diff --git a/packages/vite-node/src/hmr/emitter.ts b/packages/vite-node/src/hmr/emitter.ts
index e9d60c581c74..3a814d29885e 100644
--- a/packages/vite-node/src/hmr/emitter.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-node/src/hmr/emitter.ts
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ export function viteNodeHmrPlugin(): Plugin {
     name: 'vite-node:hmr',
 
     config() {
-      if (process.env.VITE_TEST_WATCHER_DEBUG) {
+      // chokidar fsevents is unstable on macos when emitting "ready" event
+      if (process.platform === 'darwin' && process.env.VITE_TEST_WATCHER_DEBUG) {
         return {
           server: {
             watch: {
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
index 08df6e8e8824..6c911c15ad2a 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@ export async function VitestPlugin(options: UserConfig = {}, ctx = new Vitest('t
           },
         }
 
-        if (process.env.VITE_TEST_WATCHER_DEBUG) {
+        // chokidar fsevents is unstable on macos when emitting "ready" event
+        if (process.platform === 'darwin' && process.env.VITE_TEST_WATCHER_DEBUG) {
           config.server!.watch!.useFsEvents = false
           config.server!.watch!.usePolling = false
         }