Chrome Freezing Mac

Google Chrome is the king of web browsers but if you’re here it’s probably because the king has gone a bit insane. Is Chrome running slow, crashing, freezing, or not even loading? Are web pages not loading anymore? Is your browser experience getting slower every day?

Chrome Keeps Crashing Mac
Google Chrome Freezing Mac
Chrome Freezing Mac Big Sur
Google Chrome Browser For Mac

If you’re experiencing any of those Chrome problems, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to show you how to troubleshoot and resolve common Chrome problems that make you feel like Google hates Macs.

While Chrome is reliable, it's not immune to crashing and freezing. Here's a look at why Chrome might be misbehaving and what you can do to fix it and get back to surfing the web. These troubleshooting steps apply to Chrome on Windows and macOS systems. If Chrome is crashing, freezing, or simply slowing down on your computer, there are a couple of reasons why. Below are the possible reasons why you’re having problems with Chrome. Mac is Slowing Down. The first possible reason why your Chrome is crashing, freezing, or slowing down is that your Mac could be running slow.

Some fixes will be easier than others but none require advanced knowledge.

If you’re ready to fix Chrome, let’s begin!

Is it your Mac or Chrome that is slow?

Chrome isn’t an independent entity, it’s a part of a whole Mac system. So before you deal with Chrome, make sure the problem isn’t in your macOS. A quick example — the outdated system caches causing your Chrome plugins to crash. Or is your Mac gasping for free space?

A clever path is to give your macOS a good cleanup, first. We like CleanMyMac X app for this purpose as it finds and cleans all redundant & conflicting files across all your folders. So, take 2 minutes to tidy up your Mac with CleanMyMac X, and let’s move further.

CleanMyMac is available for a free download here — this app is notarized by Apple, so no worries.

Common Chrome problems on Mac (and their fixes)

Mac battery draining fast

Chrome is known for its fast performance, which it gets by using your Mac’s CPU more than other browsers. But more CPU usage means more battery drain. If you use your laptop on the go, this can become a huge issue. What good is performance if your battery is completely drained and you can’t turn on your Mac?

If Mac battery life is important to you, then there’s a simple trick that should be a big help. Often there is a tab or an extension that is hogging your resources and burning through your battery life by itself.

Follow these steps to find the offending site or extension:

Open Chrome and choose Window in the top menu.
Click on Task Manager.
In Task Manager, click the Memory Footprint column to sort them.

Now you can determine what sites and extensions use up the most memory in Chrome. You can still visit one of these sites but maybe don’t leave it open in a tab anymore. Also, remember that even sites that aren’t memory hogs can still be a battery drain if you have a lot of tabs open.

Close resource-hungry and unnecessary tabs and the time you get from a battery charge should start to improve.

Chrome is running slow

Does Chrome on your Mac feel like browsing through a swamp? If browser responsiveness is slowing, it’s time to drain the swamp.

Why is Google Chrome so slow? We mentioned earlier that Chrome is resource-heavy, especially on your CPU. Chrome is fast when your Mac has the resources available, but when they are limited, and Chrome is demanding more than your Mac can give – swamp time.

The tip from the previous section will help a lot, but if you’re still experiencing slowness, there are other fixes you can turn to.

Let’s start by focusing on the cache. Chrome loves storing lots of your web browsing data. At first, it can help speed things along, but soon Chrome’s pockets are being weighed down by cache, particularly if your Mac is low on space or memory.

To manually delete your Chrome cache on Mac:

Open Chrome and choose Chrome in the top menu.
Select Clear Browsing Data.
Check the history, cache, cookies, and other types of browser data that you want to delete.
Click 'Clear data.'

Again, there’s another method for clearing out your cache, cookies, browser history, autofill form data, and a whole lot more. You can use the free version of CleanMyMac X. There’s surely no easier way to manage not just the cache that’s slowing down Chrome, but also your privacy and security — if these things are important to you (they should be).

To delete Chrome cache and other browsing data with CleanMyMac X:

Download the free edition of CleanMyMac X and launch the app.
Go to the Privacy tab and select Chrome.
Select what you want to clean.

Or you can even use CleanMyMac X’s System Junk cleanup tool that not only removes Chrome cache files but also gets rid of “temporary” files that clog up your system. So, hopefully, your browser will get a bit snappier.

Сhrome using significant energy on Mac

“Chrome using significant energy” may be a sign of general memory overload on your computer. Try opening your Activity Monitor and check off a few memory consumers.

Open the Launchpad and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar.
Now, sort by Energy and use the [x] button to quit a process.

