Mac os freeze what to do

How to stop your Mac from freezing

Tired of your Mac freezing? Try these tips to fix your Mac

There’s nothing more frustrating than using your Mac computer when it suddenly starts slowing down or freezing. This is especially true if you’re in the middle of a project and have to restart your PC, causing you to lose all your progress. It may seem like it takes forever to complete a task.

Depending on what’s causing your computer to freeze, we’ve listed a few solutions and included in-depth steps to help you get to the bottom of the issue.

Force quit unresponsive apps

The first thing to try if your Mac is unresponsive is checking if an app has frozen, as sometimes this can also lock up your Mac. If an app has frozen and quitting it won’t work, Ctrl+click its icon in the Dock, then hover the pointer over the Quit button. Hold Option (labeled as Alt on some Mac keyboards) and Quit becomes Force Quit; click this.

Alternatively, try pressing Opt+Cmd+Esc to open the Force Quit window. Select the app you want to close, then click Force Quit (or Relaunch if Finder has frozen), then click Force Quit on the confirmation dialog box.

If your Mac is entirely locked up and the above steps won’t work, press Ctrl+Opt+Cmd and the power button at the same time; this will reboot your Mac.

Reset the System Management Controller

The System Memory Controller (SMC) takes care of all sorts of things behind the scenes in your Mac, from battery management to keyboard backlighting. If your Mac keeps freezing, it could be that the SMC needs to be reset.

What you do depends on whether your Mac has a T2 Security Chip. If you’re using a MacBook that doesn’t (meaning you don’t have at least a 2016 or newer MacBook Pro), shut it down, then press Shift+Ctrl+Opt and the power button at the same time. Hold all these keys for 10 seconds, then let go. Now press the power button to switch on your Mac. If you’re using a Mac desktop without a T2 chip (such as an iMac), switch it off, unplug the power cord and wait 15 seconds, plug it back in, then turn on your Mac.

If your Mac has a T2 chip, the process is different. For both MacBooks and desktop Macs, turn off the device, then press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. Let go and wait a few seconds, then press it again to turn on the Mac.

If you’re using an older MacBook with a removable battery, you’ll need to follow the steps on Apple’s website.

Reset PRAM/NVRAM

Your Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM are small sections of memory that store certain settings that need to be accessed quickly by the computer. If your Mac is freezing, it could be that there’s an error with either the PRAM or NVRAM.

Resetting them could help, and the process is the same for both. First, shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press Opt+Cmd+P+R. Hold these keys for 20 seconds; your Mac may restart during this time, but keep holding them for the 20-second duration.

If your Mac normally plays a startup sound when you turn it on, you can release the keys when this plays. If your Mac has a T2 Security Chip, you can release them once the Apple logo has appeared and disappeared a second time.

Note that if you have a firmware password set, you’ll need to turn it off before you can reset the PRAM and NVRAM. Apple has instructions on how to turn off the firmware password on its website.

Boot up in safe mode

Loading your Mac in safe mode could fix problems associated with freezes or may help you identify what’s causing the issue in the first place. Safe mode verifies the integrity of your startup disk and disables certain apps and processes from running.

To start in safe mode, shut down your Mac, then turn it back on and immediately press and hold the Shift key. Release the Shift key when you see the login window. If you’ve encrypted your startup disk with FileVault, you may have to log in twice — once to unlock the startup disk, and the second time to log in to Finder.

Now try rebooting your Mac using the normal startup procedure. If you’re able to use your Mac without it freezing, then safe mode may have fixed the issue. If the freezing persists when you use your Mac outside of safe mode, you may have an issue with login items (apps that load when you first log in), Wi-Fi networking or an external device, as all these are disabled or limited by safe mode.

Apple’s support page has more information on safe mode, which may help.

Run the Apple Diagnostic Test (or Apple Hardware Test on older Macs)

If the freezing continues and you think it could be caused by a hardware issue, run the Apple Diagnostic Test. First, disconnect any external devices except the keyboard, mouse, display, Ethernet connection (if you’re using one), and the power cord. Make sure your Mac is on a solid, flat surface and is well-ventilated, then shut it down.

Turn your Mac back on, then immediately press and hold the D key. Keep holding it until a screen appears asking you to select your language. Choose your language, then wait while the diagnostic test is run. This should only take a couple of minutes.

