diff --git a/machine-learning/immich_ml/gunicorn_conf.py b/machine-learning/immich_ml/gunicorn_conf.py
index efec3a95aa..bf75af4e62 100644
--- a/machine-learning/immich_ml/gunicorn_conf.py
+++ b/machine-learning/immich_ml/gunicorn_conf.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import os
+import sys
 
 from gunicorn.arbiter import Arbiter
 from gunicorn.workers.base import Worker
@@ -6,6 +7,14 @@ from gunicorn.workers.base import Worker
 device_ids = os.environ.get("MACHINE_LEARNING_DEVICE_IDS", "0").replace(" ", "").split(",")
 env = os.environ
 
+# On macOS, CoreML and other Objective-C frameworks are not fork-safe.
+# When gunicorn forks workers, the Objective-C runtime may crash with:
+# "NSPlaceholderString initialize may have been in progress in another thread when fork() was called"
+# This environment variable disables the fork safety check to allow CoreML to work.
+# See: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/issues/24493
+if sys.platform == "darwin":
+    env.setdefault("OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY", "YES")
+
 
 # Round-robin device assignment for each worker
 def pre_fork(arbiter: Arbiter, _: Worker) -> None: