Mac freezing frequently for variety of reasons

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Step 1

For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes.)

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the BOOT_TIME log message that corresponds to the last boot time when you had the problem. Now clear the search box to reveal all messages. Select the ones logged before the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

For example, if the system was unresponsive or was failing to shut down for three minutes before you forced a restart, post the messages timestamped within three minutes before the boot time, not after. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the end of the log extract—not at the beginning.

If there are long runs of repeated messages, please post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.

When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Step 2

In the Console window, select

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports

(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A crash report has a name that begins with the name of the crashed process and ends in ".crash". A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". A shutdown stall report has a name that ends in ".shutdownstall". Select the most recent of each, if any. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot. It's possible that none of these reports exists.

I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash or panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.

In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)

Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they're very long and rarely helpful.

When you post the log extract or the crash report, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

If you synchronize Contacts with one or more network services such as iCloud or Google, disable all the contact accounts in the iCloud and/or Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences. When prompted to confirm, choose to delete the contacts from the Mac. They'll still be on the servers and on your other devices.

Log out or restart the computer.

If the problem is resolved, re-enable the accounts one at a time, wait for the network contacts to reappear, and test after each step.

Credit for this observation to ASC member tomconrad.

You're sure that Messages is the only application affected?

Back up all data.

Quit Messages if it’s running. Force quit if necessary. After each of the following steps, restart the computer and test. If the problem isn't resolved, quit again and go on to the next step.

Step 1

If you sync Contacts with a service such as iCloud or Google, disable the synchronization in the iCloud or Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences. When prompted to confirm, choose to delete the contacts from the Mac. They'll still be on the servers and on your other devices. Leave the preference pane open.

If Messages works now, re-enable Contacts synchronization, wait for the network contacts to reappear, and see what happens.

Step 2

Make sure you know the ID and password you use with iMessage.

Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.

If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.

From the menu bar, select

Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid

from the menu bar and repair the keychain.

From the Category list in the lower left corner of the window, select

My Certificates

Look carefully at the list of certificates in the right side of the window. If any of them is marked with a red "X" as expired or invalid, delete it. Also delete all items with "iMessage" or "com.apple.idms" in the name, whether valid or not.

Now select

Keychain Access ▹ Preferences... ▹ Certificates

There are three menus in the window. Change the selection in the top two to Best attempt, and in the bottom one to CRL.

Next, select

Passwords

in the Category list. Enter "ids" (without the quotes) in the search box in the toolbar of the window. Delete all items of type "application password" that have a name beginning in any of the following ways:

ids:

IDS:

com.apple.ids:

Quit Keychain Access. Log out and log back in.

Step 3

Hold down the option key and select

Go ▹ Library

from the Finder menu bar. Move the following items from the Library folder to the Trash (some may not exist):

Containers/com.apple.corerecents.recentsd

Caches/com.apple.Messages

Caches/com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent

Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Caches

Containers/com.apple.soagent

IdentityServices

Leave the Library folder open.

Step 4

Go back to the Finder and move the following item from the open Library folder to the Desktop:

Messages

Note: you are not moving the Messages application. You’re moving a folder named “Messages.”

If Messages now works, delete the Messages folder on the Desktop. Otherwise, quit Messages again. Put back the folder you moved, overwriting the newer one that may have been created in its place.

Step 5

In the Preferences subfolder, there may be several files having names that begin with any of the following strings:

com.apple.iChat

com.apple.ids

com.apple.imdsmsrecordstore

com.apple.imessage

com.apple.imservice

Move them all to the Desktop. There may also be a file with the name "com.apple.imagent.plist". Move that to the Trash.

Also in the Preferences folder, there's a subfolder named "ByHost". Open it and do the same thing.

Log out and log back in. Test again. This time Messages should perform normally, but your settings will be lost. You may be able to put back some of the files you moved to the Desktop in this step. Relaunch and test after each one. Eventually you should find one or more that causes Messages to malfunction. Delete those files and recreate whatever settings they contained.

If the issue is still not resolved, quit Messages again and put all the items you moved to the Desktop back where they were. You don’t need to replace the items you moved to the Trash. Stop here and post your results.

If you later decide that you don’t like the results of Steps 3 and 4, you can undo them completely by quitting Messages and restoring the items you deleted in those steps from your backup.