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5 Most Common Mac Issues & How to Fix Them
macOS is a highly reliable operating system. But, ever so often, it shows signs of being sluggish or acts strangely and requires first aid.
Before you bring your Mac computer to an Apple qualified technician or think of getting a new one, you can try to troubleshoot the problem yourself. In most cases, simple fixes do the trick.
Here, please look at some of the standard Mac problems and easy ways to fix them.
1. Overheating
Overheating is a common concern among users of Mac. It is crucial to keep in mind that Mac’s heating up because you’re working on heavy processes is normal. But, if your device is shutting down or overheating even during regular use, it is a sign of a severe problem. You can find here https://setapp.com/ how to fix the issue of overheating. To make sure that you can prevent it from happening in the future, follow these steps:
- Check the fans of your device and if you hear strange noises, shut down your Mac by connecting the power cable. Press the power button while holding down the D key, and you’ll see a set of instructions on the startup screen. Follow the instructions. If you’re using an older version of Mac, select the “basic test”. This diagnostic test will tell you if there’s any problem with the fans.
- Check for applications that are using a lot of CPU resources and battery power. Go to Activity Monitor > Select All Processes > Click CPU > Click CPU Column. Next, you have to sort the most active processes, and if there are apps that are using 70% to 90% of the CPU but are not working on any important task at the moment, you can press Quit Process.
- Disable CPU throttling so that less energy is used and your system conserves battery.
- Lastly, reset the SMC if you’re still facing overheating issues even after doing the steps above.
2. Startup issues
If your Mac fails to boot correctly and you keep staring at a grey or blank startup screen instead of the desktop, you can try booting in Safe Mode. macOS will boot with only the necessary drivers and software in the Safe Mode and check the startup disk. If any directory issues might be causing the startup problems, they will be repaired.
To start your Mac in Safe Mode, press and hold the Shift key. Release the key when the Apple logo disappears. You might have to wait a few minutes before you can see the login screen as macOS is running its diagnostics on the hard disk.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys.
3. Unresponsive applications
It is common to find that occasionally an app might trip and freeze your device. As a result, you won’t be able to do anything, including quitting the app. The best remedy for this is Force Quit.
The Force Quit menu can be brought up from the Apple icon in the upper-left corner, or you can hit Command + Option + Escape. Then, highlight the unresponsive app and click Force Quit.
4. Not charging
Surprisingly, charging problems are quite common among Mac users. If you’re using an older Mac with a removable battery, you can take out the battery and restart it. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you can –
- Try another Mac charger or another power outlet
- Try again after removing the MagSafe 2 adapter
If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you need to reset the SMC (System Management Controller). Resetting the SMC may fix the charging problem and also offer issues like –
- Mac not responding when the power button is pressed
- The computer shuts down or sleeps unexpectedly
5. Slow performance
Is the performance of your Mac slow? If the performance has suddenly dipped after you’ve been using it for a while, the solution might be as simple as restarting your Mac. See if that boosts the speed.
If not, check your Activity Monitor to see which applications are hogging the memory and power of your Mac. For this, press Command + Space-bar at once and type Activity Monitor. Alternately, you can go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
Look at the memory and CPU tabs. If you are running intensive applications or one of them is broken, it might take up too much CPU or memory. Close the application that is eating up too much memory. For this, go to the application and select to quit it from the menu. If the app is locked up, go to the app’s name in the Activity Monitor and click the X or close sign in the upper left.
In summation, these are some of the most common issues faced by Mac users. If the fixes mentioned above don’t solve your problem, you might have to take your device to the service center.
