2015 MacBook Pro Won't Start Up Fully

[Christopher11]

I need to retrieve some information from my 2015 MB Pro. It's never done this, but when I try to start it up it makes it to about 3/4 of the way done, then shuts down. If I press the mouse it starts trying again. I tried restarting with Command / R but it again just shuts down and restarts with the progress bar 3/4 of the way finished.

I also tried holding power button down for 10 seconds. All accessories are unplugged. Please help. Thank you.

 

[3166792]

Try booting into Safe Boot by holding Shift when you start the machine.

 

[Christopher11]

Thank you, trying that now. It's gotten a lot further, in fact the progress bar seems to be at 100%. But then it just restarts again.

 

[Fishrrman]

Does this have a factory SSD in it, or something else?

 

[Christopher11]

Hmm. It's a 2015 with a 2TB drive. I bought it in 2021 from an after market dealer. It may be something else. Not sure though.

 

[Christopher11]

Okay, i got it to startup in Recovery mode! This is progress, right? I am running Dsk Utility.

 

[3166792]

If you have a suitable cable and another Mac, you can try Target Disk Mode:

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

You can connect two Mac computers using a USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, then transfer files.

support.apple.com

 

[Christopher11]

Now it's just doing the same thing again. I ran Disk Utility, restarted, and it keeps restarting itself and not booting up.

 

[Christopher11]

If you have a suitable cable and another Mac, you can try Target Disk Mode:

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

You can connect two Mac computers using a USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, then transfer files.

support.apple.com

Thank you. I did that, I've got the lightning bolt / Target mode symbol floating on my old Macbook, however, it's not showing up on my 2019 Mac desktop. I've got both the firewire sign and lightning bolt images floating on old mac screen... so they should be connected right?

 

[3166792]

It should appear on the Mac desktop provided the cable you're using is suitable. On your 2015 you have Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3 ports I believe and you would need a data cable that's compatible. Perhaps a USB-A to USB-A data cable.

With the right cable, it should appear and prompt you for a password to decrypt the disk.

 

[Christopher11]

I'll try a few different cables. The problem is, I'm not sure I can retro adapt a usb c cable to the older macbook. Does USB work at all for Target mode? I thought it didn't.

 

[3166792]

Something like this should be suitable I believe. Target Disk Mode supports USB 3.0 as well as FireWire and Thunderbolt.

 

[Christopher11]

What if I reinstall system software via Recovery Mode? Could that help?

 

[Christopher11]

Something like this should be suitable I believe. Target Disk Mode supports USB 3.0 as well as FireWire and Thunderbolt.

Okay, connected with USB cable (and adapter for the newer macbook), but not showing up on desktop.

 

[3166792]

Hopefully someone who has done this with your particular setup can chime in with some tips. It's supposed to work without much hassle. Good luck!

 

[winxmac]

I'm also a long time Windows user and a bit new to owning a macOS device... I have tried macOS in the past but the Hackintosh way... I have the MacBook Pro 2015 for 3 months now... I mostly store files on external drive since in the past I used to buy pre-owned (used) HDD and I suffered multiple instances of data loss back then...

At times I need to do a full disk wipe so having files already on the external drive makes it easier since I don't have to backup/transfer them first...

Whatever files you need to recover, I hope you are able to do so... I've been there, done that, and I hope I never have to experience that again...

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

It seems like you've been here before, with this same MBP and same internal drive problem.

I'm going to guess that before you bought it, the factory-installed internal SSD was replaced with a 3rd-party SSD and adapter. Some of these have proven to have compatibility problems as time has marched on.

My suggestion is this:
1. Boot back into INTERNET recovery (NOT to "the recovery partition")
Command-OPTION-R at boot. You'll need your wifi password.
2. Open disk utility
3. Go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".
4. Look at the list on the left. Click on the topmost item which should be the internal SSD
5. ERASE IT to APFS, GUID partition format
6. Quit disk utility and open the OS installer
7. Install a clean copy of whatever version of the OS the installer offers to you.
8. When done, try to get an account set up on it.

If this works, it works.
If it DOESN'T work, my guess is (AGAIN) that you have a 3rd party drive/adapter that isn't compatible with changes made to the OS, and that the only way you're going to have an internal boot drive again is to find an "original-equipment" Apple internal SSD, put that it, and try things that way.

