Level 1

19 points

Notification center hangs in macOS Big Sur

After I installed macOS Big Sur on my MacBook the all-new Notification Center started to hang often. It just doesn't open (either by using the Touchpad or by clicking on the clock in the menu bar) and consumes 100% CPU in the Activity Monitor. The only way I can get it fixed and opened again is by terminating the process called Notification Centre :

After that it restarts automatically and starts to work normally again. I noticed that it happens also when I try to click on the Clear all button at top right corner of a notification group. Looks like a critical bug to me and seems impossible that Apple missed it during testing (but it seems they really did). Does anyone else have the same problem? If it happens only for me then I want to understand the reason behind it (obviously it's associated with configuration).

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 22, 2020 7:57 AM

Top-ranking reply

Onuralp Taner

Level 1

10 points

Posted on Feb 19, 2021 1:36 AM

It happens when I clicked on a grouped notifications. Even it is a safari notification, it will freeze the notification center. It works till half of the day after restarting the MacOS. It is pretty the same timing with I start having lagging issues when I'm switching between desktops.

Edit: It is fixed when I removed the Screen Time widget. The issue gets back immediately when I add the screen time widget.

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D74)

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27 replies

Mar 16, 2021 3:13 PM in response to Onuralp Taner

I've encountered this Notification Center hang on clean Big Sur 12.2.3 installation without any custom widgets installed. But I also had Screen time widget enabled.

dobby007 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 20, 2021 10:26 PM in response to dobby007

Well, based on the discussions it definitely has something to do with Big Sur itself and not specific widgets. I made a couple of experiments and almost thought that I found the culprit. I have a widget called Quick Calendar and I was almost sure that removing this widget was the fix to my problem (as I wasn't seeing it for a while) but then magically the issue stopped occurring for me even with this widget enabled. As for now I haven't seen this bug since like the beginning of December. All I did was removing and adding this widget several times so really I don't know what has happened...

hodaeli

Level 1

5 points

Dec 1, 2020 10:04 AM in response to Tombikos

This is exactly when my notification center freezes also! I have been force quitting from the Activity Monitor but would love to find a longterm solution.

calebd18

Level 1

4 points

Dec 24, 2020 10:31 AM in response to dobby007

Exact same issue on my 16" MacBook Pro. Just noticed it a couple of weeks ago. Have been on Big Sur since launch.

Bickity

Level 1

41 points

Dec 28, 2020 7:20 AM in response to jbryant705

Thank you, this was driving me nuts.

Jan 20, 2021 1:38 PM in response to Bickity

This worked quite well for me! Thanks, @Bickity.

Jan 23, 2021 3:49 PM in response to Bickity

Thanks a lot Bickity, that did the trick.

Feb 19, 2021 2:46 PM in response to Bickity

This seems to have worked for me as well.

SamBudds

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2021 1:46 AM in response to Bickity

@Bickity, this was driving me insane, great spot thank you for sharing!

jpinnix

Level 1

24 points

Mar 10, 2021 4:12 PM in response to Bickity

Thank you so much!!

n3bulous

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2021 9:16 PM in response to dobby007

My solution to this was:

disable all notifications from non-Apple apps
`killall NotificationCenter` to restart
whitelist until you find the culprit

rahulon12

Level 2

343 points

Nov 22, 2020 8:00 AM in response to dobby007

I haven't personally had this problem. Please contact Apple and submit this to them.

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Notification center hangs in macOS Big Sur