macOS randomly freezing - it just never stops

My Apple experiences were different. I'm bought countless Mac products since 2006. My 2020 iMac was the first Mac that ever had a problem that required support. All my other experiences were stellar.... I had a MacBook Pro with a dead keyboard and it was serviced quickly.

And even with my new iMac, I can't quite chide Apple for it. The problem was faulty memory from OWC. Twice replaced, it still caused the machine to lock up each and every time and even the memory-checking tools did not produce a problem. I fixed it by removing OWC memory and installing Apple OEM Micron memory and the problem immediately fixed. So technically, it wasn't an Apple problem. I just could not get anyone from either camp to definitely say that is was memory. I would think Apple support could run a diagnostic and say "yep... bad memory" but even their tools did not identify the problem.

Sorry you're having such bad luck with your machines. I've recommended Macs for countless people (based on their use) and every person has been happy. I buy Macs because they actually require less hand-holding than the WinTel camp. I run several flavors of Windows on my Mac as virtual machines so I still use both.

More often than not, it is a 3rd party kernel extension that is not yielding the CPU, and/or is blocking some data path (such as network I/O or disk I/O because it is an anti-virus kernel extension and it wants to look at everything, but is not doing it fast enough.

The other possibility is that you have rotating hard disk, and it is failing.

Post the EtreCheck output gakushaburu has asked for (you only need the "Free" Etrecheck version to get a report)

https://EtreCheck.com

Post it in an Additional Text box

First and foremost... do these two items. It resolves a lot of issues. Then we can proceed further if you Mac continues to misbehave.

PRAM Reset:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

Reset SMC:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

There's too little information here to be able to give any real help as it could be a software or hardware problem, but there are a couple of places you could start.

Run Activity Monitor and look at the CPU tab to see if any process is using a very high percentage of CPU and/or is marked as "not responding" (which may appear intermittently).

Download and run EtreCheck to see if the report includes information on problems which could affect performance.

Both of these may take some time if your Mac is not running well.

Sorry it didn't help. It's a first start. If you haven't done so, re-install MacOS. Me personally, I would do a clean re-install and erase the entire storage drive and install cleanly to make sure any and all footprints from installations are wiped out.

Obviously, make sure you have backed-up your data.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Please provide the requested EtreCheck output. We cannot see inside your Mac, and EtreCheck is the best way to provide information without violating your privacy (OK, we will see some of the 3rd party software you installed, but that is it).

As to new Macs, starting with the 2019 16" Macbook Pro, it uses the scissors keyboard, and does not have the bad butterfly keyboard. Every Mac released after that has the scissors keyboard. So if you want a new Mac, you do not have to be concerned about the keyboard.

I have a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 based Mac (2 of them if you count the company Mac), and I find the USB-C ports to offer far more flexibility, and because Apple forced the vendors hands, there is a huge verity of options available, including devices that just plug into a USB-C port without an adapter or dock. And the prices are reasonable. You can even get things like USB-C to HDMI or DisplayPort cables so no adapter necessary. You can charge with any of the ports. The charging cable can also be carrying data.

I have an external monitor that connecs using a USB-C cable (or HDMI and DisplayPort). The USB-C cable carries video and USB to the monitor. And the Monitor has 4 USB-A ports on it for me to plug in old USB-A cables. The monitor also provides power over the USB-C cable to my Mac. I plug in 1 cable to my Mac and I have Power, video, and USB ports. I can unplug one cable and walk away.

You can set the touch bar to display a traditional set of function keys. You do not have to have it constantly changing if you do not want that.

You can get EtreCheck from the App Store if you like. But it is also available as a direct download. If you search the forums for EtreCheck you will find thousands of posts. You can see the kind of information it provides.

Without EtreCheck, the volunteers here do not have much to go on, and getting information out of most users is painful, and a game of 20 questions with both the user and the volunteers getting frustrated.

Mojave is still getting Security updates. High Sierra has dropped off the supported list. If you decide to go back to High Sierra, then be very careful about your Internet access.

If you will not provide EtreCheck output, then we can start the 20 questions

• Using the Apple menu -> About give the details on your Mac. Year, size, memory, storage (SSD or rotating hard disk), CPU, number of cores, etc...
• Run Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> View (menu) -> All Processes -> CPU (tab) and see if when you are having beach balls, if there is a process consuming all your CPU
• Run Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> View (menu) -> All Processes -> Memory (tab) and see if you have processes consuming gigabytes of memory, such that maybe your Mac is paging and swapping.
• Provide the output from

/usr/sbin/kextstat | grep -v com.apple

There is most likely a lot more to ask for, and it would be easier if you gave EtreCheck output, but it is getting late, and I'm going to move on.

