Monterey crashes with WindowServer error after going full screen with YouTube

I have a related problem though not restricted to full screen youtube -- it seems to happen sporadically. WindowServer crash has happened 3 times since upgrading to Monterey. I run 2 monitors (34in ultrawide and 19in). 2019 macbook pro.

-------------------------------------
Translated Report (Full Report Below)
-------------------------------------

Process:               WindowServer [-1]
Path:                  ???
Identifier:            WindowServer
Version:               ???
Code Type:             00000000 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [Unknown]
User ID:               

Date/Time:             2021-11-18 13:52:12.7869 +0000
OS Version:            macOS 12.0.1 (21A559)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        562DB29A-633A-FC82-15B4-3BD8BCE29D84



System Integrity Protection: 

Notes:
resampled 521 of 3367 threads with truncated backtraces from 0 pids: 
resampled 0 of 68 images missing from 148 pids: 73,83,92,100,111,115,124,126,142,169,199,219,221,228,231,246,253,254,258,316,318,321,322,326,332,333,334,343,346,347,349,358,360,389,393,401,403,410,414,415,419,420,421,422,425,439,440,442,443,444,447,449,452,456,466,473,479,482,488,525,547,560,585,591,600,613,631,632,633,637,642,677,716,718,720,721,740,1151,1166,1168,1169,1310,1656,1658,1710,1718,3022,3030,3595,3596,5661,6659,6971,7088,9269,9647,9652,9655,10664,11048,11899,13611,13748,21936,25264,26942,27772,27773,29779,29780,29793,29794,95031,95081,95710,95725,96025,96026,96109,96119,96305,96382,96383,96385,96387,96410,96455,96483,96682,96822,96859,97149,97712,97728,97733,97767,97771,97775,97781,97822,97830,97833,97867,97879,97925,97926,97958,99742
34 unindexed user-stack frames from 2 pids: 96025,96026
This is a watchdog-triggered termination event, and not expected to be well-represented in the legacy crash format

Crashed Thread:        Unknown

Exception Type:        

Termination Reason:    Namespace WATCHDOG, Code 1 monitoring timed out for service
(1 monitored services unresponsive): checkin with service: WindowServer returned not alive with context:
unresponsive work processor(s): WindowServer main thread
40 seconds since last successful checkin, 10666 total successsful checkins since wake (0 induced crashes)

Error Formulating Crash Report:
resampled 521 of 3367 threads with truncated backtraces from 0 pids: 
resampled 0 of 68 images missing from 148 pids: 73,83,92,100,111,115,124,126,142,169,199,219,221,228,231,246,253,254,258,316,318,321,322,326,332,333,334,343,346,347,349,358,360,389,393,401,403,410,414,415,419,420,421,422,425,439,440,442,443,444,447,449,452,456,466,473,479,482,488,525,547,560,585,591,600,613,631,632,633,637,642,677,716,718,720,721,740,1151,1166,1168,1169,1310,1656,1658,1710,1718,3022,3030,3595,3596,5661,6659,6971,7088,9269,9647,9652,9655,10664,11048,11899,13611,13748,21936,25264,26942,27772,27773,29779,29780,29793,29794,95031,95081,95710,95725,96025,96026,96109,96119,96305,96382,96383,96385,96387,96410,96455,96483,96682,96822,96859,97149,97712,97728,97733,97767,97771,97775,97781,97822,97830,97833,97867,97879,97925,97926,97958,99742
34 unindexed user-stack frames from 2 pids: 96025,96026
This is a watchdog-triggered termination event, and not expected to be well-represented in the legacy crash format

Backtrace not available

No thread state (register information) available

Binary Images:
Binary images description not available

Hi,

No I do not have any utilities such as bartender running on my system. I will look though in the few apps that I have that end up with a menu bar icon if one could cause the situation. I will let you know if I find anything.

I am experiencing this very same issue. After I set my Macbook Pro (2021 model) to sleep I get a "WindowServer quit unexpectedly" report and my external monitors lay out is scrambled and several apps relaunch ( even after I had force quit all of them before setting the computer on sleep mode).

This is both good news and bad news. Bad news, because that sucks for you, given that your MacBook is brand new. Good news, in that I've been having the same problem with my Late 2015 iMac, even after wiping my drive completely and starting from scratch. So with luck, Apple might actually recognize this is a real problem and actually take time to fix it since it's affecting new Macs as well.

