After upgrading to Sierra, computer locks up several times/day. Becoming useless. What to do?

[riker1384]

Before I switched to Sierra, with various previous OSX versions, I would occasionally get beachballs which I could fix by force-quitting the unresponsive application, which is usually Safari. Now with Sierra, whenever I get a beachball, the whole computer becomes unresponsive so I can't force-quit anything. I have to shut down the computer manually by holding down the power key.

Also, sometimes when I start it up again, it is unresponsive at the login screen. I have to shut it down and try again.

This costs me a bunch of time and I lose things I was typing, I have to go back and find what files I had open, and such. I have a lot of stuff on disk-images on external drives, so the OSX feature that opens all windows that you had before shutting down does not work for those.

With previous versions of OSX everything worked great and I could go for months without rebooting. Now it's happening at least twice a day, so my computer has become more than 100 times less reliable than it was. This is is not acceptable! I expect better from Apple.


I have a backup from before I installed Sierra, but that was months ago so I would lose a bunch of files and things if I restored from that. It would be a huge pain to try to manually transfer the files I need, and I would lose bookmarks and things like that.

Is there anything I can do?

 

[keysofanxiety]

What computer do you have? MacBook? iMac? Year/spec? It sounds more like the drive or the SATA cable may be failing.

 

[raymanster]

I get something similar with my Mac Pro 4,1. Although it will lock up for as much as 10-15 secs and then be ok again.

Perhaps you can take an image of your existing drive to an external using SuperDuper then install a fresh copy of El Cap/Yosemite/Mav and use migration assistant to get everything back?

 

[riker1384]

What computer do you have? MacBook? iMac? Year/spec? It sounds more like the drive or the SATA cable may be failing.

It's a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13-inch. (MacBookPro11,1). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. About 35GB free space.

I do tend to keep lots of Safari tabs open, but this was not a problem with earlier OSX's because I could force-quit when I had trouble.

 

[keysofanxiety]

It's a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13-inch. (MacBookPro11,1). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. About 35GB free space.

I do tend to keep lots of Safari tabs open, but this was not a problem with earlier OSX's because I could force-quit when I had trouble.

Could you try a PRAM/SMC reset please? Does that make a positive difference?

 

[riker1384]

I just did those now. I don't have time to test it now to see if it helped. It might take a while for the problem to up.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Is there anything I can do?
It's a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13-inch. (MacBookPro11,1). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. About 35GB free space."

Try keeping FEWER tabs open in Safari. Limit yourself to, say, 7-8 (preferably fewer).

Try TURNING OFF Spotlight:
Use this terminal command to disable it:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

Does that make any difference?
You can always re-enable it by substituting "on" for "off" in the terminal command above.

If nothing helps, you could always consider "going back" to El Capitan.
ElCap runs fast and smooth for me, I'll stick with it until they get Sierra sorted out.

 

[Phillie14586]

I have had a similar problem with a Mid 2010 MacPro. My computer seems to be working fine until I try to open Safari. Nothing happens. Sometimes the dock shows Safari as open but I cannot get a window or close the app. Using the file in the Apps folder I get a message saying Safari.app is not running or something like that. I also cannot force quite or shutdown the computer from the apple menu. I also have to shutdown the computer by holding the power button. When restarted things are working fine again for several days. There are some crash reports in Console.

 

[ceezy]

I have a mid2010 mbp....Safari has been appalling and Sierra in general has been bad for my old computer.
Sticking with only 2 tabs and I still get beachballs and slow responsiveness.

Just tried the spotlight tip...we will see if it helps out. Cheers.
I'm going to reduce transparency as well to see if that helps out some, but I will wait to see how the terminal tip help first.

 

[riker1384]

Well, I just had the problem again, so resetting NVRAM and SMC didn't help.

This computer was bought new less than 2.5 years ago. It should not have problems running a current OS.

I should keep fewer windows & tabs open, but I don't see a convenient way to do that. I like to go back and forth between windows with various things: news, forums, things I'm researching, etc. I use Expose to quickly switch between windows. I don't want to lose track of what I was reading by closing them. And as I mentioned, this was not a problem in earlier OSX's, I could just forcequit Safari if it got bogged down.

Bookmarks are a pain in the ass, they take time to create and especially to delete. (Why do they make you hunt around in "Show Bookmarks"? Why can't you just right-click in the Bookmarks menu and get a contextual menu and delete it there?) And they're textual, not graphical like looking at windows in Expose. And the Reading List doesn't work, as it's linear and doesn't allow you to organize it.

What I think Safari really needs is a way to "bookmark" pages (or groups of pages, like a window with tabs) and have them appear graphically the same way that windows appear when you view all application windows in Expose. That would be a lot faster and more convenient. I want to have lots of webpages filed away like pieces of paper that I can glance and and easily switch between, just like I can have various pieces of paper, magazine articles etc on my desk at home. But I'd like to be able to do that without having the webpages open and using up my computer's power and RAM.

 

[xraydoc]

Well, I just had the problem again, so resetting NVRAM and SMC didn't help.

This computer was bought new less than 2.5 years ago. It should not have problems running a current OS.

I should keep fewer windows & tabs open, but I don't see a convenient way to do that. I like to go back and forth between windows with various things: news, forums, things I'm researching, etc. I use Expose to quickly switch between windows. I don't want to lose track of what I was reading by closing them. And as I mentioned, this was not a problem in earlier OSX's, I could just forcequit Safari if it got bogged down.

Your laptop definitely shouldn't have any trouble running Sierra, however given that you appeared to have issues with frequent Safari lockups, I'm concerned there's a separate issue going on. When you have time, my suggestion would be to copy all your documents to an external drive, then reformat the laptop's SSD and install a fresh copy of Sierra.

