High Sierra macOS freezing and stops

Oh gosh - Now I'm really scared. I haven't done any Final Cut Pro X editing since updating to High Sierra. Honestly, I'm afraid to find out. I get the impression Apple makes it really hard to downgrade in an attempt to prevent downgrading. Why did I upgrade? Arrgg! Now I can't go back to the way it was. I'm ignoring all updates from this point forward. This just messes with my life too much.

Apple edited my link to youtube - because it shows problems with High Sierra. Whatever.

<Link Edited by Host>

@stevegoldfield - upgraded automatically? I think I've delayed upgrades on iOS and then they'd install automatically while I was sleeping. But, macOS upgrading automatically reminds me of how Windows would automatically restart your computer after an update - without ever bothering to ask. For lower versions of Windows you couldn't turn off the automatic reboot (at a random time) feature unless you hacked the registry. You could be smack in the middle of something important - and then it'd reboot automatically. I'm feeling pretty negative about Apple and macOS right now. I started using a MacBook a couple of years ago - but I think I might have missed the good years.

Time Machine is not bootable. A clone is an exact copy of your drive and is bootable. Open System Preferences > Startup disk. You will not see Time Machine as an option to startup.

Time Machine does backup the files that contain your passwords, but it's not easily recovered from Time Machine backups. I suggest you look at the following password managers. Some come with free version but limited data that can be store. If a free option does not work out for you, I would recommend 1Password not only for price but for reliability and use.

https://1password.com/

https://www.dashlane.com/

https://lastpass.com/

There are certain items that must be in the Keychain app like email account passwords or you would have to enter every time your account connects. For sites where you log in with your browser, you can select to use the iCloud Keychain, but this only works in Safari and not other browsers.

Recently, Apple starting pushing High Sierra installs to users that have “Download newly available updates in the background” checked. More info here: http://tidbits.com/e/17633

Apple’s Software Update automatically downloads High Sierra in the background and then presents the notification offering just two choices: Install and Details.

If you don’t want to install, the only way to cancel is to click Details, which launches the App Store app and displays the High Sierra description, and then quit App Store.

To stop future auto downloads...

Go to System Preferences > App Store. Uncheck “Download newly available updates in the background”. This will keep the updater from downloading.

Mine is Macbook Pro 2015( 13", 512GB and 16GB ram, osx 10.13.2). I am having the same issue as well after upgrading to high sierra. No matter which application I was using, it could stuck and hang there like forever. Honestly, before this macbook, I have years of thinkpad usage and never had such kind of really annoying issue. Without alfred, I could have dumped this macbook into trash long time ago....

So, is it correct to say that with Time Machine there is absolutely no possible way whatsoever to backup passwords stored in Safari unless you're forced to use iCloud? That's been my experience - Apple concurs. I'm highly disappointed. There are zero issues with restoring passwords in Chrome (passwords happily backed up using Time Machine). I'll have to make the switch to using a password manager of some-kind - so thanks for those links.

I'll be downgrading as soon as possible (this whole cursor freezing constantly throughout the day is awful).

Oh, that reminds me, is there a good way to detect WHEN I upgraded? I need to know due to a slight complication in recovering the old operating system and recovering document files created after installing High Sierra. I think I upgraded within the last two weeks - but I really don't know the exact day that occurred. So, for the moment, I need to do a ~sort of~ at-home computer forensics to determine the day I switched operating systems.

David

Yes, I know about keychain - that's where passwords are kept. I don't use iCloud - and never will. As far as the whole password restoration debacle goes (see my other post on that): According to Apple the only way Time Machine can backup Safari and Mail passwords is to use iCloud. I call that a ridiculously weak excuse.

silver_mica wrote:

According to Apple the only way Time Machine can backup Safari and Mail passwords is to use iCloud.

Again, from my experience, Time Machine does backup and restore the Keychain, which is where all passwords for Safari, Mail and the system (WiFi, etc.) are stored - no iCloud required. Apple must be referring to iCloud Keychain, which is the way they sync passwords between devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.).

Time Machine didn't restore my passwords - I contacted Apple - that ticket was escalated and I was eventually told I would have to use iCloud to get my passwords. The bottom line is that it didn't work - and I wouldn't expect Time Machine to be capable of backing up my passwords in the future. There's a lot more information on that topic in my other post. But, I would definitely run tests before expecting Time Machine to backup passwords.

