iMac keeps crashing after Catalina upgrade

EvilGator wrote:

I have two iMacs and one MacBook Pro that are all operating on Catalina. One of the iMacs was constantly (at least 5 times a day) crashing after the Catalina upgrade. The other iMac and MacBook Pro had absolutely NO problem with Catalina.

After switching out the thunderbolt to thunderbolt cord with my Lacie Drive, the problem iMac no longer crashes. Turns out that the cord that came with the hard drive was the culprit and after swapping it out with an Apple cord, the iMac works fine.

How odd.

That's interesting. But if it worked under Mojave, I'd claim that the issue is Catalina.

Because that's what changed in the configuration that moved it from a 'working' to 'failing' state.

In my case, I was able to downgrade to Mojave without a hitch using Time Machine. I think my method was a bit different than some:

1. Just before upgrading to Catalina, I did a full Time Machine backup.
2. I disconnected my Time Machine external drive just after backup was completed.
3. I then upgraded to Catalina.
4. I left my Time Machine drive disconnected while on Catalina (for about 1 week). Anything I did on Catalina wasn't backed up because I knew I was just in testing mode.
5. Once I decided I had enough, I wiped my SSD and installed a fresh copy of Mojave.
6. After install, I did a full restore with zero problems and everything was back as it was a week earlier just before I upgraded.

This method kept me free and clear as a contingency for the possibility of downgrading.

A workaround:

I have an iMac 2019 with two external displays. The Mac is set to never go to sleep, but displays do. With this setup, there were WindowServer crashes every night. This was problematic as the Mac was doing pretty intensive operations and the files could get corrupted. Not acceptable at all.

I then set up that the displays never go to sleep, only a dark screensaver. No crashes. To save power and the environment, I do turn the displays off manually.

A workaround, but much better than constant crashes. With this I can live with until Apple comes around with a real solution.

JasonJoo wrote:

After upgrading to 10.15.2 for several hours the system will not crash during animation of adjacent desktops switching but will pause for seconds(6~12) occasionally(But cursor can move and only move).

It will pause with cursor freezing for seconds and crash before upgrading.

Anyway it seems a worked fix for crashing problem to AMD display card so far.

Recommend to upgrade to 10.15.2.

My goodness I hope I'm not jinxing it again, but this release does look and feel good.

Something has definitely changed for the better with the handling of external screens here. When powering up and waking from sleep, my machine (almost) always displayed the login screen on the internal display, despite my 'main' screen being one of the connected monitors. I always thought it was a weird quirk, but not worth filing a bug for. It now seems to consistently fire up the external monitors on the login screen and stays with that configuration - it seems much less glitchy.

I've not seen a crash yet, despite having Music open and letting the machine go through several sleep cycles. It needs to do this for a little longer before I can be sure of the fix, but I'm feeling surprisingly optimistic 🤞🏼.

I finally gave up. used time machine to go back to Mojave, users the command "sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina"" to ignore the Catalina update. Everything is now back to working great. Looks like I am staying on Mojave.

So for the last 2 weeks I’ve had this issue whilst using catilana (fresh install not an update) I tried the updates and the issue still persists - reboot after 5+ of inactivity.

today I finally downgraded to Mojave and the issue disappeared. I installed my usual apps and no restart!

so I put a theory to the test, I let macOS update its self to Catalina and voila it seems that the issue is not present even though I’m running the exact build I was before downgrading.

my main thoughts are Apple removed something that doesn’t get removed in the upgrade.

hope this helps someone, and for reference I’m on a iMac Pro

Finally it didn't get any better even with 10.15.2. I did a clean install of Mojave on the weekend and copied all data/files manually. It was a lot of work, but it paid off.

What a difference! At last I can use my iMac with Bluetooth again, it wakes up from sleep mode and hasn't crashed since. I was afraid that something was broken in the hardware, but it was actually only Catalina. Thanks for nothing, Apple.

Just following up after seeing these issues continuing.

I've switched off my external pair of Dell monitors for the moment and started using my iPad Pro as a second monitor with Sidecar. It's not ideal, it's not as productive as having multiple monitors but it works and does not crash, so that's a potential interim option for those that have one available.

Let' hope 10.15.3 helps....

Steve

I had exactly the same problem with 2 screens connected in Thundebolt on my iMac2019.

I bought a Thundebolt Elgato dock to which I connected the 2 screens and since then there has been no problem. It seems that it is the management of the 2 Thunderbolt sockets of the iMac that are problematic for Catalina

I have been dealing with this issue on two iMacs with Catalina.

The crash only happens when external monitors are connected.

The only workaround I have been able to make work is NEVER allowing the screen to sleep (screensaver ON) by using the "Amphetamine" app from the App Store. Any combination of settings without using "Amphetamine" cause the kernel panic when the computer idles.

I don't need Paragon anymore

From EtreCheck report:

2020-01-08 09:39:10 Kernel Panic (4 times)
        Details:
            panic(cpu 4 caller 0xffffff800de6520a): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f8ee30
            473, type 14=page fault, registers:
        3rd party kernel extensions: 
            com.paragon-software.filesystems.ntfs

Fixed my Mac's nightly crashes. I believe it was McAfee's Total Protection scanner. Once uninstalled crashing stopped. I remember support indicating they have a special work around for Catalina. But, yet to attempt reinstall. What I get for deciding to install virus protection after years of going commando.

Hello Praetoriano - I have been able to replicate your problem on two iMacs - crash on idle only when 2 external monitors are connected (Late 2014; iMac Pro) and I have been able to keep the computers awake and avoid kernel panics by using "amphetamine" app from the App Store, and leaving the screens ON, running a screensaver. You must use amphetamine to keep the screens on, however.

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Add Text button to include the report in your reply. How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

ALSO IMPORTANT:

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the root of the problem.

It means that Catalina is more sensitive to the quality of the RAM. We have have numerous users come to the ASC with complaints of problems that related to added RAM. In nearly all cases the added RAM was from sources other than Crucial.com and MacSales.com. Both suppliers test their modules in the model they are designed for and guarantee their compatibility.

Many users had no problems with their RAM until the got to Mojave or Catalina and then it all went south. They reported replacing the modules with some from the two suppliers noted above solved their problem.

So I'd say the source is experience.