Since installing Catalina yesterday, multiple crashes from userspace watchdog timeout

Good suggestion to run ‘caffeinate -u -d’. Another option that seems to work is to avoid the clamshell mode altogether. Keeping the laptop lid open enough for the screen to stay on does the trick. I like to use the clamshell mode and place the laptop in a vertical stand, but this causes the crash to occur when connected to a external monitor.

Hi Bob,

I do not use Time Machine. I have an attached HooToo USB hub with (i) power input, (ii) external mouse and sometimes (iii) printer connection. I also have a Belkin USB-C ethernet dongle plugged directly into the Mac, and sometimes a portable USB hard drive.

I never experienced this problem until I upgraded from 10.15.4 to 10.15.5 about ten days ago. I was using the same hardware setup for about 3 months prior to that, i.e. 2019 PowerBook with above doodads running in clamshell mode connected to an external Philips monitor. The thing went to sleep every night and woke up happily the next day for 90 days in a row. Since the 10.15.5 update it reliably hangs and reboots every single time it tries to wake up (until I started using the caffeinate workaround to keep it from sleeping).

Hope this info helps.

Panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff7f8d1aead5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.logd in 120 seconds

service returned not alive with context : unresponsive dispatch queue(s): com.apple.firehose.io-wl

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since load (217162 seconds ago): 21688, last successful checkin: 120 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since load (217132 seconds ago): 21713, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago.

After last update ( ) it still happens even while using the computer and it is not sleeping on screen saver. Yes there are multi monitors. Also since up grading to Catalina the system is running really slowly especially network connections.

  Model Name: iMac

 Model Identifier: iMac13,1

 Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5

 Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz

 Number of Processors: 1

 Total Number of Cores: 4

 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

 L3 Cache: 6 MB

 Memory: 16 GB

 Boot ROM Version: 291.0.0.0.0

 SMC Version (system): 2.9f5

I was wondering if there is a correlation between the "userspace watchdog timeout" Kernel Panic and this one?

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff801ac9167c): Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while calling power state change callbacks. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily. Thread 0xc5dbf.

I have been facing these WindowServer crashes for some time now, it's very frustrating that Apple doesn't even acknowledge this issue since we payed thousands of dollars for our machines (mbp 16' is only 3 months old)

[Edited by Moderator]

I know a lot of people are seeing this relating to when a machine sleeps, but I'm seeing this on the iBin Cylinder during normal operation. I've even seen it whilst trying to hit the "yes report" button immediately after the reboot of a previous crash. Now running "latest" release on a single DP connect 4k screen and on latest update seeing enough reboots to make machine unusable.

Well, I finally decided to bring in my few months old 16” Macbook Pro at Apple Service to let it check. The technician said it would most probably be a hardware problem, although I am not sure to believe that. I will keep you updated.

I couldn't agree more with you Kevin,

Not wanting to disappoint you, but this version that you're downloading will not fix the problem.

For me none of the suggested actions is working, im some cases turnoff my external monitors at night works, but not always.

In my office i have only one monitor attached through USB-C <> Mini DisplayPort adapter and the same problem occurs less often but occurs.

I have a 2019 i9 w/32GB Ram and 1TB Mbp in my home I have 2 Dell P2415q attached to a Belkin thunderbolt 3 express dock.

I thinking seriously to downgrade to Mojave.

Sergio.

Peter Loew

anony m ouse

Just a few hours is sometimes a little early to declare victory. HOWEVER, I really do hope it addressed your issue.

Because watchdog timeout seemed to affect so many users with so many different configurations and setups, as well as generating User mode watchdog timeouts and kernel watchdog timeout, it maybe be that just some of the situations are addressed.

I truly want this to be fixed, as I have been trying to track this issue and find a common solution. But since my day job involves writing Unix kernel level software for Linux, AIX, Solaris platforms, I know that sometimes a change just changing the "Timing Window" and it takes a slightly different, and maybe more difficult to hit Window.

Again, I hope your fixes hold, but if they do not, it would nice to have feedback. Even a week from now, if all is solid, that would be good feedback.

I updated MBP15" 2018 to Catalina 15.6 on Friday, then put it back on my 3 external monitor setup on Friday evening.

So far, zero crashes. No caffeinate and all energy saver settings at defaults (unchecked "Prevent computer from sleeping", checked "Put hard drives to sleep", "Wake for Wi-Fi network access", "Enable Power Nap".).

The further key test will be this week with many more apps (especially MS Teams, etc.) running simultaneously.

So far, so good for me also (knock on wood!). 10.15.6 installed, and no spinning wheels of death or midnight shutdowns. The true test (as others have said) will be a full week of work, but this is already a huge improvement. Fingers crossed... best of luck to everyone with this issue!

Kevin T.

I'm still struggling to spot any pattern with this, however it does seem to be much worse when I'm working with video. (although I've also had it hang and reboot whilst it was trying to submit a crash report having just hung and rebooted!)

10.15.6B was a nightmare, but so far 10.15.6 has had two days of lightweight use without incident. (iBin with 4k DisplayPort monitor).

If it's still incident free in 24 hours I'll try connecting the second screen. Which has had to be disconnected since start of the year.

10.15.6 has seemingly resolved this issue for me for two days now. Fingers crossed. 16" MBP.

When I was having the issue, though, I learned that you can power on a MacBook Pro in clamshell mode just by connecting it to power. So instead of putting it to sleep overnight, I would shut it down, unplug the power, leave it in clamshell mode, and plug it back in the next to power it up without having to unfold it.

It's been around a week now and I have not had a single problem with these crashes anymore. I've been using my 16" MBP in clam shell mode, plugging, unplugging, leaving it overnight connected to the display, etc., and it feels rock solid again like I am used to Macs feeling.

All my energy settings are default, with the laptop going to sleep whilst plugged in and connected to an external display, etc.

Very happy now however I WILL NOT be so fast to in updating the OS next time an update is available. I will probably wait a good 3-5 months post Big Sur release too, thanks to this experience.

While I have had 2 crashes since updating to 10.15.6 last Friday, I must admit that the system DOES seem slightly more stable (again, I was having daily, if not MULTIPLE daily, crashes before the update). Will keep my own log of issues, so that I can accurately remember how many issues I encounter with the latest update. I can live with 1 crash a week (not that I would be happy with that, but it's certainly better than many times per week!), so let's see how it goes over the next few weeks.

I also turned off Spotlight, for what that is worth -- I really don't rely on what it does anyway (file/app indexing), and noticed that it was often spiking my CPU and causing my fan to run. Not saying that helped or hurt anything -- just adding more info... :)