I was approached by a client whose 2020 M1 MacBook Air would not boot to the operating system. After trial and error, I was able to return the MacBook in fully working order.

Background Information

It was stuck in a loop of Recovery Assistant asking for an admin user with a known password. When I opened the MacBook for the first time, the screen asking for the admin user was labeled as Activate Mac. Selecting the available user and typing the password provided by the client did not work.

Several facts I learned from asking the client questions are as follows:

• This MacBook was recently purchased from Best Buy.
• The client began initial user setup but did not remember finishing setup.
• The client mentioned the password they gave me might be incorrect.

Diagnostics

The only options at the top of the Mac contextual menu bar were the Apple logo, Recovery Assistant, and Startup Disk. The right side of the menu only showed the battery icon and options for changing keyboard input methods. The Apple logo menu allowed me to restart or shut down. The Recovery Assistant menu revealed an option to Erase disk. The Startup Disk menu allowed me to select Choose Startup Disk, which revealed the MacBook’s internal storage drive; however, selecting the drive also prompted the same admin user password.

I attempted to shut down the computer and reboot, but it booted to the same Recovery Assistant screen. I then shut down the computer again, this time attempting to boot into Recovery Mode by holding the power button until the boot screen notified me it was Loading Startup Options. On the next screen, it showed the Mac’s internal storage drive as well as an Options selection. Over the next two boots, selecting one option each time, I was taken back to the original Recovery Assistant screen with the same dead ends.

Double-clicking the power button and holding on the second click to boot into Fallback Recovery Mode produced the same result.

Back on the Recovery Assistant page, with the central box labeled Activate Mac, I used the Recovery Assistant menu option to select Erase disk. Doing so prompted me for the first time with network connection options. As this had not been available until this point, the machine was not connected to WiFi. Upon successfully connecting to WiFi, I was then greeted by the traditional macOS Utilities menu: Restore from Time Machine, Reinstall macOS, Safari, and Disk Utility. I also had access to the full Recovery contextual menu for the first time: Recovery, File, Edit, Utilities, Window.

Through the Utilities option, I selected Terminal to change the available user’s password so that there would be a definitive password if prompted again. Upon inputting the resetpassword command, however, I was informed that there were no created users on the machine. Therefore, there was not a password eligible for reset.

Steps to Resolve Issue

At this point, I simply returned to the macOS Utilities menu and selected Reinstall macOS. From the point, the process proceeded normally, eventually successfully reinstalling and allowing me to correctly setup a user account. The client was able to create their desired password and account credentials and eventually was able to log in. For final confirmation, I rebooted the system, and it booted directly to the account login screen like normal.

The client left with a fully functioning M1 MacBook Air.