Disable background synchronization

There’s another setting that may help you out. Sadly, it’s buried too deep in Chrome’s Preferences but according to many users, it should greatly reduce energy consumption by Chrome.

Open Chrome and go to Settings (the 3-dot icon on in the top right corner).
Select Privacy and security > Site Settings.
Scroll down and click “Background sync.”
Use the slider to disable the background sync.

What does it do? It stops the websites from communicating with your Mac (even after you’ve left that site). Why was it enabled by default is a different question.

Chrome keeps freezing

Your browser is not just slow as a snail but keeps freezing? A spinning circle appears for a while? This is ordinary trouble with web browsers after continued use. And it may relate to the problem with the browser cache.

We've already told you how to remove the Chrome cache, so just go to the previous section and choose the way that works best for you: manual or easy one. Hopefully, this will help you to get rid of the spinning beach ball and fix the freezing issue.

Other ideas to try:

Close all tabs
Restore settings (Settings > Advanced > Reset settings)
Log out from all your Google accounts and log in back again.
Try browsing in an incognito window and see if that helps.
Reinstall Chrome from scratch

Some services, like Dropbox, Alfred, and notably, Google Drive are constantly self-updating in the background. As in the previous step, you can use Activity Monitor and force-quit these processes.

Google Chrome is not responding

However, if your browser is not responding at all and you can't open the menu to clear the cache, browsing history, or delete extensions, try to force quit Chrome and then launch it again.

There are a few possible ways to force quit Google Chrome. Here is our comprehensive guide 'How to force quit Mac applications' that offers five different ways to deal with unresponsive apps. Pick your favorite one.

There are is a number of background plugins operating invisibly on every Mac. They could be various helpers, updaters, and everything else that supports the main application. For example, Chrome itself has an updater app that constantly communicates with the server. So, once again, go to your Activity Monitor and scan through your open processes. Try quitting anything Google-related there.

Another idea to try is to free up your RAM (random access memory) in the Terminal. This should unfreeze your Chrome, at least temporarily.

Open your Terminal app (you can find it via the Launchpad search).
Now, paste in sudo purge into the Terminal window.
Hit Enter

See if Chrome is feeling better now.

Google Chrome keeps crashing

Chrome freezing is one thing but crashing? That’s a much bigger issue as it’s a sign that something is broken. But what do we do with things that are broken around here? We fix them!

Probably the most common cause of crashes is a byproduct of one of Chrome’s strengths – its constant stream of exciting extensions. They make our browser experience more enjoyable and productive, but occasionally one of these extensions will be corrupted or introduce a bug that causes Chrome to crash.

Here’s what you should do to find a problematic Chrome extension.

Update your browser

Make sure Chrome is updated to the latest version. A new update could very well include the fix that will stop Chrome crashing.

Run a Safety check

The latest version of Google Chrome has a feature called Safety check. Go to Chrome Settings and select “Safety check” from the menu on the left. Press “Check now.” The browser will run a quick check to determine whether Google Chrome is up-to-date and protected from threats.

Turn off browser extensions

If that didn’t work or everything was already up-to-date, you can manually turn off your extensions and turn them back on, one at a time. This way, if the crashing goes away until a certain extension is turned back on – that’s when you’ve probably found the problem.

To manually disable and remove Chrome extensions:

Open Chrome and go to Window > Extensions.
Disable a few extensions or click Remove to completely delete them.
Relaunch Chrome.

Spend some time using Chrome without extensions and then slowly turn each one back on until your crashing returns. When you think you have the culprit, simply click the Trash can next to that extension in Settings > Extensions.

An even easier way to manage your extensions is with CleanMyMac X. You get more control over all your extensions, even those from other browsers, and disabling and removing them is as easy as can be.

To disable Chrome extensions the simple way:

Click on the Extensions tab in CleanMyMac.
Click on Chrome Extensions and disable as you like.

Chrome won’t open

Here’s the list of hacks you can try if you want to repair Chrome. When Chrome won’t open, the easiest is to restart your Mac. But that could be a bit disruptive. So here you are, some alternatives:

Press and hold Command + Q — this will quit Chrome.
Press Option + Command + Esc — opens a Force Quit pane.
Uninstall Chrome and download it again.

If that doesn’t help, there’s a possibility that the problem is Google folder permissions.

Web pages not loading in Chrome

“Aw snap!”

This is Chrome’s custom message for when a web page fails to load. If you get this cheeky little message or any other loading error, chances are you’re going to fail to see the funny side.

The reasons for Chrome not loading pages can be wide-ranging and hard to pinpoint, but we’ve collected a checklist of fixes for you to work through.