 

[Christopher11]

Thank you, good ideas, but if you're talking about erasing the volume, wouldn't I lose the data I'm trying to get at?

 

[missingar]

Thank you, good ideas, but if you're talking about erasing the volume, wouldn't I lose the data I'm trying to get at?

yeah don't do that if you're trying to get data off of it. do you have an external drive you could format and try installing macOS on?

 

[MallardDuck]

Thank you, good ideas, but if you're talking about erasing the volume, wouldn't I lose the data I'm trying to get at?

If it's been unplugged for a long time, data on SSD degrades over time. That would explain why isn't not booting (it may not be actually a failed drive, rather just one that's returned to a random state). If that's the case, then you're out of luck at booting, but some of the data might still be recoverable from another machine.

Best thing I'd suggest is pulling the ssd out, putting it in a case and plugging into a different machine, and if possible extract the data off it directly. Otherwise you can try running something like disk warrior on it (of course, that assumes it's not APFS format - which those tools don't work with).

Note that this is not the same as target disk mode (which still requires some level of bootability - a separate case is the best option).

 

[A Hobo]

If it's been unplugged for a long time, data on SSD degrades over time. That would explain why isn't not booting (it may not be actually a failed drive, rather just one that's returned to a random state).

I just can’t follow you here, I’ve not known of this issue being even close to significant on modern drives.

Debunked: Your SSD won’t lose data if left unplugged after all

“People have misunderstood the data,” said Seagate sources at the heart of an Internet kerfuffle. Find out the truth here.

www.pcworld.com

What’s happened to OP is that it likely has a third party m.2 SSD installed on a converter, which is now on the fritz. Which also explains why no drive gets mounted over target disk mode too.
That drive probably needs to be removed from the system and attached by way of a usb-m.2 adaptor.

The tiny Chinese converter boards sold cheap as chips on eBay fail a lot. Ask me why I know.

 

[MallardDuck]

I just can’t follow you here, I’ve not known of this issue being even close to significant on modern drives.

Debunked: Your SSD won’t lose data if left unplugged after all

“People have misunderstood the data,” said Seagate sources at the heart of an Internet kerfuffle. Find out the truth here.

www.pcworld.com

What’s happened to OP is that it likely has a third party m.2 SSD installed on a converter, which is now on the fritz. Which also explains why no drive gets mounted over target disk mode too.
That drive probably needs to be removed from the system and attached by way of a usb-m.2 adaptor.

The tiny Chinese converter boards sold cheap as chips on eBay fail a lot. Ask me why I know.

I've absolutely had SSD drives experience bit rot due to being unpowered for extended periods of time. If that hits the partition table (which one did), then the drive is rendered unmountable. Not saying that happened here, but if it's an old machine that was powered off for months, then that's a possibility. Cheap controllers are definitely another (and on reflection, probably more likely) issue. So is a drive simply dying.

Either way, agree completely - extracting the drive and using an enclosure is the best way to try to recover data.

 

[Jamo12]

I had the same thing. I bought a hard drive enclosure for like $8 and took the drive out of the old machine, put it into the enclosure and plugged it in like an external drive. Worked fine for me

 

[ThailandToo]

I had the same thing. I bought a hard drive enclosure for like $8 and took the drive out of the old machine, put it into the enclosure and plugged it in like an external drive. Worked fine for me

I have had success the same way getting to data on old Macs.

 

[0339327]

I need to retrieve some information from my 2015 MB Pro. It's never done this, but when I try to start it up it makes it to about 3/4 of the way done, then shuts down. If I press the mouse it starts trying again. I tried restarting with Command / R but it again just shuts down and restarts with the progress bar 3/4 of the way finished.

I also tried holding power button down for 10 seconds. All accessories are unplugged. Please help. Thank you.

I read a lot of the responses and most are good.

1. Reset the SMC
2. Reset the PRAM
3. Use target disc mode from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3. You need a Thunderbolt 2 adapter to plug into a Thunderbolt 3 port. So you will need a Thunderbolt 2 cable as well. I did this often with older drives. You cannot use a TB3 into an adapter for TB2.
3. Sounds like a bad motherboard. The other option is to remove the drive and place it in an enclosure and get the files that way.