Apple We've Got a Problem - High Sierra Shut Down Issue.....

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Level 3

546 points

Apple We've Got a Problem - High Sierra Shut Down Issue.....

All,

I am noticing an increasing amount of threads related to the High Sierra random shut down issue. Here is a quick synopsis of my experience so far. Given ALL of the troubleshooting below, I think this is a software issue with High Sierra and we may have to wait for future updates in the hopes that the issue is fixed. I hope this helps for those who are having this issue:

Here is what I have done so far:

1) Performed multiple SMC/PMU resets

2) Restarted my Mac in safe mode and then restarted again in normal mode

3) Restarted Mac in "recovery mode" and performed a First Aid within Disk Utility (no issues)

4) Performed two Apple diagnostic tests by restarting in diagnostic mode (no issues)

5) Installed Apple Supplemental Update and 10.13.1

6) Reinstalled High Sierra over itself with the latest installer

After doing all this, I still had the shut down issue, so I contacted Apple Support and took my Mac to the Apple Store. The Genius also ran their own hardware/diagnostic tests and did other troubleshooting. The Genius determined there were no hardware or other issues. After doing all this, Apple helped me perform an erase and install of the entire operating system and we performed a fresh install of High Sierra. I was careful to restore necessary apps from a backup without restoring all setting.......AND......STILL HAVING THE SAME ISSUE!!

Bottom line is that I think we have a software issue with the new High Sierra. There are no hardware issues with my Mac and there were absolutely no issues before the High Sierra upgrade. After performing all of the above troubleshooting, I am thinking that we might have to wait for future software updates to see if this issue is resolved. I am hoping that Apple is looking at this because there were also a few other folks at the Genius Bar with me who had similar issues on High Sierra.

I am glad to try and provide some logs or other diagnostics for Apple if this would help, but this is getting increasingly frustrating and I hope we can find a fix soon.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Nov 12, 2017 6:56 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 17, 2017 4:59 PM in response to jbiedlin

I updated to 10.13.2 the day it came out, but it has had no effect. Yesterday while on the phone with Apple, it shut down four different times, each 10-15 minutes apart. I did everything they said and also reinstalled High Sierra and it shut down twice more today. Does anyone know if there's a relatively pain-free way of downgrading back to Sierra? It was very stable for me. I'd really love to be able to do it without erasing and restoring everything.

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

52,973 points

Nov 12, 2017 7:20 AM in response to jbiedlin

As this is a user-to-user forum, you should consider filing a bug and providing the logs and such there

BugReporter (Free ADC (Apple Developer Connection)) account needed for BugReporter

<http://bugreporter.apple.com>

Anyone can get a free ADC account at:

<https://developer.apple.com/register/index.action>

NOTE: If you have panic reports, you could post them. Sometimes Panic reports can be useful

Kernel Panic reports: Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder -> /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2546>

<http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200553>

The panic report should have "panic" in the file name.

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Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

52,973 points

Feb 23, 2018 8:11 AM in response to jazzdnny

Kernel Panic reports: Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder -> /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2546>

<http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200553>

The panic report should have "panic" in the file name.

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Answer 4

BobHarris

Level 9

52,973 points

Apr 30, 2018 7:25 PM in response to dazman0406

apple please sort out an update to this software problem

This is a user-to-user technical support forum. Apple is not reading the posts.

If you wish to communicate with Apple, there is the "Contact Support" link at the top of this page. You can also send macOS Feedback

<https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html>

They will not reply, but it does get read.

And finally, you can file a bug report

BugReporter (Free ADC (Apple Developer Connection)) account needed for BugReporter

<http://bugreporter.apple.com>

Anyone can get a free ADC account at:

<https://developer.apple.com/register/index.action>

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Answer 5

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Nov 12, 2017 7:33 AM in response to BobHarris

Hi Bob - Thanks for the reply. I will try and file the bug report. Unfortunately, there are no panic reports in the folder you mentioned above. I will keep looking in the folder and see if any panic reports are posted.

Thanks,

Joe

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Answer 6

Dec 5, 2017 11:45 AM in response to jbiedlin

I have exactly the same problem, and have done exactly the same things, with exactly the same result... it's still randomly shutting down. The only difference is the length of time in between shutdowns. Sometimes, it'll do it every hour or two; other times, it'll do it every 10-15 minutes. This morning, it was doing it almost every 5 minutes rendering my MacBook Pro essentially useless. The only thing I've found that works (so far) is to restart in safe mode and just leave it that way. Of course, that disables a lot of stuff and leaves the user experience really jagged, but at least that's nominally useful. But if there isn't an update that fixes this by the time I get back in the US this weekend, I'm going to take it in to the Apple Store and have them help me downgrade it back to Sierra.

