Fix for Retina MacBook Pro 13″ Freezing Issue Offered by Apple

Jun 6, 2016 - 72 Comments

Freezing MacBook Pro

A number of Mac users have discovered that their computers are freezing at random after updating their computers to OS X 10.11.4 and sometimes with OS X 10.11.5 as well. The problem is rather annoying as the Mac becomes entirely unresponsive and requires a forced reboot intervention, though disabling WebGL in Safari seems to help with Safari usage. Apple has now acknowledged the freezing issue with 13″ Retina MacBook Pro models and has offered a support document aimed at addressing the problem.

The solution to the unresponsive Mac behavior, according to Apple in a support document titled “If MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) becomes unresponsive when a web browser is running”, is this simple:

  • Update OS X and other software from the Mac App Store
  • Update the Flash plug-in, if applicable

Mac users can update system software and apps on a Mac by going to the  Apple menu > App Store and choosing the “Updates” section. Always backup a Mac before installing any system software updates. Flash must be updated separately from Adobe, but another approach would be to uninstall Flash completely and use the plug-in sandboxed in Chrome browser instead, which updates itself along with the browser.

Updating software is obviously fairly easy and it may well work to resolve the trouble for many Mac users. It is generally recommended to maintain system software, apps, and plug-ins at the newest possible stable version available.

The support document was first noticed by MacRumors, where several commenters on their article noted they are still experiencing system freezes despite running the latest version of OS X and do not have Flash installed either.

If you are experiencing the unresponsive Mac problem, did the Apple provided solution fix the freezing issue for you? Are you experiencing any system freezing or unresponsive behavior when using a Mac since updating to OS X 10.11.4 or OS X 10.11.5? Let us know your own experience in the comments.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, News, Troubleshooting

72 Comments

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  1. APJ says:

    My early-2015 MBP started doing this infrequently (~1x per month) about a year ago, but over the last couple of weeks, it has been happening almost every day. Followed the help guide including removing flash and updating OS, but a week later and the issue has persisted.

  2. abas says:

    So is this problem still not fixed? I am kind of late discoverer due to the fact I sold my 2012 Macbook to buy this one, I want to avoid the Butterfly keyboard only to fact this filthy issue.w

  3. Pedalpower says:

    I have had a Macbook 12″ Retina for 2.5 years. Mine started freezing (keyboard and mouse) a few months ago. The only way out is through a hard power down and reboot – losing everything that was in process. I have OS 10.12.6 – the latest.

  4. JOHN WRIGHT says:

    A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT AGAINST APPLE
    MIGHT BE THE WAY TO GO!!

    Apple are NOT listening otherwise;-(

    I WANT MY MONEY BACK.

    Totally UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!

  5. Tonje says:

    My early 2015 MacBook pro retina freezes several times a day after updating to macOS High Sierra. The problem looks like to be the same as explained here. This is the first time I have updated. It’s still a problem! Is the clue to not ever update your mac??

  6. chris d says:

    My 2015 macbook pro retina freezes with spinning beach ball every time I lift the lid unless I shut it down completely. Hardware test gave a clean bill of health, I’ve erased the SSD and tried a clean install of OS X and the problem is still there. This is ridiculous and this will likely be the last Macbook I purchase for a long time.

  7. Walkerbets says:

    The cursor is frozen. I can’t perform any of the suggested go-tos because my cursor is frozen.

  8. Brian says:

    These forums always crack me up….you have all these apple fanboys that every other Apple competitor company used in their analogy about how bad Apple handled “this issue”. Yet, you can find issue after issue after issue about Apple products past and present but they still use non-Apple products to describe the current issue.
    Anyway….for all of the people complaining about how stupid it is to go back to an older OS version. How about not updating to the latest version just so you can play with some no essential feature you think will be cool. Only to turn around and say things like, “This is my work computer and this is unacceptable, do you know how important I am blah, blah blah…” Professional IT departments run older OS versions for exactly these reasons. No one pays attention but if you took the time to go back and look all of the same people made the same desperate complaints about Yosemite, Mavericks and everything before them. This thread actually starts out concerning complaints about El Capitan and actually ends up on Sierra and entirely different OS version. These problems will ALWAYS occur with newer versions of the software. How about just stay a year or two behind and always have a stable computer? That is what we do in every IT department I have ever been in and this goes for all OSs. The irony is when we get some user that thinks he knows tech and he manges to update the OS on his own and breaks all of his work critical software. We always here the same thing…..as a non-profesaionl they never even consider the critical functions of their computer but instead want to install the latest and greatest (according the website they read) for some total gimick feature. Yet, once they break it is all they can do is compalin about how importent everything they do is and don’t have time for the problem they caused all for a stupid piece of gimick software they never even end up using.

