While you might be a Mac user for years, you may find yourself in situations that you cannot handle. You’ll find that your device never ceases to surprise you. Sometimes, your device will startle you with error messages that may disrupt your work and frustrate you.
It is considered helpful to learn about some common Mac error messages and know how to deal with them, and it’ll save you a lot of time. So, let’s get started.
1. Kernel Panic: You need to restart your Mac
The feared kernel panic imposes a grey or black rectangle over Mac’s display with the words ‘You need to restart your computer.’ You need to hold down the power button or press the Restart button.
In this situation, there’s nothing much you can do except restarting your Mac.
So, what causes kernel panic? There’s no one answer for this as you would have to dig through the system logs to know the last activity Mac’s processors were performing. But this information might not shine a light on the real culprit.
Most kernel panics are one-off events, and they’re not repeated regularly. There’s a high chance that restarting your Mac will clear out some caches and memory, which will be enough to prevent the kernel panic from returning.
If it does return, you can reset SMC and PRAM/NVRAM.
2. Error code 43
Error code 43 is a file transfer error that appears when you transfer files from or to a USB drive, delete files from your system, or move files between folders. Error 43 appears with the message ‘The operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found.’
The error is triggered when the file you are trying to move or share is locked or being used, the document is partially downloaded, the share point cannot be found, or file permissions are missing. You can fix Mac error code -43 by running a disk check, resetting the NVRAM or repairing the corrupted system files. If the document or file is locked, you need to run the chflags -R nouchg command through the Terminal to solve the issue.
3. Your disk is almost full
Depending on the OS you are using, you may see the message ‘Your disk is almost full’ or ‘Your startup disk is almost full.’ Regardless of what message you see, it would help if you were encouraged to make more space available on your Mac by deleting files on the startup disk.
Are you running the current version of macOS? If so, you might have the option of optimizing storage space by using Managed storage.
To solve the error message:
- Start by dismissing the message and saving your open documents.
- Close all applications and restart your system.
- Once your system starts, check the amount of space you have on the startup disk by right-clicking the startup disk icon > selecting Get Info.
The capacity of your startup disk, used space, and free space will be shown in the General area of the Get Info window. It is good to let the free space fall below ten to fifteen per cent of the total disk capacity. You can start making space by clearing the cache files and images, and documents you don’t need anymore. Ensure to check the download folder and remember to clear the Trash. If there are large apps that you don’t need anymore, uninstall them.
4. Safari web content quit unexpectedly
It is a common Mac error message and can be seen on both old and new models of Mac. The message implies that while the application might be open, it is unresponsive. So, it is unusable for a while.
Here are a few things you can do to fix the issue:
- Free up cache data by clicking Safari > selecting Preferences > choosing Advanced > selecting the Show Develop menu in the menu bar box > clicking Develop and then Empty Caches.
- Check for updates and ensure you are using the latest version of Safari. If you have accidentally overlooked an update, open the Mac App Store and click Updates.
- Clear History because it occupies a lot of RAM and makes the application crash. To clear History, go to History > Clear History.
So, these are a few of the common Mac error messages that Mac users encounter. If you happen to see any of them on your screen, keep in mind the troubleshooting tips given above.
