Critical System Failures and App Crashes – MacBook Air M4 (macOS 26.3.1)

Honestly, Apple, this is a joke. I bought a high-end MacBook Air M4 less than a year ago to work, not to spend my day rebooting. Since the macOS 26.3 update—and even after installing 26.3.1—the system is a disaster. I'm forced to restart at least 4 times a day just to keep it functional.

Specific failures I am experiencing:

Constant App Crashes: Frequent crashes of PyCharm, AlDente and Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave).
System Bugs: Inability to open new browser tabs, broken screenshot functionality, and severe sleep mode issues.
General Instability: The OS is completely unstable, requiring multiple daily reboots just to perform basic tasks.

It’s been over two weeks and it feels like you've abandoned your users. For a premium machine, this is absolutely unacceptable.

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 26.3

Posted on Mar 7, 2026 8:20 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

70,982 points

Posted on Mar 9, 2026 7:22 PM

If Safe Mode doesn't solve the problem.....

Most of the crash logs are showing crashes or high CPU utilization related to the file system:

Diagnostics Information (past 60 days):

2026-03-08 23:17:23 spotlightknowledged High CPU Use (7 times)

2026-03-07 23:08:36 FPCKService High CPU Use (5 times)

Executable:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FileProviderDaemon.framework/XPCServices/FPCKService.xpc/Contents/MacOS/FPCKService

2026-03-07 18:34:36 apfsd High CPU Use (5 times)

2026-03-07 18:30:57 duetexpertd High CPU Use (3 times)

FYI, "duetexpertd" appears related to synchronizing between devices, but I'm not entirely certain.

I would try running Disk Utility First Aid as described in the following Apple article:

How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility - Apple Support

Even if the First Aid summary says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll through the report. If there are any unfixed errors or warnings, then run First Aid again until they are gone. If after several scans, the errors/warnings remain, then the file system cannot be repaired. Depending on where the errors/warnings are located will determine the least time consuming method to fix the problem.

If the file system is not the problem, then perhaps rebuild the Spotlight index.

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17 replies

Mar 13, 2026 8:57 AM in response to Yoav_Wasserman

report

Mar 14, 2026 2:20 AM in response to CT

How do I do that? I have my Mac for a year, but some tasks are still new to me.

Critical System Failures and App Crashes – MacBook Air M4 (macOS 26.3.1)