Did you check the IP addresses across the network? Even something unexpected like a smart TV, fridge, printer or phone could be bumping into your machine.
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Your DHCP server (usually built-in to your router) should have a configuration page where you define the range of addresses that it can assign to devices. For example, on my network, it can assign addresses from 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.254.
If you manually configure any static addresses, you must make sure that they do not fall within that range. In my case, this means between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.99. Otherwise, the DHCP server might assign an address that another device has statically configured, and if two devices have the same address, youâll find all kinds of flaky behavior.
The DHCP/dynamic range that comes pre-configured may be very small for some routers (Iâve seen 192.168.1.10 through 192.168.1.254, only allowing 9 static addresses). So if you use static addresses, you really must review those settings and change them if there are overlaps.
I canât rule out this area of possible cause, but it seems unlikely to me:
⢠We have 3 Macs in the house, all configured the same basic way. Mine is the only one that has this problem.
⢠I have had the Mac Studio for over a year now. It is only in the last couple of months that I have had this symptom.
⢠I have never manually configured any addresses. I have no static addresses.
⢠I canât think of any non-Mac addition to our network in recent months that might be causing this (or why it would only cause it to my Mac).
In any case, Iâm still not clear exactly what is happening when the symptom occurs. Why does a restart temporarily eliminate the symptom for a few days? Is there some work-around that would have the same effect as a restart but that I could do more quickly (like toggle some setting)? Will I ever find an ultimate permanent solution?
Iâm not really expecting answers to these questions any more. Just expressing my frustration. For now, I am resigned to restarting my Mac about twice a week. Things could be worse.
There is one test you can do the next time this happens. I just did this on my mac and it is resetting the arp table.
sudo arp -a -d
Password:
172.20.10.1 (172.20.10.1) deleted
delete: cannot locate 172.20.10.8
172.20.10.15 (172.20.10.15) deleted
224.0.0.251 (224.0.0.251) deleted
239.255.255.250 (239.255.255.250) deleted
255.255.255.255 (255.255.255.255) deleted
It is completely harmless, the same happens when you reboot. And like when you reboot the problem will com back.
It forces your mac to build the arp table anew. You can list the new table like this:
sudo arp -a
Password:
? (172.20.10.1) at a:e6:89:1b:60:64 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (172.20.10.8) at f0:2f:4b:14:21:8c on en0 ifscope permanent [ethernet]
? (172.20.10.15) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (224.0.0.251) at 1:0:5e:0:0:fb on en0 ifscope permanent [ethernet]
? (239.255.255.250) at 1:0:5e:7f:ff:fa on en0 ifscope permanent [ethernet]
broadcasthost (255.255.255.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
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You could use an app like LanScan to see what devices are on your network and what address theyâre using. I have over 20 devices on my home network and itâs easy to forget you have them (Homepods etc).
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Good newsâŚbut also frustrating.
The good news is that I believe I have FINALLY eradicated this very annoying problem where web pages stop loading etc. The solution was (drum roll)âŚâŚupdate to Ventura 13.5.1 (from the prior version of Ventura). Thatâs it. After I did that. I have had no symptoms since. Itâs been a few days now â and everything is smoothly humming along. I know; the symptom may still recur in the days ahead. But I am optimistic it wonât.
If so, I have to assume that the problem was either due to a bug in the OS (most likely the case IMO) or a corruption of my OS copy that was fixed by the update.
The frustrating thing is that there seems no easy way to determine whether this sort of symptom is likely due to an OS cause. Which means that you wind up wasting a lot of time and hassle trying to track down solutions that are all doomed to fail â because nothing other than an OS update will fix the problem.
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That is indeed very unlikely these days. If your Mac boots, that means it has verified that your system as booted from the SSV has the exact same contents as that Apple intended to release down to the single bit. Corruption is still possible on the data volume (and indeed few system components like Safari are found out there), but for most system components if your Mac boots, you know it has already successfully verified that theyâre perfectly intact.
This BTW is why these days when your system still manages to boot, reinstalling macOS rarely solves user issues.
Thanks for the info. And for the link to the ELC site. I had not known of it before. Fantastic resource. Technical but not too technical. A treasure trove of info. I now know what Iâll be reading for the next few days. 
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Speaking of ELC articles, one of the articles noted how important it can be to uninstall an app via an âuninstallerâ â because simply dragging an app to the Trash will leave behind all the files that it initially may have placed in the ~/Library and /Library folders. These could eventually be a source of problems. Good advice, assuming there is an uninstall app to use.
But this gets to a larger issue for me. When I examine my Library folders, I find dozens (if not hundreds) of old files â some dating back 15 years or more. For aesthetics if nothing else, I would like to get rid of all the older files that I no longer need. But I donât know of any straightforward way to accomplish this.
The best I can think of is to do a âcleanâ install of the OS â as if I had just bought a new Mac for the first time. Unfortunately, this would also get rid of many Library files that I DO want and use. I could hope that new versions of those files would be recreated (or resync-ed from iCloud) as I launched the relevant apps. Otherwise, for a few things that might not get restored or resync-ed (maybe Safari bookmark etc. files), I could restore them from backup copies I would have saved.
Is something like this worth considering? Or should I just continue to live with those old files and hope for the best?
Thatâs a pretty involved effort, so I personally wouldnât bother, but I wrote about one level easier than that recently.
Iâm with @ace. Itâs a huge amount of work. As somebody who has been migrating his systems since the first MacOS X, I have yet to encounter clear signs of this being a problem or cause for concern. My bottom line is, I wouldnât ever do this without a clear and serious need. (I will admit though I usually run a fairly tight ship: I try to be very judicious in what I install, and keep clear records of what exactly got installed when/where/how.)
That said, if you are having âoddâ issues with no obvious solution, it could be a path to resolution. You could for instance consider setting up a fresh user account (or in some cases even a fresh macOS) and migrating manually only parts at a time. Once your issues resurface you have a much better idea of what the actual culprit is. But again, this is very involved so I would only recommend it to somebody facing serious issues they otherwise just cannot figure out.
Useful info. Thanks. But, if I understand what you did, Level 2 would not delete any of the older, possibly unneeded, files in Library folders. True?
I use the Uninstaller section of CleanMyMac for uninstalling applications where I canât find an uninstaller app or specific instructions. Once you identify the app to uninstall, you can see the related files that will also be trashed and deselect some if you wish. I like this approach because there are certain times when the CMM uninstaller may be too aggressive:
-
When I have installed multiple versions of the app, the uninstaller may identify files associated with the newer version as candidates to be deleted.
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When the app uses components common to other apps, the uninstaller may identify those files as candidates for deletion.
So I can manually deselect those files. I probably still leave some junk around, but I can perform a more complete cleanup than just deleting the app.
Other uninstallers may do the job better than CMM, but CMM has several other components that make it worthwhile for me.
Precisely. Level 2 is just aimed at getting rid of potentially problematic code but retains all settings and documents. Level 3 is what youâre talking about doing.