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Few things are as frustrating as trying to start your Mac and ending up with the dreaded Mac folder with a question mark. You’ve probably tried using keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+R, CTRL+Option+R, or Shift+CTRL+Option+R, but you still get the flashing folder icon on startup.
While this may strike fear into your heart as a Mac user, there are known causes for it, and tried and tested solutions that will help you get your Mac back to normalcy.
Follow along to find out why you’re getting the folder with the question mark in the middle of the screen, and how you can resolve the problem. While this is issue is more prevalent among older Macs, we shall try to address the same for new Mac models as well.
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Feb 10, 2010 If you are seeing a question mark in the Dock, that means the application that was linked to the dock icon has moved or been removed. Look in your applications folder for Microsoft Office folder. Open the folder and drag the icons for each application into the dock. Mar 05, 2020 If the Mac folder with a question mark appears because of your disk has failed, the only thing you can do is to replace the disk and use the time capsule. Mar 30, 2012 The owner said that it just needed the OS reinstalled BUT, he didnt have the discs anymore. I have a Leopard 10.5 DVD so I figured I'd be alright. Got the beast home and looked it over and its a 400MHZ CPU (there goes Leopard) and has 384mb of ram (3x 128mb). I tried booting it as is and it boots up to a flashing folder with a question mark. Nov 24, 2018 If you’re seeing app tiles on the Start menu or the apps list with an exclamation mark, you’re not alone. Other Windows 10 users seem to be getting it though the problem isn’t as common as most other Windows 10 bugs. The apps in question refuse to open but the problem is pretty easy to fix. Aug 21, 2017 In the spirit of accuracy, it was actually Mountain Lion (10.8) that introduced the 'sticky-safety' feature for the Dock. In any case, drag said question mark off the dock up near the menu bar.
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Click here to see our macbook articles pageCauses of Flashing Mac Folder with Question Mark
There are several reasons why the folder with a question mark appears on your Mac’s screen:
- Your Mac can’t find a bootable volume. That means it can’t find its startup disk, so it can’t boot or start up. Probably you previously started up your Mac from an external disk and later unplugged it, or its hard drive just failed terribly, so it’s having trouble locating its system folder or boot directory.
- Corrupt macOS.
- Corrupt system files.
- Hard disk drive has failed catastrophically.
- The external disk you boot from may be off or disconnected.
- The ribbon cable connecting the drive to the motherboard may be damaged. This cable sits between the bottom case and optical drive, and if the case has indentations in the same area, the cable may be the problem.
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Read MoreBoot Your Mac From an Install DVD (For Older Macs)
This process forces your Mac to boot from the install DVD placed in the optical drive. For that, you must follow these steps:
Step 1: Place the install DVD that came with your Mac in the optical drive and reboot. You can use that disc, or if you have a later macOS version, use a newer disc for the same purpose.
Step 2: Once you hear the boot chime, hold down C key on your keyboard or the Option key until you see the Install Disk or Apple logo show up.
Note: Boot from the recovery partition if you’re on 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks, and then repair the OS 10.7 or 10.8 partition using Disk Utility.Step 3: When your Mac starts up, choose the language you’ll use, press Return on your keyboard, and an Installation window will open. Ignore this window and click Utilities and then click Disk Utility.
Step 4: If you see your hard disk on the list, click your macOS partition for the hard drive, and then select First Aid tab.
Step 5: Next, run Repair Disk. To enable this button, click on your hard drive’s macOS partition. If this fixes any issues, run it all over again until you see the green OK, and then run Repair Permissions.
Step 6: Finally, use the Startup Disk to select your hard drive to restart your Mac from the hard drive. If it’s not recognized under Disk Utility, it’s probably dead.
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Read MorePut Your Mac in Recovery Mode
If you’re trying to boot from your Mac’s internal drive, you need to shut down the computer and then start it up while holding down Command+R keys until the globe or Apple logo appears. That will put your Mac in Recovery Mode, and then you can change the startup disk by selecting the option from the Apple Menu.
Recovery Mode comes handy when your Mac won’t boot normally because the startup disk is damaged or corrupted.
That could be caused by corrupt files or mild power surges you’re not aware of, but it fixes the issue without you having to go to extreme lengths, such as performing a reinstall of your macOS.
