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

exactly the same issue I had on my MacBook Pro m4 after upgrading to 15.4

It randomly appears. I tried reinstalling macOS, but my Mac still randomly has this issue. Also, it is definitely caused by 15.4, this issue does not happen in earlier versions.

Same Panic on brand new MBA M4 — clean install. Only 15.4 upgrade.

Returned the laptop and had it replaced with a new one. Performed clean install — only Apple and Apple Silicon Standard apps. Nothing unusual. After two days, the panic is back.

The last thing I installed before Panic came back was homebrew (ffmpeg, htop, yt-dlp)

Tearing my hair out!

Full computer sleep mode has been a problem with desktop systems for some time now.

Sorry the following screenshots are for desktop Mac's, but the general idea is the same.

As a test:

Turn On "Prevent automatic sleeping when display is off"

Set "Turn display off when inactive" to 5 or 10 minutes

Leave the Mac On and only allow the display(s) to turn Off

Do not manually Sleep from the Apple Drop Down menu

Shut Down the Mac when away for a day or more

It may get fixed, if enough folks send Feedback.

Feedback - MacBook Pro - Apple

Feedback - macOS - Apple

holly crap, yeah, I am also using Microsoft Edge browser. I will uninstall it immediately. I thought it was related to the usage of my plugged headphone, it turns out that it is related to browser, I will also diable the `wake for network access` option as well.

For my case, I followed the suggestion of apple advisors (apple support), they asked me to do soft-resintallation (keeping user data) and hard-resintallation (erase the entire disk and resintallation), both are not working in my case.

Macbook Pro M4 - Kernel panic after upgra… - Apple Community

Someone mentioned in this thread, this thread reports the exactly same issue as in this thread. It might be related to some audio devices, I am trying to unplug my headphone during the mac sleep and replace my wired headphone with a bluethooth one. Not sure if this will sovle this issue temporally.

One thing confimred is that this bug is introduced by 15.4 update Should not be related to the hardware issue.

jasonyangshadow wrote:

... and hard-resintallation (erase the entire disk and resintallation), both are not working in my case.

For the "hard reinstallation," did you migrate back your user information and reattach external devices? If so, doing that might have brought back whatever is causing the problems. A better test is erase entire disk and create one generic admin user (maybe call it "admin") but no other users yet and nothing installed and nothing connected ... does the problem still exist? If so it is hardware, the Mac needs repair. If not, something installed or connected is causing it.

Macbook Pro M4 - Kernel panic after upgra… - Apple Community

Someone mentioned in this thread, this thread reports the exactly same issue as in this thread. It might be related to some audio devices, I am trying to unplug my headphone during the mac sleep and replace my wired headphone with a bluethooth one. Not sure if this will sovle this issue temporally.

I think unplugging the headphones is a good test.

One thing confimred is that this bug is introduced by 15.4 update Should not be related to the hardware issue.

Sometimes external devices use drivers or software that are incompatible with the OS. The problems sometimes don't become apparent until an upgrade or update to the OS. Or the external device hardware may have a faulty interface with the Mac and it works up to a point, until a MacOS update occurs.

It could also, of course, be a bug in MacOS. But the first thing is to ascertain if a plain vanilla Mac with nothing connected still has those panics. If so it is most likely faulty hardware in the Mac.

jmbarry wrote:

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.

How do I uninstall Antivirus One from my … - Apple Community

Part of the Trend Micro family of Antivirus software

Utterly uses software for a Non Existent Issue - Viruses for macOS

There is a school of thought on how to Totally Remove this type of software

Once this type of software are installed and embedded into the computer Virus One

Start Over from Scratch 

Heavy Handed - Yes ?

Effective in removing the AV Software - Yes 

For Apple Silicon computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

For Apple Intel computers >>   Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Always make a Time Machine Backup  before  proceeding 

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate everything back.

This will probably Re-Introduce ( Virus One ) back into the Operating System 

same on M3 mac MBP , never got any issue and just after installing 15.4 Kernel panic... now i'm in safe mode and not a single Kernel Panic since.. i'm waiting for a fix from apple , and yes it also happened when the mac was sleeping.

Last time i let auto install on a mac ... if this would happen on windows there would be a massive coverage but it's on mac so no one cares and apple support tels me it's my machine which is faulty despite hardware test saying everything is ok ...

Apple customer service is not what it used to be ... seriously...

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.

jmbarry wrote:

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.

Any anti virus program can cause these problems. They don't help at all with Macs because Macs don't even allow administrator users to change the MacOS system volume anymore, which is a read only snapshot now, it can only be modified via Apple certified servers. There is no physical way to install a real virus in a Sequoia Mac. You can install malware by clicking on web sites that you should not, or actually installing such malware by using installers from questionable sources, but anti virus for Macs is a dinosaur that serves no purpose. You can use the well vetted Malwarebytes if you MUST have protection against malware.

Kossil wrote:

• Device: MacBook Pro M4 Pro

macOS Version: Sequoia 15.4 (clean install, build 24E248)

Previous Versions: 15.2 and 15.3 were 100% stable with no issues.

This issue did not occur on previous versions (15.2 or 15.3) and only started after the 15.4 update.

System Setup: The system is almost fresh, with no third-party software installed beyond defaults. Only wired headphones are connected.

What do you mean by "clean install"? You indicate that you applied a 15.4 update.

Disconnect the headphones and anything that is connected to see if the panics stop.

+1

I'm also getting nightly kernel panics on a M2 Mini since updating to 15.4.1. No problems at all before updating. No other changes to system. Happening whilst unattended. Don't know what it is doing when it panics, keep finding it has restarted when I get home from work. Is set to not allow sleep so shouldn't be a sleep wake issue. No anti virus or Edge browser installed.

Do you have a headset plugged in? For my case, when I plugged in the headset into the mac during the sleep, the system randomly crashed and rebooted. I upgraded to 15.4.1 and switched to use a Bluetooth headset, then the problem is gone. I have used the system for about one week since the last upgrade, and no crashes anymore.

I hope that this will give you some clues.