  9. witchhouse says:

    Yeah, for the past few days my MBP mid-15 has had an unresponsive trackpad. It will freeze on a single click after 30 mins or so of usage. For the first time today, I closed the lid due to frustration at how much I’d spent for my computer to do this to me../=

    Sure, I haven’t updated the software yet to Mac OSX Sierra, but STILL…I don’t use itunes for a single thing. Usually, graphics, project proposals, e-mails and the occasional youtube vid. So, I don’t see the purpose in upgrading it. IMO, they are just grabbing us by the p***ies, so we can do full upgrades to the newest edition of MBP’s by forcing us to download software that outpaces the hardware.

    NOT impressed by the new MBP, sure, the track pad is A LOT huger, but seriously? Might as well get a wacom pen =.- w/e dude. Plus, the haptic feedback on the keyboard is garbage. The keys are EVEN THINNER! FFS!!! I need to feel the GD keys in order to type, whose stupid idea was it to use less material for the keyboards?!!?!?! WTFFF. So, I will just update and delete some stuff from the computer. This will definitely change my feelings about the next purchase I make for another computer, have been considering switching to a Lenovo for the past two months anyway.

    The issue is that almost everyone has MBP on the web development side of things and I’m rather hesitant to switch because of it. Any feedback? Any web devs that are anti-mac but can still work with people who do use them?

    Thanks,

    -WH

    • GarbageBook Pro says:

      The freezing issues are usually software related to Sierra which is full of bugs. As for the silly MacBook Pro with the terrible keyboard and Gimmick Bar, I personally avoided the Touch Bar Gimmick Pro and bought a 2015 refurbed MacBook Pro and it works great. It’s the last good Pro MacBook Apple made, I would highly recommend a model from the last several years, they are great. I have not heard a single pro user be happy about the new model but maybe I only know pro curmudgeons haha!

  10. gilemon says:

    This is happening to my MBP Retina early 2015.
    I was thinking about moving to Sierra, but reading through these comments is really depressing. Indeed what’s happening with this OS? I feel like I’m back using a PC before Windows XP. Totally unreliable.

  11. Bob says:

    Same problem. MBP Retina 2015. Sierra 10.12.3. Hangs all the time, especially when both Keynote and Chrome are open together… It’s a hard crash, which makes Apple’s lackadasical response super frustrating (Force touch freezes, reboot required).

    • Scolesworth says:

      I have the same problem on MacBook Pro Retina 13″ an 15″ models, the problem is Sierra because it never happened before Sierra existed. Very annoying, it’s a very buggy operating system.

  12. Renee says:

    I’m having this problem with my MBP Retina (early 2015)…and now, I cannot even get onto the Internet! I’m running 10.11.6. I see the little bar indicator as it begins to load…and it stops when it’s about the size of one digit of a finger. Frozen..in both Safari and Firefox. (Deactivating WebGL in safari doesn’t help.) So forget about trying to go to the App Store! Until now, I haven’t had any major problems. I’m panicking becausevthis needs to be fixed now. I’m an Online student and classes begin next Monday. My MBP is my “transportation to my classes! It MUST be reliable!

    All of my other devices (iPhone 6; iPod Touch 5; iPad Pro, 12”, plus all other computers and devices, including more Apple products, of family members) work fine.

  13. Izzi says:

    My 13″ macbook pro just started to have this exact problem. I do not have other programs running, I have flash disabled, except by permission, and always use Firefox. The keyboard and mouse both freeze. I am running El Capitan 10.11.6. Obviously a wide-spread problem that’s a pain in the *ss!

  14. Daniel says:

    Same problem while using iMovie. 2015 MacBook pro, no flash installed, up to date.

  15. rick cruz says:

    I had the same freeze problem with Safari, on a 2016 MacBook Pro retina touchbar, 3.3GHz Intel Core i7.
    Using Chrome was fine.

