A Demonstration and Walkthrough of macOS Recovery

I've had had a Mac for 2 years and knew these tools existed but didn't know how to access them. This podcast was very helpful. Thank you. The only thing is that my Mac disc is encrypted so no speech until the password is logged in. I wonder how does this affect invoking the tools at boot up?

Do you not have speech when authenticating from the Recovery environment? On both my M2 and 2018 MacBook Airs with FileVault on, I am able to select my user account, click Next, and enter my password using standard VoiceOver navigation as demonstrated in the recording. This is in contrast to when starting up my 2018 Air in macOS, where VoiceOver access at the login prompt was much more restricted.

Thank you Tyler. This might come in handy for me. My father ordered me a Dongle just after Christmas. It came and I've tried plugging things into it. My blue-tooth headset has been charging just fine, but the Apple SuperDrive that my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas about 9 years ago is not working. A sighted personal assistant and I recently called Apple support about this, and the representative said that I'll probably need to purchase a newer drive. I'm also having an issue with my Western Digital hard drive though, and just might try booting into the recovery mode myself using VO. I'm also wondering if this power issue was caused by the flickering lights here in my new apartment. Those were fixed just last week.

Excellent demonstration. what app did you use to record?

I just used the Voice Memos app on my iPhone to make the original recording.

Cool! I enjoyed it overall. Voice Memos is awesome! you have an IPhone 14 pro? if yes, I'll be upgrading to the iPhone 14 pro very soon. the internal mic on the iPhone captures very good audio.

Could you do another? for Internet recovery to reinstall the OS I believe this would be great for people that are sick of having your cited peers to do this for you

On Macs with Apple Silicon, I'm not sure there is a separate Internet Recovery mode that users can manually start up in. The one time I tried it on my 2018 MacBook Air, I used Seeing AI on my iPhone to verify that it was loading, and then when it started reading the Recovery Assistant UI, I was able to start VoiceOver and interact with macOS Recovery as normal.

I actually have an iPhone SE (2020.)

Hi Tyler.

I liked what you did until I tried to follow the instructions to enter recovery mode -- hold down the power button until I hear VoiceOver speaking. VoiceOver never spoke. I held down the power button for a few minutes and finally gave up.

This sort of thing is real common for me, though. I am cursed when it comes to computers. For example, yesterday I tried upgrading to the most recent version of Monterey (not Ventura) and immediately ran into problems that left me struggling for hours, trying to get my computer going again. Today I tried logging into applevis and failed. I used the happy easy command shift a to fill in my user name and password, which always worked in the past. Not today. I clicked on the forgot password link and received a one time only email to log in and change my password. That's what I'm using right now. I tried to use it to change my password, but I was told by the web page that I had to fill in my old password first. Blink. Excuse me?

Now, I expect that when I log off, I'll have to try all over again to change my password by getting another one time only email log in.

Like I said. I'm cursed.

Joy!

Bruce

Bruce, is a mouse connected to your Mac Studio? If not, I suspect it's that ridiculous mouse issue rearing its ugly head again. I've been told that particular issue is fixed in Ventura. I'm waiting for an M3 Mini, because I want the new hardware and I'd like to find out if Apple continues fixing VoiceOver issues like they should have been doing for years.

Track pad; no mouse. Ultimately, My sighted wife helped me get through the Monterey upgrade set up process.

Well the apple accessibility department has improved for the apple silicon processor in each Mac OS release
for MacOS Big Sur, their not way to activate voiceOver in recovery mode.
For macOS Monterey apple bring back voiceOver through the process of recovery mode but with the classic TTS voices Fred.
And now according to the Podcast in MacOS Ventura better quality voice through the recovery Mode process.

I know Apple is moving to the chips but I was asking for Intel max and others, that have not hopped onto them chip bandwagon is there any discussions there for the less fortunate and users without the chips?

Well actually
Intel processor are well in voiceOver when you have to do a recovery under disk utility.
From my point of view
the option that you have using Intel processor offer more choices in deciding what MacOS version you have to installed when you need it
using
command + R will install the current MacOS version that your Mac is running.
Option + Command + R will install the later macOS version compatible with the device
Shift + option + Command + R will install the original MacOS version that came with the machine or the oldest compatible with the Mac.