Panic - Watchdog Timeout: no checkins from watchdogd in 185 seconds

Bob, I came across this thread in search of a solution to this problem, which started to occur on my iMac 2017 since I installed the MacOS 10.15.6 update about 24 hours before. I didn't have the problem previously, but now it occured twice within 24 hours.

I also have a permanently connected external UBS drive that I use for TimeMachine backups. I had issues with that external drive when I upgraded to Catalina a few weeks ago as I had to disable sleep mode for hard disks to avoid the drive being constantly dismounted.

Not sure that helps in regard of "sharpening" your theory.

Backup.

Go to https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos and look for 10.15.4 COMBO update.

Download and run it.

Also some types of External monitors still cause kernel panics.

rosbif78 wrote:

I have a permanently connected USB hard drive for regular Time Machine backups. I also use an external screen.

Are there any tests that I could perform to help you, either before or after installing the COMBO update?

At this point in time I'm just trying to see if I can collect information that will point to a common cause.

But so far I have user environments all over the map, and nothing seems to be common.

I have system with no external devices, and no 3rd party kernel extensions. Those are the most baffling.

So I'm wondering if WatchDog timeout is a side effect of some other kernel change where the right kind of system load, causes the code responsible to telling the WatchDog timer to reset is not getting around to do the reset in a timely manor.

But it does not seem to be any specific identifiable subsystem. At first I was thinking USB bus, but when I started asking around, I found users with no external devices. Just the power cord.

However, a different use that ONLY have the watchdog timeout when using a specific USB device.

I wondered about IPv6, and I've asked some users if they would change System Preferences -> Network -> Select network interface in the left column -> Advanced -> Configure IPv6 -> "Link-local only" (that is change it away from "Automatic", and see if that helps. The theory being that everyone has a different home router, with different levels of firmware patching, and it is possible that the Catalina IPv6 stack does not like the response from a specific IPv6 implementation it has found on a home router.

And then there is the theory that 3rd party Bluetooth devices having a variety of different Bluetooth chips, with different qualities of Bluetooth implementations, which is yet another networking standard, and if I'm going to wonder about IPv6, it is only fair to wonder about Bluetooth (or at least non-Apple devices, as I'm sure Apple has been using Apple Bluetooth devices all over the place in-house).

But at the moment I have theories (LOUSY Theories), but nothing I can hang my hat on.

I'm as frustrated as the uses getting the watchdog timeouts.

I've been getting the same panic every few days too. I'm on an iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) (no external display) and 10.15.2

I've managed to keep the panic to every few days by running:

caffeinate -u -d -s

I tried leaving out the '-d' so that the display could sleep, after this had stopped it panicking for three days, but it panicked again a day later, so I put it back.

For what it's worth, I've attached my most recent panic log:

Well, it really shouldn’t have worked, because a normal update should work. However, I have done this, and I have now not had a panic for some weeks, when they were happening every day:

Go to https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos and look for 10.15.4 COMBO update.

so, before you take your machine to be repaired, try the update with the COMBO, and it really might work.

This must mean that there’s a subtle error in the standard update process.

let’s hope Apple is reading this and fixes it.

Thanks to @dragontorc, he clued me in that "there are numerous reports from many users for kernel panics caused by a memory leak associated with a bug on the App Sandbox. VMWare and VirtualBox had already identified the issue."

and

"Apparently Apple is aware of the bug and I suppose a supplemental update containing a fix is currently in the works."

In my case I use VMWare Fusion...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251618187?answerId=253158745022#253158745022

I just started getting these "panics" after upgrading to Catalina on my 2014 Mac Mini. I'm running Webroot, but it never "caused" any problems before, and it caught something once, some sort of threat, so I keep it. I installed the 10.15.6 Combo Update but I still get these.

They occur intermittently when I attempt to shut down, and it restarts instead saying there was this problem. Or an application will become unresponsive, and when I restart, I'll get it.

Including my latest report below, but I don't understand how to read it. Firefox had become unresponsive, so I force-quit, restarted, and got this.

Any thoughts?

David

Get rid of Webroot and any third party cleaner tools then come back and start your own new discussion thread. This thread is stale and none of the experts will come here now.

https://www.apple.com/uk/macos/security/

I unchecked the following on my System preferences, Energy Saver, Battery options

1. Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off
2. Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter

This has led to two overnight sessions of no kernel panics so far. Hope this helps someone

It seems that I found out a solution. I tried 2 things.

• I stopped "Google Backup and Sync" (stop sync and quit)
• I unchecked Power Nap

Honestly I'm not sure which was the actual cause but my mac didn't cause panic last night.

Hope this helps someone.

Wonder if you all can help with this. Similar problem but I can run off an external HDD boot drive:

2014 iMac 32GB Catalina 10.15.7 1TB internal SSD encrypted with built-in FileSafe.

If I could just restore to my internal SSD...

• Started getting panic -watchdog timeouts yesterday for the first time
• They occur usually around 97 seconds after logging in, sometimes longer
• I cannot log on in safe mode. The machine takes forever and goes back to the login screen
• I disabled all energy savers
• I tried booting into recovery mode to reinstall MacOS (10.15.7). I do not see my internal SSD. I get "examining volumes" forever until the machine goes to a black screen
• To reinstall MacOS since recovery mode failed, I tried creating an external flash drive with the installcatalina app as instructed in another Apple Support page. When I boot up with option key down, I see that flash drive but it won't find my internal SSD ("examining volumes" never stops)
• I have a Time Machine backup. I can't restore it to my hard drive. When I boot off my internal SSD, the machine crashes before I can do anything.
• I restored my time machine backup (from before crashes started) to an external HDD and booted off that — which is how I am online now. It's horribly slow but it works. No crashes. I don't get kernel panics booting up in this external HDD.
• When booted up off my external HDD, I get an error message that my internal SSD is locked and can't be opened. I don't even see it in Disk Utility.