I believe High Sierra had been automatically downloaded some time before I had initiated the upgrade - but that's a great idea - to check the App Store for a download date.

Spent a month on that topic - restoring lost passwords. As far as I am concerned this issue is closed (unresolved, but closed). I last left off with Apple unable to retrieve my passwords and telling me that I had to use iCloud to restore my passwords. This is documented.

I should point out that I restored to a different machine - not the original.

It's possible that there's a permission issue with those files in the keychain that have my passwords. Also, it wasn't clear if the encryption checkbox was originally checked in Time Machine - which I understand would prevent Time Machine from storing the password files in the first place. But, I believe this box was checked because it appears the keychain password files were backup and brought to the new machine. I'm not sure if encryption is on by default in Time Machine.

In the future I'll use a password manager and will clone for major upgrades and whatnot. Aside from the passwords Time Machines seems to have worked out well.

I too have similar issues

i thought it was perhaps because my hard drive was filling (70gb free on 1tb) but have since removed files (180gb free on 1tb) but issues persist:

frozen on sleep - loss of keyboard and mouse

suspended animation - can move mouse but nothing activates on click

the other day my clock slipped 60 hours out of sync - I didnt want to restart as I had text typed in a field online, alas I lost the work and the compunter is till crap upon restart

just trying to search ‘about this mac’ now but when I click nothing happens

os x has been full of glitches for a few years now

apole have dropped the ball on their os and continue to neglect people (who rely on) using their equipment for years professionally. The ones who paid a fortune when the company was bankrupt long before the glamour of fanboys lining up in the street like fools for the latest igadget

don‘t forget your supporters or the gear that you’ve long been recognised for

i’m typing on my iPad because my i7 with 16gb of ram is frozen

nobody will respond to any of these messages irrespective of how many hundreds or tousands who ‘have this problem too’ because customer service is so far from their profit margins that we can all just grumble amongst ourselves

UNTIL ADOBE BRING OUT PROGRAMS ON LINUX - PLEASE HELP !

I’ve just rebooted at least 10 times and can’t get into my laptop. It either reboots to tell me to restart at the login screen (which I can’t do) or it gives me a forgot my password screen which I also can’t do because neither the curser nor the keyboard respond. I can’t believe Apple has stranded us with this disastrous upgrade. I’m a 27 yr Mac user and this is the worst.

Hey Alison, don’t bother mentioning your 27 year association w a company that was bankrupt at the start of the century. I recently had one of the worst UX support experiences I’ve had with Apple deciding 73 days was sufficient time to finally replace a bricked iphone after updating, took so much effort and research on consumer law etc and I was dismissed when telling the ‘genius’ I’d been a 25+ year user ‘we treat everyone the same’ which equals ‘like cash cows’ to be gauged and gorged at every opportunity

os x has been buggy for years but they don’t care

Meanwhile I found the 10.13.2 update which after restarting ever so cleverly informed me OS cannot be installed on this computer

brilliant

is a slow/poor performing computer better than one that won’t start after updating?

Stand on your left leg, right arm raised high and while saluting hop vigorously until exhausted. Then repeat.

8 hours and 32 min remaining on restoring from back up

Lucky there's nothing I shouldn't be doing work wise eh?

Although this is off-topic to the original post, I felt it was important to set the record straight, so I just ran the following test to verify that Time Machine does in fact backup and restore passwords stored in the Keychain. Here is what I did:

1. Verified iCloud Keychain was turned off and no password manager was active.
2. Went to a website in Safari for which a password was stored (in Safari/Keychain), and logged in there using the stored password.
3. Launched Keychain Access, and verified that the password was stored there.
4. Went to Safari Preferences -> Passwords, typed in my Keychain password, then found and deleted the entry for the aforementioned website.
5. Switched to Keychain Access.app and verified that the password was no longer stored there.
6. Quit both Safari and Keychain Access.
7. Navigated to ~/Library and moved the Keychains folder to the Desktop. Immediately got a message that iCloud login was disabled.
8. Using Time Machine, restored the ~/Library/Keychains folder from an earlier snapshot.
9. Logged out and back in (not sure if this step was necessary).
10. Launched Keychain Access, verified that the password entry was restored.
11. Launched Safari, went to Safari Preferences -> Passwords and verified that the entry was restored.
12. Navigated to website and logged in with the restored password.

Don't believe me? Try it yourselves. Let me know what you find out.