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MacBook Pro with macOS Sonoma crashes frequently and randomly.

Sonoma keeps crashing frequently and randomly. Never had any such issue with Ventura. Issues started after installing Sonoma on my Mac Book Pro (Apple M1 Max, 16 inch). Clearly a buggy OS, all apps up to date. Don't point at apps, please ...it's a Sonoma problem.


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Posted on Oct 3, 2023 5:32 PM

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Posted on Oct 10, 2023 9:38 PM

My MacBook M2 (Pro 13" 2022 release) has crashed once a day since the update to MacOS Sonoma, it's surprising that there hasn't been a patch update to fix this problem considering the amount of people that are vocalizing their concerns.


Usually upon opening the lid for the first time after having my computer on the charger overnight, I am prompted to re-enter my password, which tells me that it has been restarted. After logging in, I am greeted with a message stating that _windowserver has crashed, and I can submit a report to Apple or ignore.


This absolutely is not a hardware or application issue as I have had this computer since its release last year, and haven't begun to experience problems until this update.


This is ridiculous, if I could regress back to MacOS Ventura I would do it in a heartbeat.

246 replies

Dec 22, 2023 5:39 AM in response to RickKarrer

That would explain a lot of the why I don’t see any issues and what I have been asking for on many similar threads. I can’t file bug reports if I don’t know how to make it crash.

I have no need to make icons larger as I don’t use them. I open everything through Spotlight or list view sorted by Date Added.

I’ve never had a problem with Screen Sharing, though it is always viewing the M1 from MBP.

I don’t have any issues with the Applications folder, but if you mean via screen sharing, I don’t have a need to do that so would not have noticed.

I’ve always assumed SMB access is slow. I don’t know what fast would look like.

There is another post where the OP has very good documentation on slow external drive access, and is worse for APFS HDD. I don’t remember if HFS+ is affected at all.

Finder has always had a problem with large number of files and deeply nested folders. It really isn’t a suitable file browser for those situations; never has been. If it is worse in Sonoma, maybe they tried to fix that.

Dec 23, 2023 10:38 PM in response to mhompesch1

Yeah I am having this problem as well on my M1 14 inch 2021 running Sonoma 14.2.1 and the version immediately prior. It happens most frequently when watching video, whether in Apple TV (the image hangs to the extent where I can't even back out to view the Finder and get to Force Quit, so I have to restart), or just plain old Quicktime player.


I sometimes use an external monitor and one weird feature of the crashes is that sometimes the main monitor (my laptop's) remains frozen but I can continue working on the second monitor which is operating as a mirror. However it's a little slow if I do that, so I often end up having to restart anyway. Very buggy system.

Dec 24, 2023 7:19 AM in response to Phrannest

I have a 2019 MacAir and had ongoing crashes daily; version 14.0 was the worst and 14.1 and 14.2 were only marginal improvement. About a week ago I switched the screen saver from the Sonoma back to Ventura view and haven't had a crash since. I have not loaded 14.2.1 and won't since now things at least don't crash. Sonoma is still slow and uses up way too much processor resources.


Regrets that I can't trust the system anymore.

Dec 24, 2023 11:00 AM in response to Mike Barry

Yes you’re right of course. But they have to take responsibility for releasing a corrupted and/or faulty update. As we’ve read Apple don’t acknowledge this at all - AppleCare deny it and try and blame apps. Genius bars (if they are available - in my location not) can’t fix it. So, in my case, I had to pay an outside contractor to do it even though my MacBook Air still under AppleCare. Apple are never going to admit a downgrade to a previous update is the fix! Therein lies the responsibility. Futile though it may be.

Dec 25, 2023 11:58 AM in response to nickheath

Honestly, you could've saved yourself $300. All you had to do was watch a simple 15 minutes YouTube Tutorial that explains how to reinstall macOS Ventura. I also cleared out Sonoma and reinstalled Ventura. There has been no errors for a while until it started crashing again. Eventually I went back to Sonoma hoping their next update fixes the problem. That's all you can do now. Just wait till the next version of the software fixes the errors.

Dec 25, 2023 1:38 PM in response to ferhan01

Are you saying that your computer crashes with Ventura as well? What Mac model/processor/memory does it have?

My Mac Studio/M2 Max/32GB has recently started to mis-behave a couple of weeks after I wiped and reloaded it with Ventura. I've had to forcibly power it off and back on a couple of times.


I only bought it at the end of October 2023. My previous experience with Intel Macs has been exemplary but I'm beginning to regret buying this one.

Dec 25, 2023 3:26 PM in response to pethanox

I can relate to Ferhan01. I have an Intel late 2018 15.6" mbp with 32GB RAM and 6-core i7 chip, and it actually started crashing on the last version of Ventura...and each version of Sonoma made it worse..although now, 14.2.1 has gotten better but still having same crash behaviour as the last version of Ventura.


The consistent crash has always been in this scenario: Regardless of external monitors, or wiped hd with fresh install of OS, if I put it to sleep manually, or set the "display to switch off after X minutes", it would just go dead in few hours, and I had to power it back up, upon which it would always show me a crash trouble report that said "AMDFrameBufferVIB::SetPowerState" panic etc.


Currently, I am on Sonoma 14.2.1 and I am able to work around it by setting "switch off display" to never. So the mbp never sleeps, and so never crashes. This is working out quite well. Although, occasionally, every other night or so, I pity my mbp, and manually put it to sleep, expecting fully to have a crash next day, and indeed it does crash as expected with the same error log, but I live with it.


My daughter who works for Apple (cyber security group, nothing to do with OS) is home for the holidays, and she keeps arguing vehemently for Apple, makes for good holiday fun. I am excitedly waiting for 14.3 (apparently in January?) and hoping that will fix the crash on wake problem.

Dec 30, 2023 3:30 PM in response to mhompesch1

I'm having this problem with my iMac, not my MacBook. It lasted a few days last time, then seemed to correct itself, now today, it's doing it again. So annoying and there isn't a fix for it. Enough to make me want to rethink my choice of computers with my next purchase. Anyone found a fix out there yet? I agree with the thought it's likely a Sonoma problem because I never had it until the Sonoma update was done. I can print from Calendar on anything but lists, and that's what I NEED. Come on, Apple, get your p__p in a grove!

Dec 31, 2023 1:34 AM in response to mhompesch1

I have turned off Time Machine, which has lessened the issue of other external disks unmounting (though not completely). There have been fewer crashes. This of course is a stupid solution Apple!


HOWEVER, Mail is now acting odd; it's open but I cannot do a thing, I have to restart it to get it to function. This may be connected to when it's used in split window view, not sure yet.


Also, the search function no longer works, I believe there may be a fix for these but quite frankly I am fed up of doctoring this not fit-for-purpose OS.

Jan 15, 2024 5:25 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:
This will get rid of all the old agents and daemons that may have been installed, perhaps a decade ago.

・After moving "the user accounts (not applications, settings, or other files)", if I restore the application from Time Machine, will the past settings be restored?

・Should I re-download the application from AppStore etc. instead of Time Machine?

MacBook Pro with macOS Sonoma crashes frequently and randomly.

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