Check your internet connection.
Update Chrome.
Restart your Mac.
Remove Chrome extensions (for steps see 'Google Chrome keeps crashing' section).
Disable or relaunch hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration is supposed to speed up your Chrome at the cost of your Mac's hardware resources. But quite often this feature crashes things.
Hardware acceleration is found here:
Chrome > Settings > Advanced > System

If you’re still unable to load web pages, a reset or reinstall of Chrome may be needed. We cover that very fix in the next section.

Chrome update failed

Chrome won’t update? Some users have experienced the frustration of Chrome refusing to update on a Mac. The first step would just be patience, but if days have passed and you’re still not getting anywhere, a reset or reinstall of Chrome may be in order.

To reset Chrome manually:

Launch Chrome and go to Preferences
Scroll to the bottom and click on Advanced Settings.
Scroll to the bottom and click on Reset Settings.
Read the pop-up and Reset.
Relaunch Chrome and try to update.

Note: Resetting Chrome will not remove your bookmarks, history, and saved passwords. A manual reset can be a bit scary, but as a workaround, you can use CleanMyMac X to reset Chrome without losing any data.

Reset Chrome with CleanMyMac X's free tool:

Open CleanMyMac X
Go to Uninstaller tab and find Google Chrome in the list
Click Application Reset in the dropdown menu next to the Chrome icon.

If the browser is still not updating, download the latest installation file from the web and reinstall Chrome.

More tips to troubleshoot Chrome

Your Chrome browser should now be running great, but wait; there’s more! To improve your future browsing experience we’re sharing some of our favorite Chrome settings. Try these out and fall in love with Chrome even more.

Enable Prefetch

Want your web pages to load even faster? Go to Settings > Privacy and security. Here, select 'Cookies and other site data.' Toggle on 'Preload pages for faster browsing and searching.' This enables 'page prefetch' and makes Google Chrome load pages faster. Now the system will store the page and automatically load it the next time you visit the website.

Use shortcuts in Chrome browser

You’d be amazed at how much faster you can surf the web and get things done by learning just a few key shortcuts.

For example:

Command + t = new tab
Command + h = hide Chrome
Command + r = reload web page

Find the full list of commands at the official Google Chrome Support page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my Chrome keep freezing?

Usually, this is caused be caused by outdated browser caches. Open Chrome’s Preferences to delete recent browser data.

Chrome Keeps Crashing Mac

Why does Chrome use so much memory?

Chrome is in a constant back and forth with Google’s servers to process your data. You can help it by optimizing memory usage on your Mac. Use the Mac tune-up app, CleanMyMac X, to free up RAM and you disable heavy memory consumers.

How can I speed up my browsing experience?

As a first step, try removing all the unnecessary extensions in Chrome. Also, try to not use more than 2 memory-heavy services, like DropBox or Google Drive at a time.

That’s it. Hopefully, these fixes have made your web surfing better than it’s ever been. It just goes to show that even drastic problems like Chrome crashing can be solved with a little know-how and helpful apps like CleanMyMac X.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

/Mac Cleaner /Why Is Chrome So Slow on Mac? Fixes with Common Problems

I have a MacBook Pro and I love to use it for different purposes. I use it to edit photos and videos. Also, I utilize it for watching videos and checking out images. But most importantly, I use it to surf the net. So why is my browser so slow? The browser I use is Google Chrome for Mac.
But I have recently noticed that I’m having problems surfing the net using Google Chrome on my Mac. The Google Chrome running slow on Mac. How do I fix this to speed up my Google Chrome Mac?

Article GuidePart 1. Why is My Chrome Browser So Slow?Part 2. How Do I Speed up Chrome on Mac?Part 3. Common Problems Cause Chrome Running Slow on Mac (Fixed)Part 4. How to Set up Chrome?Part 5. In Conclusion

Part 1. Why is My Chrome Browser So Slow?

Google Chrome has the lion share of the market when it comes to browsers. However, it is still prone to problems. Some people experience that Chrome running slow on Mac. Sometimes, it even crashes, freezes, or refrains from loading altogether. Some people experience that pages do not load on Google Chrome anymore.

If you are having problems with Google Chrome slow on Mac, you might also have noticed that it's getting slower by the day. Why Chrome slow on Mac Catalina? The poor performance of Chrome is caused by a lot of factors. Fortunately, we have created this article to help you troubleshoot the most common problems of Google Chrome on Mac devices.

So you may want to know why is Chrome so slow on Mac, here are some of the reasons:

Device Battery Drains Fast.
Chrome Eats up Too Much of Your CPU Resources.
Chrome Cache or Cookies Too Much.
Chrome’s Extensions Cause Crashing.
Update Of Chrome Failed.