Bookmarks are a pain in the ass, they take time to create and especially to delete. (Why do they make you hunt around in "Show Bookmarks"? Why can't you just right-click in the Bookmarks menu and get a contextual menu and delete it there?)

Chrome does this, but it actually violates Apple UI guidelines. Not saying Apple's guidelines are gospel, but at least Apple is sticking (in this case) to their own guidelines.

What I think Safari really needs is a way to "bookmark" pages (or groups of pages, like a window with tabs) and have them appear graphically the same way that windows appear when you view all application windows in Expose. That would be a lot faster and more convenient. I want to have lots of webpages filed away like pieces of paper that I can glance and and easily switch between, just like I can have various pieces of paper, magazine articles etc on my desk at home. But I'd like to be able to do that without having the webpages open and using up my computer's power and RAM.

Interesting concept. Might be able to replicate by opening a Safari window with multiple tabs in a separate space. Obviously won't stick across app launches. However, doing it all without power and RAM is probably not something realistic. If you're viewing the page, it'll be occupying RAM and using at least some processor cycles, unless you look at a static page image that doesn't update... which wouldn't be too useful I suppose.

 

[riker1384]

Interesting concept. Might be able to replicate by opening a Safari window with multiple tabs in a separate space. Obviously won't stick across app launches. However, doing it all without power and RAM is probably not something realistic. If you're viewing the page, it'll be occupying RAM and using at least some processor cycles, unless you look at a static page image that doesn't update... which wouldn't be too useful I suppose.

No, I don't want it to keep running the page, that'll cause the same problem I'm having. I just want a thumbnail snapshot of the page from when I closed it. And then it reopens the pages, and if possible preserves your place in the page, like Safari does when you reboot and "Reopen Windows When Logging Back In." I suppose having it occasionally update the snapshots would be nice, but it's not necessary.

 

[riker1384]

I'm still having

Is there any risk to backing up, then doing a fresh install of Sierra and using Migration Assistant to move my stuff from the backup back to my computer? Will I lose anything?

Am I better off using a Time Machine backup? I usually use Super Duper.

 

[xraydoc]

I'm still having

Is there any risk to backing up, then doing a fresh install of Sierra and using Migration Assistant to move my stuff from the backup back to my computer? Will I lose anything?

Am I better off using a Time Machine backup? I usually use Super Duper.

For most error risk free installation, put a fresh copy of macOS on then reinstall your apps from scratch then manually copy your documents over. Migration Assistant could potentially bring over a corrupt plugin or something else causing your machines instability.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm still having

Is there any risk to backing up, then doing a fresh install of Sierra and using Migration Assistant to move my stuff from the backup back to my computer? Will I lose anything?

Am I better off using a Time Machine backup? I usually use Super Duper.

You won't lose anything, but that likely will not help either. Assuming this is caused by some incompatible app or utility, Migration Assistant will just put it back.

Try this as a test. Hold the shift key at startup to boot to safe mode. That stops all launch and startup items from running. Does that fix things? If it does, that means you have some utility or app running in the background that is causing this.

If safe mode fixes it, run the app Etrecheck. It will create an anonymized report showing everything you have running. Post that report here for us to have a look.

 

[riker1384]

I'll try that next time I have to reboot.

On most days, I'm mostly only using stock software that came with OSX. Safari, Mail, TextEdit, Preview, Itunes. The only exception is I have f.Lux (https://justgetflux.com) running all the time. Is that likely to cause trouble?

Edit: and I have Adblock for Safari.

 

[Weaselboy]

The only exception is I have f.Lux (https://justgetflux.com) running all the time. Is that likely to cause trouble?

That could be. I do recall seeing people have trouble with that when Sierra first came out. That safe mode boot is a quick easy way to diagnose though.

 

[Tech198]

OP wrote:
"Is there anything I can do?
It's a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13-inch. (MacBookPro11,1). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. About 35GB free space."

Try keeping FEWER tabs open in Safari. Limit yourself to, say, 7-8 (preferably fewer).

Try TURNING OFF Spotlight:
Use this terminal command to disable it:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

Does that make any difference?
You can always re-enable it by substituting "on" for "off" in the terminal command above.

If nothing helps, you could always consider "going back" to El Capitan.
ElCap runs fast and smooth for me, I'll stick with it until they get Sierra sorted out.

I would say all this wouldn't be an issue, since it only happen After upgrade..... That tells u everything..

If the problem happens only after an upgrade, SMC reset and PRAM, although it would help, is less likely to be an issue.. I doubt the amount of tabs is an issue, also because it was fine before the upgrade.

Try a new account, or backup and clean install (that will prove everything)

'Safe Boot' is good for diagnostic but your still still troubleshooting.not really getting any further.. If it was an issue, it would have also been an issue under older OS as well.

i would just skip that process, and create new admin account... if everything is fine then u know it's account issue... You can then decide if u want to keep the new one, and delete old admin etc..

 

[128keaton]

I get something similar with my Mac Pro 4,1. Although it will lock up for as much as 10-15 secs and then be ok again.

Perhaps you can take an image of your existing drive to an external using SuperDuper then install a fresh copy of El Cap/Yosemite/Mav and use migration assistant to get everything back?

Holy crap I came here to post this, I'm having the exact same problem with my Mac Pro5,1. It shouldn't be this sluggish!! Did you figure out a solution other than to downgrade?

 

[raymanster]

Holy crap I came here to post this, I'm having the exact same problem with my Mac Pro5,1. It shouldn't be this sluggish!! Did you figure out a solution other than to downgrade?

I think I might have found the culprit, a faulty SSD drive. It was a secondary drive that I didn't use much, so it took me a while to notice it was offline. I've since unplugged and removed it I haven't noticed any freezing. So maybe check your drives?