Trying to understand Safe Mode

[DanL]

I'm using Safe Mode for the first time (Monterey, M1), and there is a peculiarity. I boot in Safe Mode and, before I log in, I see the red lettered "Safe Boot" indicator at upper right. So yep, I'm in Safe Mode! But then I log in, as either a user or Administrator, and that indicator disappears. Duh, what happened to Safe Mode? Am I still in it? Once I log in, no one is telling me I'm still in Safe Mode.

 

[TonyAguila]

I'm using Safe Mode for the first time (Monterey, M1), and there is a peculiarity. I boot in Safe Mode and, before I log in, I see the red lettered "Safe Boot" indicator at upper right. So yep, I'm in Safe Mode! But then I log in, as either a user or Administrator, and that indicator disappears. Duh, what happened to Safe Mode? Am I still in it? Once I log in, no one is telling me I'm still in Safe Mode.

You will remain in Safe Mode. The only way to exit is by shutting down or rebooting.

 

[DanL]

So I figured, but, um, why does the red text indicator, telling you that you're in Safe Mode, go away? Why put it there in the first place if it isn't going to serve as a real indicator? Oh, you're still in Safe Mode, but we're not going to let you know you are!

 

[TonyAguila]

So I figured, but, um, why does the red text indicator, telling you that you're in Safe Mode, go away? Why put it there in the first place if it isn't going to serve as a real indicator? Oh, you're still in Safe Mode, but we're not going to let you know you are!

You are correct, but Safe Mode is normally invoked for troubleshooting purposes only, so you need to be aware at this time that it is a temporary state. You can tell that a lot of extensions are not running by trying to run the associated apps that rely on these extensions. Or just look at your menu bar to find missing items.

Safe Mode mainly starts the Mac with the bare minimum extensions. Hopefully it will help in discovering errant extensions by their absence. It also performs a fsck check of your startup disk, and clears outdated system caches. You can compare free space on your drive before and after Safe Mode to check if it helped in recovering disk space.

Whenever I sense “weird” behavior in the system, Safe Boot/Mode is usually my first recourse.

 

[DanL]

Yes, thank you, I understand the purpose of Safe Mode, but speaking of weird behavior, the way it is implemented, with regard to the notification, is certainly a bit weird.