How to fix Mac stuck on loading screen progress bar?

Posted by Tim to Mac Data Recovery Tips on April 29th, 2021

Lots of people are now running on macOS Big Sur and enjoying Dark Mode, Stacks, dynamic desktop, new apps, etc. However, still more users are complaining that their Mac can't boot after macOS update and MacBook Pro stuck on the login screen.

If your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac or Mac Mini is stuck on a login screen, all you will see is a spinning wheel and the unable to be used Mac machine. To help you boot your Mac properly, we will tell you the solutions in detail:

Why Mac stuck on loading screen?

Boot failure is a complex problem, which can be the result of numerous software and hardware errors. Since updated to macOS Big Sur, there might have been some incompatibility issues between the OS and Apple default apps. No matter what have made Mac stuck on loading screen progress bar, you'd better back up all your data before trying these solutions out.

How to recover data from the frozen Mac?

The first thing in dealing with a boot failure on Mac is to secure your important data. Without the regular backups, you can also make it with professional data recovery software - iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.

Tutorial to recover data from the frozen Mac

You can recover data in macOS Recovery mode through our Server. Before you follow the steps below, you have to make sure your Mac has Internet connection.

1. Click the Power button to turn on the Mac, and immediately press COMMAND+OPTION+R keys to boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode.

2. Choose a network for your Mac. You need to make your Mac connected to the Internet all the time.

3. Open Terminal from the Utilities drop-down menu.

4. Run the command: sh <(curl http://boot.iboysoft.com/boot.sh)

This will launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac through our Server.

5. After launching iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, follow the wizard to complete the data recovery process

How to fix Mac stuck on loading screen progress bar?

After recovering data from the unbootable Mac computer, you can set about fixing Mojave stuck on boot/login screen issue with the solutions below.

For a comparison of Mojave and Catalina see this article on Spacehop.

Fix 1: Boot your Mac in Safe Mode

Safe Mode is the most common practice to boot your Mac computer. To boot your Mac computer in Safe Mode, you need to shut it down. Then start it up again while holding the Shift key and release the Shift key till you see the Apple logo and the loading bar. Then, restart your Mac without pressing any keys.

Fix 2: Reset NVRAM

1. Press and hold Power button for a few minutes till Mac turns off.

2. Wait a few seconds and press Power button to turn on Mac.

3. Hold Command+Option+P+R keys while booting Mac to reset NVRAM.

4. Reboot computer again to see if the Mac computer can boot into macOS Mojave.

Fix 3: Use Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode

1. Boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode.

2. From the macOS Utilities menu, select Disk Utility.

3. Select the internal hard drive, usually Macintosh HD.

4. Click First Aid on the top menu bar.

5. Click Done and restart your Mac.

Fix 4: Reinstall macOS

If the solutions above failed to fix Mac stuck on loading screen issue, the last solution is to reinstall macOS. Please make sure your Mac is powered with a charger.

1. Launch Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode.

2. Select the Macintosh HD volume.

3. Click Erase, and then complete the required name, format, scheme information. Click Erase to start reformatting the drive.

4. Return to macOS Utilities in macOS Recovery mode, and select Reinstall macOS.

5. Choose the erased Mac hard disk and follow the onscreen wizard to complete the macOS installation.

6. Reboot your Mac to check if it can boot into macOS.

To conclude, when your Mac frozen on loading screen progress bar after updating to macOS Big Sur, the top most thing should be data rescue, either restore from previous backups or with the help of data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. Once data is safe, you can go ahead to fix Mac not turning on without worrying about data loss.