Q: Mac Pro keeps logging out since El Capitan

Do you have « displays have separate Spaces » enabled or not? According to some, disabling this option in combination with the latest Nvidia driver works. So, if you could try to enable that option and see what happens.

I didn't have that turned on, but I was experiencing the issues anyways.

I have it turned on now and we'll see if that triggers an issue.

Thanks!

After installed the Nvidia driver, I no longer saw the issue. Another poster recommended I turn on Displays Have Separate Spaces and it proceeded to run amok on my computer. I turned it off and my computer has returned to normal. In each test case I started 15-ish apps ranging from Apple's Mail, Calendar, Messages as well as 3rd-party apps specifically the Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator and Photoshop) along with Skype.

I've sent all of this to Apple in the hopes a fix in 10.11.2.

Thanks for reporting this issue Paul. Having read the threads, many people have had issues with two or more graphics cards; I had a similar problem with one graphics card and only one monitor.

I have a Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) with one Nvidia GTX660Ti PC card, and installing El Capitan resulted first in a grey screen after I rebooted the OS after installation. I restarted the machine three times and each time I saw a grey screen and the computer was unresponsive; I didn't get to the desktop. I figured that the grey screens were to do with the graphics card which is an unflashed 2GB PC card which works because the drivers for the card are included in the OS (GTX660s have been used in previous generations of iMacs, and I see a grey screen upon boot-up until the desktop appears).

I changed the graphics card back to the 512MB Nvidia GT8800 and the next time I rebooted to a login screen appeared. I don't usually use the login screen and therefore couldn't remember the name of the login account. In the end, I didn't want to experience constant logging out, and I restarted the mac and booted from my last Time Machine back-up. Within 3 hours, I was running 10.10.5 again with no problems, and my GTX660 card continues to work.

Yet, like many people here, El Capitan is not working on my machine unless I want to use a 512MB noisy GT8800 or spend a considerable amount of money on another graphics card. It is interesting that most of the people who have posted that they have had difficulties have had problems with Nvidia cards. Perhaps that is part of the issue with Mac Pros and this version of OSX.

Another update. I'm still seeing the problem, much less frequently. I have a feeling it's something more subtle being triggered and the common causes seem to trigger it more frequently. I've since reduced myself to only having one "Space" to see if switching spaces was triggering the issue. I continue to work with tech support but at no point do I believe anything other than the next OS X update will resolve it.

Hey !, I've got a good test case

Please re-read my post on Oct 15, 2015 9:42 AM (page #12)

(GT120 + GTX 650 ; With 'Mission Control Displays -> Have Separate Spaces = ON)

1) There was no issue at all with 10.11.0 GM developer

2) I've got the problem just after installing 10.11.0 Beta 4 developer.

So I connected both of my displays on my GTX 650 (as many of us).

After reading and posting about these issues :

3) I finally did a clean install of Public 10.11.1 on a new disk and had still the issue described by all of us.

Now the test case :

just 2 apps : Finder window, Apercu with PDF image file.

'Mission Control' [Displays Have Separate Spaces=on] :

After login,

1. 1 finder window on a display,
2. now open a PDF (launching Apercu)
3. Put the PDF window on other dislay
4. so you got (Finder Menu / Apercu Menu)
   
5. and ... just activate the menu-bar on one (i.e. passing through the main menus ),
6. then activate menus on the other display  ==> immediate logout.

In one of my tests (same test case), I even got some artifacts when moving the PDF window (repainting issue) and afterwards system-desktop  hanging.

I confirmed this test case with the 346.03.03f01 Nvidia drivers, so no help.

Side note ; by the way there is a bug between Nvidia drivers and Pixelmator witch shows a (almost) blank main window.

==> METAL ???.

Second test case

'Mission Control' [Displays Have Separate Spaces=OFF

No logout on my configuration. (in other words, there is only one menubar, so can not go through the bugging code)

(tested with Apple and Nvidia drivers)

I do not know if all this could be related to the old GT120  (calling some missing functionality ?)

