Mac Monterey Keeps Crashing, Fix

Several Mac users are experiencing occasional system crashes after updating to macOS Monterey. Some said that the Mac restarts randomly. Some have experienced crashes after waking their Mac from sleep rebooting to the Apple logo. Sometimes you may see a message saying “your computer was restarted because of a problem”.

This article explains how you can fix the Monterey crashing problems. Likewise, you may want to check your crash reports.

Upgrade & Update

Ensure that your Mac is upgraded to the latest version of Monterey. You can go to System Preferences > Software Update.

Furthermore, your crashing issue may be caused by an app. For example, you may notice that your Mac may crash and restart when you open an App. Built-in apps, like FaceTime or Safari, will be updated when you upgrade to the newest version.

Ensure that the other apps installed on your Mac are up to date:

• If you downloaded any apps from the Mac App Store: Click the Apple menu > App Store. Or alternatively, open the App Store app on your Mac and click Updates.
• If you downloaded any apps from websites. Most apps offer an Update menu within the apps. You may also want to contact the app developers.

Safe Mode

After ensuring that the macOS software and all of your apps are up to date, the next step you can take is to restart your Mac in Safe Mode. Restarting in Safe Mode alone may fix this issue. Safe Mode may also help you isolate the cause of the crashing problem. Follow these:

• Determine if your have a Mac with Apple silicon (like M1) or if you have an Intel Mac. Go to the Apple menu > About This Mac. Then click the Overview tap. Then follow the appropriate steps below:
• Intel: Turn off your Mac. Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Shift key. A login screen will appear. Release the Shift key when you see it. Log in to your Mac. Note you may be asked to login more than once.
• Apple silicon: Turn off your Mac. Press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. This window includes a gear icon and an icon for your startup disk. Select your startup disk (like Macintosh HD) and press and hold the Shift key and then click “Continue in Safe Mode”. Then login, again you may have to login more than once.
• Use your Mac in Safe Mode. It is normal if your Mac is slower in Safe Mode. Does the crashing occur? If the issue occurs in Safe Mode, reinstall macOS (see the step below).
• Restart your Mac again. This will exit Safe Mode. Test your issue again.

Create a new user

Creating a new user account will let you test so that you can start isolating an issue. This will also let you find out something in your current account is causing the problem. Here is how:

• On your Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups. Create a new user. Setup a new Admin user account.
• And restart your Mac, login using this new account’s password.
• Is the crashing problem still happening in a new user account?
• If the issue does not occur in this new account, you may want to transfer files from one account to another. You can use File Sharing.

Further steps

If the issue still continues, you may want to reset the NVRAM (or PRAM) and the SMC on your Mac.

Reinstall macOS

If nothing above helps you, you may want to reinstall macOS. Here is how you can do this:

• Open the macOS Recovery menu. Again how you open this menu depends on the Mac type you have: Intel or Apple silicon. We explain this above in the Safe Mode step.
• Apple silicon: Turn off your Mac. Press and hold the power button until the startup options window appears. Click Options (the Gear icon) and Continue. And follow the onscreen steps.
• Intel: Turn off your Mac. Turn on your Mac and immediately the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo or the spinning globe icon. And follow the steps.
• Select Reinstall macOS Monterey.
• The installation will guide you. Follow the onscreen steps.