If the test finds any issues, it’ll list them along with potential solutions. It also gives you reference codes for any detected problems, plus ways to contact Apple so it can fix the problem.

If your Mac was released before June 2013, you should use the Apple Hardware Test instead.

Take your Mac to an Apple Store

If your Mac continues to freeze up and you’ve tried every trick in the book, you might need to get the professionals involved. Put simply, qualified technicians have the training required to properly diagnose and treat Mac ailments that you might not have experience with.

Head to locate.apple.com and follow the on-screen instructions to find the nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

If you’d prefer not to go directly to Apple, find a third-party repair shop that has experience repairing Macs. However, be sure that the shop is an Apple Authorized Service Provider, which means that Apple manufacturers approve both the authenticity of replacement parts and their technicians’ expertise.

Our article on the best keyboard shortcuts for Mac has even more Mac tips on offer.

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How to Unfreeze a Mac & Fix Frozen Mac Apps

Before we start

Having spent some years coding applications for macOS we’ve created a tool that everybody can use. The all-round problem fixer for Mac.

So here’s a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.

Features described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.

Imagine this: you’re working happily on your Mac when the dreaded beach ball of death appears. A program stops responding or worse, the macOS itself refuses to do anything but stare at you, blankly. You have a frozen Mac app or a macOS freeze. Someone calculated that slow computers cost us on average 5.5 working days a year. So we can’t simply ignore it when a Mac freezes or when a macOS app stops responding.

We’ll go over frozen apps first, so if your whole Mac freezes, you can jump to the part about fixing a frozen Mac.

Fixing a frozen app: Why Mac OS apps freeze

There can be a few reasons why apps freeze on Mac. First, sometimes an app freezes on its own, and sometimes it takes down the whole Mac with it. Here’s what could be happening:

Apps freeze in the background.

This could mean there are some apps running that you didn’t open, they opened themselves. Probably, they’re featured in your startup items, so they automatically launch when you start your Mac. If this happens repeatedly, you need to check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup.

Processes freeze in the background.

This one is different from apps. One app may be running multiple processes, also system processes can be running on their own.

Too many apps and processes running.

Same logic as with the previous issue. But the question here is how many is too many? There is no definite answer to this, it very much depends on the hardware capacity of your Mac. You can read how to check it and fix it below.

Mac system is too cluttered with caches to run even simple tasks.

As you can see from this screenshot, old cache files are causing memory overload. The fix is to clear the cache, as the app from this example tells you to do.

The easiest way to get rid of application cache at once is to use an app like CleanMyMac X for the job. Run a scan to find and remove the stuff you don’t need, and there’s a high change your apps will stop freezing after that.

What to do if an app freezes on your Mac

A frozen app becomes unresponsive and brings your work to a halt. In the worst case scenario, it can lead to lost work or a corrupted file. Fortunately, there are several options to try, and most are quite simple. Here’s what you can do when a program freezes on your Mac. First, you need to quit it. Then, if the app keeps freezing when you launch it, try the next options.

How to quit a frozen or unresponsive program

Quitting and then re-starting an app is a good way for Mac OS to handle a crash. You can do this from the macOS Dock or from the Force Quit window. To force-quit an app from the OS Dock, follow these simple steps:

1. Click anywhere outside of the program
2. Right-click (or Control-click) on the frozen app’s icon in the Dock. A menu appears.
3. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard so that Quit in that menu changes to Force Quit.
4. Select Force Quit.

That’s it. The app is instantly closed. Re-launch it and try again. If you prefer to work with the Dock hidden — or if the Dock itself is unresponsive — you can simply bring up the Force Quit dialog box to perform the same task.
Here’s how:

1. On your Mac’s keyboard, hit the Option, Command and Escape keys simultaneously (Alt + Command + Esc).
2. The Force Quit dialog box appears with a list of running programs.
3. Select the frozen app and then click Force Quit.
4. The software will stop running and you’re free to re-launch it at this point.

If you’re using a maintenance utility like CleanMyMac X, it has freezes covered. When CleanMyMac spots an unresponsive app, a notification window with a Quit button pops up, so you could force-quit the app without rummaging around in its menu.

