Recovery Issues

[Central]

Hoping for some guidance.

MacBook Pro 13" with Retina display
Purchased in 2015 (Septemberish)

Started to have some problems with the computer not able to connect to I-tunes (we weren't even trying to actually). It was stating unable to access need permission. It was decided to back-up the hard drive and re-boot the system.

Did all items apple support suggested and when it was time to do re-start...... big issues began.

So, to try to get back to factory settings or whatever it was called.


We were told to do the following and here are the results.

Hold the START key ..... greyish screen then a file folder appears with a question mark

Hold the START key and SHIFT key....a file folder with a question mark appears only.

Hold the START key and OPTION Key.......it comes up with the Choose Network, we choose our network and enter the password....then the Internet Recovery comes up and we select it.....but then the Error Code -2006F appears with the apple.com/support information

Hold the START key and OPTION, COMMAND & "R" .... a -2006F error code appears with the apple.com/support information

Any idea why this is happening?
Or just bring it in to an authorized dealer?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rod]

Hi and welcome to these forums Central, I'm not sure what you mean by the "start" key, are you referring to the Command key? I think I understand what Apple Support were getting at but I am very surprised that thier instructions to fix your original problem, "not able to connect to I-tunes (we weren't even trying to actually)" would have resulted in the problem you are experiencing now.
What did they suggest you do in the first instance and why?
The symptom you describe (grey screen with question mark) usually indicates that the startup volume cannot be found or is so badly damaged it cannot be used.
You may have tried this but power the device off by holding the power button until screen and keyboard lights go off.
press the power button to turn on while holding the Command and R buttons until you hear the startup "chime" it may take a while. If you get to a choose language screen click Return/enter for English. The Recovery window should then open, select Disk Utility and Macintosh HD and click First Aid.

 

[Rod]

If you do not hear the startup "chime" and the recovery volume does not boot then you really have no option but to take it back to Apple. As it is just out of warranty you may be lucky as a total HD failure id pretty drastic and would indicate a faulty HD. It could of course be something else but either way it's a pretty serious issue.
You said you did a backup, how did you do this and was it successful?

 

[Central]

Thank you for your reply.

When the issue began...it started to say trying to access I-tunes but you need permission. Unless the computer is always trying to access I-tunes it just wasn't in that program. Stated need parental permission - all parental permissions were turned off. The computer was able to do everything else at that time just kept popping up a block with that I-tunes error. So we backed up what was on the computer since it was allowing everything else. Called the apple support line...and they had us do some things and then it was suggested to do factory reset. I don't know what those instructions were but they were followed. Then when trying to re-boot, it just wouldn't and started with all the keystrokes and items I wrote above.

The START button was the power button. There were a few times it also included the COMMAND button, which was one of the last items they had us do (see above). There was one other sequence, but I just don't remember. They had us repeat several of these steps too.

It does CHIME when starting up. It will allow us to get to where we can choose our web-browser with the (START/POWER and OPTION buttons pressed) but that is just an extra glimmer of hope for us before we get the error -2006F (apple.com/support).

I do not know what the startup volume is actually. But it does make the "chime" sound. Not sure if I was able to make any sense or not.

 

[ferrarr]

Did you do this, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295, if not, try it now? Next try this, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063, and this, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262, if needed.

 

[Rod]

Getting the startup chime is encouraging. ferrarr's suggestions are valid as well but as a sequence of tasks I would prefer the startup with Command +R just to see if the recovery partition is intact and available. Have you tried this step yet?

 

[Central]

Thank you so much again for trying to help.

I did everything from the links provided and also the Command + R key.
Command + R key = File folder with Question Mark appears
Was able to hear both chimes with the Command/Option/P/R key sequences = File folder with Question Mark appears
The other items were of no success.
Still able to use the Start + Option key sequence to get to the Choose Web Browser, Able to enter the password for the correct wifi (it still finds other wifi available locally) and then try to start the Internet Recovery which gives me the error code -2006F (apple.com/support) info

Will try everything again in the morning. But if no progress I guess it off to the repair shop. Hopefully, it can be fixed and not be too expensive.

 

[harryb2448]

Command + R takes one into Recovery and if you are not seeing options for using Disk Utility to run Disk First Ai looks like you have a failing hard drive. If the purchase was made of a new machine with AppleCare make sure you take it to a Genius Bar or Apple Store as it may be under warranty. This is what you should see on entering Recovery:-


https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201314

 

[Rod]

It certainly sounds like a major Hard Drive failure, sad to say it's off to the shop I'm afraid. Do take it to Genius Bar or Apple Store as they may well consider HD replacement considering it's really only a little over a year old and if it's an SSD it's unlikely that you could have damaged it yourself meaning it may have been defective to start with.
Good luck, do let us know how you get on. All contributors to this thread will be notified by email if you reply.