iMac keeps crashing after Catalina upgrade

My work-around for a late 2017 MacBook Pro running an external monitor, is to top change all settings related to screen savers and energy savings is to never turn off or nap. I just shut the lid when away. I have had no crashes in 36 hours using this method.

I can reproduce while the machine isn't connected to docking stations or external monitors.

Also, if it happens while I'm away (i.e. the computer is locked and goes to sleep) I come back to find the graphical function bar flashing, screen black, but it looks like the backight is turning on and off. Have to force a hard shut down then restart to get the machine back up.

Well.... I though my Macbook Amateur was getting better, and it is indeed, it is getting better at crashing! By the minute!

Today it's been already 5 times I believe, and I have lost no less than 1 hour or more, if I add up the time spend submitting the crash report, restarting it to see it crash right away, to then restart it and finally stay ok for a while. What is rendering this all the more annoying is the message saying "you shut down your computer because of a problem". That is total B... S..t!! I did not shut it down in the first place and -again- what does "because of a problem" actually refers to?! Gee!

I have a 2013 Imac and a 2018 Macbook Air. Both were having this crash issue after upgrading to Catalina. Adjusting the sleep settings did not appear to help for either. I may, however, have stumbled onto a solution; I uninstalled and re-installed the Bitdefender Antivirus client on both machines. They appear to be stable as of right now. Just wanted to throw this out in case it helps someone else.

Ok I am really mad now. After constant crashing I decided to erase the HD and do a totally CLEAN install of Mojave. Well guess what? Mojave now has the same problem! I'm lucky if the computer even loads the OS before it crashes. I suspect Catalina came with some firmware upgrade or maybe USB-C firmware or something. I know this because often it will crash the instant I remove the power. Seriously mad right now and Apple better take responsibility if they've ruined my computer. If they don't respond appropriately I think I will finally say goodbye to apple. It has been a long 20 years of loyalty from me so it's shame on them if they don't admit they did something here.

I have a macbook pro 15" 2017 if that means anything.

So now it's 3x re-installs of OS. Numerous hours troubleshooting. Computer has been unproductive for 4 days now and I can't even revert back to Mojave because it seems whatever they updated is more than just the OS. This is getting depressing.

Join the club on that one! Everyone seems to be getting this issue. Mine keeps saying "in 5 minutes your laptop will reboot", and then it goes through the download process all over again, and I get the whole "setting up your mac, put your apple ID in, sign into icloud..." It's a real pain.

I've tried contacting Apple as well but they're being entirely useless... if only the Macbook update was as easy to install as the iPhone one which took less than 20 minutes and hasn't caused any problems.

I can see no benefits to this new update.

Exact same problem... had to get a new laptop altogether- it was a good thing I had insurance on it outside of apple (if I didn't or I had insurance with apple I would be totally screwed). You'd be surprised with how great the update is on computers that already have it before you buy them, but everything else is a complete disaster with this update.

I feel your pain King Mushroom. Since I have a 13" 2017 [late] MacBook Pro. I have had zeros crashes on Catalina since I put all settings related to screen saver and energy saving or nap/sleep setting. I just shut the lid and turn off external monitor when not using for extended periods. I swear it functions as a good work around. If you restore back up it could be a possible option for you.

Ok I talked to a helpful guy from Apple. Anyway he agreed it was strange that Catalina... whatever it did, seemed to change my computer for the worse even when I went back to Mojave. He said to boot in safe mode because doing so means the computer will run through a series of checks and fixes. We have no idea what the problem was but booting into safe mode seemed to fix the problem. Strange indeed.

Note: it fixed the problem in Mojave.... currently re-installing Catalina to see if it also fixes the problem there (where it started)

It’s an absolute shame this new OS was released. It shows that Apple is weak in supporting the Mac. Developers are more into the IOS than the Mac. Hopefully, Apple will re-do this mess and upgrade Mojave and trash Catalina as a huge mistake? Catalina is making running Windows on a Mac very attractive!

I have a similar issue on the 2017 imac pro , restarts if I get away from it or restarts every 1-2 hours with normal workload. I have the 18 cores and the processor usage is under 10 - 15 % always so is not overheating or something. I had more forced restarts in the past day than I had in all the computer's life :( Apple please fix this

Running MacOS Catalina 10.15 on Macbook Pro 11,5 with 2 monitors attached. All software up-to-date and lots of SSD disk space and RAM.

Initially started as a problem highlight text in word for Mac. When I highlight anything in word, MacOS halts for 10 sec. Then I go back to work until I make a mistake and highlight something. Then after a few halts, one of the monitors normally turns all red or yellow sometimes, then back to normal for a short period of time before it outright crashes. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!

Word for Mac solution: When working with word for Mac on Catalina, disconnect all external monitors and all is well! All solutions found online including installing everything all failed.

Now, the problem is beginning to show on Pathfinder 8.6 as well as VLC (2 crashes today!)

Again, the solution, disconnecting the monitors solves the problem!!!

Looking at at the console logs, the problem seems to be related to AMD Graphics.

Ok that "safe mode" fix I said earlier... it didn't end up fixing much. After a reboot the problem persisted. I went and reinstalled Catalina again the the issue is WAY more frequent now. It would often even just switch off in the middle of loading the OS!

The issue seems to be somewhat related to having an external monitor... but not always. Watching full screen video seems to encourage the crash as well. I really don't know what to do here... it's 99% likely not hardware and the guys on the phone seem to have no idea what is happening. My biggest worry is that I can't even revert back to Mojave with the problem following me there too. What on earth did Apple change??? It has been 5 long stressful day now. Computer is basically unusable.

Well, until this is fixed, anyone who switched is paying the price for the bad OSX. If Apple Tech support has no clue, we are all in deep DoDo. My wife and I are all apple, but never did this update based on past performance issues with new releases. Kinda makes me think if you cant run the new OSX, install Bootstrap and go with Windows. We Imac and book users are in trouble in updating Catalina and if not fixed soon, Apple will lose a lot of us. The Windows users are laughing at us and several Tech magazines are coming out with bad reviews for Catalina saying its going to sink the Mothership??

I think I stumbled upon a solution! Had the same problem with my new iMac , read about it a lot on the internet with no luck, here's how it suddenly stopped crashing for me:

I was looking for any new ways to move the dock to one of my external monitors without sliding the top menu in display settings, so I found a thread about going into mission control and check the box that says> "Displays have separate spaces"

Since then my iMac with external monitors stopped crashing, Please let me know if it works for you!

in short>

Go to, System Preferences\Mission Control> check "Displays have separate Spaces"

Hope it works!