Why do I get a blinking folder with a question mark after remote locking my Macbook?

Hi,
I wanted to try the remote lock feature of iCloud.
I remotely locked my 17 inch Mid 2009 MacBook Pro. I received the confirmation email stating that the machine had indeed been locked.
When I went to the machine to unlock it, I was surprised to see a grey screen with a blinking folder. I had expected to see a place for me to enter my PIN. Rebooting the machine revealed the folder again.
What is going on? Did sometihng go wrong resulting in my somehow wiping my hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Here is the email:
Doulos has been locked.
Doulos was locked at 4:40 PM on March 11, 2012 with the following message.
“Remote Locked!”
If you retrieve your Mac, unlock it using the passcode you created to lock your Mac.
iCloud Support | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

Similar Messages

HELP I'm getting a blinking folder with a question mark at start up? Have been trying to fix this for 3 hours and I dont want to lose all my files by resetting it completely!!

I currently have Mavericks but my original OS X disk that I have I'm pretty sure is Mac OS X 10.6.6. I'm not great with computers but am usually able to fix problems I have had with mine in the past. I have reinstalled and reset my computer to factory settings before, but I am locked out of my computer completely & can't get to my files to save them & I really dont want to lose them. I was in Safari earlier opening a file, the page started to not respond & froze up my whole desktop so I did a hard shutdown & restarted my computer. I haven't been able to get back into my account ever since. If my only choice is to lose my files & reinstall everything, I need detailed instructions because I actually attempted to do this at first, out of desperation to fix my computer & the installer was asking me to select what disk I wanted to reinstall lion to yet I dont have a disk for that nor do I know what it exactly is asking of me? Please help

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
a. Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
b. Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
c. Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
d. The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Blinking folder with a question mark at startup.

Dear all.
I am a newby with Macs and I just found an iMac G3 266Mhz. (Why anybody would throw a Mac away is beyond me but anyhow)
When starting up I just get a blinking folder with the question mark.
I can start up with an CD of Mac OS 9.2 but when wanting to install the software I get an error message about my firmware not being up to date etc etc... when going through the things I have to do for an firmware upgrade I get an error message saying disk locked....By browsing through these pages I found that that was most likely due to starting up from the CD.
But now I'm not able to start up from any other folder then the CD.
If I select to start up from the hard disk I just get the folder icon with the question mark again.
Please please please can anyone help me....or I am doomed to using PC´s forever.
Irol

Hi Irol
You're in a sort of catch 22 situation. You have to run the firmware upgrade while running from the HD.
Anyway. Try this
Start up from the CD as you did before then copy the firmware update app onto your hard drive .
While running from the CD open the HD and look for the "System Folder"
What does it look like? Is it a plain folder or is it a folder with the picasso face?
It should have the picasso face.
If it's a plain folder do this.
Open it and locate a file called "System" - it will have the picasso face. Drag the file out of the system folder onto your desktop.
Now close the system folder.
Now with one swift action - drag the picasso file and drop it onto the closed system folder - do it quickly so that the folder doesn't open. Then wait a moment.
The picasso face should appear on the systgem folder. Now try starting the mac normally.
Does it work?
If so, run the firmware updater. There are two versions, one for a tray loader and one for the slot loader. It you get the wrong one it will tell you, It will also tell you if the firmware is up to date.
Anyway, if you can't start the mac other than from the CD it is most likely that there is some corruption on the disk. A good tool to use is Diskwarrior - it's a bit expensive but it's a staple of my toolkit - it's far more efficient than both Norton and Techtool.
Another alternative - but probably more difficult. is to run from an 8.6 or 9.0 CD if you can find one - ebay?
Just to say - the flashing question mark is the system's way of saying "I cannot find a valid start-up folder"
Hopefully one of the above will get you going.
The fact that you can start the mac up from the CD says that the mac itself is OK - I wonder if it was thrown away because the owner couldn't sort it out.

