How to Force a Kernel Panic on a Mac

Reviewed by Stan Kats

Last Updated: November 21, 2022

This wikiHow will teach you how to force a kernel panic on a Mac. Be aware that forcing a kernel panic will cause you to lose all unsaved data and result in a system crash.

Steps

Download Article

1
Disable System Integrity Protection. For newer Macs, system integrity protection is used to stop the user from harming their system. You can disable this by turning your computer off, then, while holding the power button holding down ⌘ Command+R at the same time. Click "Utilities and Terminal". Then type csrutil disable and press ↵ Enter. Restart your computer by clicking the Apple Symbol and pressing restart.
You can open it from the Utilities folder in Finder under the Applications tab, or search for it using Spotlight.

Advertisement
3
Enter the crash code. Type client$ sudo dtrace -w -n "BEGIN{ panic();}" into Terminal and hit ↵ Enter.
- client$ will be replaced by your account name (e.g., wikihow$ sudo dtrace -w -n "BEGIN{ panic();}").
This will allow the kernel panic to commence.
Once the system has rebooted, you should be able to access the crash logs, either directly from the window that opens up or from the computer's diagnostic reports.

Expert Q&A

Search

Add New Question

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Tips

This can be useful if you're attempting to debug something.

Thanks
Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
The kernel panic screen will vary depending on which version of Mac OS X or macOS you're using.
- Mac OS X 7 (Lion) and higher will display a message that starts with, "Your computer shut down because of a problem."
- Mac OS X 6 (Snow Leopard) and earlier will display a message that starts with, "You need to restart your computer."
Thanks
Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

Submit a Tip

All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published

Name

Please provide your name and last initial

Submit

Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

Warnings

Do not regularly force kernel panics. Kernel panics are serious errors that occur when something at the hardware level goes wrong, so it's not a good idea to regularly force them.

Thanks
Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0