MacBook Pro 16 2019 10.15.4 Kernel Panic / Reboot When Plugged In -- Help!

Status here

My GPU Panic sleep problem is still solved. I have since installed my video-rendering tools, my developer tools, all my other stuff.

My energy saving stuff is back to normal.

Having it gooing to sleep on power, on batteries

Running 10.15.4

Solution for me was

My brand new macbook pro 16 (Shipped 2. april 2020) also restarted (crashed) over nigth - actually it crashed (Kernel Panic GPU) everytime it went to sleep mode. I had nothing installed except default OSX with updates.

Solution details

1. Reset: Pram & NVRAM (still crashed)
2. Reset: SMC (still crashed)
3. Internet Recovery Command+Option+R (when booting) (Crashed under installation, but continued afterwards)
4. Disabled "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." & "PowerNap.." in Energy Saver settings (Problems disappeared)
5. Two days later I enabled "Prevent computer from sleeping...." and "Powernap..." again (Still no problems)

I don't know if step 1-3 is necessary, but I think so.

So a macbook pro 16 that I almost returned, is now working perfectly - and I'm very happy:-)

I completely removed VirtualBox using the uninstaller script in the latest .dmg (from their website) and my system appears stable again.

I hit this issue on a brand new MacBook Pro 16". After I upgraded to 10.15.4 the machine would restart after sleeping while plugged into power. Solved by disabling "power nap" under "Energy Settings" in System Preferences.

Not sure how Apple ended up shipping such an obvious bug...

For me, disabling power nap fixed the issue completely (16"-MB Pro 2019), no more shutdowns since 5 days.

@Step89: Do you have that since the update? I suggest you to check for third party kernel extensions (in terminal: kextstat | grep -v com.apple). You could also try to unplug the power and all devices and check if the crash still occurs. Good luck!

ClassicII wrote:

Also I am looking for anyone who reverted back to 10.15.1, 10.15.2 or 10.15.3 did that fix the issue for you?

I bought MBP 16 and received it at Apr 9, and first what I did - installed all updates, and I'm very disappointed with this new MBP when open it's lid and got this crash :(

I discovered this discussion few days later, and disabling power nap solves crashes for me.

But as mentioned in other possible sources of such crash - hw problems, so I can't stop thinking that my new MBP is defective...

That is why I decided to revert to 10.15.3.

After switching back to 10.15.3 I have no more crashes! Now I'm pretty sure that MBP is not defective :)

Is Google Drive File Stream the culprit?

Sorry if someone has already reported this in the many replies here. I just learned the following and it seems mildly promising in terms of providing a clue?

I looked at the diagnostic report (you can find them here: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports) and, at least on my machine, it appears that Google Drive File Stream is causing the problem. I found a number of others reporting the same problem (Mac OS 10.15.4 with Google Drive File Stream) on a Google forum.

I only deleted Google Drive File Stream a few minutes ago and, given that my machine only crashes at night for some reason, I can't say if it will help but wanted to share this in case it helps anyone at all. Unfortunately, we use GDFS extensively at work so I'll have to reinstall it tomorrow and try to find a work around (maybe the power nap work around someone else posted).

My specifics:

- Mac OS 10.15.4

- MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

From my diagnostic report:

Process:        mount_dfsfuse [1429]

Path:         /Applications/Google Drive File Stream.app/Contents/MacOS/mount_dfsfuse

Identifier:      mount_dfsfuse

Version:        0

Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process:    mount_dfsfuse [1427]

Responsible:      Google Drive File Stream [1395]

Good luck all !! Thanks for all of the great info shared on this.

Have you tried alle 4 steps? I worked for me an others. The internet recovery does not delete your own files.

At least try step 4.

Solution for me was

My brand new macbook pro 16 (Shipped 2. april 2020) also restarted (crashed) over nigth - actually it crashed (Kernel Panic GPU) everytime it went to sleep mode. I had nothing installed except default OSX with updates.

Solution details

1. Reset: Pram & NVRAM (still crashed)
2. Reset: SMC (still crashed)
3. Internet Recovery Command+Option+R (when booting) (Crashed under installation, but continued afterwards)
4. Disabled "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." & "PowerNap.." in Energy Saver settings (Problems disappeared)
5. Two days later I enabled "Prevent computer from sleeping...." and "Powernap..." again (Still no problems)

@riley0502 Interesting report. I can certainly say that solely the 10.15.4 update causes the kernel panic on my device (and certainly many others). I have tried it without having installed any application. 10.15.3: No crash. 10.15.4: Kernel panic every night. Power Nap disabled: No crash.

It's ridiculous that Apple Support isn't aware of the problem...

