Sonoma freezes / crashes when playbacking videos in Quicktime

Also still crashes if you boot in safe mode, then the problem should be caused by a Quicktime or system bug and not by some third party software. I don't understand how nobody at Apple has seen this and fixed after all those beta versions.

Pretty sure it's Avid Link. Try going into general, log in items and turning off avid!

UPDATE: With the Sonoma update, the issue remains the same. The disc utility in respects to scanning drives for health issues, does not resolve anything. The VLC recent update seems to help with playback of videos -along with the usage of alternative video players. Is a shame Apple has not resolved this, is an even greater shame that I cannot go back to previous OS…even after following Apple’s default instructions …we cannot even create a boot disc/drive because something is corrupted along the way. Apple has lost control, they’re not what they used to be.

Yes I'm having the precise problem with Sonoma 14.1.1, MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020. I'm a scientist and have to give talks with this thing pretty frequently and it has completely messed up several talks now, occurring when the Keynote file I'm using for the presentation gets to a slide with a movie on it, and I'm attached to a projector via an HDMI cable. Several technicians at my university have been trying to debug. Their first suggestion was to use a genuine Apple HDMI adapter - this did not work. Their second suggestion was to try playing the file in a new account: I will test soon and report back. It seems this works for some people but not for others.

The other solution people are reporting is using VLC, which is not an option for Keynote with videos embedded.

This is a total disaster and I don't understand how something this basic is going unaddressed.

Please try the following: play a video via QT and do nothing else! Then move the mouse after a few minutes.

In my case, the videos start and play without any problems, but the computer freezes the moment the mouse is moved. Strange, but that's how it is.

I'm also experiencing the problem with the Apple TV app on MacOS. The machine freezes after a few seconds. Presumably because Apple TV is based on Quicktime files. To play videos, I use Movist Pro, which works very well so far.

So it wasn't Avid. But here's something I found. f you freeze, you can wait. After a few seconds, the screen tries to catch up. You can move the mouse to the top left and click and wait again. after a few seconds teh menu drops down and you can choose shut down or restart. Wait and after a few seconds you can you can hit the return button to verify shutdown.

It's weird that Apple hasn't fixed this yet.

Having the same issues even after updating to 14.1.1. For a temporary fix I'm using IINA player to play all the media types.

Have updated to 14.2 .... and I think it's now fixed! Playing multiple videos in VLC and Quicktime, no freezing etc. Anyone else able to confirm?

ICANHEARUNOW wrote:

THE FIX: ElMedia

That's it, thanks a lot!!!!

Does it do the same thing if the external display is set to extend desktop instead of mirroring?

Again: It is unconscionable that Apple has not fixed Quicktime and VLC freezing issues. It's been years!!!

FIX is EL Media player.

Apple: "Can you Hear US Now?"

If it happens again, quickly pull the display cable.. if you can do that in less than 5ish seconds, it will recover and not crash completely.

skogskant wrote:

Apple if this is an Apple problem when can we expect an uppdate of Sonoma???

Apple is not here. This is a user forum. You can file a bug report from the feedback page.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Yes...Sonoma is freezing videos...I notice this with VLC Player in full screen and 10bit videos (MKV). I tried to go back to previous OS but in doing so I noted that Apple has a f**k up in the process...first, I cannot create a boot up flash drive because the Terminal command won't work...then if I try to go restore from a Time Machine backup, I cannot do that either because when using the garbage Migration Tool...it refuses to do any such restoration...I even had to try via the bootup option method...**** didn't work despite the fact that the bootup options method claims one can restore to previous OS from Time Machine...I have no choice but to hope that Apple finally get this update going...and even then it's no guarantee. I'm now stuck with not being able to play 10bit MKVs on a Macbook Air M1...mind you, I even have a memory manager running in the background which will flush the unused memory...that is no help. I did note that it appears that the live wallpaper thing gets in the way.