NEW MacBook Air (purchased in 2020) shuts down randomly

Hi Brenden. I've had this issue since I bought my new Air 2020 a couple of months ago. Maybe once every 10 days. Just freezes for 10 seconds, wooosh, and then black. Does not restart itself, but restarts if you hit the "touch id" button as normal. No report whatsoever upon restart. It's like the machine doesn't even know that it crashed. Surely there must be somewhere you can point us to get diagnostics for Apple? The "woosh" is entirely unique to this situation so somebody at Apple knows what triggers the woosh, right? Safe mode, however, is not a good diagnostic tool for something that happens rarely. We can't all live our lives in safe mode, and even if we do, what next? What does it crashing or not crashing in safe mode tell us to do next? Thanks. This is an incredibly terrible situation for those of us doing mission critical projects with our brand new machines. Allan

Hey there, and welcome to Apple Support Communities, relampago9!

From my understanding, your Mac is shutting down during use. I’d be happy to take a look at this with you!

If your Mac restarted because of a problem - Apple Support has some great steps if you see a message after restarting your Mac.  

If you do not see an error message, I’d recommend following the steps in: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support There are additional steps listed under “If the issue continues in safe mode” and “If the issue doesn’t continue in safe mode” that can help resolve this for you.

Let me know the results, and have a great day!

So the only way I have been able to avoid this issue is using a software called CleanMyMac X and on it you can clear the RAM, and essentially when I see that my mac is about to run out of useable RAM I clear it and avoid the kernel panics I have been experiencing. Not ideal but prevents from having to deal with these obnoxious reboots... it's a bit ridiculous that Apple has not addressed this issue, it's especially frustrating when we're talking about brand new computers.

Anyways hope that's helpful!

I use my MB Air 2020 for my school and other stuff. It has done dis to me twice!

The first time happened on January 31, 2021 on macOS Big Sur 11.1 where the Battery level will display more than 20%, then shut off and wouldn't turn on when unplugged, and then the battery now jumps all the way to 1% and the date and time will show the incorrect date and time, it took me two attempts to log in because the first time, there was no sound on start up, the screen was completely blank after logging in, the second time showed a black screen with keyboard brightness, and after that, it said "You shut down your computer system because of a problem", and dat's when the battery jumped ALL the way to 1% and was showing the incorrect time.

Second Time happened on Friday, April 23, at 9:15 PM when I was trying to help my friend on schoolwork, it restarted on it's own upon waking up. There were no problems logging in, but I was greeted with "Your computer was restarted because of a problem"

I've also been having the same issue and bought my MBA in april 2020. I also have the i7 version. Furthermore, I've had several Kernel panicks during the summer time but now less often. I spent 2 hours over the phone with apple and now I have to backup everything and update the software which is a bad timing.

I bought my MacBook Air in April 2020 and have been experiencing this restart/shut down issue till this day. Having a heavy work load, I do a lot of multitasking/small editing/collaborative work. Like everyone, video calls have been the majority of my days. The issue first started with any video calling. I had to start using my iPhone for video calls. I called Apple, we rest the disk and it ran fine for a few weeks. Then it happened again. We thought it was a merging issue from my older MacBook Air so I backed up everything on the iCloud and wiped the drive to start over. Updated everything and brought the files over from my iCloud. Everything ran alright for about a week or two and then it began again. I called Apple and brought it into the store for them run diagnostics on it and apparently everything came back fine and the hardware never showed any issues. Started using it again and the same thing began happening. Having to restart and update constantly isn’t very conducive or convenient for my work load. After my last conversation with Apple, the next step is to talk with a Apple senior hardware analyst. Not sure what will happen after that. Clearly there is a problem. But pinpointing it is the issue. Over the past 12 years of owning a MacBook, I’ve never had a bad experience with their devices until now. Hopefully they can find issue soon rather than later.

