biomesyncd causing lots of problems

Lucian Giordano1 wrote:

I've been chasing at least three seemingly unrelated problems with apps malfunctioning, crashing, crashing on launch and there's a common culprit: biomesyncd!

HP Smart: crashes on launch, 100% repeatable. Looked in the Console, biomesyncd was the process that quit. I've also had problems with the Dictionary app unable to locate the default dictionaries. And a separate TurboTax problem where it is unable to Save as PDF. All result in crashes where biomesyncd is the process.

In another thread BIOMESYNCD - taking up 100% cpu constantly - Apple Community, it was suggested that resetting the PRAM and/or deleting the /user/xxx/Library/biome folder solved their problem. Unfortunately, neither worked for me, the process simply recreated the biome folder.

I have wasted dozens of hours with useless tech support that have no idea how to troubleshoot a problem. I've had issues escalated to the "engineers" at Apple, with deafening silence for two weeks. Whatever this cancer is, I've got to get it out of my system. Any ideas welcome!

<biomesyncd-2022-03-15-213135.ips.log>

To trouble shoot further you can:

—Try a SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

Are you saying that you updated before or after these crashes? If you have already done the update, first confirm that you are still getting the crashes. If you are still having the crashes, then download a full installer (How to upgrade to macOS Monterey - Apple Support) and re-run it.

Your operating system is corrupted. That process is crashing with this message:

terminating with uncaught exception of type orc::TimezoneError: Can't open /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC: No such file or directory (2)

You should have that file. For some reason, you don't.

Download a new Monterey installer and re-run it. Make sure you have a good backup first. Hopefully you won't need it.

Lucian Giordano1 wrote:

I checked my /usr/share folder and there is an item "zoneinfo.default" which contains a small text file UTC with the following contents (rectangles are not visible when viewing with TextEdit):

That's a different file.

There is also an alias named "zoneinfo" pointing to /private/var/db/timezone/tz/2021a.3.0/zoneinfo, with no UTC file present.

It should be there.

I am hesitant to reinstall the system without fully understanding why a recent Monterey upgrade to 12.3 would be incomplete.

Have you run any kind of "clean up" or "security" software?

Lucian Giordano1 wrote:

I am unable to download the full installer! The link points to the download in the App Store, which invokes Software Update, which says I'm up-to-date. "Installation Failed: An error occurred while installing the selected updates." Methinks I'm going to have to reinstall from Recovery mode.

Apple is having a major server outage right at this time. I have no idea how long it will last. Maybe try again tomorrow.