10.15.4 kernel panics daily

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 in the app's Privacy preference pane 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.

The kernel panic started when your iMac tried to load these

com.wdc.driver.USB.64.10.9 1.0.1

com.symantec.ips.kext 9.0.2

com.symantec.nfm.kext 9.0.1

com.symantec.internetSecurity.kext 9.0.3

com.symantec.SymXIPS 9.0.1

The wdc.driver may be associated with a WD external drive? If you have a WD external unplug it and test.

Uninstall the Symantic AV software per the developers instructions and restart. Don't use AV software on a Mac, it only serves to cause problems.....like kernel panics. There are NO Mac viruses so AV software is less than useless.

I will agree, many of the AV softwares have a tendency to cause problems, the whole, "NO Mac Viruses" is not accurate. Not only have I removed malware on occasion from a 10.x MacOS, but at one point I have removed a mac coded virus. The user was having a problem sending any email with an attachment. Looked at the server logs and Identified it was rejecting because of a virus coming from a Mac. It wasn't just a file that was innocuous to the mac, it was built for a mac, not Windows. Easy to remove because by having the identity of the virus (from server logs), it was easy to find documentation on manual removal. I mention this not to be argumentative, but people have a tendency to be more cavalier when they think they can't get infected, like installing warez, or getting click happy.

We can agree on adware and other types of malware, but again, there are NO mac viruses. I don't know what you removed but if it was a virus it wasn't built for Mac OS. If you had indeed found a Mac virus others more important than us need to hear about it.

There are no Mac viruses, items that are self replicating and don't need the users to allow it to install. It's different from malware and adware. Both rely on the user unknowingly clicking on some link to allow it to install

If you search these forums you'll find time and again topics where AV software has compromised system and application performance and removing it has returned the machines to original performance.

I'll just reply with this because I think it is getting into semantics. It was a macro virus, so once trigged, it was able to modify the infected system, and modify any office file to spread itself. I agree some malware is arguably a virus, by definition, but it can still be devastating to the user, so much that apple has acknowledged this by patching for it(10.6.4). So to say to say AV is less that useless is wrong.

To add to Mike Sombrio’s advice, you should not have installed WD’s software. It is not necessary on a Mac and may cause trouble.

Make sure you get rid of the AV software as well.