I have a Windowserver crash everyday when exiting a full screen. I have reported it every time and updated my software, but it looks like it didn't get fixed. I have it on Safari and not using other apps. Is there a fix for this?

So for me its slightly different. Every time I full screen anything (word, powerpoint, onenote, music, opera, photos) basically anything it logout crashes. I enter my password and everything reopens. If I make something important full screen again it crashes. Ive asked friends who own an Intel Mac and theirs is completely fine. And yeah I have a M1 Mac Air. If someone can help me out I can put in the Crash report.

I too am suffering this issue on my 2019 Macbook Pro 16" - OS Monterey updated to 12.4 yesterday in the hope there was a bug fix for it, but that's not the case as it crashed again today. I am seeing at least one crash per day at the moment and it is usually when I'm away from my desk. If I lock the screen and go for lunch I find I come back to a non-responsive Mac.

No screen, lights anything - it has had a complete shutdown, then it slowly comes back and the crash report is always the same 'WindowServer' crash ...but doesn't help identify what might be causing the issue (to me at least - see below).

On some of the apps mentioned here, I have never used Bartender but I do use FileMaker daily and Dropbox is always running. Though I am wondering if this relates to an external monitor. I also have a Mac mini M1 and have noticed neither Mac plays particularly well with my Dell monitors (I have one 4K and one 1440p). My Macbook Pro is usually connected to the 4K, this is mostly ok but I do sometimes see flickering on the 4K and the Macbook runs hot while connected to it, even while in lock screen. That said I never experienced crashes prior to Monterey.

I'll try disconnecting the monitor when I walk away for any length of time to see if it continues to crash. Path, version and process are always ??? in my reports:

-------------------------------------

Translated Report (Full Report Below)

-------------------------------------

Process: WindowServer [-1]

Path: ???

Identifier: WindowServer

Version: ???

Code Type: 00000000 (Native)

Parent Process: ??? [Unknown]

User ID:

Date/Time: 2022-05-27 13:32:33.9223 +0100

OS Version: macOS 12.4 (21F79)

Report Version: 12

Good Day All

I called Apple support on this same type of issue. For me, it is on a Mac Studio Max with an Lg External display

After mentioning that I did see that this was an issue Others were seeing, I was told by a Senior Rep that they have been seeing reports of this issue and have had a reinstall of the OS fix it.

I am a bit skeptical about that as it seems to be something that does just need an update, but I am going to give it a try.

Hi, i have a similar issue.

I'm running an iMac (Retina 4k, 21.5-inch, 2017) with a 3GHz Intel i5 processor, the only upgrade i've made is changing the stock HDD to a Firecuda Hybrid Drive (SSHD)... It's running Monterey.

The Mac crashes almost everynight multiple times, starts crashing around midnight and then it happens hourly.

I tried turning off a lot of things and removing external devices, I restarted/resetted SMC, PRAM (https://softwaretested.com/mac/how-to-fix-crashes-from-userspace-watchdog-timeout/)

It stopped for around a week, i started plugging somethings back and everything was OK. Also erased old states that where saved and run different diagnostics on my drive. Issues came back after a week or so.

My mac crashes when I'm sleeping or when I leave it alone for a little while.

Yesterday, it happened at 11:25 PM, and continued through today at 12:22AM, 1:07, 1:58, 2:39, 3:27, 4:37, 5:15, 6:09, 6:31, 6:47AM, and 8:32AM. But i've using it all day and it hasn't happened again.

Every console reports starts like this:

-------------------------------------
Translated Report (Full Report Below)
-------------------------------------

Process:               WindowServer [-1]
Path:                  ???
Identifier:            WindowServer
Version:               ???
Code Type:             00000000 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [Unknown]
User ID:               

Date/Time:             2022-06-17 08:32:40.6200 -0600
OS Version:            macOS 12.4 (21F79)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        C26217CE-4DAB-41A1-E2E8-5D36D0FB69BD



System Integrity Protection: 

Notes:
This is a watchdog-triggered termination event, and not expected to be well-represented in the legacy crash format

Crashed Thread:        Unknown

Exception Type:        

Termination Reason:    Namespace WATCHDOG, Code 1 monitoring timed out for service
(1 monitored services unresponsive): checkin with service: WindowServer returned not alive with context:
is_alive_func returned unhealthy : WindowServer initialization not complete (post IOKitWaitQuiet)
80 seconds since last successful checkin, 195 total successsful checkins since load, 39 seconds since last crashed by watchdogd,  (1 induced crashes)

Error Formulating Crash Report:
This is a watchdog-triggered termination event, and not expected to be well-represented in the legacy crash format

Backtrace not available

No thread state (register information) available

Binary Images:
Binary images description not available

I'll upgrade to a 960GB ADATA Ultimate SSD SU630 next week, install Monterey and migrate my files.

Wish me luck.

Do anyone think that will help?

Do you know what may be causing the issue?

Any luck with this approach? Also, have my doubts about reinstalling OS as an update should do the job fine. I have it less in the last weeks tbh but still crashes now and then. The pattern seems to change on my mac somehow ...

I did a new time machine backup from scratch (i think that's how it's said).

I'll be making them manually once a day.

While it was being made, my Mac crashed around 50% and the error report said this in one part:

CPU Machine Check Architecture Error Dump (CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7400 CPU @ 3.00GHz, CPUID: 0x906E9)
CATERR detected! No MCA data found.

I hope it was because of the lenghty proccess.

I'll receive my new ssd one of this days and i'll let you know if it helped (if it does, i suppose it is because of the fresh format and errors not carried to the new drive).

It happened again, with original error message.

I'll update my time machine backup (it had autobackup activated) and will keep the external hard drive disconnected to see what happens.

The edited error is this:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff8013d6799f): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from WindowServer in 120 seconds
service returned not alive with context : is_alive_func returned unhealthy : WindowServer initialization not complete (post IOKitWaitQuiet)
service: logd, total successful checkins since load (27270 seconds ago): 2728, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago
service: WindowServer, total successful checkins since load (27210 seconds ago): 2709, last successful checkin: 120 seconds ago
service: opendirectoryd, total successful checkins since load (27270 seconds ago): 2727, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

Panicked task 0xffffff97054c23b0: 4 threads: pid 117: watchdogd
Backtrace (CPU 2), panicked thread: 0xffffffa56ad87540, Frame : Return Address
0xffffffe58d5cb690 : 0xffffff8010881c8d 
0xffffffe58d5cb6e0 : 0xffffff80109e1596 
0xffffffe58d5cb720 : 0xffffff80109d0963 
0xffffffe58d5cb770 : 0xffffff8010821a70 
0xffffffe58d5cb790 : 0xffffff801088205d 
0xffffffe58d5cb8b0 : 0xffffff8010881816 
0xffffffe58d5cb910 : 0xffffff8011115223 
0xffffffe58d5cba00 : 0xffffff8013d6799f 
0xffffffe58d5cba10 : 0xffffff8013d675f2 
0xffffffe58d5cba30 : 0xffffff8013d66971 
0xffffffe58d5cbb60 : 0xffffff8011083a8c 
0xffffffe58d5cbcc0 : 0xffffff80109872e6 
0xffffffe58d5cbdd0 : 0xffffff801085c9ab 
0xffffffe58d5cbe60 : 0xffffff80108731f9 
0xffffffe58d5cbef0 : 0xffffff80109b35aa 
0xffffffe58d5cbfa0 : 0xffffff8010822256 
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[D6F8B92D-3418-34BA-B42B-F553E0C44C29]@0xffffff8013d65000->0xffffff8013d67fff

Process name corresponding to current thread (0xffffffa56ad87540): watchdogd

Mac OS version:
21F79

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 21.5.0: Tue Apr 26 21:08:22 PDT 2022; root:xnu-8020.121.3~4/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 3C587984-4004-3C76-8ADF-997822977184
KernelCache slide: 0x0000000010600000
KernelCache base:  0xffffff8010800000
Kernel slide:      0x0000000010610000
Kernel text base:  0xffffff8010810000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff8010700000
System model name: iMac18,2 (Mac-77F17D7DA9285301)
System shutdown begun: NO
Panic diags file available: YES (0x0)
Hibernation exit count: 0

