How to Stop Your MacBook Pro from Overheating

A common problem among MacBook Pros, especially Intel Macs, is that they get very hot. My 2019 Intel MacBook Pro 16″ started getting so hot that it would just crash from the heat! The weird thing is that the OS should have throttled the processor to prevent overheating long before it was forced to shut down but didn’t.

The First Things to Try

Here are some easy potential fixes to try:

• Power directly
  If you are powering your MacBook from a USB docking station, try plugging your power cord directly into your Mac instead. This solved the problem for a good number of people on Reddit.
• Clear vents
  Make sure your fan vents are clear.
• Check Activity Monitor for high CPU usage, especially syncing apps like Dropbox
  Next, look at the Activity Monitor to see which application is causing the high CPU. Dropbox Sync is a frequent culprit if you use Dropbox. See if there is something causing files to refresh constantly, triggering Dropbox Syncing.
• Reduce Time Machine backup frequency
  On my system, I found that Time Machine backups were one of the culprits causing high CPU usage when I was docked to my USB drive. Go to Settings -> General -> Time Machine -> Options and see what your Backup Frequency is set to. Changing the setting from Every Hour to Every Day helped reduce CPU usage tremendously for me.
• Check Spotlight
  If the mds_stores process is hogging up CPU, that means Spotlight is the culprit. Go to your Mac’s settings -> Spotlight and disable all categories that you don’t need to index for searches. In my case, I disabled all of them and it seemed to help with the overheating (I may regret that the next time I do a search on my Mac, but for now it’s great).
• Reset the SMC
  If you’re still having the problem, try resetting the SMC chip in your Mac. That involves holding a few buttons down while the computer boots up. After I did this, my fan ran noticeably less often!

If You Still Have High CPU Usage..

If the tricks above don’t solve your problem, or if you want to reduce your fan noise even more, the next thing to try is to put your computer into Low Power Mode… all of the time, even when on wall power!

Some folks might hate this idea because you’re throttling your CPU. In my case, though, that’s exactly what I needed. What good is maximum CPU usage if it results in your computer overheating?

To change your power settings, open up the System Settings app and set “Low Power Mode” to “Always” as shown here:

The Results

I tested both low power mode, resetting the SMC chip in regular mode, and low power mode with the SMC chip reset. In each case my MacBook Pro did not overheat once! I haven’t noticed any decrease in performance in low power mode either. That makes sense because the processes causing the overheating in my case were background tasks that should have been throttled! Currently, I’m running with the SMC chip reset AND low power mode to really minimize the fan running.

I have a friend with a 2016 Intel MacBook Pro that was also overheating. He was considering buying a newer used Macbook. I told him about this trick and it solved the problem for him. No more crashes!

Did It Work For You?

If you’re having thermal problems with your MacBook Pro, give this a try. Yes, I know you probably hate the idea of decreasing the performance of your CPU, but see if you notice the difference. You might not! That would allow you to breathe a few more years into your old hardware. – Brian