[Bug]: macOS 26.2 - Enabling Voice Wake causes immediate crash loop (AVAudioEngine SIGABRT) #11834
Closed as not planned
Description
Describe the bug
Enabling 'Voice Wake' on macOS 26.2 causes the OpenClaw macOS app to crash immediately upon launch. The app enters a crash loop and cannot be opened until the configuration is reset via 'defaults delete'.
Environment
- OS: macOS 26.2 (25C56)
- App Version: OpenClaw 2026.2.6 (Build 9039)
- Device: Mac mini (ARM-64)
To Reproduce
- Launch OpenClaw.
- Enable 'Voice Wake' in Settings.
- The app crashes immediately.
- Subsequent launches crash instantly on startup.
Crash Log Analysis
The crash occurs in 'AVAudioEngineImpl::InstallTapOnNode' triggered by 'VoiceWakeRuntime.start(with:)'.
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Termination Reason: SIGNAL 6 Abort trap: 6
Terminating Process: OpenClaw [43826]
Thread 14 Crashed:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib ... __pthread_kill + 8
1 libsystem_pthread.dylib ... pthread_kill + 296
2 libsystem_c.dylib ... abort + 124
3 libc++abi.dylib ... __abort_message + 132
4 libc++abi.dylib ... demangling_terminate_handler() + 304
5 libobjc.A.dylib ... _objc_terminate() + 156
6 libc++abi.dylib ... std::__terminate(void (*)()) + 16
7 libc++abi.dylib ... __cxxabiv1::failed_throw(__cxxabiv1::__cxa_exception*) + 88
8 libc++abi.dylib ... __cxa_throw + 92
9 libobjc.A.dylib ... objc_exception_throw + 448
10 AVFAudio ... AVAudioEngineImpl::InstallTapOnNode(AVAudioNode*, unsigned long, unsigned int, AVAudioFormat*, void (AVAudioPCMBuffer*, AVAudioTime*) block_pointer) + 1556
11 AVFAudio ... -[AVAudioNode installTapOnBus:bufferSize:format:block:] + 608
12 OpenClaw ... VoiceWakeRuntime.start(with:) + 1244
Additional context
It seems to be an incompatibility with the new CoreAudio changes in macOS 26. Disabling Voice Wake resolves the crash.