OS X Single User Mode Rescue

The other day when I was using my Macbook Pro, it all of a sudden froze up on me. As in many cases when computers act up, I tried turning it off and on again. Unfortunately each time I tried to boot, the progress bar would make it 3/4’s of the way across the screen and then the power would go off. Since it had been a couple weeks since I last backed up my files, I was worried that I was going to lose some of my recent coding progress. That’s when I found to about single user mode built into OS X.

How to Use Single User Mode

Launch into Safe Mode

• Shut down the computer
• Press the power button
• As soon as the grey screen shows, press and hold the command+S keys

Load the following system libraries

• cd /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
• launchctl load com.apple.kextd.plist
• launchctl load notified.plist
• launchctl load com.apple.configd.plist

Start the networking

• plug-in the RJ49 ethernet cable
• type ifconfig to see if an IP has been assigned
• sftp or ftp to a machine on your local network to receive the backup files

_{Last modified: 05/01/2020}