macOS 15.4 causes nightly kernel panic (WindowServer freeze, M4 Pro)

This time, apps like SoundSource and Microsoft Edge were already removed,

How did you “remove” them. When talking about system modifications, you must uninstall them. Dragging the user-facing app icon to the Trash doesn’t necessarily uninstall them.

There seems to be some evidence here that the M4 may behave differently, but panicking during sleep is as old as the hills and has always been caused by third-party system modifications or attached external hardware (which could still be an OS problem).

I’ve only got an M2 MBP, no external hardware, and certainly no system modifications — no panics during sleep or at wake. Same for M1 Mini except it has an HDMI display, many HDD’s, and a couple RAID enclosures. I only use the AppleRAID software as SoftRAID caused kernel panics when I first set it up. I’m sure they fixed it by now, but I don’t need the extra capability at the risk of the controller software breaking due to a macOS update in the future rendering the drives unusable.

I'm hopeful that Apple will acknowledge this issue and address it in an upcoming update.

I wish you luck with your hope.

Regarding the kernel panic issue, it occurred on my clean installation of Sequoia 15.4. I never experienced anything like this on previous versions (15.3 and earlier)

I have never experienced an on any version of Sequoia.

Every installation of macOS since Big Sur is "clean" regardless of how much stuff you have installed. The OS cannot be modified by anything but Apple authorized updates.

Any third-party system modifications are not stored on the System volume. If you are not testing after Erase all content and settings, and not doing anything but creating a test user account (no migration), the install isn't "Clean."

As I noted, this could be something with the M4, but sleep-wake panics are not new and unknown prior to 15.4.

Not really relevant or helpful when the employer mandates what anti-virus program or anything else must be on the machine. It's not up to me to uninstall such things, and doing so could be construed by them as a security issue.

Meh, there are many reliable VPN systems out there and these days, it's more and more important to have access to them. Telling people they shouldn't use VPNs sounds like advice from someone representing a police state.....oh, wait....

Meh, there are many reliable VPN systems out there and these days, it's more and more important to have access to them. Telling people they shouldn't use VPNs sounds like advice from someone representing a police state.....oh, wait....

You do understand that the "VPN" companies are just tricking you into funneling all of your online habits through their servers so they can sell you off all wrapped up in a nice little bow?

Yeah, sure they are not.

Problem could be in Aldente itself. I don't use Edge, but use SoundSource. Also used Aldente. Had kernel panic for couple days in a row. Removed Aldente service from its settings, than removed Aldente via AppCleaner. Issue seems to be fixed. Still having my headphones plugged in.

This happened to me because the anti-virus program needed updating. This explained all the seemingly random crashes. It was trying to allocate RAM in a way that was disallowed in 15.4.

Which Anti virus program are you using? I have been tracing crashes, and I can't see that Antivirus One that I use is doing that. Though they may have a unique name for their background process.

Good work and thanks for sharing what fixed the issue.

It's called CylancePROTECT.

I'm not using Microsoft Edge --- still seeing kernel panic every few days on my Mac Mini M4 development machine.

Still early to say but it looks this worked. I prefer to wait a few seconds for it to wake up than crashing all the time.

Yep not a good spot to be in.

Read these articles:  Pubic VPN's are anything but public and Security Risks: The Dangers of Using Free VPNs (eccu.edu).