The term ‘Safe mode’ is more familiar to Firefox users than it is to Chrome users.Unlike Firefox and even Windows 10, here’s no built in Chrome Safe mode option in the browser which surprises me because of its usefulness in troubleshooting browser problems. But here’s a work around.
All that aside, starting a Mac in Safe Mode is easily accomplished (but there will likely be follow up work involved to ensure that your Mac is back in good working order): 1.
What is Google Chrome Safe Mode?
When you launch something in safe mode, you are simply launching it with limited capabilities. For an app like Chrome, you can launch it without unnecessary extensions and plugins. You’ll achieve this by launching Google Chrome in Incognito mode.
Safe Mode is a macOS diagnostic mode designed to fix several problems in your Mac. So if you have hit a major snag with your Mac, here's a helpful guide to boot it into a safe mode to fix it. On the upper-right corner of your screen you’ll see the words “Safe Boot” displayed on the login window when your Mac is in safe mode. How to Exit Safe Mode. To leave safe mode, do the following: 1. Restart your Mac without pressing keys on startup. Select “Apple menu Shut Down.” This will return you to your desktop in normal mode.
I have done an article on Google Chrome’s Incognito mode before and how it works. From the article, you will get to Incognito mode only after launching the browser normally. But to launch in safe mode, we have to figure out a way of launching the browser straight into Incognito mode.
How To Launch Chrome In Safe Mode / Incognito Mode
In today’s article, we’re looking at how you can launch Chrome directly into Incognito mode. This is an equivalent of ‘Safe mode’ in Chrome.
Create a Desktop Shortcut For Chrome Safe Mode
If you want, you can create a desktop shortcut for ‘Google Chrome Safe mode’ instead of launching the run box every time you want to start the browser in safe mode (Incognito mode)
Copy your current Chrome desktop shortcut and paste it somewhere else on the desktop. Then rename the new shortcut to ‘Google Chrome Safe Mode‘. Then right click on it and select ‘Properties’. In the target url section, add ( -incognito) to the url. Then click ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.
The Safe mode (Incognito mode) desktop shortcut will now be taking you directly to google chrome Safe mode.
If you’re troubleshooting your browser, you can go enabling extensions and plugins one by one, so that you can identify the problem source. Still, you can choose to be using the browser in Incognito mode.
Mac Pro Safe Mode
Prefer to watch? You can watch this tutorial here.
A few weeks ago, I considered here whether starting up in Safe Mode (with the Shift ket held) checks and repairs disks, as it has done in the past. I concluded then that macOS Catalina no longer does that. Mac serial port app. This article looks at what Catalina’s Safe Mode actually does.
Apple’s current support page detailing Safe Booting was written over two years ago, and clearly hasn’t been updated for 10.15 yet. According to that, entering Safe Mode at startup does three things:
The second of those limits its usefulness, as some of the blocked items prevent some sub-systems from working normally. Macos power usage app. If you’re trying to isolate a problem which affects one of those sub-systems, Safe Mode won’t help.
I’ve now performed Safe Boots on a MacBook Pro 2017 (without T2 chip) running both 10.15 and 10.15.1, and conclude that no useful check of the integrity of storage is performed any more, have compiled a list of kernel extensions which aren’t loaded in Safe Mode, and looked at some of the ‘caches’ which it rebuilds. Let me step you through some typical log entries from starting up in Safe Mode. As usual, times are given in decimal seconds, in local time UTC+0100.
As with all startups, the log entries open with two characteristic waypoints:
3.000000 system boot: [UUID] Note that the UUID/GUID given here appears to be unique to that startup, rather than any for that machine. ![]()
The first indication of Safe Booting appears very early in the log. I’ve always been uncertain how long to hold the Shift key for. In this case, less than a second from initiating the startup should have been fine.
3.054764 kernel SAFE BOOT DETECTED - only valid OSBundleRequired kexts will be loaded.
In 10.15, you will then see scattered entries referring to kernel extensions which haven’t been loaded, such as
3.352849 Kext com.apple.vecLib.kext is not loadable during safe boot; omitting its personalities. In 10.15.1, there’s now a full listing by subsystem of all the kexts which aren’t loaded, which I reproduce at the end of this article.
How to delete apps apple. Almost exactly one second after the initial log entry, the new Catalina Volume Group is prepared and mounted (just as in a regular startup):
4.080006 ROSV: apfs mounted RO and is the system volume of a volume group and mounted as the root fs: creating the shadow fs_root
There are no log entries which report that
fsck_apfs is being run, nor of any results of that. This is almost unnecessary anyway: compare the time taken for Safe Boot in Mojave with that in Catalina, particularly if you have any snapshots which need to be checked. Safe Booting in Catalina – on my system at least – takes little longer than a regular startup. If you experience any different, please let me know.
One major task which appears in Safe Boots is a thorough rebuild of OpenDirectory databases. This is heralded by the log entry:
6.504643 opendirectoryd Safe boot is enabled
Every startup is followed by a quick clean-up of temporary files, which is performed by the Directory Helper:
6.516512 dirhelper Cleaning T/ older than 3 days Hype 3 mac app.
Another new and important service which takes note of the Safe Boot is Endpoint Security:
6.517115 endpointsecurityd Safe Boot mode detected As this subsystem is so new, and little-used still, the implications of this aren’t clear yet.
Shortly after that, the OpenDirectory rebuild swings into action, with a great many log entries such as
6.816245 opendirectoryd PlistFile Database '/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sqlindex' passed integrity check repeated many times, progressing through sharepoints, config and groups.
Many of the caches which are cleared as user-specific, so don’t appear until after login. That process is marked by distinctive entries such as
loginwindow main | Login Window Application Started
Unfortunately, once user processes start up, finding anything among them to indicate specific caches being cleared is like looking for a needle in a haystack. When I have plenty of time (!), and fancy browsing the 58 MB of log entries again, I may revisit this. But I have no reason to doubt Apple’s claim that various user caches are cleared.
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To return to Apple’s original list of what happens in Safe Mode, as far as Catalina goes:
Mac Open App In Safe Mode On Mac
What Is Safe Mode On A MacAppendix: List of Kernel Extensions Which Aren’t Loaded in Safe Mode (10.15, 10.15.1)Mac Open In Safe Mode
AGDCPluginDisplayMetrics.kext
AppleCameraInterface.kext – this means a built-in camera can’t be used AppleFIVRDriver.kext AppleGFXHDA.kext AppleHDA.kext AppleHDAController.kext AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver.kext AppleHV.kext AppleIntelKBLGraphics.kext AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking.kext ApplePlatformEnabler.kext AppleSMCLMU.kext AppleSSE.kext AppleThunderboltEDMService.kext – these may prevent use of some Thunderbolt devices AppleThunderboltIP.kext AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext AudioAUUC.kext DspFuncLib.kext eficheck.kext – this means that firmware integrity checks aren’t performed on non-T2 models fileutil.kext IOAudioFamily.kext IOAVBFamily.kext IOBluetoothSerialManager.kext IOgPTPPlugin.kext IOHDAFamily.kext IOUserEthernet.kext msdosfs.kext – this makes the Mac unable to access MS-DOS file systems nke.rvi.kext OSvKernDSPLib.kext pmtelemetry.kext vecLib.kext and user-installed kernel extensions. Apple hasn’t yet explained what will happen with loading of its new ‘SEXTs’, but I suspect that they too will be blocked. Comments are closed.
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