Diagnostic query: Unexpected kernel panic on macOS Sequoia 15.1 after waking (1794524999)

[Nina Patel]

Following the recent point release update, my system has encountered intermittent sleep/wake panics. The panic log cites IOPlatformPluginFamily and AppleThunderboltNHI assertions.

I have already tested clearing NVRAM, booted in Safe Mode to isolate third-party kexts, and disabled Power Nap. Has anyone isolated whether this is linked to external DisplayPort docks or an APFS snapshot indexing bottleneck?

[Rachel Kim]

The IOPlatformPluginFamily assertion often correlates with WindowServer CPU spikes triggered by Safari’s WebKit sandbox violating GPU resource quotas during wake. Run sudo powermetrics --samplers gpu_power -n 1 -i 1000 immediately after wake to capture GPU/CPU residency; if WindowServer exceeds 15% sustained, purge ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState and disable all login items via osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get the name of every login item' then remove non-essential entries. A clean boot with sudo nvram boot-args="-v keepsyms=1" will surface whether the panic originates in IOAccelSurface or AppleThunderboltNHI power-state transitions.

MacBook Pro 14″ M4 (32GB) | iPhone 15

Vancouver, BC | "Read crash logs bottom-up from the faulting thread."

[Liam O’Connor]

AppleThunderboltNHI panics can be induced by Bluetooth HCI command timeouts when AirPods firmware (verify via system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType | grep -A5 "Firmware Version") mismatches the Sequoia 15.1 Bluetooth stack, especially if AirPlay Receiver or HomeKit accessory sync attempts a background wake. Disable “Wake for network access” in Energy Saver, then reset the Bluetooth module with sudo pkill bluetoothd && sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport && sudo kextload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport. If the panic log shows AppleThunderboltNHI::handleInterrupt during IOBluetoothHostController::setPowerState, unpair all AirPods and test with a wired input device to isolate the radio subsystem.

iMac 24″ M3 (16GB) | HomePod mini Stereo Pair

Dublin, IE | "Clean Wi-Fi multicast fixes half of AirPlay drops."

[Ethan Carter]

APFS snapshot indexing bottlenecks are exacerbated when iCloud Photos “Optimize Mac Storage” triggers massive mds/mdworker I/O storms on wake, starving the Thunderbolt NHI’s power-management timeout window. Check snapshot pressure with tmutil listlocalsnapshots / | wc -l and throttle indexing via sudo mdutil -i off / && sudo mdutil -E /; re-enable after verifying log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "mds"' shows no ENOSPC errors. Concurrent Bluetooth drops (monitor log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.bluetooth"' for kIOBluetoothHCICommandTimeout) often coincide with the same wake window, so disable Handoff and “Share across devices” in General → AirDrop & Handoff to eliminate the Bluetooth–Thunderbolt interrupt collision.

iPhone 16 Pro Max | AirPods Max USB-C

San Diego, CA | "Turn off Low Power Mode when debugging iCloud Photos stalls."

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