System uptime in nanoseconds: 27333203415305
Last Sleep:           absolute           base_tsc          base_nano
  Uptime  : 0x000018dc01e153db
  Sleep   : 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000
  Wake    : 0x0000000000000000 0x00000008fa1341cd 0x0000000000000000
Compressor Info: 0% of compressed pages limit (OK) and 6% of segments limit (OK) with 1 swapfiles and OK swap space
Zone info:
  Zone map: 0xffffff909e05e000 - 0xffffffb09e05e000
  . PGZ   : 0xffffff909e05e000 - 0xffffff909f05f000
  . VM    : 0xffffff909f05f000 - 0xffffff956bac5000
  . RO    : 0xffffff956bac5000 - 0xffffff9705391000
  . GEN0  : 0xffffff9705391000 - 0xffffff9bd1df7000
  . GEN1  : 0xffffff9bd1df7000 - 0xffffffa09e85d000
  . GEN2  : 0xffffffa09e85d000 - 0xffffffa56b2c3000
  . GEN3  : 0xffffffa56b2c3000 - 0xffffffaa37d2a000
  . DATA  : 0xffffffaa37d2a000 - 0xffffffb09e05e000
  Metadata: 0xffffff806e6be000 - 0xffffff808e6be000
  Bitmaps : 0xffffff808e6be000 - 0xffffff80916be000

last started kext at 322428657155: >usb.cdc.acm	5.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7fa961d000, size 12288)
last stopped kext at 27322382653525: >!ABacklightExpert	1.1.0 (addr 0xffffff7fa7f3b000, size 8192)
loaded kexts:
>!ATopCaseHIDEventDriver	5450.8
>AudioAUUC	1.70
>X86PlatformShim	1.0.0
>AGPM	129
>!APlatformEnabler	2.7.0d0
>!AUpstreamUserClient	3.6.9
@kext.AMDFramebuffer	4.0.8
@filesystems.autofs	3.0
@kext.AMDRadeonX4000	4.0.8
>!AHDA	340.2
@kext.AMDRadeonServiceManager	4.0.8
>!AGFXHDA	140.3
>!A!IPCHPMC	2.0.1
>!A!IKBLGraphics	18.0.7
>eficheck	1
>!AGraphicsDevicePolicy	6.5.7
@AGDCPluginDisplayMetrics	6.5.7
>!AThunderboltIP	4.0.3
>pmtelemetry	1
|IOUserEthernet	1.0.1
>usb.!UUserHCI	1
>!AHV	1
>!ADiskImages2	126.100.13
@kext.AMD9500!C	4.0.8
>!ASMCLMU	212
>!A!ISlowAdaptiveClocking	4.0.0
>!A!IKBLGraphicsFramebuffer	18.0.7
>!AMCCSControl	1.16
|SCSITaskUserClient	456.121.3
>!AFileSystemDriver	3.0.1
@filesystems.tmpfs	1
@filesystems.lifs	1
@filesystems.apfs	1934.121.2
@filesystems.hfs.kext	583.100.10
@BootCache	40
@!AFSCompression.!AFSCompressionTypeZlib	1.0.0
@!AFSCompression.!AFSCompressionTypeDataless	1.0.0d1
>AirPort.BrcmNIC	1400.1.1
|!ABCM5701Ethernet	11.0.0
>!ASDXC	3.2.1
>!AAHCIPort	351.100.4
@private.KextAudit	1.0
>!AACPIButtons	6.1
>!ARTC	2.0.1
>!ASMBIOS	2.1
>!AACPIEC	6.1
>!AAPIC	1.7
@!ASystemPolicy	2.0.0
@nke.applicationfirewall	402
|IOKitRegistryCompatibility	1
|EndpointSecurity	1
@Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X	7.0.0
@kec.!AEncryptedArchive	1

i haven’t heard back from Apple since I sent them reports, but I ran on 12.3 for a while and no issues.

I also was fine in 12.4 when I capped my game to 60fps and also haven’t seen an issue.

I am quite certain there is Something buggy with 12.4 now.

I tried updating to 12.5... it seemed to work, but didn't...

I installed 12.5 in another drive and migrated my files and still crashed...

But i noticed something, I changed settings for the display to take longer to turn off and the crashed seem to delay.

Yesterday i moved the slider in power setting further right so the display won't turn off, and did not have any crashes since then.

Maybe the issue has something to do with display controller or card, and crashes when the display turns on or off, or when switching to different modes... i don't know... i'll let you know if the crashes stop with this settings.