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My iMac crashes every day. I was wondering if I reset to factory settings if it would get rid of whatever the problem is. I have a late 2013 iMac running the latest software available for it (macOS catalina Version 10.15.7).

My iMac crashes every day. I was wondering if I reset to factory settings if it would get rid of whatever the problem is. I have a late 2013 iMac running the latest software available for it (macOS catalina Version 10.15.7).

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 14, 2022 2:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 14, 2022 5:56 PM

It see to me that too many people take the nuclear option of wiping a drive prematurely. It's like amputating a painful foot before checking a blister. Must be a Windows thing. Yes, sometimes you need to, but I've not had the need to reinstall ANY macOS since OS 10.2 Jaguar, and we have a lot of Macs in the family, plus I support some pro bono for friends.


Some things to try:


First, is the computer stable in Safe Mode?


How to use safe mode on your Mac


If so, that points to a software, not hardware issue.


Next, creates a guest user account for testing and boot into it. See if the situation changes.


Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support


If you get any messages of advisories accosiated with the crashes, what do they say?


Boot from your Recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to check for hard drive issues.


Have you installed and anti-virus or so-called"cleaning" software? If so, they usually extract a payment in reduced speed and stability. They MUST go. Let your Mac be a Mac.


Test with all peripherals disconnected except the mouse and keyboard.


If those don't change things we'll need a system confg report to see what is crashing.Mor eon that after you try the above items.





2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 14, 2022 5:56 PM in response to cjjenk

It see to me that too many people take the nuclear option of wiping a drive prematurely. It's like amputating a painful foot before checking a blister. Must be a Windows thing. Yes, sometimes you need to, but I've not had the need to reinstall ANY macOS since OS 10.2 Jaguar, and we have a lot of Macs in the family, plus I support some pro bono for friends.


Some things to try:


First, is the computer stable in Safe Mode?


How to use safe mode on your Mac


If so, that points to a software, not hardware issue.


Next, creates a guest user account for testing and boot into it. See if the situation changes.


Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support


If you get any messages of advisories accosiated with the crashes, what do they say?


Boot from your Recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to check for hard drive issues.


Have you installed and anti-virus or so-called"cleaning" software? If so, they usually extract a payment in reduced speed and stability. They MUST go. Let your Mac be a Mac.


Test with all peripherals disconnected except the mouse and keyboard.


If those don't change things we'll need a system confg report to see what is crashing.Mor eon that after you try the above items.





Dec 14, 2022 6:19 PM in response to Allan Jones

The computer is not in Safe Mode and I have no cleaning software installed. I use the computer in my kitchen for accessing my recipes and for music. I get a message every time that says my computer closed down because of a problem. It offers me to ignore or to send info to Apple. When this first started (several months ago) I always sent info to Apple but after months of daily doing this I now ignore. I will pay more attention to what the report says when this happens again tomorrow (as it does every day). I will include that information when I have it. I am only thinking of resetting as a last ditch effort to eliminate this issue. I have put it off for months but am very frustrated with constantly having the computer shut down.

Thank you for your response.

My iMac crashes every day. I was wondering if I reset to factory settings if it would get rid of whatever the problem is. I have a late 2013 iMac running the latest software available for it (macOS catalina Version 10.15.7).

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