Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

El Capitan will not restart or shut down.

El Capitan will not restart or shut down after I installed it on my MacBook Pro. It simply hangs up and does nothing and I have to manually shut down by holding the power button down.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 8:53 AM

Reply
148 replies

Apr 7, 2017 4:57 PM in response to buddysat

For those having this problem while trying to install or update the system:


I had this problem with El Capitan and Sierra would not restart after installing, nor would other security updates that had been downloaded. The only time I could restart from the menu would be after running first aid in disk utility, but that still did not prompt the completion of any installs. After researching for hours and trying almost everything that was mentioned, it was during the limbo state of shutting down from yet another ineffective prompt from the Sierra install that on a whim I decided to run diagnostics from the activity log, and boom! It fixed something, and immediately my computer restarted and continued the installation process of all my updates.

Sep 11, 2017 7:57 AM in response to buddysat

For me, what was causing the hang on shutdown was having a mounted drive from another mac wich had SMB activated in shared prefs. I was tiped by posts on another forum to that effect. I deactivated SMB on the other mac and the probleme disappeared immediatly after reboot (somehow, all was good with SMB activated if the shared drive was using AFP instead, but I didn't know how to force that).

Oct 5, 2015 12:07 AM in response to FatMac-MacPro

This issue/bug has been around since OS X Yosemite. My MacBook Pro suffers from the same problem. I have tried all the known suggestions, but they are all temporary. After af few boot-ups and/or restarts the problem occures once again. In point of view there is nothing to do, and we all have to sit and wait, until Apple is focusing on this problem and patching this bug. In the meantime one can only hope, that ones MacBook Pro is not taking damage from the forced shut downs.

Oct 5, 2015 4:27 AM in response to buddysat

I'm having the same problem since upgrading to El Capitan. If I reboot, shutdown, or logoff from the Apple menu, all programs close and the menu bar and desktop icons disappear, but the dock stays. Finder says Application not responding, and it doesn't relaunch. I can open other apps, however. I've been shutting down via command line in Terminal, which works but also seems a bit slower than I expect.


I thought I had a breakthrough after running DiskWarrior 5 and repairing, and a successful reboot... but it was a one-off. It's back to how it was again.


I've tried trashing my com.apple.finder.plist without luck. I've repaired via Disk Utility both in OS and Recovery, and with Disk Warrior. I've shut down all other programs and many background processes before trying to reboot.


It very consistently does the same thing every time. Any ideas or more things to try?

Oct 5, 2015 6:10 AM in response to nerokerr

After some more testing I've found:


1) I made a DiskWarrior boot drive and repaired the disk. No change.


2) When I boot into Safe Mode there are no problems.


3) Normally my Guest account is turned off. I turned it on, logged in, and logged out without doing anything. This was successful. The next time I logged into the Guest account I opened a Finder window. After this I have the same problem everytime I log in as a Guest.


4) I created a second user account. Same problems. However, I now have a User Account icon in my right corner to switcher users. If I use this to go to the Login Window, I can successfully restart and shutdown from there.



Any ideas anyone?

Oct 5, 2015 7:33 AM in response to nerokerr

I have also followed this idea and have been using the Login Window since Saturday. Only difference I have found is that using Finder ( or anything ) on the Guest side does not cause any problem. I have not changed my account, just the settings in System Preferences Users and Groups to put my name ( or icon) up in the right corner of the menu bar. Then click on Login Window and sign out with password. I shortened my password to make it faster. Am I right in thinking that a major problem may be that installing something that calls for a "restart" may not finish installing or would that be accomplished by doing a manual restart?

Oct 5, 2015 9:39 AM in response to bessmyra

You mean that something may have tried to install that needed a restart, but it didn't finish it's job? Hmm... not sure. Is there a way to find out? To me it seems that the problem is in Finder. It's what seems to hang, because rebooting through Terminal or the Login Window is working.


Maybe I'll try to capture a shutdown log of the various methods and see if there's a difference I can spot.

Oct 5, 2015 9:02 PM in response to bessmyra

I don't think this is the source of the problem. My MacBook Pro restarted without problems during installation of OS X El Capitan. This was during the first installation of the OS and second re-installation/repair installation in pursuit of a solution. I have looked at some of the log files and it seems that the cause of the hang/stall of the reboot and/or shutdown is different from time to time.

El Capitan will not restart or shut down.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.