How To Fix Frozen Mac/M1 Mac/MacBook Air Without Losing Work

How do you unfreeze your Mac/MacBook Air?

The most common scenario is that your Mac or M1 Mac froze during apps or programs working. Or even worse, it stuck exactly when you open the desktop.

Usually, you can wait a few minutes to let the app buffer, and then it can go on working. But sometimes, it is in vain. In this case, you need to try some other ways.

Here, we offer efficient solutions for troubleshooting your MacBook Air that froze on a specific app with a spinning wheel.

Force quit the frozen app

If your Mac freezes when using an app but is still responsive on other programs, it shows that the app freezes rather than your Mac computer. You can force-quit this app to end the long-lasting unresponsive process.

Here's how to force close a frozen program on Mac:

1. Select the Apple menu > Force Quit.
2. Choose the app and click Force Quit from the Force Quit window.

Or, you can press the Command + Option + Esc keyboard shortcut keys to open the Force Quit menu. Then, select the app and press Enter to close it.

Force restart your Mac

If unfortunately, you fail to force quit the unresponsive app, or the entire MacBook freezes after login, you can try to force shut down your Mac and then restart your Mac. That's because rebooting the Mac can get the stuck system back in good condition.

If the cursor won't move, you can force reboot your Mac with these steps:

1. Press the power button for seconds to force your Mac to shut down and wait about 10 seconds.
2. Press the power button again to restart your Mac.

If your cursor is responsive, click the Apple menu > Restart to reboot your MacBook.

After the Mac restarts, check if it continues unresponsive.

Unplug the external devices

Sometimes, the corrupted or incompatible peripherals will lead to your Mac freezing. If you have plugged some external devices recently, unplug them. Then, replug them one by one to figure out the culprit.

Update your Mac

Perhaps, the outdated system is not compatible with the latest software and slows down your Mac performance or results in your Mac freezing.

This problem is more usual on the new M1, M1 Pro, or M1 Max Mac because much third-party software hasn't been updated to support the powerful Apple Silicon Mac and macOS Monterey.

Or, the system bugs make your MacBook freeze. You can update your Mac to fix this problem.

1. Open the Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.
2. Click Update Now or Upgrade Now to update your Mac to the latest macOS version.

Remove recently installed apps

If you've installed apps recently and your MacBook Air freezes whenever you open these apps, you need to take care of them.

Some third-party programs carry a virus or are incompatible with your Mac. When you run them, it will slow down or freeze your Mac.

So, you can uninstall these apps one by one to find out the troublemaker and enable your frozen Mac back to normal.

Boot your Mac in Safe Mode

If you've failed in the above three ways, you have to try to safely boot your Mac.

Safe Mode can clean up some re-creative cache files to replenish the insufficient memory (RAM), and it can repair some hard drive issues. Moreover, in Safe Mode, you can uninstall the recently installed third-party software that caused your Mac or M1 Mac to be frozen.

To boot into Safe Mode:

For an Intel-based Mac, you should shut down your Mac first. Then restart your Mac and hold the Shift key until the Apple logo appears.

For an M1 Mac, you need to shut down your M1 Mac and wait about 10 seconds. Next, press and hold the power button until you see the startup disks and Options on the screen. Finally, press and hold the Shift key and click Continue in Safe Mode.

 Note: Don't worry that force quitting an unsaved document, restarting your Mac, or shutting down your Mac will make unsaved files lost. In most cases, it won't. Read the following part to recover your unsaved Word.

Free up more memory

If your memory (RAM or Random Access Memory) almost wears out, there's no sufficient space for cache files generated by running the system and programs. Therefore, your MacBook Air freezes from time to time.

You can do the following to free up memory on your Mac:

• Uninstalled the unused and old apps and installers.
• Delete cache files in the Library folder.
• Remove the useless downloads.
• Empty your Trash.

Check and repair your startup disk in macOS Recovery

If your startup disk has any errors, your Mac will perform abnormally like frequent crashes or freezes. You can use the OS built-in tool - Disk Utility First Aid to check and repair your startup disk in macOS Recovery mode.

Here's how:

1. Restart your Mac and immediately press down the Command + R keys until you see the Apple logo. For an M1 Mac, hold down the power button until the startup options appear, then choose Options and click Continue.
2. Select Disk Utility from the four macOS utilities in macOS Recovery mode. 
3. Select the startup disk at the left sidebar of the Disk Utility window and click First Aid at the top > Run.

Then, wait for First Aid to check and repair errors on the startup disk. But note that First Aid only repairs the detected minor errors on the disk. If your MacBook Air is still frozen, you could try to factory reset your Mac or contact the Apple-authorized service provider for more help.