You’ve woken up in the morning, finished your workout session, and have a pot of freshly brewed ready to help you start your day. However, as you press the power button on your Mac, there’s something wrong. It may be that your system is not starting, you are staring at a colored screen, or the apps you need to finish your tasks are unresponsive. You are immediately thrown into a pit of chaos and don’t know what to do!
Don’t let this be your experience when faced with Mac issues. While Macs are robust machines with optimized software for improved productivity, they may malfunction and behave weirdly. The best way to deal with problems is to have excellent troubleshooting knowledge. This guide will give you detailed troubleshooting tips, so you don’t have to pick up the phone and call your technician or IT department.
Reboot
Before doing any heavy lifting, reboot your Mac if it isn’t functioning correctly. Then, click the Apple logo > Shut Down or Restart.
Rebooting solves most of the issues you might encounter, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth not working, freezing apps, staring at a blank or colored screen, etc.
Start Mac in Recovery Mode
Officially called macOS Recovery, the Recovery mode is a tool helpful in solving many issues without having to take the system to the service center.
You can start Mac in Recovery mode to reinstall macOS, repair the internal disk on your device and bring back the files saved in a Time Machine backup.
To start your Mac in Recovery mode, click the Apple logo > Restart > press and hold the Command + R keys until you see the startup screen > if prompted, enter the password for your Mac > choose the volume you want to recover.
Force Quit apps
Force quitting misbehaving applications is the easiest way to fix unresponsive apps and get back to your tasks. For example, if an app has stopped responding, frozen, or you see the spinning beach ball on the screen, press Command + Option + Escape and click Force Quit in the window that pops up.
Reopen the application to see if the problem persists.
Installed the Latest Updates
Get up-to-date bug fixes and protection by running the latest versions of apps and macOS.
Head to the System Preferences app from the Apple menu to update the macOS version, and then click the Software Update icon. Follow the instructions on the screen.
To update applications on your Mac, go to the App Store and click Updates in the sidebar. If you have obtained the apps outside the App Store, select the Check for Updates option in the app’s preferences window or main menu.
Reset the NVRAM/PRAM
can solve issues related to Bluetooth, time, start-up disks, etc. So if your monitor isn’t displaying properly or the system isn’t booting up correctly, you can consider resetting NVRAM/PRAM.
The most common method of resetting is powering off your Mac > restarting the system, and holding the Command + Option + P + R keys.
Boot in Safe Mode
Sometimes, apps and programs installed on your system may give you a headache. You can verify this by starting your system in Safe mode.
In this mode, your device will run on a stripped-down version of macOS. The apps listed in System Preferences > Users > Groups > Login Items do not load in Safe mode.
When your system starts up in this mode, it will quickly check the startup disk and repair corrupt file systems.
You can enter the Safe mode on an Apple silicon Mac by holding the power button when starting the system. Then, select the startup disk and hold the Shift key > click Continue in Safe mode.
Intel-based Mac users hold the Shift key when the system is booting up until the Apple logo is seen on the screen.
Free Storage Space
If your Mac is unresponsive or the performance is sluggish, your system might run low on space. First, create space by deleting unnecessary applications from your Applications folder. Then, you can go to the App Store and uninstall the apps you no longer use.
Also, go to the Downloads folder and delete all the unwanted files, downloads, attachments, and documents. Empty the Trash once you delete all the items you don’t need.
If you require a breakdown of your device’s available and used space, go to About This Mac > choose the Storage tab. In the Other section, you might see an accumulation of files and documents cluttering your system. Delete them automatically by clicking the Manage button in the About This Mac window and then selecting Optimize Storage.
If the files on your computer are essential and you cannot delete them, you can upload them to the cloud via iCloud.
The Bottom Line
These troubleshooting tips will get you out of any sticky situation you face while working on your Mac. There’s no need to call the technician.