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We're users here and do not speak for "Apple Inc."
Power on the computer and insert the DVD immediately.
Hold down the 'C' key to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
After selecting the appropriate language, if necessary, select Utilities, and Disk Utility.
You'll likely need to partition and format the new drive before it's recognized.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA161/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY .pdf
(Yes, these instructions ARE 7 years old, but the procedure is the same for installing from DVD media.)

MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

Read this article...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

HT1310 when i starst my mac i get a flashing folder with a question mark. i tried rebooting and holding the option button then i get 2 boxes, one with a refresh arrow and one with a forward arrow neither of them seem to do anything. now what

when i starst my mac i get a flashing folder with a question mark. i tried rebooting and holding the option button then i get 2 boxes, one with a refresh arrow and one with a forward arrow neither of them seem to do anything. now what

Here is an article that describes what it is supposed to do:
Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If no Volumes are shown, it is telling you there are no potentailly bootable Volumes attached. That means your boot drive has died or the bootable image on it is unrecognizable.
What Mac Pro ? by year, GHz, number of processors, screen size?
What Mac OS X ?

When I start my Mac air I get a flashing folder with a question mark

I am trying to start my Mac air and I get a flashing folder with a question mark. When I turn the power of it shuts down but wen starting it comes back

Just being clear about your situation. When you hold down Option during boot it does not show a system volume or a recovery volume from which to boot. At that point if you select a network boot and you do not see a spinning globe that persists there a good while as it loads the recovery partition over the network. True?
A couple of more thinks to try:
Disconnect all of your external devices.
Reset PRAM
Boot with the option key again.
Standard things to try (which is sounds like you already have attempted) A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

Blinking folder with a question mark

I just bought a 2008 MacBook and all as sudden it starts showing a blinking folder with a question mark in it. Anyway to fix this?

The question mark on a blinking folder is to tell you there is no Operating System on the computer. Since this is a 2008 MB it can run Snow Leopard (operating system 10.6). You can buy a copy here:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
If the MB can be upgraded further you can buy more recent OS from the App Store.

MacBook Pro gets a flashing folder with a question mark

I start up my computer and I get this flashing folder with a question mark. I looked up on here how to fix it but I get lost when I get to the disk utility part. All that shows up is something called disk0 and below it it says Mac OS X Base System. I click on it but the repair disk button is greyed out. What do I do? Please help!

The MBP cannot find the OSX. It may be a HDD or HDD connection problem.
Start your MBP with the OPTION key down. Select the recovery partition. From the 4 option menu select Disk Utility.
Select Disk Utility>First Aid and run Verify and Repair.
If successful, you should be back in business. If not, the HDD may be faulty.
Ciao.

My Intel iMac only shows a blinking folder with a question mark when powering it up. What can I do besides running the hardware test of the original installer disc.

My Intel iMac only shows a blinking folder with a question mark when powered up.
I did run the hardware test of the original installer disc and no trouble was found and I am out of options. Does anybody have any advice what to do next

If the drive shows errors then repair, if after the 3rd pass of Repair Disk in Disk Utility it still shows errors it's telling you it's time to be replaced. Take it to your local Apple Store or AASP for repair, when it comes back use your backup (either Time Machine or bootable clone) to restore so you can pick up where you left off.

When i boot i get a flashing folder with a question mark. disk utility doesnt work or read my harddrives to boot with. i installed a new SSD and its not reading that either. i have a macbook pro 2011, any help?