Note: You can boot using an external Mac startup disk or bootable installer if macOS Recovery doesn’t work.Replace the Disk
If the Mac folder with a question mark appears because of your disk has failed, the only thing you can do is to replace the disk and use the time capsule or another backup device you’ve been using to recover your data to the new disk.
Backup Data and Reinstall macOS
If Disk Utility can’t repair your startup disk, you may have to reformat it. Before doing that, take a backup of any important data from the disk before erasing everything stored on it. You can take the steps below to take a backup of your data to an external drive if you don’t have a recent data backup for your startup disk:
Step 1: Connect an external drive that’s similar in size or larger than your startup disk. Erase the external drive using macOS Recovery and then install macOS to it. Select the external disk that you want to erase, not your startup disk.
Step 2: Once macOS is installed, your Mac will restart automatically from the external drive. When you see the Setup Assistant, choose the option you want to use to move data from another disk, and select the startup disk on your Mac as the source from which to migrate data.
Step 3: After migration, follow the setup assistant instructions to the end, and when you see your desktop, confirm that all your data is present on the external drive.
Step 4: Erase your startup disk using macOS Recovery and reinstall macOS (don’t select your external drive). After erasing the disk and installing macOS, your Mac will restart automatically, and the setup assistant will appear. Copy your data to your startup disk by selecting the option to migrate data from a Time Machine backup or another disk, in this case your external drive.
Note: If you can’t erase the startup disk or reinstall macOS, take your Mac for repair to an Apple Genius or authorized service provider.Get Your Mac Back
We hope you now know what to do when you find the flashing Mac folder with a question mark on your screen. Try the fixes above and let us know what worked for you.
Next up:Want to reduce boot time for your Windows PC? Our next article shows you how to do that using Quick Startup.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
Read NextHow to Use Quick Startup to Reduce Windows Boot TimeAlso See#apple #folder
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Summary: When Mac shows folder with a question mark, you can follow this guide to fix this issue. Without losing important files, you can fix the question mark folder and boot up your Mac again.
Occasionally, you'll see certain error screens when starting up your Mac. That flashing folder with a question mark on Mac is one of those Mac boot errors.
It just appears, with no warning or pop-up in advance. You can't ignore and go past the question folder icon. Many users hope to fix this issue by a restart. However, it won't work in most cases.
Then how could you get rid of the question mark folder and boot up your Mac again?
Don't worry, you'll find a solution in this post.
What does a folder with a question mark mean?
The folder with a question mark icon means Mac can't find the hard drive or the system folder. It could be caused by software or hardware errors. You may see the blinking file folder at startup on your Mac in these situations.
The flashing folder shows just at a normal startup
It could happen if you have recently boot from an external system drive. What's more, you would see the icon if you install both Windows and Mac operating systems on your Mac machine. In these cases, you see the flashing folder with question mark simply because of wrong setups. That's to say, your Mac is confused when selecting the startup volume.
The folder with question mark icon shows after you replace a new HD or SSD
You could have replaced the Mac internal hard drive recently for better performance. If you're sure that you have a macOS on the new drive, then, the flashing folder might result from faulty connections. During the replacement, the SATA connection could get loose or damaged. So, your Mac has no startup disk to select if the Macintosh HD is not mounted.
The flashing folder shows after a recent macOS software update
Sometimes, this Mac has boot problems after or during the macOS update. The system files or the macOS directory could be corrupted. As a result, your Mac has trouble loading the operating system.
The Mac shows the question mark folder with clicking or beeping noise
In some cases, your Mac won't boot past the error screen due to hard drive corruption. Or what's worse, the Mac hard drive is severely damaged or even dead.
There could be some other situations. For example, the Mac boots into a black screen. But no matter how this issue happens, you are going to fix it for sure.
How to fix the folder with a question mark on Mac?
You could see the flashing folder on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac mini. But anyway, you can try these methods one by one.
1. Manually select the startup drive for Mac
If your Mac displays a flashing question mark at startup, you can wait for a moment and see if it can boot past the icon. If fortunately, it continues booting up, congratulations! But just in case, you can reselect a startup disk in System Preferences > Startup disk.
