iMac (2019) Ventura restarts with watchdog timeout panic

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Level 1

4 points

iMac (2019) Ventura restarts with watchdog timeout panic

I started up my iMac, a 2019 model Retina 5K 27-inch running Ventura 13.6. It took about four minutes to start up before suddenly showing a screen I've never seen before: "Your computer restarted because of a problem." After a few seconds it restarted on its own and loaded fine.

From there, I opened the error report and it gave me this.

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff8003b95941): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from configd

service returned not alive with context : unresponsive dispatch queue(s): com.apple.main-thread

service: logd, total successful checkins in 202 seconds: 19, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: opendirectoryd, total successful checkins in 202 seconds: 18, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: configd, no successful checkins in 202 seconds

Panicked task 0xffffff99f23a0698: 4 threads: pid 95: watchdogd

Backtrace (CPU 1), panicked thread: 0xffffff95260cc0c8, Frame : Return Address

0xffffffd0c363b5b0 : 0xffffff800087205d

0xffffffd0c363b600 : 0xffffff80009c6144

0xffffffd0c363b640 : 0xffffff80009b5c57

0xffffffd0c363b690 : 0xffffff8000812951

0xffffffd0c363b6b0 : 0xffffff800087233d

0xffffffd0c363b7a0 : 0xffffff80008719e7

0xffffffd0c363b800 : 0xffffff8000fdb3f3

0xffffffd0c363b8f0 : 0xffffff8003b95941

0xffffffd0c363b900 : 0xffffff8003b955dc

0xffffffd0c363b920 : 0xffffff8003b946b9

0xffffffd0c363ba50 : 0xffffff8000f526de

0xffffffd0c363bbb0 : 0xffffff80009728e9

0xffffffd0c363bcc0 : 0xffffff800084c51a

0xffffffd0c363bd60 : 0xffffff8000863282

0xffffffd0c363bdd0 : 0xffffff8000863907

0xffffffd0c363bef0 : 0xffffff800099b513

0xffffffd0c363bfa0 : 0xffffff8000812db6

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[BD08CE2D-77F5-358C-8F0D-A570540A0BE7]@0xffffff8003b93000->0xffffff8003b95fff

Process name corresponding to current thread (0xffffff95260cc0c8): watchdogd

Mac OS version:

22G120

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 22.6.0: Fri Sep 15 13:39:52 PDT 2023; root:xnu-8796.141.3.700.8~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: F75FC53F-FC1A-3AB6-8980-EF66A83DD51D

roots installed: 0

KernelCache slide: 0x0000000000400000

KernelCache base: 0xffffff8000600000

Kernel slide: 0x00000000004dc000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff80006dc000

__HIB text base: 0xffffff8000500000

System model name: iMac19,1 (Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95)

System shutdown begun: NO

Panic diags file available: YES (0x0)

Hibernation exit count: 0

System uptime in nanoseconds: 202905803065

Last Sleep: absolute base_tsc base_nano

Uptime : 0x0000002f3e20dc5c

Sleep : 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000

Wake : 0x0000000000000000 0x00000004edbf12d4 0x0000000000000000

Compressor Info: 0% of compressed pages limit (OK) and 0% of segments limit (OK) with 0 swapfiles and OK swap space

Zone info:

Zone map: 0xffffff80583f3000 - 0xffffffa0583f3000

. PGZ : 0xffffff80583f3000 - 0xffffff805c3f4000

. VM : 0xffffff805c3f4000 - 0xffffff8528727000

. RO : 0xffffff8528727000 - 0xffffff86c1d8d000

. GEN0 : 0xffffff86c1d8d000 - 0xffffff8b8e0c0000

. GEN1 : 0xffffff8b8e0c0000 - 0xffffff905a3f3000

. GEN2 : 0xffffff905a3f3000 - 0xffffff9526726000

. GEN3 : 0xffffff9526726000 - 0xffffff99f2a59000

. DATA : 0xffffff99f2a59000 - 0xffffffa0583f3000

Metadata: 0xffffffdc9c51c000 - 0xffffffdcbc51c000

Bitmaps : 0xffffffdcbc51c000 - 0xffffffdcc251c000

Extra : 0 - 0

What does this error mean? I'm currently working to backup everything just in case.

