Catalina shutdown problems

Hello staffan52,

Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If I understand correctly, you are unable to shut down your Mac mini as expected after updating to macOS Catalina. To help isolate this, use safe mode to start up your Mac as it does the following things:

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Log in to your user account and test the issue while in safe mode and then restart normally and test the issue again.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

Graphics performance limited in macOS Recovery, safe mode, or Guest User mode

Cheers!

Thanks for replying, staffan52, and that additional info, it really helps! Since you're able to isolate that this only happens after making a Time Machine backup on your Mac mini, please contact Apple for further assistance with your situation.

Contact Apple Support 

Have a great day and thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

If I may reply. I was told, or it is known to manually eject Time Machine, or any other hard drive before shutting down Mac computers. It is possible your Time Machine backup has 32 bit programs installed, they are not compatible with 64 bit Catalina. Probraly the cause of issues.😳

I really do not know! I just suggesting there may be 32 bit programs in your Time Machine backups, but if you insist there no 32 bit it is your problem. If you don't like, or want my reply, I quit this post.

Experiencing the same thing on 10.15.2. Imac 2017 backup to WD 4TB for my internal SSD.

I started having the issue after updating to the first version of Catalina and can also confirm that I have encrypted my time machine from the beginning. I also tried to wipe it and make a new time machine on the same external HD but sadly had the same shut sown issues. However the second one was also encrypted cause I would never keep a time machine of my precious data on a drive without encryption.

If I forget to unmount the time machine before shut down I almost learned to live with having to pull the cord to the external drive to make it shut down. But this is a really silly bug that apple need to fix soon. I can imagine it is a wide spread issue.

I also have this Time Machine shutdown problem. Only thing is I wasn’t sure if it happened after I updated to Catalina.

As I am typing this, my MacBook Pro hasn’t been able to shutdown for about 15 minutes. I could see my external 1TB hard drive indicator flashing but the screen is stuck showing Catalina.

I thought about pulling out the cable and forcing a shutdown regardless of what’s happening in the background. It is a silly problem because every process is supposed to be killed.

This problem has come up on a number of threads and seems to be linked to Time Machine backups. If you eject your back up drives first , you'll get a clean shut down. Obviously a bug and irritating that it has not been addressed yet.

Evidently it is a known problem: if the Time Machine external drive is mounted, Catalina does not shut down.

I have two 12TB WD My Book Duos: 1 for Time Machine and another for my movie collection. I had to eject Time Machine for maintenance, but kept the 2nd DUO mounted to watch a movie. Catalina shut down afterwards - it does hang for maybe 15 seconds at the final wallpaper screen but it does shut down: iMac 17.1 (BTO maximum Apple configuration).

So currently its hard shut downs only or no backup. Is Craig Federighi and his team going to fix it soon? A MAC that doesn't shut down is unheard of.

I have this problem as well - on two separate iMacs both running 10.15.3

The two machines have a different brand of external drives being used as TM backup drives, which are different and adequate sizes. Drives are both connected by USB.

Looking for a solution to this. My TM backups are encrypted for security.