2020 MacBook Air crashes constantly

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Level 1

103 points

2020 MacBook Air crashes constantly

My M1 MacBook Air crashes constantly, usually when unattended. It could just have a few apps running, like Music, Safari, and Finder. It's running fine, I close the lid and walk away. Next time I use to ˆ'm at the login screen after a reboot.

This has been a once every few days (although maybe a week or two with no crashes) frequency. Until recently when I updated the OS to Big Sur 11.6.2. Now I'm lucky to go a day without a crash. Three today.

Are others having this problem? Is there a solution? Did I get a lemon?

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Jan 5, 2022 7:33 PM

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Answer 1

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Encryptor5000

Level 5

7,502 points

Jan 7, 2022 8:43 AM in response to Scott F

Hi Scott F,

Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode?

To start up in Safe Mode on your M1 MacBook Air:

Shut down your Mac.
Press and hold the power button (Touch ID) until Startup Options starts loading.
Select your startup disk (Macintosh HD), hold down the Shift key, then select Continue in Safe Mode.
Check if your Mac continues to crash (kernel panic):

If it continues to panic, please let me know. The issue probably lies with hardware, firmware, or the filesystem. (The majority of macOS Big Sur is fine, as it is cryptographically sealed. If it was tampered with, your Mac would refuse to start up.)

If your Mac doesn't panic while in Safe Mode, the issue is most likely caused by bad software (not macOS). In this case, try the relevant troubleshooting steps in this article: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support (CA)

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