Thanks

Posted on Jun 29, 2026 5:09 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 29, 2026 9:16 AM in response to ThassIT

I would suspect a failing Hard Drive, or possibly some third party software that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.

Run the third party app EtreCheck and post the complete report here so we can examine it for possible clues.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting an EtreCheck Report - Apple Community

Also, run the third party app DriveDx (free trial period) so we can check the health of the internal drive(s). Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

95,802 points

Jun 29, 2026 7:25 AM in response to ThassIT

Is this a recurring or one time event...?

Before you do anything, make sure that you have backup.

for Apple's Time Machine backup, see > Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

for Clone backups, see > https://bombich.com/ and/or > https://www.shirt-pocket.com/

If this is a recurring event.

follow the steps at > If your Mac restarted because of a problem - Apple Support

including Safe Mode > Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

and > Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

If this was a one time event.

upgrade the macOS, as per > Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Allan Jones

Level 10

82,188 points

Jul 3, 2026 9:49 AM in response to ThassIT

ThassIT wrote:

My drive is pretty full. Out of 250 GB, I have 22 GB left.

That severe lack of free space on your SSD is likely the main cause of your issues. It has even slowed your Write speeds to nearly old mech hard drive levels:

Performance:

System Load: 1.32 (1 min ago) 1.15 (5 min ago) 1.02 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 0.04 MB/s

File system: 18.67 seconds

Write speed: 364 MB/s ⚠️ ⬅

Read speed: 2850 MB/s

For your SSD and iMac model, Writes should be over 2000MB/sec.

Remove the VPN. Those "client-side" VPNs overhyped in adverts do more harm the good, and some make your computer LESS secure. Please don't fall for fear marketing.

We cannot see you Time Machine data but, if you only occasionaly connect the drive, Time Machine backups can eat a lot of space.

Launch Disk Utility, and select Data from the left pane:

If under "APFS Snapshots" you see more than two snapshots, delete all but the two most recent.

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Answer 4

Jul 3, 2026 10:20 AM in response to ThassIT

ThassIT wrote:

My drive is pretty full. Out of 250 GB, I have 22 GB left.

FYI, the EtreCheck report actually shows you have only 20GB of Free storage space and 22GB of Available space. Ignore the "Available" storage value shown everywhere in macOS since it is very misleading. The only important & reliable storage value is the Free space value which is only shown in Disk Utility on the right side immediately below the storage bar graph. In macOS "Available" is not synonymous with Free (even though macOS shows the same word being used for both terms in some languages). Even the "Used" storage value can be misleading under certain circumstances/configurations.

Before starting even simple workloads, the system should have at least 20% of Free space.....or better yet 80GB-100GB of Free space since that storage space can disappear very quickly for many reasons. macOS doesn't always release memory & storage as quickly as it should. For some workloads, users may need to have a lot more Free space before starting any work.

And @Allan Jones is correct regarding VPNs. See the following article for some details:

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

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Answer 5

Allan Jones

Level 10

82,188 points

Jun 29, 2026 9:36 AM in response to ThassIT

Some watchdog errors can be a failure to connect with info on a remote server (iCloud; OneDrive; DropBox; etc) in a given time. Has your internet service been spotty or slow lately?

How full is your hard drive?

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Answer 6

ThassIT Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 29, 2026 7:41 AM in response to den.thed

Hi,

This is the first time I've encountered this ever. But I noticed that normal startup was a little slow for a week or two just before this happened. After it restarted (after the error), it was very fast to load.

Still backing up, almost done. I'll look at updating my OS next. Thanks

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Answer 7

ThassIT Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 29, 2026 10:02 AM in response to Allan Jones

Last time internet was slow for me was a few months ago where everything on the router/modem side seemed to be working as well as my phone and roommate's computer, but mine just stopped connecting to wifi for about four hours.

My drive is pretty full. Out of 250 GB, I have 22 GB left.

Reply

Answer 8

ThassIT Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2026 1:45 PM in response to claus237

Hi,

My main reason for no Time Machine backup is kinda dumb, but personal. I've had Time Machine delete other data on one of my hard drives years ago, data I needed, and it was just gone. Since then I've done manual backups since I couldn't figure out how to get Time Machine to stop backing up if it detects that there's not enough disk space to write to instead of overwriting other data already on there.

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