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MacBook Pro Starts to Catalina Screen Only

My kind of old MacBook Pro has Catalina and has been working fine. Today, it was acting wonky so I shut it down and when it restarted - it only shows the Catalina background. The top status bar started “pulsating”, too.


None Of my folders are showing.


I did a “D” upon start-up diagnostic and got a “No issues found”.


Still won’t work.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 4:55 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 7:01 PM

Erik Taylor wrote:

My kind of old MacBook Pro has Catalina and has been working fine. Today, it was acting wonky so I shut it down and when it restarted - it only shows the Catalina background. The top status bar started “pulsating”, too.

None Of my folders are showing.

I did a “D” upon start-up diagnostic and got a “No issues found”.

Still won’t work.


To trouble shoot further you can:


—Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262



Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.


In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.


This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.



—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 



Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS


Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 11, 2022 7:01 PM in response to Erik Taylor

Erik Taylor wrote:

My kind of old MacBook Pro has Catalina and has been working fine. Today, it was acting wonky so I shut it down and when it restarted - it only shows the Catalina background. The top status bar started “pulsating”, too.

None Of my folders are showing.

I did a “D” upon start-up diagnostic and got a “No issues found”.

Still won’t work.


To trouble shoot further you can:


—Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262



Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.


In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.


This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.



—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 



Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS


MacBook Pro Starts to Catalina Screen Only

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