Practice Test GeeksACMT - Apple Certified Macintosh Technician Practice Test
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macOS Troubleshooting Flashcards

6 cards from real ACMT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

Read the first 6 macOS Troubleshooting flashcards as text

  1. A customer's Mac gets stuck on the gray loading bar during startup. Which startup mode should the technician try first?

    Answer: Safe Mode

    Safe Mode (holding Shift at startup) disables third-party extensions and performs a directory check, making it the first troubleshooting step for startup hang issues.

  2. Which command in macOS Terminal is used to repair disk permissions on an HFS+ volume in Recovery Mode?

    Answer: fsck -fy /dev/disk0

    The command 'fsck -fy /dev/disk0' (with the correct disk identifier) is used in single-user or Recovery Mode to check and repair the file system.

  3. What does the 'Prohibitory Symbol' (circle with a slash) at startup indicate on a Mac?

    Answer: macOS cannot find a valid, compatible system folder to boot from

    The prohibitory symbol means the Mac found a startup disk but cannot use it, usually because macOS is missing, corrupt, or incompatible with the hardware.

  4. How does a technician boot a Mac to macOS Recovery on an Apple Silicon Mac?

    Answer: Hold the power button until 'Loading startup options' appears

    On Apple Silicon Macs, holding the power button until 'Loading startup options' appears is the correct way to enter recoveryOS.

  5. A customer reports that their Mac keeps crashing with a kernel panic. Where should the technician look for clues about the cause?

    Answer: Console app > Crash Reports / System Diagnostics

    The Console app's Crash Reports and System Diagnostics sections contain kernel panic logs (panic.ips files) that identify the crashing process or driver.

  6. Which macOS feature must be disabled before a technician can reinstall macOS on an Apple Silicon Mac that is being sent to Apple depot repair?

    Answer: Activation Lock

    Activation Lock, tied to the user's Apple ID, must be disabled before sending an Apple Silicon Mac for depot repair to allow Apple to perform system-level operations.