MacBook Air M1 randomly shutting down

+ 1 on this method!

I had exactly the same issue like others here: Macbook M1 unexpected restarts with pink screen, and the crash report says CPU panic etc. Contacted Apple support since the first month I after purchased and tried a few things they recommended such as Safe Mode, re install Mac OS, run Diagnostic but these did not help. The Authorised Apple repair shop said it was the faulty of Main Logic board.

I had my MacBook replaced but the issue continues within a week of using the new model. The Apple supervisor recon that there was some data I had transfer ( using Migration assistant ) from my 2016 Macbook Pro to my M1 Macbook that the data might not support the new operating system. She recommended me to erase my laptop and manually reinstall the softwares fresh with the current apps and programs that I need.

This is my 2nd week of no crashing, no restarting and hopefully it stays that way.

I tracked this down to the older USN 3.0 hubs. I'm 99.9% sure that was the issue. I removed them, and installed updated USB-C to USB3.1 hubs and all seems fine again. No pink screen of death, no dragging, lagging mouse, no problems signing in.

I've had the same issue. I have a dongle that I got off Amazon with good reviews for my new MacBook Air M1. I use the dongle all the time for the HDMI, power, keyboard/mouse usb dongle. I spoke with apple support and was told it could be a power management issue. Maybe the dongle is requiring too much power. I've also noticed that my usb dongle based keyboard/mouse plugged into my main dongle has such a poor connection. The keyboard basically has to be right in front of the usb dongle. So maybe its not getting enough power.

When mine cuts off, the external screen will hold the page for a second but the MacBook screen turns black and purple. Then it restarts and says it was a kernel panic.

Now I am trying to decide whether maybe I should get a powered dock port.

I plugged the power cable directly into the MacBook Air, and only have my external monitor on my USB-hub now. No problems after 24 hours here either. The hub is an original Apple hub, but it's a bit old so I will replace it.

The odd thing was that when it shut down yesterday (and was completely drained of power - with no notice), I plugged it into my wife's hub, which she has used for 6 months, but the same thing happened after only a few minutes. Even with a drained battery it should be able to charge through her hub, which she's had no issues with on the same type of Mac.

I only had an external monitor connected (+ Mac power), and nothing else. Used an original apple adapter, but it was few years old. When I connected the power directly to the Mac, and only used the external monitor on the adapter from the other usb-c port, the problem went away.

I ended up replacing the mac within a week and had the same problem on the new one with two different adapters as long as both power and the monitor went through one adapter into one usb-c. As mentioned, no issues as long as the power was connected through a different port.

I ended up buying a third adapter, imo a way to expensive Anker usb-c adapter which connects to both usb c ports and have had no issues after this.

I was able to solve this problem recently. The staff at Apple Store told me that this problem should be caused by usage of migration assistant when we want to move all documents and apps from an old MacBook (intel) to a new one (M1 chip). Based on his suggestion, I erased my new MacBook (M1 chip) and downloaded all apps again manually. Since then, the problem did not occur once.

Hello, tlangejr!

After reviewing your post, it seems like you are running into some unexpected shutdowns with your MacBook Air. We definitely understand that would be a concern and we'd love to help. Let’s start by reviewing this article: If your Mac restarted because of a problem.

Please let us know if you have follow-up questions about this issue, or if the issue remains unresolved. Have a great day!

Thanks for getting back with us, tlangejr. We want to do everything we can to help with this and alleviate some of your frustration. Testing your Mac without any external peripherals connected is an excellent next step, so we can rule out one of them causing this behavior. If the issues persist, we advice that you reinstall the macOS software: How to reinstall macOS. You will not have to lose any of your software intros process.

Please keep us updated on the steps you're taking and if the issues persist. Cheers!

My 2020 MacBook Air has this problem and reboots without warning at least once a day. I have spent hours on phone over a couple months with Apple support. Finally the senior support person assigned to my case explained that the random shut downs with M1s when used with an external display IS A KNOWN ISSUE. Their tech department knows about it and "eventually" there will be an update with a fix. This is not helpful at all, there is no ETA for the fix, and in the meantime it is a huge inconvenience to wfh with a 15" screen instead of my large display. My prior 2015 MacBook Air never had an issue with external display.

Ok well, I've managed to stop this from happening.

In the power settings, I have the display set to turn off after 10 minutes. Prevent Computer... is ticked, put hard disks to sleep is unticked and wake for network access is ticked.

Then, in Desktop & Screensaver settings, I have show screensaver set to 10 minutes. You then get a little warning triangle that says that the display will sleep before the screensaver starts. That's fine, just leave it like that.

As a result of these changes, my M1 Air hasn't restarted for days.

This happened to me, but when I unplugged the USB-C hub it stopped happening.

I bought the most bad *** Anker-hub (100w power delivery) I could find and have not had any issues since I last posted almost a month ago.

So I have had this problem in the past (see an above post) and it has been a real pain. I have updated to the latest software update and I havent had this problem in so long I forgot it existed. So everyone update your software and see if that fixes it.

Otherwise if you are using a dongle with multiple ports keep in mind that might be sucking power out of your machine and causing it to freak out at the loss of power. However, my dongle is just that and is doing fine.

I was able to fix it as I have the Air M1 and the same monitor as you.

Go into power settings and set it to turn the display off after 10 minutes when connected to a power adapter.

Go into screen saver and set it to come on after 10 minutes.

A little warning will appear telling you that the display will sleep before the screen saver starts. This is fine.

This cured the restarting on my machine, it's never done it since.