How do you stop a mac from overheating??

You've done some great troubleshooting so far. Thanks for the clear & precise details as it is most welcome.

FYI, fans running at high speed do not necessarily mean the Mac is overheating. If the Mac detects a problem with one of the sensors, the Mac will run the fans at high speed just to be safe to protect the Mac. Also, if macOS doesn't communicate properly with the hardware, then it can also trigger the fans to run at high speed although this is extremely rare.

Anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software can cause these problems as they interfere with the normal operation of macOS and won't look out of place to users since users tend to install them in the first place. If you have these apps installed, then uninstall them by following the developer's instructions since these types of apps are not needed on a Mac and usually causes more problems than they solve. To look for possible software issues, run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. You can try booting into Safe Mode which prevents third party software from launching automatically during boot & login.

Run the Apple Diagnostics to see if they detect any hardware issues. Unfortunately the diagnostics may report a battery issue when using a third party battery even if the battery is good since some third party batteries may not respond as the diagnostic expects. The only way to know is if the diagnostics were run immediately after the battery was installed in order to get a baseline.

Infamous XC wrote:

The guy that replaced it told me he had cleaned the area as well.

You may want to ask what the guy meant by this. It may be relevant if he cleaned up any liquid residue or corrosion.

The replacement third party battery is very likely to be the source of the problem as well if third party software is not the source of the problem. The quality of third party Lithium-ion batteries is extremely poor even when purchased from a reputable vendor such as OWC or iFixIt which is why I always recommend an official battery replacement whenever possible.

I noticed a few things in the report that may be causing the problem.

It appears your Apogee software ONEDaemon has crashed 48 times. It may be a problem with this drive included with the Apogee software, or perhaps some other third party software is interfering with this item. Make sure this app is completely up to date and is compatible with macOS 12.x Monterey. You may even want to try and uninstall the app (must use the developer's uninstaller...check with them for instructions), reboot, then reinstall the app with the most recent version compatible with macOS 10.12.x.

I see you have an Antivirus One login item and Safari extension. Uninstall both of these. While they are not integrated into the lower areas of macOS, it still may be causing macOS to work harder than necessary which can cause the laptop to run hot. Is this software even running in the test account you created? If not, then it isn't the source of the problem since the test account had the same issue. If this software is also being used in the test account, then uninstall them (or prevent them from running by disabling them).

I would also turn off MalwareBytes' real time scanner as well. While MalwareBytes is less problematic on macOS than all the other options, the real time scanner will still interfere with the normal operation of macOS again causing the laptop to run hotter. There really is no need to run an anti-virus app on a Mac. If you feel you have accidentally installed malware or adware, then it is Ok to run MalwareBytes to deal with it, but there is still no reason to keep MalwareBytes constantly running afterwards.

I see that you had CleanMyMac installed at one time. CMM is notorious for causing issues with macOS. Usually uninstalling CMM tends to resolve the problems, there is always a chance it could have modified something which is causing problems long after CMM has been uninstalled...it is one of those unknowns.

This leads me to the next item....there appears to be part of a macOS installer still partially "installed" (probably from a macOS update). There appears to be two of these items with one part apparently already removed while the other part is still running all the time. The part that is still running may be getting stuck since the rest of it is not present. With all the recent macOS security additions, I'm not sure of exactly how to remove these two items.

The write speed on your SSD is extremely slow. This could be caused by macOS working very hard and perhaps writing lots of data to the SSD, or it could indicate a file system issue, or perhaps even a failing SSD. You can try running Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container to see if there are any file system issues. Within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors are listed. If there are any unfixed errors listed, then try running First Aid from Recovery Mode, otherwise you will need to perform a clean install by first erasing the drive followed by reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup (may be best to just restore the macOS user account in order to prevent possibly bringing back any possible software issues).

