Recovery Mode not working on 2021 14" MBP

[Calaveras]

Picked up one of the new 2021 M1Pro 14" MacBook Pro's about a month ago.
Stock 16GB/512GB model. Space grey. Looks lovely.
It's been mostly smooth sailing. Much faster than my previous MacBook Pro.
Really appreciate the SD card slot and HDMI port return.
Screen looks great, speakers sound better than you would expect etc.
However at the end of the day when I'm watching Apple TV or Disney+ I am getting video freezes, during which the sound continues but video is stuck. The computer remains unresponsive for the duration of the freeze.

Attempted to boot to recovery but I get nothing.

Tried the old way, command R, but nothing. I just end up at the regular login screen.

Tried the new way, holding down power/touch ID button until it shows up.
Again nothing.

It just boots, the progress bar moves a centimeter, then it notices I'm holding down the power button and shuts itself down.
Seems like whomever came up with this new way of getting to recovery mode did not notify all teams on the 14" MBP project?
I've since updated from 12.0.1 to 12.1 so I am hoping this cures the freezes.
However, after the update I checked to see if I could get to recovery with either method and no change.
Being a former support desk guy and IT manager I am anxious about not having access to recovery mode!

 

[satcomer]

Did you follow the Apple Support Document Use MacOS Recovery on Mac with Apple Silicon?

 

[Calaveras]

Did you follow the Apple Support Document Use MacOS Recovery on Mac with Apple Silicon?

yeah that is not working
it never gets up the gumption to get past
'Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.'
It just gets one smidge of progress bar into starting up, notices I have the power button held down, then shuts back down. The same way it would on any Intel based MBP, or any Intel based computer really. It's standard behavior for computers to shut the heck down and not display any dialogues if you hold the power button down.
Pretty annoying.

 

[mr_roboto]

The Apple documentation doesn't make some things perfectly clear, IMO, and it can be a little fiddly. Maybe one of these things is tripping you up...

1. Their first step is to shut your Mac off. They state "A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off." But I think a 14" or 16" MBP can look like this when it's not truly off yet, thanks to the mini-LED local dimming.

So, you might want to wait 30 seconds or a minute after the thing looks off to be sure.

2. When you turn it back on, you must do so with one continuous press of the TouchID button until "Loading startup options" appears. You cannot initiate powerup by touching any other keyboard button or opening the lid; if you do the Touch ID button assumes its normal functionality (which includes long press = forced shutdown).

Another thing: There are actually two copies of RecoveryOS on every Apple Silicon Mac. The primary one is "One True Recovery" or 1TR, the secondary is the fallback Recovery. When you install a macOS update, it also updates the fallback Recovery to the same macOS version. It then swaps the roles of the fallback and 1TR Recovery installations. This reduces the risk that a failure during an update leaves you with no functioning Recovery OS - the "new" fallback Recovery might be one version behind, but it should not have changed and ought to still work.

To get into the fallback Recovery, you use almost the same procedure as 1TR. The only change is that you start powerup with a very short press of the TouchID button, then quickly press it again and hold until "Loading startup options".

 

[Fishrrman]

Thanks for the info in reply 4, roboto.
Useful to know.

 

[Calaveras]

well it's working now.
Not sure if 12.1 fixed it or what?
Still not sold on this silly long power button press.
Too dang fiddly.
Was there a codebase problem that blocked them from the traditional Command+R?