Part 2. How Do I Speed up Chrome on Mac?

'Why is Chrome being so slow? Why is my Mac so slow after update? Why is my Mac running slow and hot? Is Chrome bad for Mac?' You may have lots of problems this time. Do you think that your Google Chrome makes MacBook hot? Before you actually fix the issue of Chrome running slow on Mac and slow MacBook, you have to make sure that the problem is not caused by your Mac device or operating system. For example, outdated system caches can result in Chrome plugins crashing altogether. This also is what causes Mac to run slow. Sometimes, It's your Mac that runs slowly and it just needs space to enhance its performance. If Mac Osx running slow is the case, you should use a tool called iMyMac PowerMyMac to delete purgeable space on Mac to free your device for space so that can speed up a slow Mac.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use this tool to speed up Chrome:

Download and launch iMyMac PowerMyMac from the official website.
Clicking Master Scan on the left column and scan junk file on your Mac to remove.
Review to select a category and select files to clean up.
Click Clean and wait for the cleaning process to complete.
Clean up is done.

Wait for the cleaning process to be complete. After it is done, it will show Zero KB for folders you have deleted. Some folders will not be marked as such because these are auto-recreated folders. It not only speeds up your Mac but also helps Chrome run fastly.

Part 3. Common Problems Cause Chrome Running Slow on Mac (Fixed)

Why is Chrome not working on my Mac? There should be some common problems you may encounter when Google Chrome too slow. You can check the solutions to Chrome running slow on Mac first:

Close sites or extensions within Chrome to extend the battery life.
Delete your Chrome cache.
Disable or remove Chrome extensions.
Checking the Internet connection.
Updating Chrome.
Restarting the Mac device.

Learn the detailed Chrome (Mac) problems and solutions to fix slow Chrome on Mac (Google Chrome not working on Mac) now.

Problem 1. Device Battery Drains Fast

Chrome is famous for having fast performance. And fast performance means it gets to use a lot of Mac’s CPU resources compared to other browsers. The higher the CPU usage, the faster the battery drains. Chrome draining battery on Mac can be a problem for most users. Good performance becomes nothing if you cannot turn your Mac on because its battery is already drained.

Google Chrome Freezing Mac

If the battery life of your Mac is very important to you, there’s a way to help you extend it. Usually, there are tabs or extensions that are eating too much of your resources and this leads to the burning of your battery life.

You can use the steps below to find the said extension or site:

Launch Chrome.
Press Settings icon.
Press More Tools.
Go to Task Manager.
Inside the Task Manager, sort the list by Memory.

Now, you are able to determine which site or extensions eat up most of your memory within Chrome. These sites can still be visited, although you don’t need to keep them open in a specific tab if you’re not going to use them. Also, even though some sites don’t use up too much memory, having too many tabs open can still eat up your resources. This can lead to battery drain.

Problem 2. Browser Responsiveness Tend to Be Slow

Does browser responsiveness tend to be slow? Or even Why Google Chrome is slow and unresponsive? Why do you think is causing Chrome slow to respond and Chrome running slow on Mac? Actually, because Chrome eats up too much of your CPU resources, it tends to slow down when there is not enough resource available.

One fix for Chrome not responding Mac you can do is to involve the cache. Chrome stores your data and history with regards to web browsing in the cache. This can help speed up the surfing experience. However, when your Mac begins to wane in memory or space, it can lead to Mac slowing down and this may cause Google Chrome keeps saying page unresponsive.

Mac cleaning tools can be an easier way to clear up your browser and fix common problems associated with it. You can use the Privacy feature of iMyMac PowerMyMac.

Here's how to use it to fix Chrome running slow on Mac step-by-step:

Launch iMyMac PowerMyMac click on Privacy from the left column.
Click the Scan button to comprehensively scan browser data.
Preview and choose the desired browser (in this case, Chrome). And choose the various categories you want to delete on the right-hand side of the screen.
Press Clean and wait for the cleanup process to be complete.

Problem 3. Chrome Browser Keeps Freezing

What if your Chrome browser keeps freezing? The spinning rainbow circle appears on your device for a long time. This issuse is common especially when you continuously use your browser. What you have to do is to delete your browser cache. To fix this, you can follow the steps below.

Here's how to manually delete your Chrome cache to fix Chrome running slow on Mac issue:

Launch Chrome.
Visit Settings.
Go to More Tools.
Go to Clear Browsing Data and choose Clear Browsing Data.
Check the following: history, cookie, cache, and other browser data types you might want to clean up.
Hit Clear Browsing Data.