I do not know that any of the following is at fault. I'm just asking questions, and speculating.

You have the following kernel extensions. Kernel extensions have unlimited control of your Mac. They can grab the CPU and keep it for as long as they like. They can look at anything and everything they like

Kernel Extensions:
  /Library/Extensions
    [Loaded] LaCieMvumi.kext - com.lacie.driver.mvumi (1.3.21 - SDK 10.14)
    [Not Loaded] YamahaSteinbergUSBAudio.kext - jp.co.yamaha.driver.YamahaSteinbergUSBAudio (1.10.2 - SDK 10.9)

/Library/SystemMigration/History/Migration-29A973C4-FB65-43DA-8610-296B9D457920/QuarantineRoot/Library/StagedExtensions/Applications/Parallels
 Desktop.app
    [Loaded] prl_hypervisor.kext - com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (15.1.2 47123 - SDK 10.9)
    [Loaded] prl_netbridge.kext - com.parallels.kext.netbridge (15.1.2 47123 - SDK 10.9)
    [Not Loaded] prl_usb_connect.kext - com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (15.1.2 47123 - SDK 10.9)
    [Loaded] prl_vnic.kext - com.parallels.kext.vnic (15.1.2 47123 - SDK 10.9)

Does the LiCie kernel extension do any special service for you. Because normally, macOS already knows how to access an external disk and generally does not need any special assistance.

What does the Yamaha Steinberg kernel extension do for you? I assume it has something to do with music or sound, and that maybe you have some special external equipment that needs this kernel extension.

Parallels. For the most part Parallels is a good citizen, and we do not see many if any reports about Parallels. However, if you are running a guest operating system, and you have given that guest too much RAM for its own use, you can cause the rest of your Mac processes to be starved for memory. This can cause the Mac to do a lot of paging and swapping which in turn can cause delays when you switch apps or an app want to access its memory, but has to wait until the contents of that memory are paged back into memory.

You have the following 3rd party processes running on your system:

Launch Daemons:
  [Loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple - installed 2020-05-20)
  [Loaded] com.bombich.ccchelper.plist (Bombich Software, Inc. - installed 2020-05-02)
  [Loaded] com.lacie.driver.mvumi.plist (Apple - installed 2020-05-20)
  [Running] com.privateinternetaccess.vpn.daemon.plist (London Trust 
Media Incorporated - installed 2021-03-14)
  [Loaded] com.privateinternetaccess.vpn.installhelper.plist (? 0  - installed )

User Launch Agents:
  [Loaded] com.privateinternetaccess.vpn.client.plist (London Trust 
Media Incorporated - installed 2021-03-14)
  [Other] com.seagate.toolkit.plist (? 0  - installed 2020-05-02)

User Login Items:
  [Loaded] OneDrive Launcher (App Store - installed 2021-03-18)   Modern Login Item
    /Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/OneDrive Launcher.app

  [Running] SpeechSynthesisServer (Apple - installed 2020-06-29)
    Application  
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app

Carbon Copy Cloner I use myself, and it does not cause me any problems.

Again, what is the LiCie software doing for you. macOS should be able to read and write disks all by itself.

And there is a Seagate toolkit? What is that doing for you? Again, macOS can access disk drives without help from 3rd party software.

You have a VPN. Are you funneling all your network traffic through the VPN? That could be a bottleneck for any app that needs to access the internet.

I do not use OneDrive, so I do not know what kind of load it is putting on your system. But if you make lots of changes to files in the Folder monitored by OneDrive, then OneDrive could be doing a lot of file sync'ing I/O as your modify files. This would put more load on your network connection, and if that network connection was going through a VPN, the VPN might bottleneck.

It's a good first start. Is your Mac freezing every day?

I feel your pain. I bought a $7K 2020 iMac last August and for the first three months, it would freeze, shut down literally after 10 minutes of moderate use. Three months with zero help from both Apple, and the company I bought the RAM from (OWC). Figured it out the problem on my own... It can be frustrating so will try to help. :)

silver_mica wrote:

Had another freeze today. Well, Apple was nice while it lasted.

Other than the PRAM and SMC resets, have you done or investigated anything else since posting the EtreCheck report? PRAM and SMC both deal with firmware settings but in my opinion this is more likely to be a software problem or a failing hard disk.

The EtreCheck report showed that an application (or applications) was using significant amounts of memory? Have you checked which? Running out of memory will cause the freezes you're seeing. Also when the freeze happened again, were you doing something or using an application which you hadn't since the resets?

It used to have this link

https://apps.apple.com/app/etrecheck/id1423715984?ls=1&mt=12

but apparently it has been removed from the App Store.