My latest Crash Report below. This is maddening. I saw the AppleSMC line below and did do an SMC reset.

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f9e4faaae): watchdog timeout: no checkins from watchdogd in 304 seconds (1056 totalcheckins since monitoring last enabled), shutdown in progress

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff83b68b3c40 : 0xffffff801d91a65d

0xffffff83b68b3c90 : 0xffffff801da54a75

0xffffff83b68b3cd0 : 0xffffff801da465fe

0xffffff83b68b3d20 : 0xffffff801d8c0a40

0xffffff83b68b3d40 : 0xffffff801d919d27

0xffffff83b68b3e40 : 0xffffff801d91a117

0xffffff83b68b3e90 : 0xffffff801e0c1ad8

0xffffff83b68b3f00 : 0xffffff7f9e4faaae

0xffffff83b68b3f10 : 0xffffff7f9e4fa486

0xffffff83b68b3f50 : 0xffffff7f9e54ed9c

0xffffff83b68b3fa0 : 0xffffff801d8c013e

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[B6A95892-6C75-3CF5-A6CC-6D83F30FA1D5]@0xffffff7f9e4f9000->0xffffff7f9e501fff

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(3.1.9)[D2F0B610-83F8-3B84-B0BD-D9D0CC95A697]@0xffffff7f9e541000->0xffffff7f9e55ffff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.4)[2956198D-24F2-3790-A9B2-1EAB9434B906]@0xffffff7f9e4f0000

dependency: com.apple.driver.watchdog(1)[B6A95892-6C75-3CF5-A6CC-6D83F30FA1D5]@0xffffff7f9e4f9000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[44472E6F-8DA0-3B46-ADEF-AFF76EC6C6DB]@0xffffff7f9e502000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

19H2

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Mon Aug 31 22:12:52 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.141.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 05D51A3D-3A87-3FF0-98C3-9CF3827A3EDD

Kernel slide: 0x000000001d600000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff801d800000

__HIB text base: 0xffffff801d700000

System model name: iMac15,1 (Mac-FA842E06C61E91C5)

System shutdown begun: YES

Panic diags file available: NO (0xe00002bc)

Hi Peter,

Does your solution also work for my Mac mini 2018 (3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) version 10.15.4 (19E287)? It also has this error every time it shuts down after a running for few hours. What happens is that my user session is logged off, my screen goes black but the light on my Mac mini stays on. After about 5 minutes, it reboots itself. When I login, the shutdown goes normal. This was always the case with my Mac.

I tried resetting PRAM, SMC, Save boot (which also clears caches), a clean install of Catalina and manually copying back my files (not a restore from Time Machine). Still the same error every time I shutdown my Mac after a few hours uptime.

I called Apple support twice but they do not have any solution other than to send it in for repair. I do have Apple Care but to me, this seems an OS related issue. Not a hardware one.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Dennis

The Netherlands

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f8eba0aae): watchdog timeout: no checkins from watchdogd in 310 seconds (128 totalcheckins since monitoring last enabled), shutdown in progress

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff83b59bbc40 : 0xffffff800e1215cd

0xffffff83b59bbc90 : 0xffffff800e25a3c5

0xffffff83b59bbcd0 : 0xffffff800e24bf7e

0xffffff83b59bbd20 : 0xffffff800e0c7a40

0xffffff83b59bbd40 : 0xffffff800e120c97

0xffffff83b59bbe40 : 0xffffff800e121087

0xffffff83b59bbe90 : 0xffffff800e8c2ce8

0xffffff83b59bbf00 : 0xffffff7f8eba0aae

0xffffff83b59bbf10 : 0xffffff7f8eba0486

0xffffff83b59bbf50 : 0xffffff7f8ebb5d9c

0xffffff83b59bbfa0 : 0xffffff800e0c713e

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[99A75EFF-7734-31A0-80BF-FF8288E30D9B]@0xffffff7f8eb9f000->0xffffff7f8eba7fff

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(3.1.9)[601E041E-0A5C-3B6A-A4E6-45ECC7F48A2B]@0xffffff7f8eba8000->0xffffff7f8ebc6fff

dependency: com.apple.driver.watchdog(1)[99A75EFF-7734-31A0-80BF-FF8288E30D9B]@0xffffff7f8eb9f000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.4)[9D1FF279-C4A2-3344-902F-E0B22B508689]@0xffffff7f8eb08000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[1B1F3BBB-9212-3CF9-94F8-8FEF0D3ACEC4]@0xffffff7f8eb11000

It is a good way of installing incremental updates for any Mac that may have had a corrupt update process. It cannot do any harm and it may do good along with an occasional Safe Boot and resetting SMC and NVRAM

If the problem is incompatible apps or hardware it will probably not help.

Also remove all antivirus and cleaner apps.

If it was me I would revert to Mojave from the last TM backup in Mojave

Apple machines sell for a premium price with a hardware warranty of 1 year and their solution to a software problem is to tell you to take it in for repair!! I'm not sure what justifies the premium price

I’m curious. What led you to suspect that the COMBO update would fix this?

was it just a lucky random choice, or was it something in the panic itself that gave you the insight that the Update process wasn’t working?