Catalina constantly crashing when Sleep

I took my mid 2015 MBP into the shop again for diagnostics. It passed and they did another fresh install of the latest version of Catalina. I brought it home this last Saturday (Feb. 8th), plugged in the power, went through the fresh install config and mostly left it alone. I chose not to restore anything from my Time Machine back, I wanted to see how Catalina would behave in a fresh state. Largely because I’ve lost trust in macOS’ stability for day to day use.

Last night I closed the top/screen and let it sleep overnight. When I opened the top/screen it was unresponsive. However, the bottom was warm and I could hear the whir of a fan. I held the power button down until the whirring stopped, waited a few seconds, and then powered it up again. I was greeted by the 'something bad happened' screen and proceed to reboot.

Looks like Catalina 10.15.3 still has what ever this mysterious sleep crash problem is. This whole experience has soured me on Apple and started an investigation into a laptop to run Linux on.

Update on my end. I really believe this may be related to cheap docks/hubs people are using. When I first posted I noted that the kernel panics and sleep issue I was having would only occur if I was using the USB-3 hub/adaptor I purchased from amazon called VAVA. The apple thunderbolt to hdmi adaptor did not cause any sort of issue.

So I picked up a hp thunderbolt dock g2 and two USB-3 monitors. Since I started docking the system this way, I have not had the issue since. And I'm down to only one cable for power and peripherals. The only issue I have is with the dock. HP doesn't publish mac drivers for the onboard audio output and ethernet. Thats not a mac issue though, and is a known deficiency with the product. May be swapping this out for a different dock.

Not that this is a solution. It definitely wasn't cheap.

UPDATE: Since I last posted, Engineering got back to me and suggested the likely culprit was my OWC RAM or the external drive. I ran three passes of REMBER, and the RAM passed without any errors.

Since I’d already disconnected the drive for several days, I reconnected it to do a backup and then—because why not?—I decided to leave it connected. It’s now been 8 or 9 days, and there have been zero kernel panics and restarts. Note that I’ve changed nothing: no system settings (such as Energy Saver), no deletions of system software components, and I’m still running the same programs as before.

Because I don’t believe in self-healing hardware, I’m wondering if OS 10.15.3 does contain some sort of fix for this issue. Although I previously had two restarts within 24 hours of installing it, there have none since I disconnected and then—a few days later—reconnected the USB-powered external drive.

Update 7: Apple Engineering has informed me, via Apple Support Sr. Technical Advisor, that they have concluded there is a COMPONENT FAILURE on THE LOGIC BOARD of my 2019 MacBook Pro 16 inch. (!!)

Apple pulled data on two occasions to make their determination. They did not tell me which component they identified as having failed.

They sent me a return shipping box after we discussed and rejected the option of a possible in-store repair. Since my MBP 16" was special order (max configuration with 4T storage), we concluded that the store would not be able to fix it and would need to ship it to Apple Repair specialists anyway.

So this concludes my story – for now. I expect my problem is not shared with too many others here on this thread, but I hope it proves helpful to someone at some point.

If the anticipated repair does not remove the crashing-while-sleeping problem for me I will return and update this thread.

Good luck to all. ~k

I disabled "deep sleep" and this fixed my problem.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/300823/compatibility-of-nvme-and-deep-sleep-in-macbook-pro

I was using the exact same hardware (hard drive, etc.) in Mojave without issue.

I am not using any external drives or docks.

Update 2/20/20: I had to wait about 10-14 days, but I finally had another kernel panic and restart. I’ve eliminated obvious hardware issues EXCEPT my external Toshiba Canvio (bus-powered), so I’m returning it to them for replacement and temporarily switching to a powered external drive for Time Machine backups. I’ll update again if I experience any panics with this setup or when I’ve received/tested the replacement Canvio.

One user suggested that using low-end attached devices may be a cause. The low-end/high-end issue doesn't seem to apply to my 2018 15" MBP (Catalina 10.15.3). I have two Lacie 2B Docks (20TB/16TB) daisy chained via Thunderbolt 3 with an attached (to the last Lacie) 2TB SSD for Time Machine via Thunderbolt 3. All of them use one Thunderbolt 3 port on the MBP. I also have a 32" 4K Acer monitor via Thunderbolt 3, and a Yubikey always attached via TB3. I've isolated the attached drives to be a reason since when they are not attached, I don't have this issue.