I bought my 13-inch MacBook Air in August 2020 and recently, like in the past week or 2, it started having the same problem. It randomly shuts down. I try restarting it but I think it just decides to restart on its own, sometimes with the cover closed. I did all the steps I read about to fix it and it still does the same thing, sometimes several times a night, sometimes not for a day or two. I've never had a problem with a Mac laptop before, this is discouraging.

Mine finally shut down and never turned back on. The good thing is I backed it up the night before. I made an appointment with the Genius Bar and took it the next day. He tried restarting it the same way I did with all the tricks. It wouldn’t restart so he sent it off to get it fixed. It’s on its way back now. It was under warranty so there’s no charge. That was about the last day the Genius Bar was going to be open, he said all Apple stores are shutting down again even for repairs.

I am having this crashing issue as well. It happens to me every two to three weeks. It just goes black and shuts down. I have a MacBook Air that I purchased in January 2020. I haven't had extra time to go to the Apple store for support, but maybe I will this summer when the pandemic slows down. It's super annoying because I am on my computer doing work and school work all day, including meetings on Zoom. Any resolution I can do on my own would be appreciated. All my updates are up to date....

Happening to my M1 MacBook Air too.

Been though the whole support system and BS 11.2.2 seemed to have fixed it but now it's back.

I've done all the Safe mode, reload OS and even factory re-set stuff but it's come back again.

They're suggesting bringing it into a Store but not practical during lockdown.

Perversely, I'm glad that I'm not alone so they're hopefully working on it.

How did it go? I've updated to BS 11.2.3 and still have the issue. I have surrendered and opted for a Genius Bar appointment next week. They seem to allocate about 15 minutes. Good luck to them. I spent nearly an hour on the phone to Apple Support without a result!

I also updated to BS 11.2.3.

I've been shutting my computer down at night and I think it may be helping -- I haven't been having the random shut-down-in-the-middle-of-a-task issue during the day. I am not sure that is a good long-term solution, but I am in the middle of preparing to graduate and haven't had a ton of time to fix the issue. Once I graduate and get my Covid vaccine, I may go into the Genius bar and have them look at it. I am glad I am not the only one having this issue. What a huge disappointment from Apple.

This is a physical issue with the device, you must make an appointment and send it in. I had mine replaced and since then, no issues. I had 3 over phone support calls with apple and in person visit. All covered under warrenty.

Hi - So my issue was resolved by Apple in November. I wanted to make sure it was working properly before I replied.

After bringing it in twice with no solution, they finally had a technician get involved. I recorded every shut down and restart and presented the documentation to apple. I also screen shared in with apple support to try and recreate the problem so they could get a feel of what was happening. They shipped it off to the technicians and replaced the logic board and touch ID start up button hardware.

Since then, I have not had any issues with the computer. It was a stressful year with the computer shutting down constantly and restarting, but I have no issues now.

The computer was under the one year apple warranty, plus I have the additional apple care.

I have been having this same issue now for a couple of months. It happens mostly when I am on Zoom or working in iMovie. I hear what sounds like a fan/hissing sound which starts quietly and then gets louder. At its loudest point, it shuts down. I have to manually restart. It logs the error...and the notification states that there was an error and my computer shut down. This is machine is only a few months old. Very upsetting that I am having this problem. Has anyone come up with a solution?

I spoke with a Mac tech briefly who reset "something" for me remotely. It seemed okay for a few days.

I just now ran the software update (Big Sur). And with 20 minutes to go (last leg, right before restart) it started to hiss for about 10 minutes (got louder) then shut down. I let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then I hit the touchpad... it picked up where it left off. Started to hiss again but restarted before the hissing got to its loudest point.

It seems okay for now. But I am nervous about this all happening again. I am also a teacher. And running Zoom appears to be the most problematic. I bought this computer especially for teaching. This is a huge disappointment.

I want to bring this in to get it replaced, but fear that I'll face the same problems. I welcome any and all suggestions, insight etc.

Thank you.

~d~