    Everything was fine for 2 weeks, then I upgraded to 10.12.2 and the freeze was constant, debilitating, could not use the laptop at all. First occurred when streaming movie from HBONOW.

    I did a clean reinstall of OS Sierra to 10.12.2.
    I turned off WebGL.
    I updated Flash Player

    It has been about one week and the freezing has been minimal but still occurs, maybe once a day. I wait 20 seconds and the freeze stops. Have been too afraid to try watching movies with it since I need the laptop for work.

    Its too bad, over $2500 for a machine that I am too nervous to websurf or even watch movies.

  16. vyhnal says:

    I have the same problem. Solution for me it was FileVault OFF.

  17. chenrici says:

    I have the problem on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013) since installing Sierra (10.12.1).

    I don’t have any updates pending, Os, Safari, Flash etc all newest versions.

    What did help some a somewhat: Disabling Webgl in Safari. Before i got random freezes with mostly Safari , now interestingly mostly on logging in after a Wake-up.

    Then only a hard reboot works.

  18. Caledonian says:

    Dear All I’ve bee fighting this problem for one week solid on a MacBook Pro 15 INC Retina now with Sierra installed all my updates to no avail down graded again no joy cleaned out hard drive , restored a few different version and all takes 4 hrs BUT I noticed it never did during back up or restore so I turned off all my Screen Saver on both battery or under power and “et voila” problem went away

    Hope this helps some out there

  19. zos says:

    Yep, I’ve had a MBP since November last year. It has never been right. I even had to change the logic board a month after I got it, it totally died. Then the freezing began. 10-20 times a day. I eventually worked out I could mitigate the freezing by running the fan higher, seemed that the airflow helped prevent it, but I live in a hot place and this summer I’ve been struggling with the freezing again as the ambient temperature in the day is between 30-40C so the computer is already in an unfriendly environment and I’ve noticed the freezing happens at around 50C. Why is the computer getting so hot without manual intervention?! Apple says this is not a thermal problem but I think that is bullsh*t and its a GPU+multithreading related overheating problem that happens when the machine is under load. I find it happens a lot if a a browser is doing a lot of concurrent work. ALTHOUGH, I also notice a lot of people have their machines freezing up even when they aren’t doing much with them. In sum, this is one of the crappest machines I’ve ever had, I am a web dev and I depend on it to pay the rent! I still have two months of warranty, I intend to get in touch with apple and get some recompense! Then I am going back to Linux where I can run the machine for three weeks without ever needing to reboot. What a farce. Rant over.

  20. Jonathan says:

    I have the freeze issue, and the cursor won’t even click. However, restarting (using the power button) MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. After restarting several times, I still have the same problem. My 8 month old MacBook is now useless. HELP!!!!

  21. manish says:

    Mine freezes while using safari. I have stopped using it and moved to chrome. It has the same symptom as listed by others. Trackpad stops. No click possible when this happens and power cycle can only recovers the system.

    • Cerieb says:

      Manish, you should try to update to OS X 10.11.6 or later if you have not done so yet. It may help your freezing issue.

      • Jon says:

        MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) – exact same problem with Google Chrome. ElCap 10.11.6 so the problem just keeps propagating, and other folks have reported the issue with Sierra. Uninstalled Flash Player; turned off WebGl in Safari (although I hardly every use that). Firefox also seems to have the problem. Never had a screensaver activated.

  22. Chris R says:

    2 MBP replaced, 3d one experienced once the issue 5 months later during one incident in which i was watching flash based applications- the Force trackpad stopped responding, but the OS enabled me to force restart. A shutdown solved the issue.

    Most times use Chrome for embedded video. I suspect that some machines the GPU demand shorts the voltage for the force trackpad and the hardware stops responding.

    A poor design by Apple, all and all.

  23. Sarah very annoyed says:

    Aaaargh. I have early 2015 model. Latest update of El Capitan. This total freeze used to happen once a day. Today it has happened over 50 times. I reboot. It then freezes, everything! I’m not even on the Internet/safari. Just trying to use iPhoto. Driving me crazy. What to do? Within seconds of rebooting everything freezes.. Screen, mouse, trackpad. 13″ retina MacBook 2015-I have work to do!

