The case of a Macbook freezing rarely happens. When it happens, you may not be able to move the mouse and the keyboard will not work at this time. Below are some ways to fix problems when your Macbook freezes.
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How to check the cause of Macbook freezing
You should investigate the cause of the accident. If you experience frequent freezing, check the following:
- Check if you have enough free hard drive space in macOS.
- Make sure the macOS operating system is up to date. Go to System Preferences > Software Update or, for older versions of macOS, open the Mac App Store and check for updates there.
- You should also check for updates to your apps in the Mac App Store. Manually update apps installed outside of the App Store. Most apps have a ‘Check for updates’ feature.
- If you experience frequent crashes and crashes, you should update your software and then disconnect all your peripherals. Re-attach them one by one to see if one of them is causing the problem.
- Disable plug-ins. If you use apps with plugins, you should disable (or remove) them to see if they cause problems.
- Use Secure Boot by holding down the Shift key while starting your Mac. This launches macOS without any additional processes and runs cleanup scripts. Start your Mac in Safe Mode.
- Use Disk Utility’s features to clear any problems with your hard drive.
- Run the Apple Hardware checker. This is a special utility from the Apple Support website that helps detect problems on your Mac.
If you think the cause of the problem is a problematic app, we recommend running a few checks to make sure this isn’t an issue that will recur.
Restart the application.
If you see the option to send a report to Apple or the developer, do so. macOS sends a crash report to Apple whenever an app crashes. Apple uses this data to manage the development of the macOS operating system and provide a more stable operating system in the future.
Open Activity Monitor to monitor what processes are going on while you’re using the app. For example, you might have problems with a Safari window open, or you might notice that your Macbook is using almost all the memory (RAM) it has access to, in which case it could be the cause of the problem.
How to fix a frozen Macbook
Quit frozen applications
Sometimes the main cause of a Macbook freezing is due to the applications running on the machine, in this case sometimes you can use the mouse and keyboard, and you also notice when the application keeps spinning.
There are a few ways to determine if the problem is caused by an app. Quitting and restarting the problematic application is the best way to free up your Mac. You can use one of the options below to close the app (even if you don’t know which option is causing the problem):
Click on another app’s window or the desktop – essentially, move to another area of macOS. Alternatively, press Command-Tab and switch to another application. This will allow you to gain control of your Mac if everything before it is unresponsive.
Click the Apple logo in the menu bar and select Force Quit. If an app is not responding, it will be highlighted here and you can click on it and select Force Quit.
Another way to inspect and close an application is to right/control click on that application’s icon in the Dock. You’ll see a Quit option (in which case the app is probably fine) or you’ll see a Force Quit option (suggesting that it’s not). If you want to Force Quit an app that only has a Quit option, press the Option/Alt key when you right-click/Control-hold the app, and Quit will change to Force Quit.
On a Macbook, you can press Cmd + Alt / Option + Esc to exit the application. This will bring up the same Force App menu mentioned above – it won’t just close an app.
In case an application is the cause of the Macbook freezing error (Maybe because the application takes up too much memory space), you will receive a warning notifying you that the application exits suddenly.
Restart the machine
After you have exited the applications and your Macbook is still frozen, you can restart the computer to see if it helps
Click the Apple menu at the top left of the screen, then select Restart and tap
If the mouse cannot move, press the key combination Command – Control – Eject. This operation helps the Macbook restart immediately.
If your keyboard is also not working, then hold down the power button on your MacBook until the Mac turns off. Wait a few seconds then press the power button to turn it back on.
When you restart, you may see the files you were working on appear, but you may see errors. If that’s the case, you should try to recover what you can from it and move any content to a new file (then delete the file).
Restart in Safe Mode.
Press the power button to turn on your computer, then press and hold the Shift key as soon as you hear the welcome chime. Release the Shift key when the Apple logo appears. You’ll see the status bar as your computer starts, and then the words Secure Boot appear in red in the upper-right corner of the OS X login screen. In Safe mode, your Mac goes through a series of steps troubleshooting designed to return the computer to good condition. If Booting into Safe Mode fixes the problem, then next time you just need to boot normally.
Due to virus or malware attacks
This cause is very rare on Macs in general and Macbooks in particular, because Apple’s security technology is considered the best today. However, it is not unheard of, and phishing websites, such as those using the so-called ‘safari-get’ attack, have been known to download malware onto Macs and update them causing them to open a large number of draft emails or iTunes windows, overloading memory and causing the Macbook to freeze. In this case, you need to review and reinstall some security modes as well as install additional anti-virus software.
Above is a way to check the cause as well as some ways to fix the problem of Macbook freezing. Hope this article will be useful to those of you who are in this situation.