Is there anything more frustrating than your MacBook Pro suddenly freezing? It would especially be frustrating if you’re in the middle of an important work and your device suddenly decides to stop working and you lose all the progress. You might feel like it’s taking forever for your task to finish!
If you’re wondering why does my Mac keeping shutting down and what you can do about it, below given are a few simple solutions that you can implement (depending on what’s causing your device to freeze).
- Force quit apps that are unresponsive
If your Mac is not responding, the first thing to check is the open applications. Are all the apps working? Sometimes, an unresponsive app can freeze your Mac.
If the app is unresponsive, simply quitting it is not going to work. You have to force quit the app. You will find a step-by-step guide on how to force quit apps on Mac at Apple Support.
In case your Mac still doesn’t respond after following those steps, you can reboot your device by pressing Ctrl+Opt+Cmd and also the power button at once.
- Reset the SMC or system memory controller
The SMC takes care of a lot of things and ensures that your Mac runs smoothly including keyboard backlighting and battery management. If your device is continuously freezing, it might mean that you need to reset the SMC. If you are using a Mac that doesn’t have a T2 security chip, you have to press and hold the Shift+Ctrl+Opt buttons and also the power button for 10 seconds. Then you have to let go of all the buttons and again press the power button to switch on your device.
If you are using a Mac with a T2 chip, you need to switch off your device, unplug the power cable and wait for at least 15 seconds. Then, plug it back in and switch on your Mac.
These methods should help to reset the SMC and your device should start to function properly again.
- Reset the NVRAM/PRAM
The NVRAM and PRAM of your Mac are sections of memory that store those settings that need to be accessed quickly by your device. If there is an error with either PRAM or NVRAM, your Mac will freeze. You can try resetting them to solve the problem.
The process for resetting PRAM/NVRAM is –
- Shutting down your Mac and then immediately restarting it
- Immediately press Opt+Cmd+P+R and hold them for 20 seconds. Even if your Mac restarts, keep holding these keys for 20 seconds.
- Release the keys when your device plays the startup sound when it is switched on
You can follow these steps for resetting both NVRAM and PRAM.
- Run Apple Diagnostics
Is the freezing continuing? It might be a hardware issue. In that case, you can run the Apple Diagnostic Test.
For this, you have to first unplug and disconnect all the external peripherals or accessories except the mouse, keyboard, power cord, Ethernet connection, and display. Then, you have to shut down your device.
The next step is to switch on your Mac and immediately press the D key. Keep holding this key until a screen will appear where you have to select your preferred language. Once you’ve chosen your language, you have to wait while the diagnostic test runs. This is only going to take a few minutes.
After the diagnostic test has finished, you will see a list of issues (if any). Along with the issues, you will also find potential fixes. So, you can follow those solutions and see if you can make your Mac work again without any glitches.
If your Mac continues to freeze, you might want to contact Apple and seek professional help.
- Boot up your Mac in safe mode
Loading your device in safe mode might help to fix issues related to freezes or it might help you to discover what’s causing the problem in the first place.
When you boot up your device in safe mode, the integrity of your startup disk will be verified and certain processes and apps will be restricted from running.
To start in safe mode, you can follow these steps –
- Shut down your device
- Turn your device back on and instantly press the Shift key. When you see the login window, release the Shift key.
Then, you have to try rebooting your Mac by using the regular startup procedure. If you can use your device without frequent freezes, it means that safe mode might have fixed the problems. However, if the issues persist, you might want to seek the help of an expert.
If you’ve tried all the above-mentioned tricks and still your Mac continues to freeze, take your Mac to the Apple store and get the professionals involved.
