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

[Stinsle]

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

Since you mentioned it, mine does that, too.

 

[anthonymoody]

Check the Kernel Panic thread(s) - there is a LOT of this going on. Some with external monitors, some with replacement and/or external SSDs. No easy solution except to set my Mac to never sleep or turn the screen off.

 

[Boardiesboi]

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.

I can report that after turning off "put hardware to sleep whenever possible" in the energy saver settings, my MBA no longer freezes when I open the lid. Hopefully that's the only reason and not 10.5.2 itself.

 

[cubbie5150]

I clean installed on my mid-2014 15" MBP when 10.15.2 was released.

I can't figure out why, but my machine will run just fine, then all of a sudden, whenever I try to open an image using Preview (no matter the size) or a file using TextEdit and Pages (again, no matter the file size), I get spinning beach ball that freezes the system for 5-10 seconds. I've rebooted several times, and a couple hours ago I ran a terminal command to repair disk permissions; figured it might be worth a shot. So far, so good, but I expect within the next 24 hours I'll get spinning beach balls again.

I really should just revert back to my CCC Mojave backup, but I just wanted to give Catalina more than a few days trial.

 

[jpn]

I can report that after turning off "put hardware to sleep whenever possible" in the energy saver settings, my MBA no longer freezes when I open the lid. Hopefully that's the only reason and not 10.5.2 itself.

glad my advice helped yr situation

 

[MacRS4]

For what it's worth, turning on Amphetamine and stopping my imac Pro sleeping stops the crashes, so with my 'pro at least it's something to do with sleeping.

 

[Rodan52]

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

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I always hate to have to tell users this but if you are running the original HD in your MBA then it is 6 years old and displaying the classic symptoms of a dieing drive. It’s also often an installation or reinstallation of an operating system that pushes a failing HD over the edge to a complete crash. I would suggest you make a full backup now, either Time Machine or better yet a clone if the drive is up to it. A clone will enable you to easily restore to a new SSD but Time Machine will do.

 

[VSG]

Hey @VSG ... any updates?

Sorry for the late reply, but I wanted to be sure and didn't have my MBA with me during the holidays.
Unfortunately the problem persists. Yesterday I simply wanted to shut down my MBA but with no luck – then, today, I woke it up from sleep, wanted to open a new Finder window and it hung up again.

I haven't downgraded a macOS-version before and I'm not eager to do so … if only I knew Apple was aware of the issued and fixing it in macOS 10.15.3 …

Yes, it could very well be that the issue is being caused by a third party app. But since everything worked flawlessly with 10.15.1 and suddenly started with 10.15.2, I kind of doubt it. Plus, there obviously are other people here experiencing the same issue.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be happy to try them out.
Best regards,
VSG

 

[GoodWheaties]

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I always hate to have to tell users this but if you are running the original HD in your MBA then it is 6 years old and displaying the classic symptoms of a dieing drive. It’s also often an installation or reinstallation of an operating system that pushes a failing HD over the edge to a complete crash. I would suggest you make a full backup now, either Time Machine or better yet a clone if the drive is up to it. A clone will enable you to easily restore to a new SSD but Time Machine will do.

MBA’s have been SSD only since 2010. I don’t think MLC NAND would be failing in 6 years of normal use.

 

[s54]

Mine is doing the same thing: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-sleep-mode-after-upgrading-to-10-15.2215853/

 

[tommiy]

I had similar issues on 10.15.2. I restored back to 10.15.1 and this enabled sleep on the 2017 MBP to work again without crashing.

 

[vaugha]

My 2019 mba restarted on its own while on 10.15.1. I was like wtf? Never had this issue before. I also have another issue of freezing with my 2019 mbp 15” on 10.15.2. Catalina has got to be the worst macOS in several years.

 

[GV123]

I had similar issues on 10.15.2. I restored back to 10.15.1 and this enabled sleep on the 2017 MBP to work again without crashing.

How do you restore it back to 10.15.1? I sadly did not time machine mine. Got some annoying app issues running 10.15.2 on my 16".

 

[tommiy]

I had a CCC backup. I don;t know how to go backwards unless you had a back up. Sorry.

 

[cekistler1]

I have an iMac, 10.15.2, It locks up daily 4-5 times a day. Only remedy is to press power button and reboot. I send report every time to Apple. Living in a Windows world again.

 

[tommiy]

Yes very much so with the last release of Mojave and all Catalina to date for myself. Its been a terrible experience and one that makes you think if win10 may now be better......I've wasted so much time addressing issues in each release that now I actually run a separate SSD to boot off and upgrade and run from before determining if I upgrade my MAC. What a process for a user to go through because the quality of the releases is so poor for myself. I don;t use anything taxing either just Office and less than a handful of other programs. My biggest problem is the OS rather than any of those programs. All logged over at Apple Communities and really don;t expect that they will get any action. I've simply decided that I will no longer update until I knw a release works with my external monitors and is stable ie. does not crash from sleep etc. Its nice that Apple fix security issues in minor releases but unfortunate that they seem to break existing functionality in doing so.

 

[getrealbro]

Every year during the holidays, I do a fresh install of the latest macOS on an SD card or USB stick, to see if it’s ready for prime time on our Macs. As luck would have it, I installed 10.15.2.

In addition to being generally disappointed (e.g. AirPlay 2 is still not system wide, Photos still can’t rotate an iPhone slow motion video, etc.), Catalina crashed twice overnight when it was idle. So I’ll be sticking with Mojave until Apple produces a macOS that’s more stable.

