M1 MacBook Pro panic attack (ok for now, but just to discuss)

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Panic attack!

My MacBook Pro (M1, late 2021) was acting weird. First Chrome wouldn’t open up web pages. FireFox would though. Then it wouldn’t.

But Mail was working.

I tried finally restarting and it wouldn’t completely restart - it kept getting to the login screen, I would login and then after a bit it would restart over and over.

I thought, “Oh no. Don’t break now. I have a trip in just a week!” I tried calling Apple Support but they don’t open until 9:00 am.

I opened my iPad and confirmed I could do some basic things on it that I haven’t practiced for a while: browsing, editing, Excel, connecting to servers via ssh and ftp. So I thought I could limp by this way, and it also confirmed my Internet was ok.

(Note: I am definitely glad I have this iPad Pro, even though I don’t barely use it, because it confirmed that it’s a great backup device for getting work done. I’m also glad I have everything synced via iCloud and DropBox and OneDrive. And that passwords are available across devices, synced via DropBox using PasswordWallet.).

Then I disconnected everything from my MBP and tried again and it worked!

(By the way, even without my LAN cable I was getting about 700 Mbps wi-fi speed. If my wi-fi speed is so good with my home network why do I need the LAN cable?)

Then I connected my external monitor and it was ok.

Then I connected just my LAN cable but not my two external drives and it was still ok.

I still haven’t tried it with my CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) and Time Machine drive, but will after a morning meeting.

But very relieved. Panic attack over and time for breakfast.

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I still don’t know what went wrong, but after disconnecting everything, restarting, and plugging everything back in it all worked, including the Time Machine and CCC drives. I did have to enter a password to allow the Time Machine drive to connect, which I never had to do before, but Time Machine is working as usual too.

Anyway, I also gave my iPad Pro M1 11-inch a good practical workout for my trip as well.

Weird.

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I was less lucky — on my M1 MacBook Air the mail facilitating program ProtonMail Bridge created a panic from which the computer wouldn’t reboot.

Had to use Disk Utility from Recovery to erase the internal SSD, then reinstall Ventura from Recovery — which when booted wouldn’t find iCloud material such as Safari favourites.

Had a week of the Air being only half there — then suddenly all the iCloud material was present.

Macs have always held mysteries, right from ‘84; but the ‘M’s are more mysterious than ever. Without TidBITS & Howard O’s Eclectic Light I’d be lost!