A suboptimal work around that has worked for the last two days is to check the box in Energy Saver settings, "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." The following two boxes are also checked: "Wake for Wi-Fi network access", and "Enable Power Nap while plugged..." (which should be moot given the first check box). "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is not checked. "Automatic graphics switching" is checked.

Before changing to these settings it would self restart when asleep 100% of the time when the drives were attached. I'll cross my fingers and experiment with other settings to further isolate issues.

I hope a fix comes at some point, although I am not sure the real root issue so far, but this problem surfaced when I upgraded to Catalina.

Not sure. My symptom has been constantly crashing when in sleep mode, in Catalina on a new 16" MBP. In working with Apple to sort my problem they identified a component failure. I don't know how it may or may not relate to Watchdog timeout. ~k

So I saw more than 400 people encountered this issue. I am using Macbook Pro 15" 2017 and already encountered this issue since Mojave two years ago, and keep consistently happening when put MacOS sleep. I saw some MacOS patch/updates tried to fix this issue, but still happening. I was thinking maybe due some other app or driver causing this issue, but actually it wasn't.

I did all reset including SMC, VRAM all didn't work, and still happening. I put my last hope which is format everything from zero, even using MacOS Catalina which I hope fixed this issue. But even using fresh MacOS Catalina, without any additional apps or drivers, without anything plugged in (only power cable), it still CRASH (kernel panic) after some second sleeping....

I did sent reports to Apple every time it crashes with various comments and clues, but until now.. you see, you all still encounter the same issue. Why can't they just pick up some Mac from users who encountered this and try to spot the root cause? Or nobody works at Apple encounter this issue? Or they feel like this is common issue?

Even you guys encounter this in newest Macbook Pro 16"... I don't think this make sense. Even I have old Macbook Pro 2009 with Core Two Due NEVER ENCOUNTER THIS ISSUE AT ALL! (Of course using old OS haha)..

So what can we do? What can Apple do?

To add to this, I've been posting to this thread quite a bit.

Originally, I had this problem on my Late-2013 15" MBP. Tried all sorts of hacks, finally figured out a way to keep my computer from going to sleep.

Eventually upgraded to a 16" 2019 MBP. Problem didn't happen for the first few weeks, but now it's back.

No idea why -- all of the cables are new, the USB hub is new, and now the tricks that I tried on the older MBP no longer work. Stumped and frustrated.

Which Mojave version did you revert to? I was using Mojave previously and encountered Crash while sleeping too. Even since recent Mojave updates.. I hope by upgrading to Catalina will solve the problem. Actually not. Even with fresh install still crash...amazing.

After uninstalling Kaspersky Security my MacBook Pro 13" 2017 stopped crashing when waking up. If you google "KIS 20 freezes MacBook Pro (Catalina) after waking up" you should find a thread on this. AFAIK, Kaspersky is still "working on this".

The crashes started after upgrading to Catalina from Mojave and remained with the updates up to 10.5.3 (current as of 3/18/2020). Perhaps there is more than one cause.

Thank you @xocd!!!

I have MacBook Pro 13" 2017 and have kaspersky, too and my MacBook is still crashing after waking up - almost everyday. I noticed Kaspersky was crashing the same time and was wondering if that could have been the culprit behind my MacBook crash. I did all reset including SMC, VRAM and nothing worked.

The MacBook crash started immediately after update to Catalina from Mojave. My Catalina is also updated to 10.5.3 as I was hoping the update would solve the issue....

If you want to try uninstalling Kaspersky, make sure to also get rid of the browser extensions, via the each browser's preference panel. The extensions remained for me even after following the uninstallation instructions.

Update:

After I posted on their CEO's Twitter, Apple support approached me.

They asked me to test the crash from SAFE BOOT mode. We found that there is NO CRASH when sleeping using Safe Boot mode, but the Mac feels warm (looks like no deep sleep).

Then they asked me to do first aid, which doesn't encounter anything wrong..