I am the only user of my 2015 macbook. Lately, it's began overheating and freezing while in use. Someone online suggested to create a test user account and see if it still happens. I did, and it seems to work fine on the test account. What could this mean? Seems like it's not a hardware issue if the problem only happens on one account. Does that make sense? I guess I could just create a new user account and move all my stuff over to that, but it's a hassle and I'm curious what the problem is. Thank you for any help.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
My macbook pro will overheat and freeze, but only on one user account.
- Thread starter afterthought871
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
it could probably be too loads of apps taking up your ram or loading at the same time i suggest opening 1-2 apps only but if it still freeezes it could be macOS bugs and if you havent updated yet i suggest you do as it may fix your problems 
the problem seems like you have way too many apps or background activities running
the problem seems like you have way too many apps or background activities running
"I am the only user of my 2015 macbook. Lately, it's began overheating and freezing while in use. Someone online suggested to create a test user account and see if it still happens. I did, and it seems to work fine on the test account. What could this mean?"
What it means is that there's something in your user account that is causing the CPU/GPU to "run wild" -- and in doing so, it may overtax the computer to the point at which it shuts down.
This isn't "OS-related".
It's "your-account-related".
Thus -- re-installing the OS probably isn't going to help.
It's going to be "a job" to discover exactly WHAT is causing "the runaway".
It could be one thing -- or it could be a combination of more than one app or process.
As mentioned above, you should consider as to whether you are running too many apps at once.
Are you one of those folks who keeps dozens (or hundreds) of tabs open in your browser?
What I would do is use either your "test" account, or perhaps another "new" account, and start doing some tasks that you normally do using that. You're going to have to be aware of possible permissions problems, and also monitor CPU usage.
Something else I would suggest (and yes, I realize it sounds "off the wall"):
SHUT DOWN the Mac at night, and reboot in the morning, if you're not doing that already.
It's surprising how much gets "cleaned out" when you do so...
What it means is that there's something in your user account that is causing the CPU/GPU to "run wild" -- and in doing so, it may overtax the computer to the point at which it shuts down.
This isn't "OS-related".
It's "your-account-related".
Thus -- re-installing the OS probably isn't going to help.
It's going to be "a job" to discover exactly WHAT is causing "the runaway".
It could be one thing -- or it could be a combination of more than one app or process.
As mentioned above, you should consider as to whether you are running too many apps at once.
Are you one of those folks who keeps dozens (or hundreds) of tabs open in your browser?
What I would do is use either your "test" account, or perhaps another "new" account, and start doing some tasks that you normally do using that. You're going to have to be aware of possible permissions problems, and also monitor CPU usage.
Something else I would suggest (and yes, I realize it sounds "off the wall"):
SHUT DOWN the Mac at night, and reboot in the morning, if you're not doing that already.
It's surprising how much gets "cleaned out" when you do so...
Thank you for the response. It's not a tab issue as I usually have like 5 tabs max open, and I try to keep it to as few as possible as it's annoying to me having a lot open. I'll start shutting it down at night. I've also been wanting to install some anti virus software. Do you think that could expose something that's causing an issue?
There has never been a Mac "virus" discovered "in the wild" (outside of a test environment).
Not one, ever.
You might consider downloading MalwareBytes.
It's free.
It will run for about 30 days, then ask if you want to "upgrade" to the "pay for" version.
NO. Don't do that.
Just convert it to the "free" version. You'll see what to do.
Not one, ever.
You might consider downloading MalwareBytes.
It's free.
It will run for about 30 days, then ask if you want to "upgrade" to the "pay for" version.
NO. Don't do that.
Just convert it to the "free" version. You'll see what to do.
This is most likely due to some background process running wild. When the M1 Macs were first released, Chrome was notorious for this type of behavior as their update service would continually run as a background process and kill battery life as it ran. AV software on a Mac tends to cause more problems than solutions on balance, and wouldn't address the issues you are having, as just one user profile is affected.
A virus scanner and a malware scanner could expose something affecting how your computer runs (malware is more likely than a virus, in my opinion).