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Answer 7

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Dec 6, 2017 12:38 PM in response to Steve Mouzon

Hi Steve,

Thanks for commiserating with me and sorry to hear that you are having the same issue. It is indeed frustrating. I believe that Apple released the 10.13.2 update today and I am hoping that this issue has been addressed in the update. I have just downloaded the update and will plan to test things out overnight.

As mentioned above, filling out a bug report and providing logs on bugreport.apple.com will also help to draw attention to this issue and get a fix. It definitely seems to be software related as opposed to a hardware issue. Have you also considered signing up for the Apple Public Beta Testing program? This is also an opportunity to test pre-release software and provide logs and bug reports to Apple.

Let's hope this is resolved with the recent update.

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Answer 8

Dec 17, 2017 3:33 PM in response to jbiedlin

I'm having exactly the same issue (random shut-downs). I've been working on this with AppleCare and my Mac store for exactly one month. Have wiped everything from the hard drive...reinstalled High Sierra...even gone to the websites of my applications and downloaded fresh versions. But the issue persists. I have spent hours and hours and hours on this. So very frustrating.

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Answer 9

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Dec 17, 2017 5:15 PM in response to Steve Mouzon

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear that the latest update did not make a difference for you. The 10.13.2 update seemed to work for me and I have had no further issues.

So, the easiest way to downgrade back to Sierra is to create a bootable install disk of Sierra. If you search bootable install Sierra there should be a number of articles that will explain it and you can do this very easily through Terminal. Basically, you have to download the Sierra installer and then you run a command that will put the installer on a thumb drive. You will then have to restart your Mac and boot to the thumb drive and you should be able to install Sierra. Here is also a good MacWorld article that explains some options:

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-remove-macos-high-sierra-down grade-3581872/

While not ideal, the easiest way is to do an erase and install and then restore your files from a Sierra backup if you have one. It doesn't take that long and this is the cleanest and best way to get your computer back running the way you liked it with Sierra.

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Answer 10

rutilate

Level 1

11 points

Dec 21, 2017 7:54 PM in response to jbiedlin

The challenge is that formatting is impossible if you upgraded to APFS. Sierra bootable disk won't reformat into Journaled, and High Sierra won't format in anything other than APFS. I don't know that Sierra will install on an APFS formatted disk, will it?

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Answer 11

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Dec 22, 2017 1:15 AM in response to rutilate

rutilate - if you are going to revert back to Sierra you will have to perform the erase and install option due to the formatting - you are correct on that. You can use the Sierra bootable disk to boot your computer onto the boot drive and then you should choose the disk utility option to erase your hard drive. Once you erase the drive, you can then select "Mac OSX Extended Journaled" for the new formatting and then reinstall Sierra. Does that make sense?

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Answer 12

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Dec 22, 2017 8:03 AM in response to rutilate

hi rutilate - so, I actually have not downgraded myself as I was able to get my MB Pro running well with the latest 10.13.2 upgrade. The issues I was having after upgrading to High Sierra now seem to be fixed, so I thankfully did not have to do a full downgrade. I had researched it quite a bit though What you are saying makes sense though. If your Mac is currently running High Sierra and formatted with AFPS, then that seems logical that you would have to use the High Sierra bootable disk in order to reformat the drive. As long as you are able to reformat to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then you should be good for the downgrade. Once you reformat, then you can restore your Mac from a prior Time Machine backup of Sierra if you have one. This would probably be easiest.

Here is another article I found that also explains the process and is consistent with what you explained.

http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/12/downgrade-macos-high-sierra/

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Answer 13

rutilate

Level 1

11 points

Dec 22, 2017 10:06 AM in response to jbiedlin

Thanks for doing the digging. I did find that article; the challenge that I'm finding is that the High Sierra disk utility only reformats in APFS, and the Sierra disk utility throws an error when trying to format my APFS disk.

If I can get past the disk formatting issue, I should be golden.

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Answer 14

jbiedlin Author

Level 3

546 points

Dec 22, 2017 12:10 PM in response to rutilate

Rutilate - instead of using the boot disk, try restarting your Mac in recovery mode and enter disk utility through recovery mode. You should be able to erase the drive and change the formatting within recovery mode. Once that is done, then try and restore from a Sierra backup (also while still in recovery mode).

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Answer 15

jayymacc

Level 1

4 points

Jan 7, 2018 1:39 AM in response to jbiedlin

This has worked for me :

Home | Random Shutdown on Macbook Pro

I removed the word "sudo" from stage 3.

Stage 5 (which is in Terminal in normal mode) just needs a space between the 3 elements of the command as obviously you can't do line breaks as written here.

You need to be back in recovery mode/Terminal for stage 7 which re-enables the System Integrity Protection which would normally stop you tinkering with the rogue extension which appears to be implicated in the problem.

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