I had the same problem with a 16” mb pro i9 with the 5500 8gb graphics. Since 10.15.4 I had constant KPs when waking from sleep mode when connected to two 5k UltraFine monitors (ie the ones I bought from Apple). No noticeable issues when monitors disconnected- although that’s not too often. .Tried the supplemental update which made no difference. Tried the 10.15.5 beta which also made no difference. As I use OneDrive SharePoint cloud storage for all my files I decided to roll my MacBook back to 10.15.3 using time machine. Worked perfectly ever since. I’m convinced it’s a software issue in my case.

ok so I took the 16” MacBook Pro that was having KPs and wiped it.

Erased the entire partition table from Internet Recovery and started from scratch.

Reinstalled MacOS 10.15.4 (which is the only option for this machine from Internet recovery.)

Went into the OS and loaded my iCloud account. I let it finish syncing content from iCloud Drive and boom! After the display went to sleep for some time I tried to wake it only to find it has kernel panicked with the same messages we’ve all been experiencing.

It was plugged in and setup by default to use PowerNap while plugged in.

I then installed the developer beta profile, downloaded and installed Developer Beta 4 of MacOS 10.15.5.

I left the machine alone all night and let it finish syncing data. No kernel panic. And it was plugged in with Power Nap enabled.

Theory: Something is happening to affected machines running 10.15.4 that seems to have been addressed (although perhaps not completely fixed) in 10.15.5 betas 3 and 4.

I have only witnessed one kernel panic on one of two exactly IDENTICAL 16” MacBook Pro’s running these two betas. And that Kernel

Panic occurred on a machine that has been upgraded from 10.15.3 to 10.15.4 and then to Dev Beta 10.15.5.

The other machine (with no kernel panics) arrived from Apple brand new with 10.15.3. I then installed 10.15.5 Betas 3 and 4 and have yet to experience any similar kernel panics to those the other machine (once running 10.15.4) was exhibiting.

So this current set of tests (wiping and reinstalling from scratch, then updating to latest Dev Beta) is to assess whether the Memory Corruption Kernel Panic (which was different from all the others reported and those I had been experiencing since 10.15.4) was due to corruption of certain system files from the repeated crashes or from the upgrade path taken vs a possible hardware fault.

Outside of a hardware fault or potential data corruption I am struggling to explain why two identical machines would behave differently.

but if this indeed is purely hardware related then Apple has a much bigger problem on their hands with the 2019 16” MacBook Pro based on the sheer volume of reports. Still I’m doubtful of this scenario given the reports have been centered primarily around the release of 10.15.4 and one other Catalina version prior to 10.15.3.

I've done all the recommended things to fix the issue. None have worked. This includes resetting SMC; resetting NVRAM; reinstalling iOS 10.15.5; erasing the drive and reinstalling 10.15.5 yet again; as well as disabling Power Nap, and playing with the energy saver settings. It doesn't matter what you do to your MacBook Pro 16, it's going to crash when you have a USB hub connected to, and you shut the lid. Initially, it seemed a lot of us thought it had something to do with an external display, but that is not the case. You can have your USB hub connected to the computer, with nothing going into it, and the computer will still crash after you shut the lid and it goes to sleep.

After reaching out to Apple several times, I was finally transferred to a senior manager. She told me they are definitely aware of the problem, and that hopefully one of the next couple iOS updates will correct it. It is assumed by everyone to be a software issue. I had been considering getting a replacement, but, considering it's a software issue, there is no way they can guarantee that a new one won't have the same problems.

So, until they fix it in a later iOS update, we have to employ workarounds--even though they could be annoying. This means making sure you disconnect your USB hubs before shutting the lid to the laptop. It means unplugging the charging cable before letting the computer sleep. The woman I spoke to even suggested manually shutting the computer down each night. It's pretty stupid that we have to deal with nonsense after spending all that money on a new computer. But it doesn't look like there's anything you can do about it for now. It's a bummer.

I was having this problem too, to the point that sometimes I couldn't even log in, and the MacBook only worked properly as a Windows laptop using Bootcamp! If I was able to log in, then soon afterwards it would panic, fans would spin up and it would restart with all the usual error messages.

After several trips to the genius bar, they replaced both the logic and touch ID boards, and everything is working perfectly.

It wakes from sleep as it should, and I am having no kernel panics whatsoever.

So it appears that replacing the logic board and touch ID boards was the answer, and will probably be the answer for everyone experiencing this, which seems like quite a lot of you.

I do believe there is a hardware issue on a number of these 16" MacBooks, and without telling us truthfully that there was, Apple are secretly replacing these with a new hardware revision, which fixes the problem. Whatever works I say, but a bit of honesty would be good. Happy that mine is working as it should - hooray!

Disable "power nap" under batteries and power adapter, and wait for a software fix. Disabling power nap makes your mac use less power when sleeping, so it is not a big deal.

I checked my loaded kernel extensions and the only ones not "apple related" are Little Snitch & Fuse.

This bug is very frustrating.

Both of those have caused panics before. Little Snitch quite a bit better, on par with VirtualBox, but still has released some versions that broke with OS updates.