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User profile for user: Jack Stachowicz
Jack Stachowicz Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

Monterey - locks up desktop on boot up

I'm having an issue with Monterey and my late 2016 13" MacBook Pro. My upgrade to Monterey went great - no issues. However, now when I startup in the morning or have to restart the MacBook Pro - Monterey locks-up with a spinning rainbow wheel once the desktop and Menu bar appear.


Sometimes the lock-up will clear if I let things sit for 3-5 minute. Other times I need to do a hard reboot holding down the power button to restart and then things will be fine.


I'm not sure if this is a cache problem because on occasion various programs will prompt warnings that they need "Full Disk Access" - which they already have. I did a clean up using Clean My Mac following the upgrade but still encounter this startup issue at the desktop.


Is there anything else I can try to see what's causing this?


MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 28, 2021 8:31 AM

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User profile for user: D.I. Johnson
D.I. Johnson
User level: Level 7
23,279 points

Posted on Oct 28, 2021 9:12 AM

I’ll lay odds at 10:1 that CleanMyMac messed up some crucial system files or is otherwise the cause of the problem.


I’d advise you to uninstall CMM per the developers instructions, restart the Mac and see what happens.


You might also try rebooting in safe mode and see how the Mac performs and if that has any effect.

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User profile for user: D.I. Johnson
D.I. Johnson
User level: Level 7
23,279 points

Oct 28, 2021 9:12 AM in response to Jack Stachowicz

I’ll lay odds at 10:1 that CleanMyMac messed up some crucial system files or is otherwise the cause of the problem.


I’d advise you to uninstall CMM per the developers instructions, restart the Mac and see what happens.


You might also try rebooting in safe mode and see how the Mac performs and if that has any effect.

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User profile for user: Jesse Merino
Jesse Merino
User level: Level 1
35 points

Nov 1, 2021 2:00 PM in response to Jack Stachowicz

I am having this same issue. I have tried reinstalling the system twice with no change. I don't have CleanMyMac on my 2018 MBP so I don't think that is the cause. My system seems to work fine for a few second after getting to the desktop until it starts to load something in the background. The major software installed on my MPB are all of the Apple Apps (Pages, Numbers, iMovie, Logic, Final Cut, etc), Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop and Lightroom), Microsoft Office 365, Sophos, DropBox, Google Drive, the rest of the software are things like Chrome, Firefox, etc.


Have you been able to figure out what was causing your MBP to lock up?

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User profile for user: Jack Stachowicz
Jack Stachowicz Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

Nov 2, 2021 1:02 PM in response to Jesse Merino

I never did find the cause of what was causing the issue. What I did find is that running the normal MacOS maintenance scripts and clearing the system caches seemed to have done the trick. Monterey no longer locks up once my MacBook Pro launches the desktop.


I wish I had a better answer, but like I said - the normal maintenance scripts appear to have corrected the issue. Good Luck!

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Monterey - locks up desktop on boot up

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