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Flashing folder with “?” after remote erase - can’t enter recovery mode.

2020 Apple Silicon MacBook Pro 13 M1 chip 32gb Ram running Big Sur (not sure which version). Long story short - my friend wound up having to remote erase this Mac. It now is stuck with a flashing folder with a question mark in it and it will not boot into recovery. Yes, we realize the procedure is different for booting into recovery on this Mac as opposed to an Intel Mac. Holding down the power button after shutting it down only takes it back to the flashing folder. Double tapping the power button and holding it takes it right back to the flashing folder as well. I’m sure we are doing SOMETHING wrong…neither one of us is familiar with this new breed of Mac having only owned ones with Intel processors up until now (mine still IS an Intel MacBook Pro - 2018 to be exact). We have NO IDEA what to do next and I am hoping someone here does. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.


p.s. - She bought it used from a friend - warranty ran out in July.

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Nov 28, 2021 2:14 AM

Reply
4 replies

Nov 28, 2021 2:28 AM in response to gpoae

gpoae Said:

"Flashing folder with '?' after remote erase - can’t enter recovery mode.: [...]We have NO IDEA what to do next and I am hoping someone here does"

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Why the Error?:

You hard drive is not being seen. So, what to do...


Two Things...

I. Go here: If your Mac Starts Up to a Question Mark - Apple Support


II. Mount the Drive:

Boot into Recovery Mode (Hold Down: [Command + R] upon boot). Then, using Disk Utility, see if the Hard Drive is seen. If it is, then see if you need to click the “Mount’ button for it. Try rebooting once more. If of no success, then click unmount button, and then the mount button. Try rebooting once more.

Nov 28, 2021 8:38 AM in response to TheLittles

Yes -realize what the flashing question mark means - I probably should have been more clear about that, so my apologies for failing to say that.

This is an Apple Silicon Mac with an M1 processor, so the instructions you gave will not work to boot it into recovery. That only works for Intel Macs. The problem is that the instructions that Apple DOES give to boot into recovery with this particular MacBook Pro don’t work either. There is also no longer an option for a network boot making things even more puzzling. To boot this machine into recovery from a shut down state, you are supposed to press and hold the power button until an options screen appears. That doesn’t work. It goes right back to the flashing folder with the question mark. The procedure if THAT fails is to double tap the power button and hold it until the options screen appears. That doesn’t work either and gets the same result - there are no further instructions. I’m hoping someone here might know what to do when both of those methods fail…or if I’m just completely missing something. I know this Mac worked just fine with zero issues before she found herself having to remote erase it.

But thank you so much for trying, I am at a complete loss on what to try next and like I said when I posted my question, it’s out of warranty and she’s not trying to spend a small fortune sending it into Apple to be fixed. Especially since I have a feeling that this may be something simple that we aren’t doing or that we’re missing…

Flashing folder with “?” after remote erase - can’t enter recovery mode.

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