macOS Catalina 10.15.2 freezes/crashes MBA every single day – am I alone?

[VSG]

Hi everyone,

I can't find any info on this so I'd like to check if I'm alone. I'm running Catalina on a MBA late 2013 and have been upgrading from Mojave to 10.15.1.
Everything was working fine until 10.15.2 dropped.

Since I installed 10.15.2 my MBA freezes every single day. Mostly when trying to open a new finder window or switching folders in finder. Right now it was when I was trying to save a Numbers-file to PDF. It's not that everything hangs up, it usually is that this particular app (until now mostly Finder, a few minutes ago Numbers) doesn't respond and there's no way to quit or force quit it. Not even on Terminal.

When you try to restart the MBA all apps close until that last app and waiting for hours doesn't help. What helps is pressing the power-button for a few seconds to force a restart.
Is anyone else having this issue?
And/or a solution to this?

It's driving me nuts. If I'm unable to use the standby mode and have to restart the MBA every time, the whole concept of picking up where you left off is useless.
Everything was working on 10.15.1 … I can't understand how Apple can screw up every single OS they got. iPadOS 13.2 was working alright, 13.3 makes my iPad Air 2 sluggish like hell with up to 10 seconds to open an app following the lock screen.
As much as I love my Apple products – the software right now is a mess beyond anything I've worked with on these machines.

Thanks in advance for any input.
VSG

 

[Bandaman]

Download OnyX for Mac (free) and try running these OnyX Maintenance task settings:

DOWNLOAD LINK THINGY:

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files; run cleaning and computer maintenance tasks; configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications; and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

 

[VSG]

Thanks, I know OnyX and usually take a sweep every few months. Definitely not after every little upgrade.

I'll update this thread when I know if it worked.

Best regards,
VSG

 

[impulse462]

my computer (16" MBP) has crashed more times waking up from sleep and forcing to restart since i got it in november than my previous macs the past 5 years

 

[Bandaman]

Thanks, I know OnyX and usually take a sweep every few months. Definitely not after every little upgrade.

I'll update this thread when I know if it worked.

Best regards,
VSG

If that doesn’t work, you might want to consider resetting the PRAM and NVRAM.

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

If that doesn’t work I’d do a Time Machine backup and do a clean install of macOS. Hopefully the drive itself is fine.

 

[anthonymoody]

Download OnyX for Mac (free) and try running these OnyX Maintenance task settings:

DOWNLOAD LINK THINGY:

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files; run cleaning and computer maintenance tasks; configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications; and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

Onyx hangs (spinning beach ball) at the first test on my iMac. Trying to verify file structure or whatever it says. I try to force quit it, but then the force quit applet also results in a spinning beach ball! LOL.

 

[Bandaman]

Onyx hangs (spinning beach ball) at the first test on my iMac. Trying to verify file structure or whatever it says. I try to force quit it, but then the force quit applet also results in a spinning beach ball! LOL.

It’s supposed to do that until it’s finished. Re-run it and let it complete, then restart if it doesn’t automatically.

 

[anthonymoody]

It’s supposed to do that until it’s finished. Re-run it and let it complete, then restart if it doesn’t automatically.

Ah! Hmm. Well, it seemed like I waited for a long time, but perhaps not long enough! I guess I'll give it a try tonight overnight, thanks.

 

[tommiy]

I had to return to 10.15.1 to get rid of the crashes. My 2017 MAC crashed 4 times in a day. Returned to 10.15.1 and it has not had an issue in 9 days. So I think that is a yes its a problem from myself.

 

[Bandaman]

I had to return to 10.15.1 to get rid of the crashes. My 2017 MAC crashed 4 times in a day. Returned to 10.15.1 and it has not had an issue in 9 days. So I think that is a yes its a problem from myself.

Well it shouldn't take longer than 15-20 minutes.

 

[Stinsle]

my computer (16" MBP) has crashed more times waking up from sleep and forcing to restart since i got it in november than my previous macs the past 5 years

My MacBook Air also freezes when waking it since Catalina 10.15.2. If I wait about 30-60 seconds, it unfreezes on it's own.

 

[impulse462]

My MacBook Air also freezes when waking it since Catalina 10.15.2. If I wait about 30-60 seconds, it unfreezes on it's own.

