Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Lol , when all else fails , blame flash. Problem is the issue still happens without flash installed .
 
  • Like
Reactions: BeefCake 15
Why doesnt anyone point that this "official advice(?)" is coming after months?

My 15 inch MBR literally died because of this issue. Not crashed, not froze, died. AppleCare couldnt solve the problem because apparently the SSD died in a very weird way.
So it's clearly not about updating the OS or flash, even if it is related to the OS and/or flash.

My opinion is that it's certainly related on of the latest OS patches.

If someone calls this a "bug" I'm gonna strangle him with a blender cord. What kind of priviliges do you give to the flash so that it csn screw your hard drive (if it is related to flash)? And Which bug burns your SSD and kills your flagship PC product in a way that even your technicians cant figure out?

Do I really have to tell your developer website crashed a zillion times again only today, and your Apple ID pages crashed last week showing a complete white page for multiple people on macOS, iOS, windows and android?

Just get out of SW business. Yes, Microsoft used to crash a lot, too. But at least they knew how to fall back to blue screen of death, not literal hardware death!

Everything was perfect when it was Apple Computers, and it all started when you changed it to Apple, claiming that you deserve to expand your territory. Bulls..t!
 
Reset PRAM & SMC. Run volume verification in Disk Utility. Shut down at least every couple of days, or whenever you're not using the computer, with the option 'reopen windows when logging back in' disabled (unticked).

Could you confirm if this makes a positive difference?
I've been a Mac user all my life and did all those obvious things. Including an Erase & Install of OS X when v10.11.5 was released. I have no third party web plugins installed and the most advanced piece of software that exists on my MacBook Pro, next to OS X, is Microsoft Office 2016 (legit copy). Hell, I actually brought it in at the Amsterdam Apple Store thinking it was a hardware issue. They needlessly pulled it open and couldn't find anything wrong.

So there you go.
 
My late-2009 iMac kept freezing (the whole system, not just Safari) on both 10.11.4 and 10.11.5, and flash was never installed. Pissed me off so much, I just put it back on Mavericks 10.9.5 and haven't has a single issue since.

My tip is to keep Chrome installed, and use it for the few things that still require Flash. Chrome has flash built in, AND keeps it updated automatically (unlike installing Flash directly where you have to update it yourself).

If you MUST use flash, using Chrome (or Safari with Chrome just for Flash sites) is the way to go. I'm not a big fan of Chrome otherwise but keep it in my arsenal for this reason.
This in conjuncture with Safari's Develop menu "open page with" option is also really handy.
 
Last edited:
Why doesnt anyone point that this "official advice(?)" is coming after months?

My 15 inch MBR literally died because of this issue. Not crashed, not froze, died. AppleCare couldnt solve the problem because apparently the SSD died in a very weird way.
So it's clearly not about updating the OS or flash, even if it is related to the OS and/or flash.

If your SSD failed, a software issue wouldn't have caused that. Correlation≠causation.

AppleCare couldn't solve the problem? Do you mean they weren't able to fit a replacement SSD? Or they just couldn't recover your data?
 
  • Like
Reactions: centauratlas
Just had my 15" non-retina MBP hard crash on me today, no Safari involved, just system apps... Needed to cut the power. I'm running the latest OSX update available.

Unlikely Apple will "investigate" the underlying issue here, since I'm running an "obsolete" machine... seems to be getting worse with every major OS release. I used to look down on Windows people five years ago, but I think now it's actually the other way around..
 
I've been a Mac user all my life and did all those obvious things. Including an Erase & Install of OS X when v10.11.5 was released. I have no third party web plugins installed and the most advanced piece of software that exists on my MacBook Pro, next to OS X, is Microsoft Office 2016 (legit copy). Hell, I actually brought it in at the Amsterdam Apple Store thinking it was a hardware issue. They needlessly pulled it open and couldn't find anything wrong.

So there you go.

Sorry if I came across patronising in any way, I didn't mean to imply you hadn't already tried those things. Just always best to check :)

I hope Apple will get this patched for you soon with 10.11.6. Out of interest, may it be worth signing up to the PB to see if that makes a positive impact? I suppose it can't get any worse :confused:
 
Just had my 15" non-retina MBP hard crash on me today, no Safari involved, just system apps... Needed to cut the power. I'm running the latest OSX update available.

