Since installing Catalina yesterday, multiple crashes from userspace watchdog timeout

This happens to me reliably when i have an external monitor connected though a docking station and system is idle. If i have a video or other non static content displaying on the external monitor, my MacBook Pro I9 does not crash. This is new for Catalina and same configuration did not crash on Mojave. Need a fix...

Is is because of this adapter:

USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter. If it’s plugged in the Mac’s port, regardless if the external monitor or UHD TV is on or off, it just goes into a standby mode when the Mac is idle for 5-7 minutes. The system is trying to recover but after 5 Spin crashes, kernel will go into panic. It is deceiving because it can crash at any app you lastly used before Mac went into idle. If a video or movie is played or the computer is used constantly, then there’s no crashes, because the adapter cannot idle.

This video adapter became all the sudden obsolete after Catalina update.

I had a chat with an Apple Support specialist early this week. He was very helpful, courteous, a professional in his field; as always, including the Genius personnel at the Apple Store when I had questions regarding several issue(s) with my Macs.

Long story short: the Apple specialist covered all the basic pre-macOS Catalina install procedures, including post Catalina troubleshooting basic procedures. Such as:

Pre-macOS Catalina install (upgrade) procedure:

1. Making sure the boot HDD or SSD is free of errors; boot procedure regarding using Disk Utility, Check / Repair ==> About macOS Recovery https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314; if ok, next procedure

2. Uninstall all third party apps that didn’t have an option to update / upgrade in order to be operational on macOS Catalina. Note, these are actually 64 bit applications that eventually do not have the latest (necessary) updates to run trouble free in macOS Catalina.

After Catalina Install - basic troubleshooting procedures:

1. How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295; if not ok, next procedure

2. Follow instructions on how to Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063; if still not ok, next procedure

3. Repeat Disk Utility, Check / Repair procedure (link above) to make sure the HDD or SSD data is still pristine.

4. If all of the above don’t clear the issue(s) ==> Create a New Administrator account to check if the issue is encountered in that new account. How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

Note, I have created a new admin account and the Kernel panic and crashes went away. Also, you may want to use an application that points out the issues, like EtreCheck for example, and get to know what causing Kernel panics and crashes, including beachball spin errors and crashes. Work from that app generated report to get information on available updates or upgrades on the apps in question. If no further updates or upgrades are available, see if the app can be removed by means of conventional uninstall option. If that is not available, search for manual alternatives to remove the app and any orphan files left behind from an incomplete, (rather partial) uninstallation(s); (Note, "Cleaner" like apps might not work 100% in new macOS Catalina; most importantly, not recommended).

In My case, I found some some launch agents like I.e. “com.paragon-software.ntfs.notification-agent” by Paragon Software GmbH, and “org.macosforge.xquartz.startx” ==> Install date Xquartz is 2016-10-26 02:57:09. So, Xquartz has to go since is outdated - I week before I thought it was removed, but… I have no explanation on how it got back.

Hope this helped. Regards.

Also having this issue.

OSX Catalina 10.15.1 (19B88)

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5

32 GB 1866 MHz DDR3

AMD FirePro D300 2 GB

I'm running 3 monitors and crashes constantly since upgrading to Catalina; Mojave worked perfectly.

Have done a complete wipe. Re-partitioned. Re-installed OSX Catalina. New username. SMC Reset. And all other suggestions in this app. I do not have Time Machine or Chrome installed.

Crashes seem to be happening when the screensaver tries to put the monitors to sleep. The "Spin Report" says:

Reason: (1 monitored services unresponsive): checkin with service: com.apple.WindowServer returned not alive with context: unresponsive work processor(s): WindowServer main thread 90 seconds since last successful checkin, 250 total successsful checkins since loa

In the process WindowServer at /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Resources/WindowServer I see:

"(blocked by turnstile with priority 92 waiting for ScreenSaverEngine [858] thread 0x49b1) 1-10"

Relevant part of log attached.

Naturally I crashed not 2 hours after posting this. Paid more close attention to when it crashed and it was in Google Sheets. Found this link that may point the blame at Google Drive File Stream: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250743564

I also removed a DisplayLink driver I shouldn't need any longer. I've been doing a bit with Google Sheets and there may be a cause here.

