If the linked file in the toolbar is then removed, the system will not be able to locate it and will show a question mark in the toolbar in place of the file's icon. While the Dock is the recommended location for storing links to common applications, some applications (such as those that will open the current Finder folder in the Terminal) can be useful to have in the Finder toolbar and can be put there by simply dragging the icon to the toolbar. While you can customize the toolbar to rearrange items and add some optional buttons, you can also add custom links to documents, folders, and even applications. To prevent this, go to the Startup Disk system preferences and select the default boot drive.įinder Toolbar You can link to files and folders in the Finder toolbar, but if they are removed then a question mark will show in their place when the Finder is relaunched.Īnother source of question marks in OS X is the toolbar at the top of each Finder window. This is because even though there is a valid boot partition for the system to use, it is not set as the default boot drive, so the system has to poll each drive until it finds the boot volume.

If there are no boot volumes found, the system will continue to show the question mark however, sometimes people may see the question mark only briefly before the system boots normally. When the system is in the process of looking for a boot volume, it will display a blinking question mark to indicate that a boot volume has not yet been found. When OS X boots, it will by default use the boot volume that is set in the PRAM, but if that setting is not valid or nonexistent, then the system will poll each drive for a suitable boot environment and attempt to boot from the first one found. Usually these indicate an instance in which the system cannot locate a specified file, location, or other resource and in its confusion shows a question mark. Of course there should definitely be one somewhere on your keyboard (likely next to the right Shift key), but there are other instances where question marks may appear in the system where there shouldn't be one.

In several situations when running OS X you may encounter question marks.

Mac startup question mark