My iPhone has connected perfectly until today, when it started doing the same thing as the iPad. All other USB devices work fine, and my iPad and iPhone both connect with the windows computers at work just fine. I've tested with both USB ports on my MacBook, and with several known working cords, both Apple branded and not.

I've done a lot of searching, and haven't found any definitive answers or solutions, but today I thought I would try something.

I use Windows 10 in VMWare on my laptop for work (and yes I made sure it wasn't running before trying to sync to make sure that wasn't causing the connectivity issues). But today I opened Windows on my MacBook, and when I plugged in my iPad I told it to open in Windows, and voila it connected to iTunes in windows fine and stayed connected.

This leads me to believe it is some sort of software issue on the MacBook side of things. I even tried closing itunes and just plugging my phone in to charge, and it again acted as though I was continuously plugging it in and unplugging it, but stayed connected in Windows.

Is there something I can do to correct this? I thought it might be an iTunes issue, but since it wouldn't even keep my phone connected enough to charge without iTunes open, I'm assuming it's an OSX issue.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

⟐ Commented October 14, 2025 at 22:45 MST

So, when I put my MacBook in the charger and click the on button it went on for 5 sec and then turned off. I pushed the button again and now I could login I looked at the battery it was still 80% so I thought that's odd.

Then when I logged in it shuts off again. I've tried for several times to turn it back on sometimes it didn't even turn on and sometimes it turns on and then it shuts off again after seconds.

I went to a computer store but they didn't know what was going on the guy said that he couldn't find anything weird in my MacBook (software) yes of course when the guy looked at it it worked. Until it suddenly shuts down and I was like: 'Yes that's the problem!' But he had no clue. All he said was: 'send it back to apple'

So another thing: I'm traveling and need my MacBook for my work (I'm a colorist and work in the film industry) I need it everyday.

Maybe something important: last June I Accidentally closed my MacBook with the charger between so my display broke. I replaced it, cost me lots of money, and then after 2 months it was loose (I haven't fixed it yet, been more than one month now)

I can move my display up and down for at least 1cm. I can also detach the black bar underneath the display from the display, think this used to be glued together.

I don't know if this might be the problem from the MacBook shutting down randomly.

Ps. Sometimes my MacBook doesn't shut off completely and the fans start making extreme noises. It's like my MacBook is frozen.

Mid 2015 with Retina display

• 2,5 years old
• Used daily
• MacOS Sierra

I've turned it on again and clicked the D that brought me to some sort of check. It said: nothing is wrong.

Now it just restarts randomly. It's better but still not 100%

⟐ Commented December 11, 2025 at 14:49 MST

⟐ Answer edited December 28, 2024 at 7:44 MST

⟐ Commented May 06, 2022 at 7:41 MST

The user uses 2 external monitors.

His computer starts slowing down, the kernel usage gets to 87% and oddly bounces as high as 240 %. The laptop is a bit warmer than usual but no thermal problems. The user reports that when this problem started that it was about 1 hour or so before the computer slows down; it is now starting to slow down in about 5 minutes.

The user has reset the PRAM and also SMC reset but no change.

Is this a hardware failure? Thanks

⟐ Commented August 16, 2021 at 9:41 MST

It happened just a few times with my previous battery (during more than 5 years), but after a long time of use and only while I took the laptop outdoors and it was rather cold outside. Now it is happening indoors too and almost every time after leaving laptop for a few hours.

Today I did the SMC reset but didn’t help.

⟐ Commented April 29, 2025 at 14:04 MST

If I put me ear next to macbook from the back side, I don't hear that noise but once i put my ear next to macbook from front side near top right corner I hear that noise.

Any help please?

Here is recording:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5639...

Thanks

Cheers. A quick update: once the noise starts coming, if a tilt macbook 90 degrees on the left side, the noise goes away and once i put back, the noise returns.

I also think it is the fan.

⟐ Commented April 29, 2022 at 2:26 MST

Thanks for your answers

⟐ Commented March 15, 2024 at 12:43 MST

I bought a used 15” mid 2015 2,8 Ghz Model and have never owned a “high end specs” MacBook Pro Model before (only the lower tier versions of 15” MBP 2012 and 13” Models but those without dGPUs of course).

