2015 MacBook Pro freezing after inactivity - Workaround

Based on my experimental diagnosis it apperas the photoslibraryd daemon is causing some interaction with the system after a period of user inactivity on 2015 Macs. There have been many reports on variuos forms where 2015 MacBooks, Airs and iMacs are experiencing this issue. I've been able to stop the freezing from occuring on my 2015 Macbook Pro by moving aside the com.apple.photolibraryd.plist located the the /System/Library/LaunchAgents folder located on the boot volume. The moving aside of the plist file needs to be done under Recovery Mode using the terminal app. To accomplish the move I created a new folder called "LaunchAgents (Disabled)" in the /System/Library folder and used the "mv" command to move the plist file from the LaunchAgents folder to the "LaunchAgents (Disabled)" folder. I then rebooted, logged in and observed the system did not freeze while runnning the screensaver for more than 24 hours time. To verify my conclusion and repeatability I moved back the photoslibraryd daemon plist file to the LaunchAgents folder once again using Recovery Mode and rebooted to allow the daemon to start again at boot. After logging in and letting my screensaver start I observed a hard system freeze once again on my MacBook Pro 2015 after a few minutes. I'm not interesting in using the photos app at this time so disabling the daemon is of no consequence for me. I would rather have a stable system I can do my testing on. This seems to be a weird issue to say the lease ... Let's hope it's resolved in the next beta!


Created feedback FB6917382 documenting the findings and workaround.


Note: This workaround was originally posted under the "2015 MacBook Pro freezing after inactivity" posting. It was brought out as a separate post for higher visibility so others experiencing this issue can benefit.

Replies

Simpler solution: Settings -> iCloud -> uncheck iCloud Photos.

This doesnt alwasy work as I am unable to uncheck the box and keep the setting persistent

Try opening Photos app first, then close it and then uncheck the button. It'll take a while until the UI updates.

Do any of you have a better workaround rather than keeping the power cord unplugged? An Apple fix would be great!

Yeah with hopes I tried this, but in my case the moment I lock the screen or if I let the system initiate the screen saver I get the same thing. I am curious if there is some method to log seperately what takes place directly after the lock screen is initiated. In my case I click on lock screen and then I can only see mouse pointer and the rejection sound until I force power down the macbook.


//JH

Not sure I understand. Did you implement the workaround as stated? I've logged 2 days, 20:42 so far using my workaround without one freeze. I'm able to type my password in the lock screen from either after the screensaver kicks in or if the computer is sleeping to unlock my account.

I think I have managed to get some stability for my Macbook (early 2015).


I disabled Photos in Settings -> iCloud.

I disabled the Wake on LAN and wake for photos etc in Settings ->Power (for plugged in)

I then put my laptop to sleep.


For two days now it's has woken up from sleep and worked.

try playing Music with the Visual EFFECT on.


It prevents the freezing, and you can stay plugged

wjpjr's work around is the only one that's made my a MacBook stop freezing while plugged in.

With the new beta, it seems as if the install doesn't put in a place a new copy of com.apple.photolibraryd.plist. Not sure if it si because the original version was moved to a new directory as part of the work around.

The 19A536g update apparently did not contain an updated com.apple.photolibraryd.plist file. Move back the com.apple.photolibraryd.plist file from the "move to" folder. The files "diif" to be the same. Again, the move back will need to be performed while booted in Recovery mode, e.g. CMD-R. Ensure the file owner and group is "root:wheel" and the ownership permissions are 0644, e.g. -rw-r--r--.


19A536g resolves the original freeze issue.

Well, now I am stuck. When I try to turn on Photos in the iCloud panel, it says "Checking Library" and then stops and the check box remains blank. I've tried this with a backup of my iPhotos library and with a blank new one.