  24. Zu says:

    My MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) freezes about 10 -20 times a day, I cannot work like this, so started to use my old backup laptop as I cannot afford to waste time. I am going to Genius bar and will be demanding refund for this expensive crap. Anyone had any luck with returns due to this issue?

  25. Miekemeike says:

    It happend to me 2 times in 24 hours, went to the Genius bar and had to pay 52 euro’s to fix it! And after using my Macbook pro Just for one hour it happend again.. Back to the Genius bar… :(

  26. Jeanette says:

    Also meant to add, after reading everyone’s comments here re the upgrades causing the same type of problems, makes me wonder if in fact this is the real problem with mine!!!

  27. Jeanette says:

    My 18 month MacBook Pro retina 13″ has frozen and also arrow/cursor with no response to keys. Took to Apples Genius Bar in Cambridge and they attached a cabled mouse and could work laptop using that. Was informed it was not a software issue but that the keypad needed to be replaced as was faulty. As I did not purchase through them or John Lewis but through connected benefits (I work for NHS) so paymention was deducted monthly through my payroll. I was informed that it therefore only had a 12 month warranty and so was not covered to have it repaired, therefore the cost to replace the keypad would be £300!!!!
    It was suggested that I contact AppleCare and see if they could do anything. I informed the chap how disgusted that in the time I had the laptop I had not used it on a daily basis and in fact looked like a new item. I also informed that I had an iPhone and an iPad mini and if a satisfactory outcome was not had I shall def not be purchasing or recommending apple products to anyone. I am hoping I may have some success contacting apple Care!!!

  28. ramsay says:

    My continues to freeze and then crash. This happens whether I use Safari or not. I have a 13″ retina, but it’s early 2012.

    Another thing my computer seems to do that’s funky is before it freezes it starts to stutter–like when Im typing or moving the arrow. It also, has trouble playing video or spotify–the sound cuts in and out.

    Months ago, I did a system reinstall and it seemed to help. I’m going to try doing that again. Frustrating to have to wipe the whole thing clean and lose my computer for a day every few months. A day without a computer is a long time in my world and probably other users, as well.

  29. Jim says:

    I think I have this problem too. Late 2012 21.5 iMac running 10.11.5. At random times it freezes completely requiring a hard shutdown and reboot. Sometimes the mouse is alive for a while and I can launch Activity Monitor, which shows absolutely NOTHING running. Shortly after that the freeze is complete – no mouse, nothing. Checking system logs I find that at some point before the freeze all log entries cease – absolutely nothing is entered.

    I’ve been trashing old applications, extensions, preference files, etc. trying to fix this thing. But I think now I am going to just turn off GPU usage in Adobe Lightroom, and stop using another photo app that I know uses the GPU. Maybe that’ll fix it.

  30. Boots says:

    an additional enhancement which will lower CPU load is clearing cache periodically.

    you can add Develop to the Menu Bar through Safari Preferences > Advanced > check Develop box at the bottom. (El Capitan users). The Develop drop down menu will have the clear cache selection.

    it reduced my Flash player load by 50% after a hard freeze occurred.

  31. Steve says:

    After the last time my system froze, I installed AdBlocker. It seems to work for me. It reduces the load on the GPU and gets rid of a lot of crapware. The system hasn’t frozen in a couple of weeks.

    I am running OSX 10.11.5 and keep my software updated.

    I have had recurring problems with the system freezing.
    Given the recurring problems with flash, I have had it disabled on my computer for a while.

    I use Firefox for my normal web browsing and Safari for other purposes.

  32. Richard says:

    The problem persists on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015) running OS X El Capitan V 10.11.5 (15F34).
    Most infuriating!

  33. Hamza Sheikh says:

    I am kind of done with my Macbook Pro ’13 just because of these random freezes causes me to restart and lose all the stuff happening at the moment.

    I already updated my each everything, and even uninstalled the Flash from my MBP but still the problem is consistent and causing trouble more and more. 😑

  34. Boots McGowan says:

    FREEZE PROTECTION

    Most everything everyone is describing is THE SAME problem. AN OVERLOADED CPU. Depending on what processes are running depends on the severity of the freeze. The freeze actually protects the computer from damage i think.