Here is an earlier thread about anti-virus software that you might find helpful:
I'm probably just gonna end up buying a new computer, but I was curious what you mean when you say it's going to be a job to discover what is causing the runaway. I've already checked activity monitor and nothing stands out. Apart from that and the steps I've already taken, there's really no more troubleshooting I can do. My computer doesn't even have much on it as I only use it for Logic Pro, Apple Music, and web browsing.
When the computer heats up, I assume it's obvious because the fans get louder. At that time, when the fans are louder, does nothing stand out in Activity Monitor? While the fans are louder (and assuming they stay loud for a while after the following check), if you order the list by % CPU, is there nothing at the top which has a high value?
Even though you only use a few apps now, perhaps you installed some application in the past and there's cruft left over from that (even though you removed the application). There's a chance that in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, a folder unique to each user, that there is some process configured that is causing some issue. That folder should be empty for a new user account. Also, in System Settings, there might configured a login item (again unique to each user) which starts up and causes the problem. Do you know how to check these two things and have you done so?
@afterthought871 hi, I suggested checking in Activity Monitor initially. I've read you already looked what run away processes could contribute to overheating.
Now, apologies ahead if this thought is obvious but few people have got caught out in the past. Make sure under each tab that sorting is in descending order by switching with the small triangle. This way the most intensive CPU or Memory use appears at the top.
Now, apologies ahead if this thought is obvious but few people have got caught out in the past. Make sure under each tab that sorting is in descending order by switching with the small triangle. This way the most intensive CPU or Memory use appears at the top.
There isn't anything suspicious in launch agents or login items. I use Firefox and that takes up a lot of cpu and memory, but in addition to Firefox being listed high in Activity Monitor, there is also FirefoxCP RDD Process, FirefoxCP Isolated Web content, FirefoxCP web extensions, and Firefox CP Privileged Content - all listed high as well. Can I kill any of those or are they needed for Firefox? Thank you.
You can kill each one and pages will start not resolving, only temporary. You can rebuild caches again or restart FF and they're back anyway. The highest single process of those in my case doesn't run above 200 MB.
I run clamXAV only cause my hardware is 13yrs old, it does hog some resources when active but I've only have 8 GB ram and an C2D. As Fishrrman suggested, if you must run something, run malware-bytes as a on demand.
Other browsers showing the same behaviour?
So you're saying there's no point in killing those Firefox ones because they will come back anyways? I ran malwarebytes and it found nothing. I don't use any other browsers. There's some things listed somewhat high in activity monitor like cloudd, WorldClockWidget, NewsToday2, and routined that I guess I could delete as I don't even really know what those are. I just don't want to delete stuff and start having more problems. There is even something listed as "deleted"...I guess I can delete that? haha
I use Firefox all the time. The other day my fans kicked on and the computer got really hot when I had a particular website open. I just closed the window on that website and everything went back to normal. Certain websites are just coded poorly and trigger very bad behavior in some browsers. I'd like to rule that out in your case, so there are a bunch of questions I'd ask.
If you're not running Firefox, do you see any processes with the name Firefox in them? If you're not running Firefox, does your computer ever overheat? If it all happens just when you're running Firefox, does it happen if you don't have any Firefox windows open? Do you always have particular sites open in Firefox?
I've been using my test account and while the computer doesn't seem to be overheating as much (I don't actually hear the fans on this account usually) it's still registering in the red (around 160+ degrees). I'm using the CleanMyMac X app and the temp ranges from yellow to red on this account. I guess this means that the problem isn't actually isolated to one account. I'll start using another browser and see if that helps. I've been using Firefox for years with no issues so that would be weird if that's the problem. Thanks.
Last edited:
Hey there!
I totally understand what you're going through because I've had the exact same computer and faced the same issue. It all began when I updated to the latest version of Mac OS 9, Big Sur 11.7.7. It's been quite a strange experience, to be honest. However, I recently started a new account, and thankfully, everything seems to be working fine now. I'm planning to transfer all my files over to this new account. I'm really glad I stumbled upon your post! It's reassuring to know that I'm not alone in dealing with this.