Apple Preparing Fix for Sleep/Wake Crashes in 2013 MacBook Airs

macbook_air_mavericks_roundup_headerApple is preparing an update to fix an issue that causes 11 and 13-inch 2013 MacBook Airs to crash when they are wakened from sleep, according to information from an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

According to multiple lengthy threads on the Apple Support Communities, 2013 MacBook Air users have been experiencing sleep/wake issues for several months. Crashes, freezes, and blank black screens are common after waking a MacBook Air from sleep, and fixing the problem requires a hard restart.

It appears that the problem is related to OS X Mavericks and requires a combination of the computer going to sleep and a press on the keyboard or touchpad to initiate. One user has been able to successfully re-create the problem by pressing the power button to put the MacBook Air to sleep and then immediately clicking on the touchpad, which causes the machine to freeze.

The service provider that notified MacRumors about the update has said that it appears to be a bug in the sensor that detects when the lid is being opened, which has led to multiple machine returns and replacements as it was previously unclear whether it was a hardware issue or a software issue.

An Apple Support representative has also confirmed that a fix is in the works and should be bundled with the next OS X Mavericks update, which likely points to 10.9.2. A user on Apple's support forums has noted that 10.9.2 beta 4 appears to fix part of the problem by altering the function of the power button, preventing the machine from going to sleep when the power button is mis-tapped.

Ahead of the update, customers who are experiencing sleep/wake crashes with their MacBook Airs appear to be able to repair the problem with a restart.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forums: MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks

Popular Stories

iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...

Top Rated Comments

2457282 Avatar
152 months ago
If you try to wake me too soon after I have gone to sleep -- I too will freeze up and crash. It is not just an Mac Air problem. :D
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rotax Avatar
152 months ago
Its not just the Mac Book Air that has this problem. My MBP has been having this crash problem for 2 years.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
needfx Avatar
152 months ago
at least the MBAs are not falling asleep and crashing against each other
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
casperes1996 Avatar
152 months ago
I've been asked about this

I've been asked about this a few times. I always thought it was a user error, as the girl who asked me had never used a Mac before her Air, and was, no offense to her and god bless her, not exactly gifted when it comes to electronics...

Moral: Don't judge users when they report issues... And actually read up on it before you assume them to blame... At least now I have good news for her.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gpat Avatar
152 months ago
About ********** time. I've been having this problem since October.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btbeme Avatar
152 months ago
I was working on this for my father-in-law today...frustrating issue for sure.

I fiddled with some of the sleep and hibernate settings in the Terminal to see if I could either replicate or fix the problem. I don't know if I was able to cure it by changing a couple very specific parameters (this is an intermittent issue on his Air) but I was able to freeze it on command.

Was pretty simple - in the terminal I just used a sleep now command, then attempted to "intercept" the sleep (or wake it up I guess you could say) by touching the spacebar as the system started to sleep. Trying to wake it just as the keyboard lights went out would freeze it every time. The backlight and keyboard would light back up but the screen would stay blank and a hard reset was the only way to get back in.

Whether this has anything to do with the power button or a lid sensor I do not know...but I wasn't closing the lid or touching the power button in any way and could freeze it at will.

As much as I like Mavericks, I sure do see a lot of problems with it. Lazy icons, sleep issues, wireless connectivity issues, etc. - across the board, and having little or nothing to do with hardware. All of it since Mavericks.

I think that a lot of it relates to trying to make an OS as power-friendly as possible and the hardware not being able to keep up. Too many different hardware combos to try to smother their power use with software and drivers that try to make it all work on the knife-edge of power consumption.

Let's get this fixed, folks.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)