    Please run ACTIVITY MONITOR from your Launchpad or Utilities folder. It is not the cure but will help you diagnose your situation. I have gone from total freeze (mouse and keypad) to just a screen freeze that i can unlock by killing flash. My problem has always been flash player related. It seems most web pages are loading you up with some kind of bs. Even minimizing my browser will cut the CPU load in half.

    if your processes are not causing it, then you may have a bad computer.

    My thought is that Apple/Adobe don’t want to address the issue from a OS X improvement but will wait on an improved CPU which means a new computer. Depressing i know.

    i’m no expert, just a fiddler. maybe this will help you. bashing others for sure doesn’t do any good.

    peace

    Boots

    • pab says:

      That can be helpful to track down crashing apps and problematic applications and processes. Unfortunately with this freezing issue, the Mac freezes up completely and all activity stops completely, I’ve actually had it happen with Activity Monitor open and YouTube videos playing, the video stops playing and Activity Monitor freezes up as well. You can’t do anything at all, the mouse cursor won’t even move. No mouse input or keyboard input is recognized. Can’t ping the Mac, can’t SSH in, it’s entirely unresponsive. It’s a true system freeze, much like you’d encounter back with a Macintosh LC with System 7.5.2 way back when, not fun!

      • Boots says:

        pab

        so did youtube load up your CPU as shown on Activity Monitor to 100% or above?

        my experience with flash player was with streaming CNN or CNBC live.

        it used to load the CPU beyond 100% and cause the deep freeze with loss of everything. the demand was more than what the CPU could handle and froze!! i can keep it under control if i don’t have anything else going.

        don’t know what you were watching but I can’t get YouTube to get anywhere near that load :-)

        guess my theory is bunk in this case

        Apple stock is going down. Cook and the boys need to pony up before something better comes out of another oven.

  35. apo says:

    been happening to my rmbp 2014 since el capitan. its a total freeze except for mouse movement, for 1-2 minutes or until i kill the browsers and restart

    • Bellows says:

      It is not a freeze if you can move the mouse, and it is not a freeze if you can quit or kill browsers. You have a different issue that is unrelated. For example my neck aches this morning, it is also not related to OS X 10.11.4 or OS X 10.11.5 system freezing problems.

  36. Annoyed says:

    Froze again. This time with safari reading drudge report. Freezes the second you close the tab. What a terrible os Apple has dumped on us. No flash installed. Latest Crapitan update. I will convert to Wondows if this continues!

  37. Annoyed says:

    Third freeze in three days now. One total freeze per day. What a productive machine! Totally worth $1800!

  38. Hatem says:

    The issue is that Apple states that 11.10.4 and up is compatible with existing hardware and software and web widespread evidence clearly and undoubtably shows that 10.11.4 with existing software working before 11.10.3 on your machine. They must be aware but seems not to bother them at all. You must programming skills and knowledge to deal with this. No warning from Apple different than make a backup copy and solve yourself.

  39. Boots McGowan says:

    I’ve had this issue on my 15″ MBP since upgrading to El Capitan. If you open up Activity Monitor you can usuallly see what is locking things up. You can also force quit the application to free up the screen again. It’s almost alway “flash player not responding” for me. Chrome works better but runs “hotter” temperature wise.
    Apple’s cure is a cop out, the upgrades don’t solve the issue i have experienced.

    • Bobby brown says:

      No Boots, you do not have this issue. I can tell immediately because you say “if you open app blah blah”, well if your MAC IS FROZEN you can NOT OPEN ANYTHING, because the MAC IS FROZEN. Imagine a fly suspended cryogenically frozen in ice, it is not moving at all and that is your Mac if you have this issue.

      Half the commenters here do not understand what ‘unresponsive’ or ‘frozen’ means and have clearly never experienced a frozen Mac. Good for you, some of us do have frozen Macs.

      Here’s a clue: IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING AT ALL, YOUR MAC IS NOT FROZEN. KAPISH?

      • Boots McGowan says:

        Bobby

        Kapish. My computer was indeed FROZEN like yours and/or giving me the pinwheel of death. The only “fix” was a restart. I found out about the Activity Monitor and would run it continuously beside the open smaller safari screen i was running to see what was causing the freeze. I’ve been playing with it for months and only posted a small reply that i have had success with.

        I understand your frustration with weeding through all the comments but if it doesn’t help you maybe it will assist someone else. You aren’t the only MAC user in the universe.

        good luck with it

        Boots

  40. Pat says:

    This has happened on my MBP retina (2015) running 10.10.5, so it didn’t start with 10.11.xx.