Normally I suggest running DriveDx to check the health of the SSD since it provides an option for a full report in text form making it great for posting here, but currently the DriveDx download link is broken. You can try using SMART Utility to check the health of the SSD. I don't know if this app provides a text report or whether you will need to post a screenshot of its health information (the most important part is the screen showing all the health attributes sort of in a table like form and the errors window if any errors exist in the latter window). If there is no option for a text report and if it is difficult to screenshot the table of health attributes, then you may be able to use the command line to create a text report of the information since this app utilizes a free & open source project for retrieving the drive's health information...let me know and I can provide the instructions.

FYI, apps like DriveDx and SMART Utility require manual review & interpretation of the health information to know whether any errors are worth worrying about. With SSDs, not all errors are necessarily bad. For hard drives, the errors are usually taken seriously and usually indicate the hard drive should be replaced. SSDs must be treated differently.

The EtreCheck report shows this laptop has no backups. I highly recommend having frequent & regular backups or you risk losing important data. There are a lot of ways of losing data especially when using an SSD.

Infamous XC wrote:

Thank you for the information. It's not just that the fans are loud, the macbook is also almost constantly hot to the touch.

Thanks for confirming.

I ran apple diagnostics and it found no issues. The brand of battery is an SMP battery, which from a quick google search is apparently a legit apple battery supplier.

That is what Apple OEM batteries use, but keep in mind some third party suppliers can fake information to make their parts appear legitimate. I'm not saying that is the case here, but unfortunately these days scammers are running rampant. It is good the diagnostics did not report any issues as that may indicate that the diagnostics like the battery. Unfortunately the only useful diagnostic is one which reports an error (or freezes during testing). The diagnostics are usually pretty good about detecting cooling system issues and sensor issues, so a passing diagnostic for these things is usually good.

I ran Etre Check and the only major issue was being critically low on disk space. Could that be causing the issue? Thanks again.

Yes, low disk space can cause problems. You should always have at least 20GB of free space available at all times for the normal operation of macOS. You may need even more free space depending on your workloads since even 20GB of space can disappear very quickly. Running out of free space on an APFS volume may result in not being able to delete any files in order to free up space due to how the APFS file system works (requires a clean install by erasing a drive so may lose data if backups are not current).

Why don't you post the EtreCheck report so we can review it. The regular contributors have a lot of experience reviewing EtreCheck reports and can notice things in them which may go unnoticed by regular users.

How does the laptop work while booted into Safe Mode?

You’re headed for another repair. Whether the overheating here is entirely independent of the repair, or is related to the previous repair whether parts or technique, is not something that can be determined without a direct look. And maybe not even then. Swollen batteries can cause additional damage, for instance.

Overheating is usually a hardware issue, whether problems with the battery or some other component, or problems with the cooling, or the ductwork is clogged.

What is the status of and cycle count of the battery?

Infamous XC Said:

"How do you stop a mac from overheating??: I have a 2015 macbook pro running Monterey 12.6.3 that's been overheating every day for awhile now. I have a 2015 macbook pro running Monterey 12.6.3 that's been overheating every day for awhile now."

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Troubleshooting Overheating Mac:

It might be a bug in the update. Apple might come out with a fix, but they'll only know of this if it is reported.

Report this to Apple:

Do your Part: Report this to Apple. Apple may not get back to you directly, but the more feedback Apple receives on this, the more they will know what is going on, and what needs to be fixed in upcoming updates.

1. Go Here: Feedback - macOS - Apple
2. Select: "Bug Report" for the "Feedback Type"
3. Comment: that this all started after installing an update, and how you have troubleshot it thus far. Include the URL to this thread.
4. Proceed from there as necessary

If the laptop's cooling system is unable to manage, then the system will throttle the CPU speed/frequency to idle speeds (800MHz) in order to allow the cooling system to recover and keep the laptop safe. I've rarely seen this to be necessary.

A clean install of macOS (erasing the drive) and restoration of just your macOS user account should resolve the problem if it is being caused by any or a combination of software issues I listed. If the SSD has a hardware issue, then there are third party SSD alternatives from OWC.

DO ensure that your MBP is operated on a hard, smooth surface.

Soft or irregular surfaces can easily restrict the airflow slots located at the sides and rear of the case.

You can operate it on your lap if you’re careful to NOT restrict the slots