M1 recovery not showing disk or users

Question

When I go into recovery mode by holding the power button, I get into the normal menu. I then see the options symbol and a loading sign. My disk never shows up here even after an extended period of loading time. When I go into the options, it says "examining volumes" before it just stops with a message "There are no users to recover". I then tried to enter the Startup Disk utility. Again, it never stops loading and never finds a system I want to use to start up my computer. I haven't ever done anything to my mac, that could be considered unusual. I would appreciate any help.

Answer 1

The first thing I would do is power off and make a list of your priority files and apps. If there’s nothing critical, jump to the erase install at the bottom. If not, you can try and repair things with two safe steps.

1. When was the last backup and do you need to pause any “fixes” that might prevent you from getting pictures and data back.
2. Run a second boot to Internet Recovery and Repair the Disk
3. Run an OS reinstall on top of your existing users / data - do not erase the disk

The second two steps are designed to not erase any data and we do them all the time to fix minor issues when people delete parts of the OS or have an issue starting up, but you are one click away from an option to delete all the data and you might get asked to erase a disk in the steps 2-3 and if you do, you will have to pay a lot more to restore the files if you decide you need data recovery.

If you just want to wipe the mac and start over with a clean install - that’s the fastest way to get back to a working system.

• https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/erase-and-reinstall-macos-mh27903/mac