[German]Mac users who used Microsoft Defender for macOS version 101.86.81 experienced problems (hangs) in connection with Teams. In the meantime, the problem seems to have been fixed by updating Defender before macOS.
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German blog reader Constantin L. emailed me to point out the problem (thanks for that), which involved Microsoft Defender for macOS version 101.86.81. This version was released at the end of October 2022. Constantin wrote:
Microsoft released version 101.86.81 of Microsoft Defender for macOS at the end of October, and since the beginning of this week there have been increased problems with this version.
After a certain amount of time, users experience hang-ups and the so-called beachball (see screenshot of the icon) is displayed. Sometimes the problem resolves itself after 2-5 minutes of waiting, but most users restart by then anyway.
According to Constatin, the problem occurs with the above-mentioned Defender versions in all supported macOS versions, i.e. macOS BigSur 11, Monterey 12 and Ventura 13. He points out that the problem in macadmins@slack (only visible with login) was described by users as follows:
Did the problematic versions of Teams cause the entire machine to freeze? What we are seeing here is that when the problem occurs you can't even type in non-Office applications or they take very long to register your input. Users are also not able to launch other applications while this is happening. Like the whole machine freezes for minutes and then returns to normal to catch up on everything you tried to to while it was freezing.
Hi there we are seeing Mac freezes too across multiple devices. Starts with an Office app beachballing, then the whole machine freezes, but comes back mysteriously after 5minutes or so. CPU use is low, if you can get Activity monitor to work while it's frozen. Both Ventura and Monterey. Teams is installed on all devices, however, we think this is more likely MS Defender-style behaviour, as it has its fingesr deep into the system, but who knows. It happened to me while I was on a Teams call and oddly while everything was frozen, Teams audio continued like a voice from the dead, and I could not hang up.
+1. This is a major problem for as well. Dozens of users are reporting "beachball" and system hanging. Especially around Zoom usage, right click, and screenshot
Since the freeze problem also occurred with an older Team version, the admins tried to downgrade Defender to the old 101.78.13 version and were able to fix the problem for the time being. Constantin wrote me about this.
Thank God Microsoft is also very active in the Mac Admins community and reacted quickly due to the many reports. Within a day there was an update to version 101.87.30., which was provided in the Insider Ring and fixes the error so far.
Constantin says it is really great that the Microsoft product group is very active in this community and also helps with problems. In his experience, it's usually quicker to find a solution via the community than via a case. Maybe it will help someone who has the problems but can't update Defender for Mac to the Insider version.