Problem 4. Chrome Browser Keeps Crashing

Your Google Chrome will not open on Mac? When your browser keeps crashing all the time, it’s a very big issue and it states that something must be broken. But what should we do with it? Of course, we fix it. One of the common causes of crashes is Chrome’s extensions. These extensions actually make our browsing experience faster or more productive. However, they can sometimes be corrupted and introduce bugs into Chrome’s system thus leading to its crash.

But what should you do with problematic Chrome extensions?

First, you have to update everything. You have to ensure Chrome is actually updated to its latest version. The same goes for ALL extensions. If this didn’t work or if everything is already updated to its latest version, one thing you can do is to manually turn off ALL extensions. Then, you can turn them one by one back on. In this way, you can determine which extensions are causing Chrome to crash.

Here’s how to disable and/ or remove Chrome extensions manually to fix Chrome running slow on Mac issue:

Launch Chrome.
Visit Settings then visit Extensions.
Uncheck all extensions to disable them.
Close Chrome and open it again.

Once you have disabled all extensions, turn each one (one at a time). Check out to see which extension causes the crash. If you have found the one causing trouble, you can simply delete this extension by clicking the Trashcan icon located next to it in Settings > Extensions.

Problem 5. Pages Not Loading When Using Chrome

Why does Google Chrome take so long to load or even fail to load? Chrome’s message when a page fails to load is: Aw snap! Why is chrome loading so slowly? There are a lot of reasons why a page fails to load in Chrome.

Here are a few fixes for Google Chrome slow to load pages, you can try to repair Chrome running slow on Mac issue:

Checking the Internet connection.
Updating Chrome.
Restarting the Mac device.
Removing Chrome Extensions (you can do this by following the steps stated in Problem #4).

When you have tried out every possible method of fixing Chrome takes too long to load and it still didn’t work, you may need to reinstall or reset your Chrome browser. Don’t know how to do this? Check out the next part of this guide.

Problem 6. Update Of Chrome Failed

Sometimes, Chrome just won’t update on a Mac device or Chrome will slow after update. First, you have to wait for a few days before the update begins to happen. However, if it’s been a week and the update still didn’t push through, you might need to reset or reinstall your Chrome browser.

Chrome Freezing Mac Big Sur

Here’s how to manually reset your Chrome browser:

Open Chrome.
Go to Settings.
Scroll down and press Advanced Settings.
Scroll down and click Reset Settings.
Read the pop-up that appears and Reset.
Close Chrome and open it again.
Try the update again.

If the browser still doesn’t update after this, you may have to download a specific installation file located in Chrome’s official website and install it again. The installation file should be the latest.

Part 4. How to Set up Chrome?

After leaning the ways on how to fix Chrome running slow on Mac issue, there are still a few tweaks you can do to improve your browsing experience in Chrome. Let’s check them out:

1 - Activating Prefetch

Do you want web pages to actually load faster than before? You simply have to go to Settings. Then, go to Advanced Settings and then Privacy. Ensure that “prefetch” is activated or turned on. What happens is your resources will be kept on your system and it automatically loads a web page the next time it is visited.

2 - Utilizing Experimental Features

Chrome has hidden features---features that are currently under development. To access them, you can simply type chrome://flags. Put this in the address bar located at the top of the interface.

Press Enter afterward. Here are some of the things you can do/ have with this:

Look for enable-smooth-scrolling and activating it to get smooth scrolling on your browser.
Search for Number of Raster Threads. Then change it from default to 4. This will result in speeding up of image loading.
Activate Experimental Canvas Features in order to boost loading times of pages.

Take note that you have to restart Chrome in order for the feature changes to take place. If you want to undo these changes, hit “Reset to Default” on the page you have just entered (chrome://flags).

3 - Utilizing Shortcuts In The Browser

With just using shortcuts, your browsing experience will be faster. Learn these shortcuts on how to make Chrome faster on Mac and be amazed at how speedy your surfing experience can be:

New Tab: Command + T
Hide Chrome: Command + H
Reload Page: Command + R

Other commands can be found in the official support page of Google Chrome here.

Part 5. In Conclusion

Chrome can be a great browser to use when surfing the Internet. But it is not without flaws. You can simply use this guide to fix Chrome running slow on Mac issue and the common problems you find on Mac’s Chrome.

Also, you can use iMyMac PowerMyMac to fix one common Chrome problem found on Mac. If you find yourself stuck, simply go back to this guide to help solve your Chrome problems on Mac. You can also check what is making your Mac slow and use it to clean up all the junk files on your Mac to free up space and this will make your Mac run faster.

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Google Chrome Browser For Mac

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