WindowServer crashing repeatedly since upgrade to Ventura

I am having the same problem. When using Command-tab or trackpad gestures to switch between spaces and programs, the entire system freezes. If you have Activity Monitor open, or enable trace logging, you will see that Windowserver is crashing. I have captured this in a spin report and reproduced the issue live with Apple support in safe mode.

I have the same 16 inch 2019 intel MacBook Pro and graphics processor. I have 2 Dell P Series 27 inch external monitors. I work from home and use Citrix to access my work system - it started crashing when I began working from home due to Covid and bought the dual monitor setup, so I’ve been assuming the Windowsserver crash reports were related to Citrix timing out due to inactivity frequently. I even reformatted my hard drive recently and did a clean install on everything.

My monitors are connected to my CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock - 87W Charging, 7X USB 3.1 Ports, USB-C Gen 2, DisplayPort, UHS-II SD Card Slot, Gigabit Ethernet for Mac & PC, Thunderbolt 4 Compatible (0.8m/2.62ft Cable). One monitor was connected to the dock via the Display port. The other was connected to a Thunderbolt port on the dock via USB-C cable. After reading all these comments yesterday I unplugged the USB-C cable from my left external display and plugged it in directly to my MacBook Pro USB-C port on the right hand side.

where I would usually have 3 or 4 crashes per day with the Windowsserver error report, I’ve not had one crash since plugging my external display to my MacBook Pro directly. Crossing my fingers this is all the fix I need and hope this information helps everyone else.

I am experiencing a Windowserver crash on Ventura 13.3.1 (a) (but the issue has been present on previous versions too) on a iMac Retina 5K 27" 2017 / Radeon Pro 580 8GB without any external display. It happens on the average every couple of days or so.

Crash report says

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

Quite annoying. I use 12 workspaces, and I noticed that the crashes seem to be correlated with switching from a workspace to another using the trackpad.

This didn't happen to me in Ventura, but it is now happening frequently in Sonoma 14.0

Several crashes and reboots a day.

I fear a complete reinstall is in the near future. Just what I want to spend a day off doing. :/

hello,

anyone have resolved this issue?

MacStudio M2Max with 2 ASD, MacOS Ventura 13.6.1. I need "Display have separate Spaces." option active. But with this option Windowserver crash every few hours or days al most (interface freeze, mouse works but I'm unable to do nothing, after 2 minutes black screen for 2 seconds then login screen). Without this option, spaces are unusable for me but windowserver run fine for many weeks.

thank you.

just found this thread after so many windowserver crashes, i do not have any monitor on my mbp m2max on latest ventura and it stop responding and logs out. maybe the switch between spaces and command tab is the problem or just something within windoserver.

the problem is that reading that it happens on sonoma too... well it should be something that it is still not understood so not fixable right now?

Have had a day with no crashes, then today again.

Found that spaces could be the problem, in my case switching from FCP to Telegram to copy some text arriving. having 5 screens (virtual with my 14MBPM2Max) I thought that all of you have experienced this problem using external monitors... so I erased all the desktops, using just the built desktop one and continued to work as before.

no other crash happened.

I'm getting the same problem with Sonoma, fwiw. Brand new M3. Using external monitor connected via HDMI. Seems to always happen when I'm in NetBeans. No problems with other apps. Gets me several times a day though.

Using a MacBook Pro 13'' M1 (MacOS 14.5 Sonoma) it happens constantly when watching something on full screen on my second screen, which is connected to a Baseus dock. OS crashes, and goes back to the login screen. Added to it my Mac screen is not showing anything for some time already. It's completely black, but not turned off. Changing the brightness is noticed to work on it

I just had a look at the release notes for the latest 13.1 beta4. Not a single word related to our problem!

Apple Developer Documentation

Are we alone ?

Yes, I too am experiencing this. Very frustrating.

I am having the same problem with my iMac (2017 version) since upgraded to Ventura!!

Having the same issue. I have a 24" ViewSonic attached via the onboard HDMI port on 16" 2021 Macbook Pro. WindowServer appears to be the culprit per console output.