If you Mac can't boot past the flashing question mark, you can manually select the startup drive. You can do this by restarting your Mac while holding down the Option key.
Backward Question Mark On Mac
Tips: In the case of some older Mac OS X machines, you can boot from the install DVD. It comes along with your Mac in the optical drive.
2. Reselect the startup disk in macOS Recovery Mode
When the first methods won't work, you can boot into macOS Recovery Mode. It is part of the built-in recovery system of your Mac. macOS Recovery allows you to reselect the startup drive. To do this, you can follow these steps.
- Step 1: Force your Mac to shut down by pressing the power button for seconds.
- Step 2: Restart your Mac and immediately hold the Command + R key combinations.
- Step 3: When you see the Apple logo, you can let the keys go.
- Once you see the macOS Utilities window, it means you have booted into macOS Recovery Mode. Some older Macs would show Mac OS X Utilities.
- Step 4: Then, you can click on the Apple logo at the upper left, choose the Startup Disk option.
- Step 5: Select the hard drive in which the OS is installed.
Mac App Has Question Mark X
After you click on the Restart button, your Mac should then start up without the flashing question mark.
Tips: If you can't boot into macOS Recovery Mode, you can try it again over the Internet. You can replace the keys in Step 2 with Option + Command + R (or Shift+ Option + Command + R).
3. Repair the startup drive with Disk Utility
If there is no startup drive in the Startup Disk window, then you need to check the hard drive with First Aid. Probably, the startup drive is corrupted for some reason. If so, it's reasonable why the flashing folder with a question mark appears. Now, you can follow these steps to repair the startup disk with First Aid.
Mac App Has Question Mark 3
The worst situation is that you don't see your built-in startup disk in the Disk Utility. It indicates that there's a hardware issue. You need to check the connections of your hard drive. You can also contact the Apple authorized service for Mac repair.
Some other times, the startup drive is showing up in Disk Utility. However, Disk Utility finds issues with your startup disk that it can't repair. In this case, you need to move forward to the next part.
4. Reformat the startup drive and reinstall macOS
If Disk Utility can't repair the errors inside your startup drive, you need to reformat it. It's because the hard drive is seriously corrupted. And the quickest fix is to reformat this drive, which will assign a new file system.
However, reformatting will wipe your files off the hard drive. If you don't have a backup of your Mac, you would lose important files after reformatting.
So, to prevent data loss, here is your safe plan:
- Rescue data from the unbootable Mac. (Of course, you can ignore this step if you have a backup, or if you don't have anything important on the Mac.)
- Reformat the startup drive.
- Boot your Mac into macOS Recovery Mode and select Disk Utility from macOS Utilities.
- Select the startup drive in Disk Utility and click on the Erase button at the top menu.
- Name it as Macintosh HD and finish the necessary information like scheme and format.
- Reinstall macOS to start up the Mac.
Up to now, your files would be retrieved to an external hard drive. Therefore, you are safe to reformat the startup drive as these steps.
All right, let's get down to fixing this issue without data loss.
Bonus Tip: Check connections when Mac shows the flashing folder with a question mark
Sometimes, Mac can't find the startup drive just because the connection is not firm.
So, if you boot from an external drive, you can check these factors.
- Make sure the hard drive is powered on, especially for some desktop drive that needs an external power source.
- Make sure the USB port and cable is working.
If your Mac mini, MacBook Air, or MacBook Air shows folder with a question mark, you can check the SATA connection like this.
Mac App Has Question Mark 1
- 1. Open up the cover of the Mac.
- 2. Find the SATA connection of your hard drive. You can remove the connection and then clipped it back firmly.
This works well if your Mac doesn't recognize the internal hard drive for booting up. But if it doesn't help, either the hard drive or the SATA connection is damaged. You'll ask for a repair or replacement service from Apple.
Mac App Question Mark
Conclusion
Most of the time, errors like the circle with line through it sign at startup and the folder with a question mark on the Mac screen means a system software issue. You can simply fix this by reinstalling macOS. But it could also result from the hard drive corruption.
In this case, you should get your important files off the Mac as soon as possible. Then you need to replace or repair the disk, in case it crashes your Mac again.
Mac Os Question Mark
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