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Big Sur crashing regularly

2017 iMac Pro, 3.2GHz intel Xeon W.


I’m getting crashes multiple times a day since upgrading to Big Sur. I finally just erased and reinstalled Big Sur (from scratch, NOT from a backup) and it didn’t make a difference. Definitely not upgrading my MacBook pro now.


After looking around, I’m clearly not alone in this. Is it getting fixed or do I have to downgrade?

Posted on Aug 1, 2021 3:31 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 2, 2021 2:00 PM

After some more digging and trial and error, I found that disabling the power saver option to put the HDs to sleep and enabling the "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" setting stopped the random reboots.


Also, after running Etrecheck, I noticed that the Data drive did not get deleted when I deleted the volume group; etercheck was still finding all the apps and stuff on there. So, I started from scratch one more time, deleted the volume group to get rid of "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data" then manually deleted the other "Macintosh HD - Data" and reinstalled Big Sur again.


When it came up, I only changed the following (and did not install anything extra for a while to keep culprits limited).

  • Disabled the power saver option to put drives to sleep (this is an iMac Pro... I'd obviously not want to do that on my MacBook Pro when I get there)
  • By default, the screen saver is set to come on 5 minutes later than the option to turn off the screens so I dropped the screen saver from 20 minutes to 5.


I ran that setup most of last night and all of today with no crashes. Eventually (a couple hours ago), I installed office and other various apps I need for work and, so far, everything appears to still be stable. If that changes, I'll report back. Otherwise, I think it might finally be "fixed".

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 2, 2021 2:00 PM in response to xXp0larisXx

After some more digging and trial and error, I found that disabling the power saver option to put the HDs to sleep and enabling the "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" setting stopped the random reboots.


Also, after running Etrecheck, I noticed that the Data drive did not get deleted when I deleted the volume group; etercheck was still finding all the apps and stuff on there. So, I started from scratch one more time, deleted the volume group to get rid of "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data" then manually deleted the other "Macintosh HD - Data" and reinstalled Big Sur again.


When it came up, I only changed the following (and did not install anything extra for a while to keep culprits limited).

  • Disabled the power saver option to put drives to sleep (this is an iMac Pro... I'd obviously not want to do that on my MacBook Pro when I get there)
  • By default, the screen saver is set to come on 5 minutes later than the option to turn off the screens so I dropped the screen saver from 20 minutes to 5.


I ran that setup most of last night and all of today with no crashes. Eventually (a couple hours ago), I installed office and other various apps I need for work and, so far, everything appears to still be stable. If that changes, I'll report back. Otherwise, I think it might finally be "fixed".

Aug 2, 2021 1:48 AM in response to xXp0larisXx

Ditto to @ Luis S.


Suggest downloading the Application Etrecheck directly from a Trusted Developer and well Respected ASC Contributor. The application is free or paid from added features. Run the application with Full Disc Access ( Security & Privacy - Full Disc Access ). It will take a Snap Shot -  both the hardware and software. The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last )


We can have a look at the report for possible issues and may have possible suggestions to resolve the issues.


Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, alter, modify, remove or delete or attempt to do so is an invitation for disaster and may require a Reinstallation of the OS.

Big Sur crashing regularly

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