Unlikely Apple will "investigate" the underlying issue here, since I'm running an "obsolete" machine... seems to be getting worse with every major OS release. I used to look down on Windows people five years ago, but I think now it's actually the other way around..

Respectfully, what you've described is not massively helpful. Having the system crash while running the latest iteration of OS X does not in any way mean that OS X caused the system crash.

You have the non-Retina MBP. Do you have any hardware upgrades for it? Just to name one: if you haven't ever fitted an SSD, mere wear-and-tear over a number of years could cause the HDD to begin failing. Heck, even the I/O alone on a 5400RPM HDD could cause the problems you've described.

If you create a new thread in the MacBook Pro section, I'm sure we can run some diagnostics and go through some troubleshooting steps to identify the issue. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: centauratlas
This bug does not only affect the MacBook Pro 13", but I've had the exact same issue occasionally for a year with my MacBook Air 13" as well:
- Most of the time when I watch a flash video in Safari, nothing goes wrong
- But once in a while, maybe once a month, after closing the video's tab in Safari, the whole computer freezes, cursor included.
- The freeze lasts for about a minute, then it resumes for a fraction of a second, then freezes again for about 30 seconds.
- After the second freeze the GUI starts working again, but the scrolling will be choppy in every app, and the whole experience will be bad.
- Nothing else helps but to restart the computer.
- Same issue remains even after installing every update immediately for the past 1 year for both OS X and Flash.
 
AppleCare couldn't solve the problem? Do you mean they weren't able to fit a replacement SSD? Or they just couldn't recover your data?[/QUOTE]

They actually acknowledged that it is SW related but couldnt tell more. They wanted to replace but its out of guarantee and I dont wanna pay for it and started to use my other MBR.

I've been using that MBR since the day it was launched, installed thousands of apps, games, development, db tools, design tools, nothing happened until now. Then I saw this thread and thought it matches what I've been through.

Tht thing is that a few days ago I took it, although I was told it was dead, and tried to install lion (which was its OS at the time I bought it. It downloaded and installed and it was perfect, no issues whatsoever. Then I couldnt stop there and wanted to update it to the latest OS and it all started again, even before I start to install any app kr extension, not even flash. It was a freshly installed OS.

So Its 1000 % related to the OS, only to the OS.
 
They actually acknowledged that it is SW related but couldnt tell more. They wanted to replace but its out of guarantee and I dont wanna pay for it and started to use my other MBR.

I've been using that MBR since the day it was launched, installed thousands of apps, games, development, db tools, design tools, nothing happened until now. Then I saw this thread and thought it matches what I've been through.

Tht thing is that a few days ago I took it, although I was told it was dead, and tried to install lion (which was its OS at the time I bought it. It downloaded and installed and it was perfect, no issues whatsoever. Then I couldnt stop there and wanted to update it to the latest OS and it all started again, even before I start to install any app kr extension, not even flash. It was a freshly installed OS.

So Its 1000 % related to the OS, only to the OS.

Wait, so they wanted to replace the SSD? Or the Mac itself? They said it was software related but couldn't tell you any more? And the original OS was Lion?! You must have the Mid-2012 15" rMBP. That's a 4 year old machine.

Hardware can suddenly fail. Again, correlation does not equal causation. Plenty of people's 2011 15/17" MBPs began to show signs of the GPU failing straight after upgrading to El Cap. This does not mean that 10.11 caused the graphics issue. It just made it apparent.

Furthermore, SSD technology in 2012 was comparatively in its infancy. The failure rate was much higher. They could support less lifetime writes. Plus your model has documented issues with the GPU failing.

Unless you can elaborate further on what exactly was said/done to make you think it was a software problem – or even provide the Genius Bar report, and why they couldn't just reinstall the OS, which is what would resolve a software issue – I'm afraid I'll have to take what you're saying with a pinch of salt.

EDIT: I appreciate you said that the problem reoccured after updating to the latest OS. But again, that doesn't mean the OS is to blame. 10.11 is much more graphics-heavy than 10.7, with all its animations and features. Also on your model, it uses Metal rather than OpenGL. It could just as well be the graphics card creating the issue. In fact, as I write this out, I'm more convinced that's probably what's causing it.

