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Macbook Air (2017) entirely unresponsive

starting two days ago, every now and then everything becomes unresponsive ( including finder, mouse, and keyboard ) and the screen basically freezes until i shut it down and start up the macbook again.

MacBook Air

Posted on May 15, 2020 10:02 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 15, 2020 10:56 PM

I recommend that you try out the three basic troubleshooting steps before getting into reseting and restoring if necessary.

  • Start your MacBook in SAFE MODE. Hold down the SHIFT KEY during Powering up your Macbook. More details on ➔ Safe Mode. When you are at your desktop then open DISK UTILITY app and run FIRST AID on the volume(s) on your SSD. After that, shut down the MacBook Air and then Restart normally.
  • If the above does not solve things then Reset SMC as shown here ➔ How to Reset SMC.
  • If that does not solve things then Reset NVRAM/PRAM as shown here ➔ How to Reset NVRAM/PRAM.


Let us know if one of the options solve the issue or not. Thanks.


Axel F.

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 15, 2020 10:56 PM in response to Trenton_2917

I recommend that you try out the three basic troubleshooting steps before getting into reseting and restoring if necessary.

  • Start your MacBook in SAFE MODE. Hold down the SHIFT KEY during Powering up your Macbook. More details on ➔ Safe Mode. When you are at your desktop then open DISK UTILITY app and run FIRST AID on the volume(s) on your SSD. After that, shut down the MacBook Air and then Restart normally.
  • If the above does not solve things then Reset SMC as shown here ➔ How to Reset SMC.
  • If that does not solve things then Reset NVRAM/PRAM as shown here ➔ How to Reset NVRAM/PRAM.


Let us know if one of the options solve the issue or not. Thanks.


Axel F.

May 18, 2020 10:20 PM in response to Trenton_2917

Hello Trenton-

You didn't fix it in Recovery mode, you just ran Disk Utility in recovery mode. Disk Utility can be run from with macOS while it is running as well. What you need to do is reinstall macOS through recovery mode.

Here is some great information on Recovery Mode in article by Apple ➔ How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery. You should install macOS Catalina if you have not done so.


Axel F.

May 18, 2020 10:04 PM in response to Axel Foley

it's been happening again and everytime i boot in safe mode and they say to fix it in recovery so i go to recovery then disk utility then run first aid then it says every thing is fine, but the macbook still becomes unresponsive and says i need to fix it in recovery even though i just did it a couple of times.


also it seems to only happen around midnight

Jun 2, 2020 11:38 AM in response to Trenton_2917

Hello Trenton,


When you run in SAFE MODE. Does your MacBook Air begin to freeze right away? If YES then this may suggest a hardware issue and will need to be examined by Apple at the Apple Store or at an Authorized Service Center.

One other and last thing to try is to Boot in Recovery mode and then ERASE the entire disk using DISK UTILITY and then Reinstalling the macOS. If you have a Time Machine backup then you can recover from there AFTER macOS is installed.


Axel F.

Macbook Air (2017) entirely unresponsive

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