    For me, I think it started happening when I upgraded to Yosemite. It’s very annoying and it seems to me that Apple has been going somewhere in a handbasket since the loss of Steve Jobs. This is just another example. Like how they messed up an elegant iPhoto and stuck us with Photos. I’ve had more iPhone issues of late as well.

    As for the freeze problem, I haven’t called the geniuses, but have been tempted to. And it seems like it’s not just the browser that freezes, but any random app I’m using. My solution is to use CMD-Tab to cycle through my apps and close them one at a time with CMD-Q, and eventually Excel (or Word, or Photos, whatever) starts to work again. I don’t always have to close Chrome (my usual browser), sometimes closing Excel will make Word responsive again. There is NO pattern AT ALL.

    Due to issues with sloppy coding and unstable performance, I am not an early adopter (obviously!). Unless there is a pressing security upgrade, I usually wait to upgrade. This kind of annoyance makes me consider if I should switch back to a Win-based system.

    • INT says:

      Pat, you are not experiencing the system freezing issue if you can use Command Tab or Command Q. A true system freeze means *nothing* works at all, no input works, no mouse cursor movement, no keyboard entry, no app activity, nothing, zero, zip, zilch, it is frozen. A stalling app or beachballing app is not the same as a system freeze. A system freeze is a completely unresponsive Mac.

      • Bobby brown says:

        Pat your Mac is not frozen. A crashing app is not a frozen Mac.

        If you are preserved for 5000 years in ice, you are frozen. If you are able to move around, you are not frozen. The EXACT SAME THING applies to Macs. Kapish?

  41. Dave says:

    I also have had the freezing problem since the 11.11.4 update. In my case, I think I tracked it down to a GPU issue. I’m running the seti@home screen saver. The data service it supports is processor intensive and I originally had it set to use both of the core2duo processors AND the GPU in my mid-2009 13-inch MBP. After a long period of freezes arising out of screensaver mode, I tried disabling seti’s access to the GPU and the freezes have completely stopped (for now?).

    • Bobby brown says:

      It is definitely a GPU issue. My MacBook freezes up with video playing regardless of the app. This is a GPU issue.

  42. Rob says:

    Since the aforementioned updates, I have had significant problems with Mail and Office 365, in addition to most of the ones highlighted above, too. Especially Mail and Outlook, which seem to crash almost each time they are opened after a restart/start-up. Keep feeding the crash reports but so far nothing improves. :-/

    • Bobby brown says:

      Rob I have filed probably 300 bug reports and crash reports to Apple in my life, and they don’t care. It is placebo.

      The good news is that your Mac is not freezing!

  43. atlanta01 says:

    I have a new MacBook Air that has had this issue since I purchased it 2 months ago. I have spent over 8 hours cumulative time dealing with Apple Care Support and 5 trips to the Apple Store and it’s still not working.

    This is the second MacBook Air in 2 months – patience is starting to run low…..

  44. BenS says:

    I had this happen on my 2015 13″ pro, while running 10.11.4, and after updating to 10.11.5 all updated, but Flash not disabled. I had several AppleCare sessions before they had me take the machine into the store, where the motherboard was replaced (their diagnostic showed bad RAM) it’s been fine since.

    • BenS says:

      something similar has been happening to the iMac 27″ retina in our household as well, at around the same time, which is strange. the laptop was from Apple refurbished, and the iMac was a closed box private sale.

  45. Kady says:

    I have been struggling with a complete freeze of my desktop iMac, 27″ Retina. To date, none of the usual fixes have worked, including hard reset and disc erasure. It starts and then freezes up about half way through. Looks like it will have to go to the shop. Very frustrating.

  46. Annoyed says:

    Hilarious? Because I literally just had my retina MacBook freeze while watching a YouTube video. Had to hard power off and back on. Second time this has happened in two days.

    Apple get it together. The software quality is so bad.

  47. Tango22 says:

    I continue to have this “freezing issue” on a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, running 10.10.5 Yosemite.
    I had the freeze issue occur prior to installing Yosemite, when I was running the MBP with its as-delivered Mavericks.
    Long ago, I uninstalled Flash. I never use Safari, I use mainly Firefox, and rarely Chrome.
    Rather than do a forced shutdown by holding the Power button, I go to my desktop iMac, and do a gentle shutdown of the MBP via Screensharing.
    Resetting the SMC seems to help for a while, but eventually the “freeze issue” returns.

