I was involved in a serious accident which I survived but my old M1 Macbook Air didn't. I couldn't afford a new one so I turned to the Facebook Marketplace and found an iCloud Activation locked 2020 M1 Macbook Air exactly like mine for $100 and couldn't resist not buying it. The guy selling it didn't look like he even knew what a Macbook is so I figured it was stolen. I was able to harvest my HD and Touch ID from the old one and did the whole switcheroo and ended up with an almost brand new Macbook after doing a Time Machine restore with no issues and used it for 1 year. The only thing I wasn't able to do was enter recovery mode. For some reason whenever I hold the power/Touch ID button for longer than 2 seconds the Macbook would immediately power off no matter how many times I tried. I eventually gave up troubleshooting the thing because not being able to enter recovery mode was something I could live with given all that's happened. 2 weeks ago my Touch ID stopped working and I don't know if it was long overdue or because I'm a slob and eat and smoke over the keyboard. Even my password wouldn't get accepted so I needed to reinstall MacOS. I was able to erase my Mac (from Disk Utility) and reinstall after pivoting from the Apple ID reset and then restored from an earlier back and I'm back to normal running Mac OS 15.1 Beta 2 but without a functioning Touch ID. I hate being back in this scenario but I now realize the importance of being able to boot into recovery however I still can't afford a new laptop and trying to fix the Touch ID button costs $120 which I'm trying to avoid-- plus I don't even know if that would fix the problem, even though the fingerprint reading function returns. I tried running a Python script from my Documents directory that forced boot-args on the nvram thinking maybe that would get me into recovery. It worked by shutting down the Macbook but then after restart it booted straight into MacOS. Can someone please give me an expert's opinion? Is this the work of the SIP after I swapped the components or is it because of a faulty power button? My ideal scenario is to be able to run a script but I don't know how feasible that is, otherwise, my next option is to replace the TouchID system but even with this there are doubts. Appreciate any help.

Hello, My system is a 2020 M1 Macbook Air running MacOS 15 Beta 7 Without going into too much details, I ran "sudo chown -R user1 /" and allowed it to run through-- some files and folders didnt get affected due to permissions but for the files that got their permissions changed--I cant do basic things when logged in as user2 or the root user. For example: sudo command with anything as the shell would hang, or another thing is the system would get stuck at almost half way into verifying whatever .dmg or .pkg I would be trying to install. A Get Info look at /usr/bin/sudo shows that the admin and everyone groups have no access so I think thats why I couldnt use sudo. What options besides booting into recovery to reinstall do I have to remedy this? Because due to a faulty power button, the Macbook shuts down 5 seconds into the 10 required holding the button in order to get the startup options screen. Is there any way I can repair the permissions? I have a Time Machine backup from a date before when I ran this command if restoring is the only thing that will work. Also worth mentioning is that I have Tinkertool System, Onyx, and CleanMyMac installed just incase I would need a 3rd party tool to fix this. Cheers,

Let me start by apologizing for the long read.. I am not an Apple Developer or Power Mac user per se but I am also not a beginner. I am desperate for a solution because I’ve hit a wall. Im sorry I cant attach a Etrecheck report because it doesn’t support my Mac OS 15 Beta 6 on a M1 Macbook Air. … So once I changed my password ant root’s using the command, but many restarts later I would still use my old password to get in so I ignored. But a week later and after finishing up a Time Machine backup, neither my old or new password would get accepted on screen-lock. I’m not sure if the things I just mentioned are related but its definitely worth mentioning. The reason for my doubt is because I was able to log in to the Web GUI of Webmin remotely using my iPhone and my username and the password I changed the wee earlier; the same one that got me locked out of Mac user accout (I tried both old and new). Activating root from the Webmin panel allowed me to log in to my Macbook as root for the first time and went through the ame process as if it was a fresh install. I coulnt understand what was going on at this point Why did TouchID and passwordA fail only a few days later when I decided to do this ***** move? Why only after I finished backing up? I waited for the account locked timer to finish a few times but it would be in vain because it would just restart the the temporary lock each time the timer hits 0 or when I restart.cEven when I tried to change my account password from the root account GUI or terminal, it would accept the root password I enter but nothing happens…What’s even weirder is that MacOS would not accept that password I always use on the occasion of adding a new user. Any admin task is ok except for when I try to add a new user!!! WHAT THE HELL?!?! Regardless of what the causes for this are, the symptoms and how each one contradicts the other are very weird and illogical, at least for me. Finally, and I regret to say, that booting into recovery isn’t an option because every time I try holding the power button maybe a second or two after the chime sounds and the ztApple logo appears. I started experiencing this symptom around 2 years and I scoured the internet for a solution or any other way I could get into recovery but it seemed like I was the only one on earth to experience this problem. The local Apple repair wanted $100 just for opening up the laptop and typing up a report, so I couldn’t justify paying that amount for something I didn’t exactly need at that time and was able to live my life without needing to get into recover mode which I still hope would be the case now… and that is why I am being this details because every time I try to search for my problem I find that booting into recovery mode is always the recommended step to diagnose my password/account lock password. Some more notes in case it would help anyone identify the problem I am facing which I hope I didn’t make worse by being in the root account all this time which at the time of sending this post is almost 16 hours. When I logged into root, I went through all the prompts you would get when starting an account for the first time but skipped everything including setting up TouchID and my Apple ID. However, I did later log in to my Apple ID in haste and got the message on my iPhone that a new device was being set up, but after looking into it, it seemed like nothing changed from my device list. It hasn't been 24 hours logged in as root and besides all the weird stuff I', experiencing, Seqouia ihas become generally sluggish-- it hangs when I'm using everyday stuff like TextEdit, or when I try to go to the Advanced tab in Finder. The most unusual thing which I've already mentioned earlier is the password I have set for roo (System Administrator at the prompt) not getting accepted by the system when I try to add a new user when in all other scenarios that require System Administrator privileges. I hope someone from the community can help me out, and once again I do apologize for the long read, but my intention was only to minimize the need for back and forth like most otherone-linee reports spanning several pages. I am quite embarrassed by this because I don’t know what I was thinking when I tried changing my account password like that from the terminal, but then again I am only 90% sure that was the cause, as for the other 10% … it's a total mystery!! Thank you.