How to Fix MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac Stuck on Loading Screen

An Apple logo and progress bar appear on the screen when Mac takes a startup or installs macOS updates. Normally, a full startup takes about 30 seconds, and during the macOS installation, the progress bar may last much longer than usual.

However, if you've waited long enough(for hours) and the progress bar still remains on the screen without any change, then it's highly likely that the Mac stuck on loading screen. It usually happens after a recent macOS update, like a macOS Monterey update, or macOS reinstallation. Relax, you can fix the Mac boot loop below.

Why is your MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen

Normally, Mac would show the Apple logo at startup once it finds your local startup disk. Then, you will see the progress bar with or without the Apple logo as the startup or macOS installation continues. But if the MacBook stuck on apple logo with loading bar scenario appears, the reasons may lie in:

How to avoid data loss when iMac stuck on loading screen

When your MacBook won't turn on at all and Mac/iMac freezes on startup. All the documents, photos, videos, etc. on Mac are in danger of loss. It would be fine if you have backed up Mac in advance. Otherwise, rescuing data from your Mac is a primary task.

Watch this video to learn how to rescue data when the Mac stuck on loading screen with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

For detailed step-by-step information, you can read the following post to recover data from an unbootable Mac such as the MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen, macOS update stuck on Apple logo, etc.

Proven methods to fix MacBook Air stuck on loading screen

Some Mac users report that the MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen with the Apple logo, MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen with loading bar, MacBook won't load after a macOS update, or even the Mac progress bar stuck at 100%.

If any of the above scenarios befalls you, try the following 10 solutions to fix. They are also applicable when your Mac stuck on login screen or your iMac won't boot past Apple logo.

Solution 1: Disconnect the peripherals & Restart your Mac

Restarting Mac is a quick fix when your MacBook Air/Pro/iMac encounters a boot problem. This way is easy and sometimes works. And as we said before, malfunctioned peripherals will also give rise to Mac stuck on loading screen problem. So, you'd better disconnect all peripherals.

Solution 2: Boot your Mac into Safe Mode

MacBook stuck on Apple logo with loading bar could be caused by software conflict or incompatibility. So, to confirm it, boot Mac into Safe Mode. It will prevent your Mac from launching unnecessary programs and login items at startup. It also does a basic check of your boot disk and solves some of the Mac slow startup issues.

To boot your Intel-based Mac into Safe Mode:

To boot your Apple M1 Mac like M1 iMac into Safe Mode:

If your Mac boots past the loading bar and enter Safe Mode successfully, you'll see "Safe Boot" on the right top of the screen. That also shows the culprit is the software conflict.

Find out the conflicting program or software, usually the recently installed third-party software, and then uninstall apps. Next, you can simply reboot your Mac. If your MacBook Safe Mode is not working, try the next solution.

Solution 3: Reset NVRAM/PRAM

PRAM or NVRAM is a non-volatile random access memory. It is used to store system settings on Mac, including startup disk selection and recent kernel panic information. So, when the MacBook stuck on Apple logo with loading bar, resetting NVRAM/PRAM might get your stuck MacBook Pro fixed.

To reset NVRAM/PRAM, you can simply restart your Mac and simultaneously press Command + Option+ P + R keys. If you have an M1 Mac, you don't need to reset NVRAM. Because it will automatically run test and reset on startup if something went wrong.

Solution 4: Reset the SMC

SMC (System Management Controller) is used to control a number of Mac core functions, including sudden motion sensor and thermal management. Typically, when MacBook Pro stuck on loading screen, SMC reset helps to resolve such unresponsive issues related to power and hardware.

To reset the SMC on a Mac computer stops loading halfway, follow the steps below. Note that there is no SMC on M1 Mac.

Reset SMC on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro

Reset SMC on Mac Mini, Mac Pro, and iMac

Solution 5: Reselect the startup disk

Sometimes, the Mac stuck on the loading bar results from your last booting from an external hard drive or the other internal hard drive (if you have two). In this scenario, you need to reselect the startup disk.

Solution 6: Repair the startup disk

The boot disk that is corrupted may also cause the Mac stuck on the progress bar. Fortunately, you can use First Aid, a built-in disk repair tool on your Mac, to fix the errors on the startup disk.

If First Aid successfully found the errors and repaired them, you can restart your Mac computer quickly without a slow startup. Disk Utility helps Mac boot up, and your Mac desktop or MacBook won't be frozen on the startup screen this time.

Solution 7: Boot Mac into Single User Mode

Single User Mode is another boot mode on Mac used to troubleshoot Mac problems and perform administrative tasks. You will access to a Unix prompt, where you need to use commands such as fsck to perform basic repairs to the startup drive. It may work to fix Mac stuck on Apple logo when loading.

Solution 8: Reinstall macOS

Perhaps, it is the error with Mac operating system that causes the Mac stuck on loading screen problem. The current macOS may be outdated or corrupted, then you can reinstall macOS in macOS Recovery mode.

Besides, you may encounter Mac update stuck on Apple logo, such as Big Sur update stuck on Apple logo on your device, you also need to reinstall mac OS. However, if the iMac stuck on loading screen after updating macOS, then you can downgrade macOS to an earlier version.

Solution 9: Restore Mac to an earlier date

If you have backed up Mac with the Time machine, you can use the backup drive to restore Mac from Time Machine to an earlier date when the Mac stuck on loading screen problem doesn't exist. Here's how:

If the startup disk can't be fixed by First Aid and is still unmounted in Disk Utility, it may be critically corrupted. In this case, you need to erase the disk and then reinstall mac OS in macOS Recovery mode to fix the Mac stuck on loading screen problem.

However, disk erasure will wipe all your files off the drive. So, if you have important files on this Mac, you should first rescue data from the Mac when Mac freezes on startup. It's necessary especially if you don't have any backup.

After data recovery, you can proceed with reformatting the Mac hard drive.

Go back to the macOS Utilities window and click Reinstall macOS. And then, follow the instructions to reinstall Mac operating system.

Conclusion

It's terrible if your Mac stuck on the loading screen at startup. For the Mac computer that freezes on startup, you should first check if you have a backup of your data to avoid permanent data loss. If not, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac will be a good helper to recover lost data when the Mac stuck on loading screen. Then, you can try out the solutions above one by one till your Mac boots up rather than hangs on slow startup.