The invention provides a variable frequency outdoor unit hierarchical control self-adaption method and an air conditioner. The method comprises the steps of 1, when protective halt of a variable frequency outdoor unit occurs, judging whether operating data, formed before protective halt, of a compressor meet preset conditions or not; 2, when the operating data of the compressor meet the preset conditions, judging whether the environment temperature T1 of the outdoor unit is higher than an outdoor high-temperature preset value A or not; and 3, when T1 is greater than or equal to A, starting a frequency reduction self-adaption mode of the variable frequency outdoor unit. By means of the variable frequency outdoor unit hierarchical control self-adaption method and the air conditioner, when protective halt, caused by external reasons, of the variable frequency outdoor unit occurs and the external environment temperature is excessively high, the frequency reduction self-adaption mode is started for the variable frequency outdoor unit, so that the compressor operates at the reduced frequency; the refrigeration capacity and the heating capacity can be lowered, and low-energy-efficiency operation is achieved; and compared with the mode that fault is directly reported to stop operation of the air conditioner, the method is more reasonable, and the comfort level and the experience levelof users are raised to the greatest extent.