I have some interesting observations regarding the machines temperatures and fan speed.

I hope you guys can help me and report your common temperatures you have while running this machine.

Now my problem with this “new” 2015 machine is that the fans run constantly rather high than low and whenever I use the machine ever so slightly, creating a spike in CPU usage over a short time, the fans immediately run high and the macbook gets close to annoyingly noisy. A CPU Usage of only 14% results in fans spinning at 3500 rpm and the machine going up to even 70-80°C really quickly. Merely browsing a website like this makes my machine also run at 2800-3300rpm and 65-70°C.

My concerns are rather for the idle temperatures because I figure, running the CPU at 100% during my work with After Effects/Premiere/etc makes the fans spin at 6000rpm max naturally. With “yes” CPU Tests in Terminal and other Benchmarks/Tests the machine reaches 90-98°C easily and comes very close or even reaches its tJunction Max at 100°C. Luckily, there are no signs of excessive thermal throttling though and the machine will run at its 2,8 or more Ghz using Turbo Boost without dipping lower, even for longer periods of time .

Now, of course I understand, simply put: more Ghz = higher temperatures, dGPU = higher temperatures as well. But this somehow still feels strange to me.

As I have never experienced such behavior from a Mac since the Core Duo Models before (it’s quick changing high fan noise is amusingly the thing I have always hated most about most Windows Laptops), I wonder if anything is wrong my machine (hidden water damage or another hidden hardware defect?) or if this in fact is totally normal behavior for this machine, having both the most powerful Intel i7 2,8ghz of that years MacBook models and the AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB.

I use Activity Monitor, SMC Fancontrol, TG Pro and Intel Power Gadget to monitor the machine.

I have so far done:

— NVRAM/SMC Reset/reinstalled MacOS/etc./etc.

— disassembled, cleaned and checked the machine for signs of water damage (no obvious marks found)

— Reapplied heat paste (two times with different methods and amounts) (MX-4 and Cooler Master MasterGel)

Of course I know of methods like using fan controlling tools to reduce the temperature but in my case it’s the combination of the already high temperature with the already fast spinning fans creating a lot of noise. So “adding more noise” by turning up the fan speed would not really be an option or actual solution to my problem.

Any other sources on the internet say their “2015 MacBook Pros” run at ~41-50°C during idle, some mention 50-60° but there is no way to know if their way of measurement is either the same (CPU Core? CPU Peci? Running SMC Fancontrol at 6000rpm constantly?) or if they actually have the very same 2,8ghz Model and not “(some kind of 2014) MacBook Pro (13” with an Intel i5) 2,8ghz” when they say "Go to the Apple Service, you might have a Virus! My 2015 MacBook Pro runs really cool! ” ;-) I hope you get the picture.

I hope some other users of the 2,2ghz, 2,5ghz and 2,8ghz 2015 Models can chime in to find some reliable answers and thoughts through the board. Maybe even for other users, who hopped on the apparent recent trend of “getting the good old 2015 MacBook Pros in 2018/2019” instead of the newer 2016/2017/2018 Models with Touch Bar and the keyboard, which still seems prone to failure.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented November 30, 2023 at 15:08 MST

⟐ Commented September 29, 2019 at 5:10 MST

I keep reading everywhere, including @OWC that it's only upgradeable to 1 TB. I already have that, I need more storage!

They did however tell me that the machine is capable of being upgraded. Does anyone know of a compatible 2 TB SSD??

⟐ Comment deleted October 31, 2021 at 17:17 MST

Not sure how to put that together & don’t want to buy something that isn’t compatible but prefer the newest fastest.

Any suggestions about how & what

I was considering seagate T5 ? or buying an ssd & installing it in an enclosure (thunderbolt 2) if I can find that. Then getting an adapter, but I am still confused about usb C / thunderbolt 3 and the difference between that and thunderbolt 2 (mac book 2015)

⟐ Answer edited April 24, 2022 at 8:57 MST

Is there some configuration change I need to make in order to get x4 link width and back to better speeds?