I'm also experiencing crashes (watchdog time out etc.) after unplugging the external monitor (connected via a Apple USB-C HDMI converter). After multiple crashes and much debugging of different setups, it seems to me like Catalina is not updating the Window management to detect the external display is being unplugged as I can see that the windows are not moving into my Macbook screen and it thinks there's still an external display connected (as seen in Settings>Display). I'm downgrading back to Mojave via a tedious erase/restore. I've reported this here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251048307?page=1

I've also filed a bug report via Apple Feedback (link won't work as Feedback is not an open system) https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/7547651

So a work around (until Apple realizes and fixes this problem) that actually worked for me was to use an app to prevent Mac from going to sleep. I found Amphetamine really useful with bunch of really awesome feature and it's totally free.

Note: I tried Mac's built-in way to prevent it from sleeping automatically (when connected to power), but it didn't work!

Take your backups before upgrading.

If you use Time Machine (TM) see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 then select the Restore from Time Machine Backup option

or

if you use Carbon copy Cloner (CCC) to create bootable backups then boot into the clone and clone the opppsite way.

3-2-1 backup regime means typically having three backup disks, use CCC on two, one of which kept off site (like the garage) and use TM on the third.

Basic disaster recovery.

I would be tempted to use recovery with the Command (⌘)-R option and install the OS that originly came with it then if you have installed Mojave on the past it should be available on the app store

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

No that is not the case necessarily. Start your own thread and someone can advise you of your options and be rewarded for the effort.

I would start by installing the "combo" update 10.15.4

https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

I experienced similar crashes while setting up new 2020 MacBook Air macOS Catalina 10.15.4 (19E287).

I may have solved the problem- it involved Photos uploading many photos to iClould during set up, of all things.

More in this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251353584

"...Everyone in general should get the Apple Feedback Assistant app and submit this problem. The more submitted the more they might pay attention..."

No, that is only available to those signed up to the Beta or dev programs and intended for those test results.

Everyone in general can report bugs at

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

MDS is Apples Spotlight service which indexes stored content to make your searches faster.  A few Apple Support threads reveal when the spotlight index is corrupt the the device can freeze and reboot more often if plugged into power and even more often if you have an external monitor since MDS appears involved with putting monitors to sleep. This also fit for users observing their fans speed up during the freeze before reboot due to the built up heat from the i/o disk activity with the corrupt metadata.

If you have time please try turning off the Spotlight Indexing for your main drive and any additional drives including the Drobo drive someone mentioned having earlier in this thread. Also disable Spotlight indexing for your USB storage sticks you might have connected during these crashes. After you disable the Spotlight indexing then any corrupt metadata (potentially causing your freezing and hanging) will be gone. You can run without Spotlight indexing but your disk searches would be slow so feel free to turn Spotlight Indexing back on which will rebuild the metadata by indexing content on every storage device you connect.

The steps are really easy to disable and then enable Spotlight indexing. They are listed in this short Apple Support document on how to rebuild your Spotlight index https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

If you have three minutes then rebuild your Spotlight index.

This appears to have worked for me.

I installed Catalina yesterday and my macbook pro has crashed 10 times in less than 24 hours, how do i fix this problem,PLEASE HELP!!!. the first error reports looked like this(omitted The rest of report) started like this:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f8b3053c6): "AppleAHCIDiskDriver::PolledIO, trying to do polled IO with polled command in flight, inPolledIOSelector = 0x00000004\n"@/AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/IOAHCIBlockStorage/IOAHCIBlockStorage-316.100.5/AppleAHCIDiskDriver.cpp:

please help

Your problem is most likely unrelated to this thread, but what version of macOS are you using?

Apple menu -> About This Mac

It really looks like a graphics hardware and/or software related issue to me. The ”dot” system updates for macOS usually contain graphics driver updates, so in that sense it's always good to install the latest update for the macOS version one is using.

Also, try to run the hardware diagnostics and see if that comes up with anything:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731