Entire System Freezes; Mac OS 26.2, M4 MacBook Air. - Solutions welcome.

EtreCheckPro is an excellent tool for sorting out slowness and freezing issues.

Download and run the free version of EtreCheckPro, from > https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Then post back here with your Report, as per > How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

mjohnstn wrote:

Mac OS 26.2

M4 MacBook Air

I have been suffering with long pauses on macOS now for a year and it doesn't make any sense.

It manifests as a whole system freeze in the UI, but some userland and system events continue. For example, typing will stop on screen but as long as it's not too much, will catch up and write the text.

The trackpad will be completely unresponsive (showing this is a system issue)

This happens most often, I notice, when running Pages. But it also happens when not running Pages. Sadly I use Pages a lot.

Sometimes the cursor will disappear, sometimes I'm lucky enough to get the spinning rainbow ball.

When playing a movie, the screen will freeze but the movie will play on, causing me to miss 10 seconds of it.

This shouldn't be happening, obviously. I've reinstalled the system already once and it makes no difference. No process should be able to lock up the whole system like that in 2025.

Follow the advise from @den;thed ad use the Etrecheck application

Remember to post the Full Report

Question if you please for clarifications

"I have been suffering with long pauses on macOS now for a year and it doesn't make any sense.'

Do you mean on macOS 15 Sequoia ?

Reason being that Tahoe was Released Sept 15, 2025

So whatever issues existed would have carried over to Tahoe

The report also includes files installed and running in your launch folders that can be causing a conflict that will not appear in the section titled Major Issues. Don't expect every possible recommendation or problem to appear in that section. You will often see a failing hard drive message there or low disk space that needs immediate attention, but there is much more valuable information provided in the report used for troubleshooting. Also you will see processes that reported a Crash/Hang and CPU usage of processes that may help to identify the problem. The RAM usage reported is current, not from apps in the past.

As an alternative, you can contact Apple directly where they can perform diagnostics on your device, none of which we are able to do on this Support Site. The only way we have to investigate is by getting the details of your unique system configuration.

Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Out of curiosity, does the same thing happen when starting in Safe Mode? It certainly is not a definitive test.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

mjohnstn wrote:

Yeah, I can read the EtreCheck report myself. No major issues.

No major issues, doesn't mean that there are not other issues that need addressing.

Something that can take the whole system down with a freeze is certainly a major issue.

Please post your whole EtreCheckPro report for us to look at.

as per > How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Full Report would be needed in order to offer Full Support

Would has been presented is Only a Fraction of the Full story of this machine

Then, you being somewhat expert in reading the report would be expert enough to solve the problem

Good Luck