OS X El Capitan: Start up in single-user mode

Start up in single-user mode

To troubleshoot your computer’s startup sequence using only UNIX commands, start up in single-user mode. You should do this only if you’re comfortable with UNIX.

  1. Choose Apple menu > Restart, or press the power button if your Mac is turned off.

  2. Press Command-S as your Mac starts up.

    The screen is black with standard white text. You can now run the UNIX commands that you want.

In single-user mode, not all OS X functions are available. To use the standard OS X interface or other high-level aspects of OS X, you need to start up in the standard mode.

To switch back to the standard OS X interface, type reboot, then press Return.

Last Modified: Apr 13, 2016
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