Now that we know what is the problem of the folder with the question mark on our Mac, we have to find the possible solutions and these solutions exist for all cases, but I already anticipate that there are some of them in which it is possible that the only thing that works is the change of the hard disk of our machine.
Question mark flashing for seconds
If your Mac starts up normally after displaying an intermittent question mark for a few seconds, it may be necessary to reselect the startup disk in the Startup Disk preferences. So what we're going to do is get into System Preferences> Boot Disk> Macintosh HD (which is usually the usual name where we have OS X) and voila. Usually the problem is solved by doing this little task.
The question mark in the folder keeps popping up and won't boot
In this case, what we can do is try to help our machine to find the operating system and boot, for this we can follow these steps:
- We press and hold the power button for a few seconds to turn off the computer completely
- We start the Mac again and hold down the Option (alt) key until the Boot Manager is shown
- We select the boot disk from the list "Macintosh HD" and we hope that it will boot
If it starts, we carry out a verification / repair of the disk from the disk utility and make a backup (ideally in Time Machine or an external disk) in case the disk fails again.
Hard disk full
There are also cases where The hard drive is full and at startup it throws us this error from the folder with the question mark inside. To solve the problem we have no other option than to start with the Boot Manager and then delete files or transfer them to another disk so as not to have problems with the boot.
OS X Repair
In other cases it is necessary to carry out a repair of the operating system or it will be necessary to reinstall OS X completely. It is possible to perform a clean installation again or recover the system if we hold down the Command and R keys on the keyboard during boot. Then we access the Utilities menu and select Disk Utility, choose the startup disk and click on the tab First aid. Click on repair the disk and carry out the normal boot.
TaWe can also perform backing up important data, erasing the startup disk, and reinstalling OS X, but this is best done by a technical service, Apple or not.
Be careful what we touch
This little tutorial only covers some of the possible problems and solutions that we have in these cases, but they may not work in some cases. If none of this works for you, it is best to reinstall the system, make an appointment at an Apple Store or directly call SAT. In all cases the problem is related to the hard drive and this is a key piece of our Mac where we store all important data or not, so if you don't have much idea of what you're playing or don't want to mess it up it is best to contact Apple.
Morning
The question mark appears at the beginning, I follow the steps indicated but I do not see select disk, I see select internet network next to a world ... What do I do?
I sent my mac to a mac center and they did not solve anything that because my mac is from 2005 and there are no parts for it, the only thing that appears is a folder with a sign and I just wanted them to solve the problem
Hello! When I start my mac I get the white screen with the folder and a question mark, I have tried the boot selection by pressing alt but it does not do anything that is completely blank, the same with the other commands, what do I do or what will it be? my macbook pro 13 ″ dual core 2,6 from 2010.
How did you fix it?
It works for me when I use the alt but it asks me to enter the password and I don't remember what to do
I get a screenshot with the time, calendar date and time and it doesn't let me do anything
The keyboard doesn't work until the mac is turned on
What I do??
When I got home I also parked, I turned it on and off 3 or 4 times with the button but nothing. I turned it on, the folder appeared with the interrogation blinking and wait, after a few seconds it turned off, I hit the power button when it turned off by itself, I did it a couple of times and a symbol and a loading bar appeared, after to load, the desktop will appear. I didn't erase anything, everything was the same
I am CAEM: I get a fixed folder in the center of the screen without any question mark or blinking or anything.
I turn it off and on by pressing all the indicated options and the result is always a blank screen.
Can somebody help me.
Hi all. ok press alt + on, I chose the choose network, until now everything is fine then I get the world ball turning and suddenly it stops and I get apple.com/support 6002F. please i need help thanks
I see the question mark and a folder at the beginning, I follow the indicated steps but it does not appear to select a disk, I appear to select Wi-Fi internet network, I select it and I give it to follow and I get the world ball turning, soon it stops and I get on the world ball 6002F
I get the question mark, I worked with all the commands and nothing ... I put the hard disk of my windoms and it read the disvo but then I put the disk of the mac in my toshiba and I got error device please resert system ..? It means that
After doing it, I get a padlock as I reset the key that I forget
Hello, the question worthy appears in the folder, I follow all the instructions but nothing happens, I do the key combinations and nothing. When I hold down the «N» key, an image of the world appears but it does not connect to the internet, I have changed the hdd and it remains the same.
The adapters in the tunderworld port of the
mac pro work for imac 2011?
I have problems with my Mac the folder with the question mark appears and it does not disappear I have tried with command + r. Option + command + r. Shift + option + command + r. Pressing the option key and in that case only the pointer appears and nothing else.
What can I do?
I have problems with my Mac the folder with the question mark appears and it does not disappear I have tried with command + r. Option + command + r. Shift + option + command + r. Pressing the option key and in that case only the pointer appears and nothing else.
What can I do?
Good people of soydemac, I have a Mac mini A1114, for 3 months I have not been able to use it because my brother "without my consent" formatted the disk completely and I don't know what else he did, but every time I turn on the mac it only shows me a folder with the question mark, and tried to start it via USB but it did nothing. They changed the disk for one with a larger capacity, taking advantage of the opportunity that I had to install the Mac OS; but I still can't install OSX and I don't know what else I can do, and I tried to open the disk utilities by pressing alt but nothing, I also tried with cmd + R but nothing... if someone can help me please... Thanks in advance.
I am Cuban, I have a MacBook Pro 8.4, the same thing happens to me as many, I get the question mark, I try everything and nothing, I have not tried to connect to the internet because I do not have, I will try somewhere to see what happens.
brilliant