GetRealBro

 

[Rodan52]

MBA’s have been SSD only since 2010. I don’t think MLC NAND would be failing in 6 years of normal use.

 

[xnsys]

You can add me to the list - and this has been happening to machines since 10.15 - it's not just related to 10.15.2

These are the issues I'm seeing on various MacBook Pro's from 2018 to 2019, including the new 16".

• Occasional system wide freeze where nothing will open or work, hitting restart will do nothing and just freezes having to hold power button down.
• Sometimes when waking from sleep if there has been a message activity, where mail or iMessage wakes the machine temporarily to display alert will result in the core graphics being completely choppy and only a reboot will fix it, if the problem above isn't requiring a hold power button to switch off.
• Occasional choppy audio when CPU pushed - this has been happening since 10.15, seems better in 10.15.2 but still does it occasionally, and it is loud - users have been worried it will blow the speakers in laptops - mainly happens with HTML5 videos in YouTube / Twitch etc...
• Unable to launch server share connections from finder, getting the error "Cannot be found" - logging out and back in fixes temporarily

It's the whole system freeze and choppy graphics that are the most annoying to users, so much so that we have rolled back to 10.14.x - and as a result the hardware refresh program has returned 8x 16" MBPr devices and we have sourced some 15" which are 10.14.x compatible.

10.15 IMO from an enterprise perspective is a total and utter nightmare - from a home perspective it's windows Vista.

 

[loekf]

Not sure if it adds anything, but on my iMac a little app called Automounter and specially its helper app (its is in the Appstore) caused Finder and eventually macOS to slow down to a crawl and hang.

Automounter automatically mounts network shares, Apple cant seem to make a decent solution.

Removed it and no more hang ups.

Already reported the bug to the makers in NZ, but no response.

 

[xnsys]

I don't necesarally think it's a problem with Automounter - but in the way Apple and the implementation ration of SaMBa is handling networking shares - and I'm thinking that this is the main reason I'm seeing so many finder freezes, which in turn freeze the entire machine.

I've seen this behaviour before with macOS 10.10....10.11 was better but nowhere as good as 10.14 for handling network shares - if you had an interruption such as a WiFi glitch, meaning the Mac couldn't communicate with the server, it would freeze the entire machine.

I'm also having doubts to the stability of WiFi in 10.15.x as well, seemed to get a load of disconnects reported from the WLC controller from these machines, which I didn't get with the same hardware before with 10.14, and even after downgrading form 10.15. to 10.14...

Wondering if the WPA3 implementation is causing anything strange to happen? Only Apple would know and I've filed a few reports in the Feedback assistant app.

At the moment, and first time I've had to say this in a long time, for an enterprise environment, 10.15 is just not ready.

 

[star-affinity]

Check the Kernel Panic thread(s) - there is a LOT of this going on. Some with external monitors, some with replacement and/or external SSDs. No easy solution except to set my Mac to never sleep or turn the screen off.

I had a Kernel Panic a month ago upon wake and then turned off the setting for the computer to go to sleep automatically (you can still sleep it manually) and I haven't seen a Kernel Panic upon wake since. I hope Apple is on it with the 10.15.3 update.

 

[xnsys]

I had a Kernel Panic a month ago upon wake and then turned off the setting for the computer to go to sleep automatically (you can still sleep it manually) and I haven't seen a Kernel Panic upon wake since. I hope Apple is on it with the 10.15.3 update.

I feel your pain - it would be nice to not wake up to this message 1 in 3 mornings...and this is on a fresh install, SMC and PRAM reset...can't use sleep on a MacBook Pro reliably with 10.15.x by any stretch of the imagination - and it's not hardware as does it regally on 3 machines.

 

[xnsys]

Just to add to this, one of my colleagues has just made an interesting observation - he thinks that this whole crashing issue could be the graphics card problem, and to do with power-nap, so we are going to turn that off and see what happens - it's a gimmick and not really needed anyway, so we shall see..

Reason we are thinking along these lines is because this is exactly what happened in 10.10...

Seems that with every release something reverts back to having the same bugs that were fixed previously.

 

[VSG]

Just to add to this, one of my colleagues has just made an interesting observation - he thinks that this whole crashing issue could be the graphics card problem, and to do with power-nap, so we are going to turn that off and see what happens - it's a gimmick and not really needed anyway, so we shall see.

Funny thing is, I have power-nap disabled when in battery mode but still, when I wake up the MBA messages and mails and other things are already refreshed. So, the power-nap option doesn't work properly. Hasn't in 10.14 either, by the way.

I share this feeling:

I don't necesarally think it's a problem with Automounter - but in the way Apple and the implementation ration of SaMBa is handling networking shares - and I'm thinking that this is the main reason I'm seeing so many finder freezes, which in turn freeze the entire machine.

The Finder freezes also seemed to me to be connected with network shares since I didn't see the drives of my NAS starting up when the MBA woke up, which usually happened using macOS 10.14 and up until 10.15.1.

That's why for the last couple of days, I'm trying to disconnect WiFi before setting the MBA to sleep and manually reconnecting after wake-up. It's too early to tell, but until now I didn't get any hang-ups.
Keeping my fingers crossed – and I'll post again in a couple of days if I have any other observations.

Best regards and a happy new year to everyone!