Recently my mac mini has started behaving strangely. After I shut it down for the evening, it restarts again during the night. In the morning it's up and running and their's a alert that the system had to restart due to a software malfunction.
When I checked the activity monitor, I saw "xpcroleaccountd". There are only a few unresolved messages here about this. Has anyone gotten any farther?
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
markgilbo wrote:
Recently my mac mini has started behaving strangely. After I shut it down for the evening, it restarts again during the night. In the morning it's up and running and their's a alert that the system had to restart due to a software malfunction.
When I checked the activity monitor, I saw "xpcroleaccountd". There are only a few unresolved messages here about this. Has anyone gotten any farther?
<xpcroleaccountd> this demon is normal part of the macOS...
you can see this listed from the Terminal.app copy and paste:
ls -a /usr/libexec/
If you have a software issue—
Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN
all known to cause issues on the macOS
if you are in doubt —
you can get a good look at your User/System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com
If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.
if you still have an issue, to trouble shoot further you can:
—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies
Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.
Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.
This test will tell you if third party interference; most* extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.
—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support
This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.
unplug all third party peripherals when testing
markgilbo wrote:
Recently my mac mini has started behaving strangely. After I shut it down for the evening, it restarts again during the night. In the morning it's up and running and their's a alert that the system had to restart due to a software malfunction.
When I checked the activity monitor, I saw "xpcroleaccountd". There are only a few unresolved messages here about this. Has anyone gotten any farther?
<xpcroleaccountd> this demon is normal part of the macOS...
you can see this listed from the Terminal.app copy and paste:
ls -a /usr/libexec/
If you have a software issue—
Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN
all known to cause issues on the macOS
if you are in doubt —
you can get a good look at your User/System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com
If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.
if you still have an issue, to trouble shoot further you can:
—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies
Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.
Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.
This test will tell you if third party interference; most* extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.
—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support
This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.
unplug all third party peripherals when testing
Many thanks for such a thorough response. At least my immediate concerns of a malware issue are lessened. I'll work down your list of suggestions and report back. Again, thanks for taking the time. ...Mark
I installed etrecheckPro and it diagnosed Kernel Panics. I've now checked each third party device, one at a time but none seem to affect the restart issue. Luckily the Mac Mini is still covered by Apple care and I'll prep it for service this week.
Thanks for recommending etrecheck. Beyond the Kernel Panics on my wife's Mac Mini, their are a lot of sofware issues to resolve as well. I've also run it on my MBPro and there too, I now have work to do.
All the best Leroy, thanks for your help.
What is xpcroleaccountd? Do I have a problem?