Other computers

On my MacBookAir 13' mid 2011 : no issue when connecting an external monitor; public 10.11.1 installed on existing 10.9.x

On my MacBookAir 13' mid 2013 : no issue when connecting an external monitor; public 10.11.1 installed on existing 10.9.x/10.11.0 GM dev/10.11.1 Beta Dev

ACTION

Could you guys who are already in touch with the Apple Support give this feedback ?

Thanks.

Just installed 10.11.2 Beta (Developer 15C27e) on top of 10.11.1 public

Helas, no cure for GT120 + second Nvidia card./ one DVI display each; Displays Have Separate Spaces=ON.

Exactly same symptoms as I described before :

• if (different main menus (apps) in each display)
  • and (click/or just pass mouse on top menu-items from one display)
  • and (click/pass mouse on the other display's main menu)
• then
  • logout !

Just installed El Capitan---Started logging out on me!! I do have 2 displays and video cards.

I want to uninstall the downgraded OS  had no problems prior

To go back:

- backup your data

- Download load the Yosemite installer. It should be listed in the Purchased section of the Mac App Store.

- Make a bootable USB media using the following:

DiskMaker X

- Boofrom that media

- Format the Yosemeite startup disk and install Yosemite

- Restore your data

Same problem here ... and same outcome ... downgrade to Yosemite. The easiest way is to restore from a Time Machine backup. Select the latest backup with Yosemite. Note that your hard drive will be erased, but that's why we keep backups ... in this case, because the latest version of the operating system isn't stable.

Same problem... I hope apple is reading this thread and working on a solution.  I am now officially gun shy of Apple updates to IOS and OSX.  After bricking a few phones and breaking my monitors now twice with updates I will need to seriously consider if future ones are actually worth it. Unfortunately this will fragment the apple ecosystem with people running different versions of operating systems like android and windows. 3

What I find unforgivable is that after downgrading to 10.10, I just now got an Alert in the Notification Centre coaxing me to Upgrade! Yeah, Right..... That's just encouraging a user to get into trouble. It needs to check that the host machine is not one of the configs affected and warn AGAINST upgrading.......

Okay, waited for 10.11.1 to come out before taking the leap on to El Capitan, and it feels like I leapt off of something rather than climbing higher.

I'm experiencing the same problem as well. Auto-logoff seems to happen every hour or two, usually right in the middle of writing something important. Frustrating.

Mac OS X 10.11.1

2009 Mac Pro 4,1

Three Nvidia GT120 512MB cards, each driving a single display

Separate spaces has been disabled from the start. I use Chrome exclusively, so not related to Firefox. Haven't tried installing the Nvidia drivers yet, nervous due to reports earlier in this thread about the drivers posted on October 6 making the problem worse.

Submitted a problem report to Apple and hoping for a resolution. If you or others you know have this problem, please submit a report and hopefully this issue will get some attention quickly. There seems to have been a continuous series of issues with Mac Pro multiple monitor setups in the last several OS updates, and I can't believe there isn't better lab testing of these configurations prior to major OS releases given that's one of the big reasons to own a Mac Pro to begin with...

It's certainly on Apple's radar and I did my best to push the issue along. I was speaking directly to an Apple Support Superviser and we've been emailing.

I have a backup OS installed on a partition on one of my internal drives and I did a clean install of El Capitan and was able to reproduce the problem. This is one thing they always push back with, so that's taken care of. It removes the ability for them to blame 3rd party software because there was none on that install.

At this point there isn't much more we can do until they decide to fix the problem.

I've since reverted my primary install back to Yosemite and I won't be upgrading any time soon. It was a huge headache that I don't wish to relive.

Has anyone in this thread been able to test the 10.11.2 developer beta release from a few days ago?

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/10/27/apple-issues-first-os-x-10112-beta-to- developers