MacBook Pro crashes at night when entering sleep mode - kernel panics - sleepimage corrupt?

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro crashes at night when entering sleep mode - kernel panics - sleepimage corrupt?

Hi, I use a MacBook Pro 16" (MacBookPro16,1), 2.6 GHz, 6-Core Intel Core i7, 23 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, with MacOS Tahoe 26.2 .

For the past few weeks since upgrading to macOS Tahoe, I've been experiencing crashes at night when my MacBook goes into sleep mode. The next morning, when I try to use it, I get the startup screen followed by an error report that I can send to Apple.

I've found that I can fix the problem by setting the hibernation mode from the default "3" to "0" (sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0). This prevents the sleep image (/private/var/vm/sleepimage) from being written, and there are no crashes or kernel panics. The sleep image is then deleted.

If I then reset the hibernation mode back to "3" (sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3), a new sleep image is written and the MacBook works perfectly again.

I found little information about this online. Most recommendations include an Apple Hardware Test, a restart in safe mode, or a restart in Recovery Mode (CMD-R or Option-CMD-R), followed by a check with Disk Utility. But for me, everything was fine, no problems found.

(By the way, I noticed that in recovery mode First Aid on the root drive aborts with an error message, but runs smoothly and without errors in normal operating mode... Has anyone else observed this?)

I'd be interested to know if anyone has experienced something similar and what their solution was?

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Dec 20, 2025 11:28 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,144 points

Dec 21, 2025 2:39 AM in response to DocOrtho

Did it panic while allowing it to sleep in Safe Mode? The purpose of starting up in Safe Mode is to see if it still panics in Safe Mode. If the cause is from third party kernel extensions, Safe Mode disables them. If you don’t have panics while in Safe Mode, the panics are likely caused by the third-party kernel extensions.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,144 points

Dec 21, 2025 4:56 AM in response to DocOrtho

DocOrtho wrote:

I haven't tried that yet. I've been able to fix it so far by recreating the sleep image. But I'll keep it in mind, thanks!

It won’t fix anything. It is meant to isolate the problem to either hardware or to third-party kernel extensions. If the latter, you can uninstall them or see if there is an update.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,144 points

Dec 21, 2025 2:21 PM in response to DocOrtho

DocOrtho wrote:

I will try that and give a report in a few days!

After thinking about your problem, unless it corrupts the sleep image frequently, you wouldn’t know if it prevented the corruption or not.

EtreCheck can show if you have any kernel extensions installed. If you do, you can decide whether to uninstall or look for updates.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

68,750 points

Dec 21, 2025 5:06 PM in response to DocOrtho

It sounds like your system is having Kernel Panics. Post several of the Kernel Panics here so we can examine them for possible clues. Kernel Panics are located in "/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports" with file names containing kernel and/or panic. If there are no such files in that folder, then check the "Retired" subfolder.

FYI, more than likely you have a hardware issue with this laptop. This exact model laptop has an extremely high rate of failure for its Logic Board. Plus hardware issues are most likely to show up when the system wakes up or powers on. You are just temporarily covering up the problem.....at some point this "fix" will fail and by then the computer may no longer be able to boot.

I hope you have good backups of your computer because you are probably going to need them very soon.

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Answer 5

DocOrtho Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2025 4:47 AM in response to Barney-15E

I haven't tried that yet. I've been able to fix it so far by recreating the sleep image. But I'll keep it in mind, thanks!

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Answer 6

DocOrtho Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2025 5:03 AM in response to Barney-15E

I will try that and give a report in a few days!

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