⟐ Commented July 03, 2021 at 2:36 MST

• When plug in with external monitor, it use discrete graphic card, then everthing works well, except fan noise and heating
• When unplug external monitor:
  1. if it use intergrated card, everything works well
  2. if it switches to discrete graphic card, the screen will blink, after a few minutes, it will display WHITE screen, and then it stucks. I can’t do anything , I must hard reset it

Thank for your advice !

⟐ Commented October 29, 2021 at 15:32 MST

⟐ Answered May 10, 2020 at 14:51 MST

⟐ Answer accepted April 16, 2025 at 7:31 MST

Was wondering to make sure I don't "close" it during skype calls. Tried to find it next to headphone jack but there is no mic.

⟐ Commented March 18, 2018 at 8:44 MST

I researched a lot online and did the following:

• Disabled Energy Saver - Automatic Graphics Switching on both Battery and Power Adapter mode
• Disabled Spotlight indexing for specific types of content and also added folders like “/System” in the Privacy settings
• Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
• Performed the Apple Diagnostics test (ADT - some older websites called it the Apple Hardware Test - AHT) and had no issues come from that.
• I also use Google Drive’s “Backup and Sync” and do lots of web development with `node_modules` folders, that can have 10s of thousands of small files which I think results in CPU churn. I’ve disabled it now.
• Shut down the computer and turned it back on. Still get same issues with the external monitor.

Now with no external monitor plugged in, every once and a while the kernel_task rises up to 300% and sometimes rarely to 500%. I’m curious if it is a software thing or a hardware thing. To me it seems more like a software thing.

I use VS Code for programming which can have a lot of background tasks, same with using node/npm which can probably be doing lots in the background. I also run iStat v6.30, and sadly I have only 21 GB of free space on my HDD (out of 500 GB…). Often I also have Slack open, and I know that’s a web app using Electron to run as a desktop application, which can be notorious for performance.

Often the fans can run high as well. I often suspect it is either due to the VS Code/npm/node/Slack thing, or kernel_task, or maybe something else I’m unaware about.

When checking memory usage via iStat, I can see that kernel_task is using 1.61 GB (oof, Firefox is using 6.36 GB).

Things I haven’t tried yet:

• Cleaning out more free space from HDD
• Using plain HDMI cable into the HDMI cable port
• Taking MBP apart and cleaning any potential dust

Has anyone had similar experience with this issue and how to address it?

OS: 10.13.6

Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

⟐ Commented April 10, 2026 at 3:05 MST

Thanks

⟐ Answer edited February 19, 2021 at 11:41 MST

my question relates to a new 2015 macbook pro (ID: MacbookPro11.4/11.5) which is custom built with a 2.8 quad i7 with 16gb ram and 1tb ssd installed. This is my touring workstation as a working musician while on tour etc. I work with logic pro X and Protools HD. My current 1TB ssd is already just over half full as I use a series of sample libraries from Native Instruments, UVI, etc and the reason behind them being on the master SSD is due to performance and efficient loading within projects. Having run sample libraries off of thunderbolt external systems which can be slower and impractical to transport on the road all the time, this is how things are.

I became rather recently aware that Apple had been using Samsung PCIE SSD's for certain machines but here's the little niggle. The current spec where apple disguises itself within hardware profiler state the SSD under the terms SATA EXPRESS which is incorrect, It does however state that it is PCI architecture based.

My question to you is this, before I do the crazy thing.

Samsung have released the 960 Pro PCIE SSD card in a 2tb configuration. Will this SSD be compatible with this machine, also will I need to adapt the SSD? Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and just to say this. I too support the right to repair. There is nothing worse than when a manufacturer has sole discretion of repairs and service when independent contractors are affected by unavailable schematics, diagnostics tools and further difficulties made by a manufacturer affecting how customers work with and maintain their products, in the pursuit of their own manufacturing ideals.

take care and if I can help anyone in any way with most macs, I'll try my best.

ed

⟐ Comment deleted March 11, 2020 at 13:36 MST