CleanMyMac keeps an eye on other performance issues, too, so if you’d like to get alerts like this one when anything goes wrong, download the edition of CleanMyMac X and give it a try.

Install the app and click on the Optimization tab.
You’ll find the tool that finds Heavy Memory consumers on your Mac.

How to fix Mac apps that keep freezing

First, check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup.
To do it go to Settings > Users and Groups > Login items.
Uncheck anything you think might be causing trouble. In fact, just to be sure, uncheck every app and restart your Mac.

Now, find out which process or program is causing the problem. How to see what programs are running on Mac in general? You need launch Activity monitor.

How to find Activity Monitor on Mac: You can do it via the Spotlight Search or just open Launchpad and type it in.
How to open Activity Monitor in Finder: launch it from Applications > Utilities folder > Activity Monitor.

When it opens, you’ll probably see hundreds of processes in each tab, but the ones you need now are CPU and Memory tabs. Click on the % CPU sign to sort processes by their influence on your Mac’s work. The heaviest ones will show up on the top. They could be your main issue, but don’t rush to deal with them. Some, like kernel, are important system processes and you shouldn’t mess with them.

How to kill a process on Mac OS

However, sometimes your problem does lie within a specific process, you can force quit it (Apple doesn’t call it «to kill a process on Mac», they make it sound fancy). But we’re not at Apple HQ, so here’s how to kill a Mac OS process:

1. Open Activity Monitor.
2. You see a list of processes. You can sort them by clicking on %CPU or % Memory in relevant tabs.
3. Find the process you want to kill and choose it.
4. Click on the octagon with an X sign.
5. Done.

Fixing a frozen Mac: Why your Mac freezes

Occasionally the problem isn’t with the Mac app, but with the Mac OS itself. If you’re experiencing troubles regularly, it’s time to ask why your Mac keeps freezing. There are several possible reasons, so let’s start with the simplest potential solution.

First, the file you were working with at the time of the freeze may be the issue. To help determine if this is true, try opening a different file with that app and work with it for a while. If it behaves normally, quit and then go back to the file you were working with at the time of the crash. If the errant behavior persists, you may have found your problem. Salvage what you can into a new file.

Make sure that your software and OS X are up-to-date. This is easy to do with software purchased from the Mac App Store. The same goes for OS X. Launch the Mac App Store on your Mac, and you’ll see the list of pending updates, including any for the OS X itself. For third-party software purchased outside of the App Store, visit the manufacturer’s website.

What to do if macOS freezes

If you cannot force-quit a program, or if the Mac OS is completely unresponsive, it’s time for the most obvious action — a reboot.
You can bring up the Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog box instantly by hitting Control plus the Power button. Option four, Shut Down, is selected by default.
Alternatively, you can press and hold the Power button for 1.5-2 seconds to bring up the same dialog box. If things aren’t hopelessly messed up, you’ll get a chance to save your work before your Mac shuts down. If that still doesn’t work, a more drastic option is available.

How to force reboot a frozen Mac

Press Command, Control and Power to restart your Mac immediately. Note that you won’t have the option of saving anything in this scenario, but it will definitely reboot your icy Mac.

Once your Mac has restarted, you might find that the hard restart has corrupted the file you were working on. Salvage what you can from it and create a new file.

How to fix a frozen Mac with CleanMyMac

After the reboot, ensure that your Mac has enough free hard drive space for the OS X, and enough free RAM to do what you want. CleanMyMac X can help you here, too. It removes all the useless files that take up space on your hard drive: app leftovers, mail attachments, cache files, and so on. That way, you can free up additional disk space on Mac without deleting any of your own files. Plus, CleanMyMac can free up RAM, which will unfreeze an app that is stuck.

Finally, if system cleanup also fails to fix the problem, you can try to run a clean install of your Mac OS. Just follow the instructions:
How to clean install macOS Big Sur

Note: If you don’t know which system your Mac runs, click the apple icon in the top left corner and choose About this Mac. You’ll see the name on the popup window.

That’s it, we hope this guide has helped you fix a frozen Mac. Remember, with day-to-day maintenance, your Mac can offer years of reliable work. On the rare occasion of a frozen program or even frozen OS X, these tips will help get you working and productive again. And software like CleanMyMac X can do some of the monitoring and maintenance for you, so you can focus on what needs to be done.

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