EDIT 2: Lemme grab an expert opinion! @Weaselboy, what do you think, if you'd be able to have a quick look over what they described? Graphics card or something else?
 
Last edited:
My 15" late 2014 MacBook Pro (2.5GHz with 750M) has the same issues ever since I uninstalled Flash. I'm not planning to reinstall it either, my Mac sounded like a 747 (with the accompanying engine heat) whenever I watched Twitch VODs, something that hasn't occurred ever since I got rid of that pest called Flash. The downside is just that Safari (and in turn the rest of my system) freezes whenever I close out of YouTube (directly to another website, not via the Top Sites menu) whenever I have a video paused.
 
My parents' 13" Retina Macbook Pro was having issues with freezing. Latest OS X installed, and no flash. Turns out, it was a bug with the old logitech wireless (not bluetooth) mouse that they used with it. I unplugged the usb receiver and the freezing stopped. I told them to get used to using the trackpad (easier to use anyway, in my opinion), or to get a better wireless mouse.
 
Well said. There are still companies out there that utilise their databases from a DOS-based system, let alone 'upgrading' to Windows XP.

If you're editing the odd Word document and watching a YouTube video every now and then, I'm sure you can uninstall Flash, pat yourself on the back for getting rid of a resource-hog application, and laugh at everybody else who still uses it.

The real world isn't that simple, though.

When everybody keeps accepting this as a fact, in 10 years we are still discussing this issue without getting anywhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: keysofanxiety
When everybody keeps accepting this as a fact, in 10 years we are still discussing this issue without getting anywhere.

JGRE, I completely agree with you. I really do.

However, it is what it is. It's the case right now, it was 10 years ago, and it may be the same a decade from now. If there's no alternative, there's nothing we can do about it right now. We can try to make a fuss, and that's pretty much all we can do.

There should be more pressure on the developers and companies to get rid of these technologies. The trouble is that developing in a new language or platform means development time. Development time = money. The fat boardroom cats don't know about technology, so they don't see the need to do it. They just see their employees as numbers on a spreadsheet, and their users as revenue. Some soak up more of their money. Others soak up less.
 
When everybody keeps accepting this as a fact, in 10 years we are still discussing this issue without getting anywhere.

Its not about accepting, its about budget, staff, cut-over support, and a whole slew of real world issues. Prima Donna's like to think that IT budget rains from the sky. No, it comes from whats left after making sure production maintenance has everything they need to keep that damn lines going making product. IT is overhead, not a profit center for a whole lot of companies.
 
I concur the solution is crap, I've always had Flash disabled on Safari and only use FF if I really need to play Flash. I thought it was a random act up on my Mac, still freezes randomly and acts up while using Safari.
 
LOL.
It is genuinely funny to read Apple forums sometimes and see the Apple-slanted perspective some people have on the real world.
Flash is still widely used by a lot of people, and even a lot of older corporate Applications. You would have no idea.
Do you even know how this damn OS works? Flash is already built-in, there's no question I'm manually installing a new package for Flash.
 
I think Apple should be wording more along the lines of "we're still working on it with part of it fixed in 10.11.5" because it appears that the issue goes back to the driver change that was introduced in 10.11.3 and turned everything to crap. Btw, the problem still does appear even with Chrome and Flash because Flash still links back to hardware acceleration which depends on a buggy driver - you can avoid the freezes by right clicking on the video and disabling hardware acceleration (although it might adversely affect battery life). The easiest solution would be for Apple to provide an option to disable hardware acceleration for video playback in Safari which would at least provide some breathing space until the problem is actually fixed.
 
Reset PRAM & SMC. Run volume verification in Disk Utility. Shut down at least every couple of days, or whenever you're not using the computer, with the option 'reopen windows when logging back in' disabled (unticked).

Could you confirm if this makes a positive difference?

Shutting down at least every couple of days. Not a thing that would help. In fact the issue happens on my MacBook Air, twice today.
 
LOL.
It is genuinely funny to read Apple forums sometimes and see the Apple-slanted perspective some people have on the real world.
Flash is still widely used by a lot of people, and even a lot of older corporate Applications. You would have no idea.

Corporate Apps using Flash?

Now that's a joke!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BlandUsername
.5 has fixed the crashes but they have been replaced with 10 second freezes.

only happens on youtube for me after i close a tab.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.