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

Most definitely a frustrating issue considering the price of those machines but seeing that several people are affected and that I'm getting weekly updates from Apple about the progress of the engineers on this issue I'm hoping that they are invested in solving this as quickly as possible. My worry is what if they can't solve it, what recourse do we have? They insist on the fact that it's a software issue but they also have an incentive to tell us that (and a bad track record in admitting their mistakes), replacing that many machines because of a hardware issue would be pretty costly I imagine.

For now I've been using triggers in Amphetamine that if an external screen is connected prevents the MBP to go to sleep. It's not ideal but it's a decent workaround.

I have this problem too. Turn off Power Nap may be get helped.

I can also confirm that the supplemental update does not fix the kernel panic. We have to continue to disable Power Nap as suggested as a workaround.

Disabling "Power Nap" definitely cut down on the number of crashes. But today, after many days of not having the issue, it popped up again. This is getting to be so annoying.

Put the MacBook to sleep yesterday closing the lid several time and again overnight. Not one kernel panic since disabling power nap. So this will be the way I roll until the update hits.

You Can turn on/off Automatic Graphics Switching in "Energy Saver" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

Turning it off will dramatically decrese your battery life.

I have the same model laptop and am experiencing the same issues as you've described ever since updating to 10.15.4.

My MBP is connected to multiple external monitors and lid is closed. When I use the MBP without the external monitors everything seems to be fine.

Before updating to 10.15.4 I never had any similair problems.

I am having the same issue: MacBook Pro 16" 32GB ram - kernel panics 2-3 times a day - started after upgrade to 10.15.4. Disabling all startup items didn't stop the problem. I booted in safe mode - no kernel panics while booted in safe mode - only tested this for 1 day. I just disabled the power nap and am crossing my fingers.

What everyone who is experiencing this issue should be doing is contacting Apple Support to have a ticket created. Make sure that you also reference this post when you contact support. I know that Apple is aware of this issue, but it seems like it's taking a bit too long to address such a serious issue.

I personally don't think it is a hardware issue. Please refer to the steps I have listed in my former posts. Since then I have no problems anymore. Not even with the power nap option enabled.

The steps are:

• Reset System Management Controllers (SMC) according to the instructions given by Apple
• Additionally I reset the NVRAM or PRAM according to Apple's instructions
• Additionally I turned off power nap in the energy control.
• After a few days without problems I turned on the power nap option again

Since several days now I did not experience any issues.

Good luck!

I have the exact same issue. Brand new MBP 16 inch 10.15.4. Disabling powernap also a work around. Called apple support they took notes from the crash report suggested reinstall, maybe software or hardware - couldn't say. Wouldn't directly concede it was a problem with latest os version. I'm left with waiting to see if patch coming and using disabling powernap as a work around. Pretty disappointing experience given how much I paid for the machine and applecare cover.

I have some good news. I received a call from a senior support specialist today and was told that Apple is aware of the issue and that a fix should be released "soon." It was heavily implied that it would be in the next official update, but let's wait and see.

I have the new Macbook Pro 16 (less than a week old) and been having the same issue. Reading through the threads and other articles, I have disabled the power nap and also disabled the screen saver. I will let you know if that solves it.

I have had my 16 inch MacBook Pro for all of 3 days and have had this issue crop up at least a dozen times. I was about to look into returning it until I came across this thread. Will try disabling power nap as a work around for now and will write back if that worked for me.

Everyone,

I share your frustrations, believe me. I also agree that communication could be vastly improved. Though, in the grand order of priorities in how and why these things happen in the first place I believe they have some far more critical work to do in the code/version management area of their software development lifecycle.

Over the past 3-4 years I’ve seen an increasing number of bugs get fixed in one release only to resurface in a subsequent release. And this happens across the spectrum of production and non-production software.

Even these Kernel panics had been affecting various machines (Made after 2015) since Catalina’s launch. It was then finally addressed in 10.15.3 and then broken again in 10.15.4. I can tell you this happens when you have multiple developers working on isolated components of the same software program (in this case MacOS). If a developer checks out code and makes modifications they are to resubmit the modified code and in that process to a check against the current source master and do what is called a code merge.

That process can be manual though it’s often heavily automated as it’s more accurate and less time consuming to do so.

My belief (and I cannot cite any references to confirm this) is that the process Or tools they are using for this are fundamentally flawed or outright broken. As they accelerate their software development I see more and more of these kinds of issues come and go. And frankly some of them should never ever have seen the light of day for a public release.

Case in point this KP affecting power management functions.

I rarely ever contact execs or engineers at companies I do business with outside of the usual course of business and even among my colleagues / friends I spare them the grief of diving into matters related to their employers / companies. This however was an issue that was widespread enough that I did cross over that boundary as I genuinely was uncertain if they were aware of the issue.

Over the course of that communication and few subsequent exchanges there was a good faith effort to collect information and then I was more confident they had the matter in the proper hands.

I can’t comment on unreleased software and I cannot make anyone any promises but I do want to throw in one bit of reassurance that the problem is being addressed and “I” anticipate it will be made available to the general masses sooner rather than later.

if I had to take a guess I’d say definitely before WWDC. Sorry I cannot be more specific. And please also keep in mind that some of the reported kernel panics in many threads on this particular topic can be caused by other things. And lastly enough kernel panics can result in data corruption which might require a full wipe and setup from scratch.

it’s a pain but it is computing. best of luck to everyone! (I’ll be monitoring the thread for updates.)