iMac keeps crashing after Catalina upgrade

I wish....

Whilst unplugging any USB-C device (monitor, external drive, Ethernet adaptor) certainly has triggered a crash, for the past four months I am reliant on just the MBP screen. I even disabled sidecar which I had been using with my iPad Pro 12.9

I am running MS Office 365, Adobe CC, and a couple of VPN clients. Sophos AV is mandated by my employer so can’t remove that but have rebuilt vanilla OS twice now and get the same issues before I have installed ANYTHING

Brand new March 2020 MiniMac i7 w Catalina pre installed from UK Top 3 Apple Reseller*.

Attached brand new Display and Lacie 1TB Rugged USB C*

crash freeze crash

Update to latest 10.5.4.x

Reformat Lacie as Mac APFS

crash freeze crash

Booted from MOJAVE USB Installer

wipe HD

Install MOJAVE

Update MOJAVE

= no problems at all

QED

I am having a similar issue with my 2019 iMac (Core i5, 24 GB of RAM, Radeon Pro 570X, 1TB SSD). Since updating to MacOS 10.15.4 Over the last week my Mac has restarted a number of times while away from the computer and frozen a couple of times while working on it. Very annoying

The last update 10.15.4 (19E266) made the problem even worse and now for even more users

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/two-crashes-since-upgrade-to-macos-10-15-4.2228132/

https://www.softraid.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1299

I have the same problem with my Mac Pro late 2013 using Catalina. It tanks about 1-2 times a day... Time for a sledgehammer.

panic(cpu 4 caller 0xffffff7f944abad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since load (75520 seconds ago): 7553, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since load (75490 seconds ago): 7537, last successful checkin: 120 seconds ago

I've been suffering under the same problem as everyone (and have posted previously here) for some time. 2019 27-inch iMac w/3.8 Ghz 8-core Intel Core i9 connected to 2 external monitors and a Thunderbolt SSD drive. I upgraded to the latest Catalina 10.15.4 "Supplemental Update" (19E287) and it seems to have resolved the problem (for me anyway). Haven't had a panic crash for days. (Fingers crossed)

I have the save system as you and running the same OS I had a panic attack last night while watching Amazon prime on 1 of my 2 external monitors.

I think it was Mac Rumors that said this problem was being looked at but probably won't be resolved until the next major release. 10.16 XX

Yes! I have a 2017 macbook pro base model, and it was working perfectly fine until catalina. Then it started having kernel panics, massive perfomance drops, and app crashes all the time. bring back high sierra pleaseeeee

Yes TM can be flakey to carry on using the same disk in Catalina, but before upgrading to a brand new OS, a user would be advised to take 2 or 3 backups including a clone and test them. (a bad backup is useless).

Then should have tested every workflow before committing to keep the new OS.

After that a new TM disk is advised.

I'm having the same issue. WindowServer kernel panics. It happened twice within 4 minutes. While the computer was being used by my wife for Telehealth sessions, disconnecting her from her client. It's an iMac 27 inch, 5K 2017. This is after a format and reinstall, of the OS, then restoring only the users from backup. I've also pulled the upgraded 32G of RAM and have it back to it's original 8G.

Especially now, with everyone teleworking, I hope apple has a fix for this. It's essentially a paper weight, if it can't be stable for therapy sessions.

@Jeff The only resolution with consistent success is a downgrade to Mojave. Unfortunately, that does require yet another fresh install. For many of users here, the window server deadlock reproduces even after a logic board swap (basically a new computer) and with no additional software installed.

It's likely that the current shelter in place order in California isn't helping macOS development or QA efforts. It may just be best to give Catalina a miss and wait to hear if the next annual OS release addresses the issue.

I have this problem on only one machine-- a late 2003 mac pro. My two other machines-- mac mini and mac air-- work fine with Catalina. It just doesn't make any sense. My mac pro is basically a paper weight now. I can't use it for critical work since it'll freeze now and then.

@McGroaty Thanks. I'll give that a try and report back. FYI, you cannot fallow links to download mojave from the app store from firefox. It will say it's not found. Either the app store, or the app, not sure. From safari they work fine. Just in case any one has that issue.

If anyone else is looking to downgrade, Google turns up a number of articles if you search "downgrade Catalina to Mojave." Some of those have links to the OS downloads, but make sure to use one of the links that's on Apple's site. A third party site could have added malware to the installer.

Expect to have to make a bootable USB drive to host the bootable installer. A 16GB memory stick is sufficient, or an external USB hard drive works just as well.