Mine just shuts off mid sleeping and I’m forced to turn it on and I lose my open programs, webpages etc. quite annoying

 

[Bandaman]

Hey @VSG ... any updates?

 

[J.Gallardo]

Hi everyone,

I can't find any info on this so I'd like to check if I'm alone. I'm running Catalina on a MBA late 2013 and have been upgrading from Mojave to 10.15.1.
Everything was working fine until 10.15.2 dropped.

Since I installed 10.15.2 my MBA freezes every single day. Mostly when trying to open a new finder window or switching folders in finder. Right now it was when I was trying to save a Numbers-file to PDF. It's not that everything hangs up, it usually is that this particular app (until now mostly Finder, a few minutes ago Numbers) doesn't respond and there's no way to quit or force quit it. Not even on Terminal.

When you try to restart the MBA all apps close until that last app and waiting for hours doesn't help. What helps is pressing the power-button for a few seconds to force a restart.
Is anyone else having this issue?
And/or a solution to this?

It's driving me nuts. If I'm unable to use the standby mode and have to restart the MBA every time, the whole concept of picking up where you left off is useless.
Everything was working on 10.15.1 … I can't understand how Apple can screw up every single OS they got. iPadOS 13.2 was working alright, 13.3 makes my iPad Air 2 sluggish like hell with up to 10 seconds to open an app following the lock screen.
As much as I love my Apple products – the software right now is a mess beyond anything I've worked with on these machines.

Thanks in advance for any input.
VSG

It's not so common for 10.15.2 to fail IF 10.15.1 was working OK.
The problem could be a defective upgrade; it's not so rare.
It happened to me long ago (this can always happen) and the easiest procedure worked for me:
look in the web (and from Apple) for "10.15.2 Combo Upgrade" and install.
At least, if it doesn't work (but it probably will), you can assume this OS version is buggy for your machine. You need to discard this possibility before getting crazy trying to fix something in the impossible way.

 

[Boardiesboi]

My MacBook Air also freezes when waking it since Catalina 10.15.2. If I wait about 30-60 seconds, it unfreezes on it's own.

This happens to me every single time.

I close the lid when I'm done for the night and when I open the lid again the next morning, it freezes. I've never waited for 60 seconds, I just force restart it every single time.

Never had this problem before on Mojave.

 

[jpn]

This happens to me every single time.

I close the lid when I'm done for the night and when I open the lid again the next morning, it freezes. I've never waited for 60 seconds, I just force restart it every single time.

Never had this problem before on Mojave.

there is something in the way that apple has written the last software update to cause this.
unfortunately (probably) due to yr machine being a bit older, the problem is really intolerable.
but even on new MacBook Airs there is similar behavior that has now started to occur:

previous normal behavior: simply close the lid, and open the lid next morning and enter yr password/touch id to wake it up

current behavior: close the lid, then (if the machine has been in sleep mode for at least 4 or 5 hours?) in order to wake it up (on my machine with T2 chip) touching any key (like the esc key for example) does not wake up the machine ! it is supposed to wake it up but doesn't.
on my T2 machine i actually need to hard press the start button/fingerprint sensor. just touching that start button does not wake up the machine. its odd.
it doesn't require a reboot on my T2 machine, but an actual push on that button is required so its kind of "hard awake" (!) . the machine does not reboot on this. just simply wakes up.
on older Macbook Airs this same problem seems to be requiring an actual reboot

it has only done this on my mac since updating to 10.15.2 however (not 10.15 or 10.15.1).

so: are there two different sleep states? one for awakening a device only recently sleeping and one for times where you haven't logged on or woken it up for a several hours?
that wouldn't be an unreasonable feature if apple was seeking that...but this is probably just a bug...

 

[Boardiesboi]

there is something in the way that apple has written the last software update to cause this.
unfortunately (probably) due to yr machine being a bit older, the problem is really intolerable.
but even on new MacBook Airs there is similar behavior that has now started to occur:

previous normal behavior: simply close the lid, and open the lid next morning and enter yr password/touch id to wake it up

current behavior: close the lid, then (if the machine has been in sleep mode for at least 4 or 5 hours?) in order to wake it up (on my machine with T2 chip) actually hard press the start button/fingerprint sensor.
it doesn't require a reboot, but is kind of "hard awake" (!) .
on older Macbook Airs this same problem requires a reboot.
it has only done this on my mac since updating to 10.15.2 however (not 10.15 or 10.15.1)

My MBA is from July 2019 so I don’t think it is classified as “old”?