So I came to this problem a while ago. M ycomputer basically froze so I was forced to shut down by holding the button down. When I started it up I got the flashing folder with a question mark. I started it up holding down the command and r keys which brought me to disk utility. Although my computer doesn't read that I have a hard drive to start it up. When I click on the disk utility app, I cannot verify or repair anything either. The buttons won't allow me to click on them. It also shows "Mac OSX Base System" which shows I have files and what not saved. I had been told that I need a new hard drive so I bought and manually installed a OWC SSD 240GB drive and when i booted the computer up it booted up yo the operating system fine with all my files and what not on there. After about twenty minutes, it froze again. I forced a shut down, restarted and the same thing happened. I am not able to choose my SSD to boot up, although thats probably because it doesn't have an operating system installed on it??
i have a Macbook Pro 13" 2011
any help would be great, I'm overall confused.

ryansaint11,
this isn’t Apple support; this is a user-to-user forum. We’re just fellow users of Apple products here.
If you want to boot from your SSD, then you should put the SSD where your HDD currently is, and put the HDD into the optical bay. (That setup will also get you the best performance.) At the moment, you’re still booting from your HDD. Note that you will need to format your SSD in Disk Utility [with the “Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)” format] so that you can install OS X onto it.
Since you have an Early 2011 model, it might or might not have originally come with grey installation DVDs. You will be able to find out whether it did or not by trying to use OS X Internet Recovery to install OS X onto your SSD. If it does not work, or if the installed OS turns out to be Snow Leopard, then it will have originally come with the DVDs, and you should purchase a replacement pair of DVDs from Apple or iFixit; those discs will have your MacBook Pro’s Apple Hardware Test and its iLife apps. If the installed OS turns out to be Lion, then it will not originally have come with the grey installation DVDs, and your Apple Hardware Test will be installed along with Lion, and your iLife apps will be downloadable from the Mac App Store.

Instead of an apple, I get a file folder with a question mark!

Hi. I turned on my MacBook today, and instead of the apple popping on to the screen after a few seconds, I got something that looks like a file folder with a question mark in the middle of it. Then it starts to flash! Turned it off with the power button, tried again a few times...same result. Anyone know what to do? Thanks

If the computer starts up after a brief delay, you probably just need to reselect your startup volume. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences. Click Startup Disk and select the the desired startup volume.
If your computer does not start up, try repairing your startup disk and reselecting your Mac OS X startup volume. Click the link below for the webpage with detailed instructions.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

I have a problem with lion. My MacBook pro froze and now I get a gray folder with a question mark.

I recently upgraded to lion but my screen just froze. I had to shut it down by holding the power button down. Every time I tried to start it again I got a grey folder with a question mark and couldn't do a thing. I' ve been told to restore snow leopard but I dont want to loose my files or email. What can I do?

Boot from your recovery partition. Check and if necessary repair your startup volume with Disk Utility. You may need to reinstall Lion.
OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery

Getting a flashing folder with a question mark when starting Imac.

I got this flashing folder with a question mark on it when starting my Imac this morning. Im running on Osx 10.6. I put it in target disc mode and connected it to my macbook pro. I opened the disc utility app on the macbook and found my imac. I "verified" it and found an error. When I clicked "repair" the disc utility app froze and crashed. When I opened it again my Imac didn't show up. I've restarted both computers several times with no luck. Whats my next step?

Hi.
Try restarting your iMac while holding down the option (alt) key until the spinng gear appears. You should momentarily be presented with a list of startup drives to select.
Choose Macintosh HD (your normal startup disk drive) and click the right-arrow.
When your iMac boots, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and again select your normal startup disk. Then click Restart.
I hope this is helpful.
EDIT - disconnect the machines from each other first.

MacBook Air won't boot up and all I get is a folder with a question mark

My 2012 MacBook Air running mountain lion won't boot up, all I get is a grey screen and then a folder icon with a question mark in it. What can I do?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It's possible that your hard drive has stopped working. Do you remember what OS X version you were using?
If your Mac came with DVDs, insert the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and hold the C key while your Mac is starting to start from the DVD. Then, choose your language, and go to the Utilities menu (on the menu bar) > Disk Utility. After that, choose "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair the drive. If it couldn't be repaired, you need a new hard drive, and you can do it yourself if you want. If you don't want, take the Mac to an Apple Store or reseller.
If your Mac didn't come with DVDs, follow the same steps but holding Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your computer is starting

Why do I get a blinking folder with a question mark after remote locking my Macbook?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for