MacBook Pro with macOS Sonoma crashes frequently and randomly.

Hi,

When I closed the lid, sometimes it automatically rebooted with a startup sound.

I don't think Sonoma 14.3 will be better. I bet you will have the same issue.

Regarding the Activity Monitor, only the Energy tab crashes.

I can see others reporting the same.

The Touch Bar stopped working.

If there is no issue with the hardware, isn't it clearly the OS issue?

What did Apple suggest you? Did they say that you were just unlucky and have to buy a new one?

closing the lid puts it to sleep and that can trigger the reboot.

At the time of hardware test, Apple said to first Time Machine backup, then manual backup of all files, then clean-disk, then reinstall OS, and then to install back each app manually from app store, and finally copy back all files, bookmarks etc. i.e .do not restore from Time Machine.

However, after I came home, I did embark on above, but I found my machine crashing right after the clean-disk and reinstall of OS. I did not even get to manual reinstall of apps and data. This clearly showed that it is the OS issue and not HW or even apps.

I have not really found the time to get back to Apple on this..instead decided to wait for 14.3 ...but seems like thats kaput as well.

is your reboot always throwing AMDFrameBufferVIP::SetPowerState error?

I disabled that option as soon as I updated the Sonoma (I don't like that feature, it's annoying if you have to screen share to a computer), and still get crashes. If it works for you, hopefully you're ok now, but overall, Sonoma is buggy garbage. My theory is that Apple has been taking away too many developers to get the Vision Pro out, and can't dedicate the resources to get a macOS stable enough to be usable for everyone. This on top of over a decade of rushed, yearly releases.

Is there a way to officially raise the issue and ask Apple to resolve this ASAP?

How can we show that the number of users suffering from this issue is not negligible?

They may need some financial impact to act on this.

I used to have this same problem on my 15" MacBook Air, but I was able to resolve the issue. I believe there are a number of factors that contribute to the problem, and one person's solution will not necessarily work for someone else. But a few months ago, several of us on this thread solved the problem the same way, so I thought I'd share it again. My Mac was crashing regularly while using it, several times a day. By crash, I mean it would lock up, the screen go black, and it would reboot. One time, it happened when I was looking at the desktop, where my icons and widgets were located. I noticed that before everything went black, a number of widgets went black. Then very quickly the whole screen went black. So I tried what someone else had suggested and removed every single one of my widgets, then rebooted. The result: no more crashes. I waited a few days, then I slowly started returning the widgets. I first put back all the Apple ones, and nothing crashed. Then I added a few other key ones I use a lot, such as Accuweather and Parcel. Still no crashes. I've now gone months without a crash. I confess that before this fix, I had my home screen completely filled with widgets. I don't know if there was a single offending widget or multiple ones, and I suspected the ones that were actually iPad widgets that were able to be used on a Mac. I suspect this fix won't work for most of you, but it might be worth a try. Remove all of them and reboot, then wait to see if you crash. I'd love to know if this works for anyone else. Good luck!

Jagato00 - I might suggest: before going to get HW inspection...backup, and erase you hard drive, and reinstall OS fresh, make sure it is still crashing, and then take that laptop to get HW tested...and if it passes, then you have something to discuss and demo to the Apple support guy.

I have the same problem. Recently, Sonoma self-installed itself on my 2020 Intel MacBook Pro. I did not initiate it nor want it, but somehow it happened. Now my MacBook crashes every night, and I have to reboot all my browser tabs, apps, re-log into everything again every morning. It's even started crashing when I walk away from the Mac for 20 minutes or more, and then I have to reload everything again, which really breaks my workflow.

I totally didn't want nor install this version of the macOS on my Intel Mac, but now that I'm stuck with it, I see that other people with newer Macs are struggling with this same issue. What's being done about it?

Thanks! Where would I find the "Turn Display Off on Power Adapter" setting? I looked in all the logical Preferences settings, like "Displays" (extremely logical, but this particular Display preference isn't there), "Desktop and Dock" (it's not there, either), "Screen Saver" (nope!), and "General" (not there, either). Where did Apple hide it?

My MacBook Pro 2020 (Intel) crashes every night and at least one more time per day since it self-installed Sonoma (I didn't want to be upgraded to Sonoma). I tried someone else's advice to keep the screen from locking, but it still crashes and reboots every time it's idle. Then I have to reload all my web pages, projects, apps, log back into everything again, etc.... really time-wasting and frustrating. Thanks to the person who offered advice already, even though it doesn't work. Apple needs to fix this. My Intel Mac should NOT be running on Sonoma, and they should not have forced it on me. But since they did, they need to make the OS stable.

I have the same issue with Sonoma. I bought new MBP M3 Max in November, started crashing frequently, I reinstalled 14.2 multiple times. Got 14.2.1 and it seemed to solve it, no more crashes. Then 14.3 came out and I installed, seemed good, then 14.3.1 was installed and I crash multiple times a day. I tried to see if I could use Time Machine to go back to 14.2.1 but it won't let me...very frustrating that I spent so much on a laptop and it's so unstable.

Came back from Apple store yesterday where they did a clean sheet install with firmware reset and assured me this would work...restored data from time machine last night, this morning crashed while the MBP sat at my desk as I was out walking the dog...

supranaturalf1 wrote:

Came back from Apple store yesterday where they did a clean sheet install with firmware reset and assured me this would work...restored data from time machine last night, this morning crashed while the MBP sat at my desk as I was out walking the dog...

Did you make any attempt to let it run without reinstalling the crap you had on it?

Thats a good point, Barney. I was told by Apple genius that backing up to Time Machine and restoring back from it could actually make sure we still carry the stuff that makes it crash..so, probably it should be tested before Time Machine restore, or alternately manual backup and restore would work.

Anycase, 14.4 is out (at least for my 2018 Intel mac) as of this morning..and I updated..I will not say anything about performance for a few days.

I finally got it resolved. Went to Apple Store and they wiped the computer clean and started clean sheet with Sonoma 14.4. The instructed me to install one piece of software at a time and let it run for several hours before I tried installing another one. I did that and I've re-installed most of the software I had before (like 90%) the rest I have not yet because they were installed on an as-needed basis. Also updated my MS Office to a newer version (I believe the older version *might* have been the issue but not going to ever find out now) and so far no crashes, super stable. And I keep regular time machine backups in case I need to revert.

The crash is still happening with Sonoma 14.4.1. This is so bad that I can't even use the laptop for more than 5 mins.

I have an Intel i9 2019 MacBook Pro.

Everything was running smoothly before this update.

I am at a point where I can't even seem to use the recovery or reinstall Sonoma. It just crashes on its own in the middle.

Plus, the MacBook is heating up like crazy. Apple is just not the company it used to be a couple of years back. They don't seem to be giving a **** about their customers at all.