OS X Mavericks freezes during start up.

Same here, I had to restore to Mountain Lion

You might try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

Safe Mode - About

I have a new MacBook Pro (less than two weeks old) that is freezing at various times. I thought this was a hardware problem until my wife's year old MacBook Air just froze for the first time. I 'upgraded' it to Mavericks about a week ago. It never froze under Mountain Lion. Not sure if this is a coincidence but I'm pretty sure it's not hardware.

I booted in safe mode, same results.

Startup – Computer Stops or Delays

Startup Issues - Resolve

Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

Startup Issues - Resolve (3)

Hi Eric,

thanks your suggestions. Unfortunately, I tried everything and my MBP(retina) still hangs. Note that when the machine wakes from sleep with the password prompt screen, things proceed normally after entering the password. The problem occurs after a reboot when the full login screen appears displaying all the user accounts on the machine. When I select my account, then hit return after entering the password, the machine freezes completely (even the time display on the login screen stops updating). I've restored to Mountain Lion for the upteenth time, things are back to normal.

Thanks again, Paul.

I am having the exact same issue with my 2009 iMac.

When I start the machine there is a 50/50 chance of it having the issue you describe or starting properly. When I do experience the issue, I have to press and hold the power button to force it to turn off. Then when I restart it, it often boots normally. It is very annoying never knowing if it's going to work properly.

I always behaves fine waking it from sleep however.

I installed Mavericks via a clean install. I used the same USB to perform a clean install on my 2013 MacBook Air and that machine is completely problem free.

I really wish I could solve this. I expected a fresh install to run like a dream.

This problem seems rare. I have not found many people who have the issue while searching for a remedy.

In case it helps anyone else with this problem, I have discovered what was causing the problem for me.

It was Sophos AntiVirus (v9.0.3).

I've uninstalled Sophos and my iMac with Mavericks is now running perfectly.

(Oddly though, I was running Sophos with Mavericks on my MacBook Air without a problem. Sophos was however definitely the cause of my issues on my iMac)

my macbook is randomly failing to wake up since upgrading to mavericks, every time it happens i have to do an SMC reset

. i was advised on this forum to take it back to the shop which i did. the tech in the shop found nothing wrong but 'luckily' his own macbook did exactly the same thing that weekend and he has yet again blamed it on a bug in 10.9.

as for my scanner problem which is unsupported on mavericks rather than buy a new all in one printer i downloaded vuescan and have full use of my printer scanner back.

I too am having this problem.

it appears to be something trying to load during boot.

if I hit option control escape (to call up the "force Quit") even when the ball is spinning, and once most of the desktop is loaded but the machine is still hanging... I can restart the desktop (sometimes 2-3 times) and it will eventually finish booting.

If I do a PRAM reset (option-command-P-R) the machine starts fine immediately afterwards, but goes back to hanging on subsequent starts.

annoying....

r189

I too am having it on rMBP15(2013).

With a probability of about one third, I will need time of 10-30 minutes to login after startup.

This problem does not improve in the re-installation.

I call to Apple Support, I got the answer that it may FileVault cause that.

However, there is no way to verify it because I can not disable FileVault on account of the security-related.

Do you using FileVault?

My retina MBP started freezing at the Apple icon. I restarted in the recovery mode ran disc utility then reinstalled Mavericks.

Problem solved.

So far, this seems to be the solution to my problems! I've been having problems with my MacBook Pro (purchased in 2009) ever since I installed Mavericks, frequently having to forcibly shut down / power down and restart (often multiple times) before I could get a functional desktop. I rebooted in Safe Mode, ran the Sophos uninstall application, and the computer restarted like a charm.

I'd been suspicious of Sophos since installing Mavericks in late October 2013: after the system upgrade I'd noticed that I had two Sophos icons running in my Menu bar. I should have taken that as a sign to disable / uninstall the software earlier, but it was this Apple Support Community post that prompted me to do so -- thanks!

It was Sophos for me too. Uninstalled and immediately back to normal - phew & thanks !

same problem .. how can i fix it ?