What do I do when my MacBook won’t turn on?

If your MacBook won’t turn on, your first thought was likely, ‘This could get expensive’. But stay calm! There are a number of potential reasons your MacBook isn’t turning on — take the time to find out what’s going on. In this article, we’ll present some of the most common problems and their solutions.

Why isn’t my MacBook turning on?

Maybe you’ve experienced some version of this. You want to turn on your MacBook, but the screen stays black. Or your Mac starts but then gets stuck or restarts on its own. You start worrying about your data and feel helpless.

If your MacBook isn’t turning on, troubleshooting can get expensive. That’s because Macs can be a challenge to repair, thanks to their proprietary components. On top of that, new developments like Apple silicon chips and the APFS file system are often not sufficiently documented.

The most common hardware issues include damage to the battery and power supply. Your Mac might have been compromised by a power surge, a fall or water damage. If one of those is the case, the Mac often won’t turn on at all or will get stuck during bootup.

But the issue isn’t necessarily physical. A firmware update gone wrong could also be the reason your MacBook won’t turn on. Your device is then often referred to as being ‘bricked’ (because it’s as lifeless as a brick) and can only be used as a paper weight.

But there’s good news. In many cases, the problem can be traced back to the operating system. With some luck and the right knowledge, you can fix it. We show you how to diagnose your Mac and what you can do to fix it.

How to fix problems turning on your Mac

Macs used to have good built-in tools that allowed experienced admins to diagnose and fix common problems themselves. However, after Steve Jobs’s departure, the focus has wandered further and further away from professional users. Many best practices from before no longer work.

The golden rule of troubleshooting still applies, which is to try to identify the cause of the error and then narrow it down further and further. Then find potential solutions and try several of them. On a Mac, that will look as follows:

1. Identify cause of error
2. Find out Mac model
3. Try solutions

How to diagnose problems with starting your MacBook

Bootup on a Mac is a complex process. We won’t bore you with all the technical details, but here is how the process looks to the user:

Mac starts > Bootup in macOS successful > Login successful > Mac running stably

To identify the cause of the error, we’ll distinguish among the following scenarios:

1. MacBook won’t turn on at all
2. Mac turns on but then turns off, or restarts on its own
3. Mac turns on but doesn’t boot into macOS
4. Mac turns on and boots in mac OS, but then turns off or restarts on its own

Depending on which of these scenarios you find yourself in, we can make some general statements about the potential cause of the issue. In general, we’ll try to distinguish between hardware issues and problems with the operating system. We’ll use the following rubric for that:

The next step is to determine the exact model of the MacBook that won’t start. You should also find out which version of macOS is installed. Both of these things can be found out pretty easily if the Mac still turns on.

If the Mac doesn’t turn on, you’ll have to use other methods to get that information. Every Mac provides some useful guides — in particular their Mac Identification page and Ultimate Mac Lookup might be of help.

In any case, you’ll need your Mac’s serial number. You can find it on the computer itself or on the packaging, receipt or in your iCloud account (if you registered it there). Apple’s Support page details the process for finding the serial number on various Mac products:

• Find the serial number of an Apple product

To read the technical data for your MacBook model, enter the serial number on Apple’s Support page:

• Find the tech specs for Apple devices

What to do when your MacBook won’t turn on due to hardware issues?

In the worst case, a serious hardware problem will require repairs or even replacing the whole laptop. This will tend to be expensive unless you purchased extra protection like the AppleCare plan or other insurance. If you’re not sure, you should check your AppleCare coverage. You can do so by entering the serial number of your device on the Apple Support page.

• Check warranty and AppleCare

The MacBook won’t turn on at all or restarts on its own

If your MacBook won’t turn on at all, i.e. the screen is black, it’s almost certainly a hardware issue. You can try the following fixes:

1. Check the power supply
2. Remove all external devices, like printers, USB sticks, WiFi adapters, etc.
3. Restart the Mac — press the power button for at least 10 seconds

If you still can’t interact with the computer, you’ll need to go to the Apple Store or to a certified Apple repair shop.

MacBook turns on but doesn’t boot into macOS

If your MacBook turns on but doesn’t boot into MacOS, your internal SSD might be broken. To confirm this is the case, try to boot from an external medium. If that works without any problems, the problem is almost certainly the SSD. Unfortunately, in modern Macs, the SSD can’t be replaced. Instead, you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard. This will likely be quite expensive.

If the Mac turns on from external media, you can boot the Mac externally. For MacBooks, this is just a temporary solution; for desktop Macs, this can be a long-term solution. In either case, it will allow you to backup or continue your work. However, depending on the external media and your Mac model, you should expect a decrease in performance.

Mac turns on and boots into MacOS but then turns off or restarts on its own

In this case, we’ll first have to determine whether the computer always restarts/turns off at the same point in the startup sequence, e.g. during login. If this is the case, it points to a problem with the operating system. See below for more on operating system issues.

If the computer restarts or turns off randomly, we’re looking at a different situation. This indicates that a hardware issue might be the culprit, for example a defect in the RAM. Unfortunately, the RAM can’t be swapped out on a Mac. As with the SSD, fixing an issue with the RAM would require replacing the entire motherboard.

What to do when your MacBook won’t turn on due to the operating system?

If your Mac won’t start and it seems to be an operating system issue, you have a good chance at finding a solution.

In the worst case, you can try resetting your Mac to factory settings. Experienced users can do this themselves, otherwise you’ll want to get the help of the Apple Store or another expert.

Your Mac turns on but doesn’t boot into macOS, or restarts on its own

If your Mac turns on but doesn’t boot into macOS, that’s a relatively good sign. It means that you likely don’t have a hardware issue but rather an issue with your operating system. Maybe an update failed or your Mac was disconnected from power while running.

The standard approach to solving this problem consists of booting into the built-in macOS recovery mode. For a long time, this process was pretty consistent across Mac models and operating system versions. Now, with the move away from Intel processors to Apple silicon chips, there have been some changes. For old Macs, you’ll need to press a combination of keys when the computer turns on, and for new Macs you’ll need to press the on button for 10 seconds:

If you were able to successfully boot your Mac into macOS recovery mode, you have a good chance of solving the problem.

You have two options:

1. Repair the system disk — try this first
2. Reinstall macOS — try this if nothing else works

Your Mac turns on and boots in macOS but then turns off or restarts on its own

If you’re running into this error when logging in, your user folder has likely been damaged. You might have deleted files too liberally or changed file privileges. To confirm that this is the source of the error, you can try to log into another account. In general, it’s a good idea to have a separate admin account on your Mac for these kinds of situations.

If you’re able to boot in another account, it’s pretty certain that your user folder is damaged. The solution is to delete the damaged account and restore it from a backup. The last step can be carried out using the built-in Migration Assistant.