To unfreeze mine when opening the lid, I have to reboot it, ie. Hard press fingerprint sensor, wait for it to shut down and hard press again.

It is annoying the hell out of me.

 

[jpn]

My MBA is from July 2019 so I don’t think it is classified as “old”?

To unfreeze mine when opening the lid, I have to reboot it, ie. Hard press fingerprint sensor, wait for it to shut down and hard press again.

It is annoying the hell out of me.

thanks for the clarification that your machine has a T2 chip as well.

so: there is a difference between what is happening on yr machine and mine (2018; T2 chip).

in Energy Settings: do you have put disks to sleep whenever possible?
(i don't have that selected). just trying to understand why yr machine actually is requiring a reboot but my machine is happy with just a hard press on that start button/finger print ID sensor.

 

[Boardiesboi]

in Energy Settings: do you have put disks to sleep whenever possible?

Yes! I've disabled it under both battery and power adapter now. Would that be the difference between yours and mine? And I assume you mean 2018 not 2008?

 

[jpn]

Yes! I've disabled it under both battery and power adapter now. Would that be the difference between yours and mine? And I assume you mean 2018 not 2008?

hi yes, corrected my machine device to being 2018.

I'm just trying to think what could possibly be the difference.
wake from sleep settings is almost totally (only) controllable through a very few user defined settings.
if you still have problems after that change, i would next do a painless SMC reset. its easy to do. look on the net and read several articles about it and try it. it attempts to reset certain energy/power/display settings to default.

 

[HDFan]

You can also try running etrecheck to display system state and help identify problems.

 

[revmacian]

I have the 2019 MacBook Air running macOS Catalina 10.15.2 (upgraded from Mojave) and I haven't had any crashes or freezes.

@VSG I wonder if a third-party app is causing your issue.

 

[andrewpsy]

My 16 inch running 10.15.2 crashes (due to gpu panic) really often.
I've tried pretty much everything I could think of: reset SMC and PRAM, uninstalled all non-stock apps, tried the kext trick (link below), and recovery->format partition->reinstall.

The first thing happened after the reinstall was a crash, immediately applied to exchange for a new laptop.
Since my 16 inch (shipped with 10.15.1) arrived about a week ago so it was upgraded to 10.15.2 very soon. Didn't really get a change to use 10.15.1 for a while to tell if my problem is 10.15.2 only.

I have a screenshot of the first crash after the reinstall and crash report if anyone is interested.
It was a very frustrating week.

https://outluch.wixsite.com/rmbp-crash (kext trick)

 

[MacRS4]

10.15.2 has made my iMac Pro furiously unstable. If I leave it for a while I'll come back and it'll be switched off. If I leave it for an hour or so I'll come back and it's frozen solid. Very irritating.

 

[sodajerk2]

Hi everyone,

I can't find any info on this so I'd like to check if I'm alone. I'm running Catalina on a MBA late 2013 and have been upgrading from Mojave to 10.15.1.
Everything was working fine until 10.15.2 dropped.

Since I installed 10.15.2 my MBA freezes every single day. Mostly when trying to open a new finder window or switching folders in finder. Right now it was when I was trying to save a Numbers-file to PDF. It's not that everything hangs up, it usually is that this particular app (until now mostly Finder, a few minutes ago Numbers) doesn't respond and there's no way to quit or force quit it. Not even on Terminal.

When you try to restart the MBA all apps close until that last app and waiting for hours doesn't help. What helps is pressing the power-button for a few seconds to force a restart.
Is anyone else having this issue?
And/or a solution to this?

It's driving me nuts. If I'm unable to use the standby mode and have to restart the MBA every time, the whole concept of picking up where you left off is useless.
Everything was working on 10.15.1 … I can't understand how Apple can screw up every single OS they got. iPadOS 13.2 was working alright, 13.3 makes my iPad Air 2 sluggish like hell with up to 10 seconds to open an app following the lock screen.
As much as I love my Apple products – the software right now is a mess beyond anything I've worked with on these machines.

Thanks in advance for any input.
VSG

I have similar problems on my late 2016 MBP and my wife's early 2019 MBP - both running 10.15.2. Multiple crashes every day; often Finder but sometimes crashing apps like Activity Monitor.