MacOS Big Sur freezes, pink screen and restart

Just happened to me for the first time today, whilst watching a YouTube video - screen froze, then turned pink for a second, then black, then restarted. I am on a MacBook Air M1 256gb, running OS 11.3.1

I hope this is nothing sinister.

Same issue on my new M1 13inch, 16Gb (BigSur 11.1)

System Firmware Version: 6723.61.3

Work as usual, then sudden freeze for about a second, brief splash of a pink screen, and immediate restart. No apparent reasons for the restart tho, laptop can do that even if not used and being locked.

Apple, can you please assign a team to investigate the issue?

If your computer is only a month old, you should still have unlimited Apple telephone support. I would do two things in your case:

1) Call them and report, ask them to ensure they escalate and/or report to the engineers.

2) Then separately, file a bug report at Apple Feedback https://www.apple.com/feedback/

These two ways are the only ways that Apple gets to hear about this - the more people who report it, the more likely they are to work on a fix. Apple doesn’t read these user forums.

I found the solution to my pink screen problem. I had my first M1 replaced but the issue continued with the new machine. I took it in to the Apple Store again and they guessed it was a problem with the connection to the external monitor. They gave me an Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter and a Belkin UltraHD High Speed 4K HDMI Cable and no more pink screens since then.

I had tried multiple external monitors and multiple adapters on both M1 machines beforehand, but it seems the Apple adapter and the Belkin cable did the trick.

Ok please report via Apple feedback https://www.apple.com/feedback/ and also call the Apple telephone support number and make sure the operative you deal with reports it to the engineers. I we ALL do this, there is a greater chance that Apple will fix it. For anyone who doesn't already know this, Apple does NOT read these user forums.

It's all weird; Apple is weird in so many ways. But if you could all just report via the Feedback page, at least it will get to the engineers, who are the only ones who can fix these bugs. Other than talking to Apple Support over the 'phone and asking them to escalate, or going to a Genius Bar in a city that has a proper Apple Store, this is the only way to 'get through' to the people who matter at Apple: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Lo and behold......having had the crash issue only once, about 2 weeks after buying a brand new MacBook Air with M1 chip back in April 2021, just had it again for the 2nd time today. Both times it was immediately after watching a (different) You Tube video. I was just trying to downsize the window from full screen and then the familiar crash process followed by automatic restart took place, all of a sudden. Very odd. I have watched many YT videos in between these two crashes, so I can't make sense of it. I will send the usual bug report to Apple Feedback at: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Thank you Libavius for the solution, which might be helpful for some of us, however it is not enough as far as I am concerned. I connect my MBA M1 to my dell monitor via USBC, in order to :

1. keep the desk clean, with 1 cable only (the monitor charges the MBA via the USBC connection)
2. use the Dell monitor's USBA hub, to which my webcam is connected, and other USBAs that I can use to charge my peripherals (trackpad/magic keyboard)

So connecting via HDMI is not an option for me. Apple needs to take responsibility by addressing this issue ASAP, this is unacceptable. I can't even bring my MBA to the Store because I need it every single day, and I know that they won't solve the problem.

I just encountered the same on an MBA 8gb with Big Sur 11.0.1. Hasn't happened at all in the 2 weeks since having this computer, but just happened now as I was updating a couple apps. 1 was GarageBand (app built for Mac), and 1 was Apollo (app built for iPad). Don't think the iPad app could've caused it, do you?

The update to the app I was downloading was not actually compatible for MacOS, so the update failed and the computer restarted. I can still open and run the old version of the app, which I guess was truly compatible.

Now that I think about it, a pretty normal hiccup for being so early on into this cross-compatibility world!

[Link Edited by Moderator]

Similar issue here with a MBP M1 16gb. Screen and Touch Bar completely freezes, only the mouse pointer moves around. But I have the restart it manually. (no pink screen)

It happened a few times while running some of the Adobe suite, and other vector editing apps. And it even happened just now after the last Big Sur update (running 11.1).

I'm having this issue too, MBP M1, 16gb ram. Was watching 4k Youtube videos, had Sidecar running with 3 desktops, and 3 desktops as well on my actual MacBook Pro. Computer randomly froze, heard a moderate BEEP, then pink screen for a brief second, then crashed. It restarted by itself after the crash.

This is the second time this happened in a week. I am on Big Sur 11.1

The PC has been on with side car on an iPad Pro 3rd gen 12.9 for over a week now before this happened.

I feel like it is a memory leak in the OS

Yes, I see this all the time - sometimes 5-8 times per day. It starts as a very brief freeze, then a quick flash of pink, then a full crash with restart. I've uninstalled numerous apps to no avail. There is no apparent rhyme or reason that gives me insight into why this happens. My system is an M1 Pro with 8G RAM. I've reinstalled the OS myself and had an Apple Store do a clean installation to no effect. Crashes and more crashes.

I have the same issue and I’m very angry now. I have to work with this machine and it’s simply not possible without crashes and restarts. So Apple should do a quick fix. I think about to give my MacBook back and switch to another machine. It’s not acceptable for the price of a new MacBook M1. I’m not your beta tester Apple