  48. billybobby says:

    WebGL – Flash. The EASY answers to all our problems.

    Not that I’m a fan of them, but they DO seem to be the “go to” for everything.

    The other answer is to go back to last years OS X, or better yet 2 or 3 years ago. You know, when things were “stable AND faster”. The problem with THAT is that the “stable” release was crap at the time too. I think these people just need to do everything from a terminal window.

    HILARIOUS!

    • Sebby says:

      I think these people just need to do everything from a terminal window.

      Hmm. Now there’s an idea. Wish I’d thought of that. I think you’re more right than you know. Linux is now under consideration. It’ll probably be Doze, though.

  49. Paco Petko says:

    This does not work, Apple is obviously not paying attention and instead offers the typical Apple style advice of “you’re holding it wrong” of blaming the user.

    #1 – this impacts more Macs than just MacBook Pro 13″ models

    #2 – it happens with OS X 10.11.5

    #3 – it never happened with any prior version of OS X, including OS X 10.11.3

    #4 – any app using the GPU can potentially trigger the system freeze requiring force shutdown

    The only solution to stop the freezing is to downgrade OS X to 10.11.3, or better yet go back to OS X 10.9.5 and never have another Mac problem again. El Capitan and Yosemite are terrible releases of software somewhere on par with Windows Vista and Windows ME, remember those turds?

    Here’s to hoping that Mac OS 10.12 is going to be stable and faster, but past experience teaches us all to expect otherwise.

  50. Good Grief says:

    I am puzzled by this. I do not have Flash anywhere on my Mac, I installed all my Mac updates.

    MacBook Pro still freezes. It’s the total complete freeze, no cursor movement, no text input, no activity on screen, apps stuck, network activity ends, nothing even appears in Console log, MacBook Pro will stay stuck frozen until you hold the power button to force the computer to turn off.

    What a remarkably out of touch “solution” offered by Apple. The freezing problem was introduced with 10.11.4 OS X, it absolutely *did not happen* with 10.11.3 OS X

    • murphy says:

      my OS X downgrade to 10.10.5, also same issue

      • Bec says:

        my MacBook is completely useless to me cannot be used as overtime i close the lid i am guaranteed to it freezing. Black screen cannot turn the thing on. I brought this to use for my business and it’s a hunk of junk and of course Apple are doing nothing

  51. Paul says:

    Speaking entirely from personal experience, I don’t have Flash installed (except with click-to-plugin where it is sandboxed in Chrome which updates itself), and I am already running the latest version of OS X on my Retina MacBook Pro 13″. Nonetheless, I continue to experience the freezing issues at random, I actually encountered the system freeze again yesterday when using the latest version of Chrome. Anecdotally, myself and several other readers have noticed that a workaround for the freezing issue occurring when using Safari is disabling WebGL in Safari, though that obviously won’t address any potentially related issues with Chrome or other apps.

    Another curiosity is that the Apple support document only mentions the Retina 13″ MacBook Pro model from early 2015, while there are a variety of reports in OSXDaily comments, Apple Discussion boards, YouTube, and MacRumors forums that discuss seemingly the same freezing issue on other Mac models, including 15″ Retina MacBook Pro and 13″ MacBook Air. Because other hardware may be experiencing a similar freezing problem, it would also be a good idea for those other impacted Macs to update their system software and apps as well.

    • Erik says:

      I have the same freezing issue on my Retina MacBook Pro

      Mine is exactly like what is shown in this video:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2A5WaTWxMM

      Mouse pad won’t even click.

      Unlike some of the other comments here complaining about slow whatever, it is a complete and total freeze. 100% disruptive and worse than having to kill some program.

      • murphy says:

        Erik, have you fixed the issue??

        • Jeff says:

          I’m going through the same issue yet it just worked for a couple seconds after logging in & then went back into freeze mode.

          I pressed the “esc”,”option” & “command” key & was able to navigate with my arrow keys (up & down) the programs i’d like to close, then it froze on me again.

          Anyone have any recommendations on what to do?

          Thank you
          -Jeff

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