Mac Os Sierra keep logging out !!

I continue to have the same issue with my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. I'm going to try your "reduce motion" fix. No OS updates have stopped the unsolicited shutdowns yet. Drives me crazy!!!

Anybody tried fresh install ? If it is not common issue fresh install should help.

I have this issue often when using Cisco WebEX or Atlassian Hippchat. anybody use gfxCardStatus 2.3 to control GPU ? I will try to disable that software for some time, and see what will happen.

JK

I tried a format and clean install last year: I only reloaded programs that currently have support in Sierra. I kept notes of any program that gave me a warning of conflicts. (Notably Clipwrap) I have not yet reinstalled Quicktime 7 Pro because it is not currently support. I initially moved all of my data off my system drive but have slowly moved things back.

I installed system temperature monitoring software (iStat Menus and Mac Fan Control) to make sure it isn't my drives or CPU temps triggering a fault. I did find my system drive was running very hot, past where a spinner should be. I altered the speeds on the HDD fan to bring the temp down below 56ºc.

I have not had the issue return yet. It was drastic and I lost several useful tools that are no longer supported; however, my system has been working well for 3 months.

Oh boy, that might have been my problem. I was running that gfxCardStatus app too. Since quitting it yesterday morning after reading your message here I’ve been running the web interface in Safari that definitely eventually causes the problem and I’ve gone a full 24 hours without it logging me out which was impossible before. Other weird things start to happen after a few hours of running it, the web canvases stop drawing and the memory use continues to climb until Safari just can’t load the page anymore, but it no longer logs me out. There are still tons of memory leaks in Safari’s cache philosophy, but it isn’t logging me out without gfxCardStatus running! Of course now I’ve jinxed it by posting 😉 It will probably do so 5 minutes after I hit save on this. If so I’ll post again, but otherwise fantastic catch jerzyki!

This problem has absolutely nothing to do with the security or other settings, it has nothing to do with inactivity or anything else. In my case I’ve definitely narrowed it down to Safari sending a corrupted JPEG image to the GPU for decoding. The GPU then crashes causing the window manager to crash and you get logged out. I can view images from a specific bad IP camera and eventually be logged out, or if I remove that specific camera stream from the web page then it never logs me out. I will be attempting to capture a specific corrupt image or series of images next and see if I can build something that will do it reliably. I’ve already ruled out just the memory leak that is the image cache. Safari never expires anything from the cache and will eventually crash the web process, but that doesn’t log you out. Firefox doesn’t do that though and Apple should be treating their memory use as a bug in Safari and not a feature. On El Capitan the corrupt JPEG data just causes a temporary hang of the GPU which then recovers. On Sierra it will crash the window manager and log you out. This is a potentially serious issue as corrupt images are used to do things like buffer overflow code injection and so forth so it’s important to get this sorted out. There are almost certainly more ways to do it too, but I’ve got a repeatable one here now and I will follow up with Apple when I can save off a stream of images that definitely makes the problem repeatable.

Auto-Logout in macOS Sierra

The basic feature is just that, a feature, not a bug. You can set your Mac to automatically log out of your account after X minutes of inactivity. For those with sensitive information on their Macs, it’s an added layer of security, but very few of us need or want that.

The problem for a small number of users is that the upgrade to macOS Sierra appears to have turned that setting on. If you find yourself returning to a login screen inexplicably, you should check this setting and turn it back off.

Go To: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Advanced… > Log out after X minutes of inactivity

I think this may be related to this problem:

https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/2013-mac-pro-freezes-continue-owners-hav e-little-recourse-apple-is-helpless

I was getting the "WindowServer: GPU Driver appears to be hung (over 5 continuous seconds of unreadiness)" messages about once a day, with a rainbow ball that required a reboot. I had both GPUs replaced, and now I get the "10 seconds of continuous GPU Driver unreadiness, relaunching WindowServer" message and it logs me out. This is an improvement, but it's still not right. It happens after some random number of hours if the screensaver is playing (for example). And no, the "Log out after x minutes of inactivity" box is not checked.

I don't think this is a hardware issue:

I recently rebuilt my Macbook with Ubuntu Linux, installed Steam and a few games which are heavy on the GPU. No crash for 2 days. Reinstalled Sierra and it crashed within minutes - before I'd even installed any apps.

Took my Macbook to the Apple store to have the advanced diagnostic tool run, Bluetooth module on the Airport Card was faulty (been so for 2 years, never bothered to fix it). Reinstalled Sierra, GPU crash soon after.

I don't have the skills to test this hypothesis, but perhaps there is a weak cell in the battery which results in momentary drop in voltage, not enough to kill the whole machine, just enough to destabilise the GPU. There are definitely more crashes when the Macbook is on charge.

Will be replacing my battery soon (it is on 1050 cycles) and report back.

I've been having the same problem on Sierra.

It's been happening a lot lately, but only started about two months ago. No major changes to the system other than Apple's OS updates from App Store.

I don't change virtual desktops often. It's possible that I could have before these sudden returns to the login screen. Seems like it mostly happens while browsing Safari webpages (but that could be coincidence, since I spend the majority of time in there). And I pretty much always get a random spinning beachball that lasts about 10 seconds, before it happens.

I've also noticed that when this happens, the login screen does not look right; it is a bit distorted (descaled, maybe) and the login box is off to the right side of the screen, rather than right in the center as normal.

Oh, and I don't run full-screen apps or anything.

I'm worried this is going to happen in the middle of work (I write code), and the work won't be saved, and I'll be fubared.

Did you ever figure anything out after replacing your battery?

I'm having the same problem, I do think it's usually when I'm running on battery (but can't quite remember). But my battery only has about 300 cycles, so not much.

Grr, two crashes while trying to respond:

I've not yet replaced my battery - ordered a new Macbook Pro (desperate grudge purchase) - will replace the battery on this one when I get a chance. Had my laptop on charge all night, switched on this morning and boom, immediate crash while fully charged.

My theory so far is that it's Safari. Someone chased down Safari memory leaks, and the whole chain of events leading up to the window manager crashing.

It always happens to me when I'm in Safari, and I always have a tremendous amount of tabs open, and Safari stays running basically 24/7.

As for GPU, I have the dual GPU MBP, but I'm not seeing much good evidence for that being the problem.

I'm pointing to Safari.

I just upgraded to Sierra from OS 10.8.5, and when watching full screen youtube video the computer screen goes black and I need to log in again using my password. Did NOT have that problem with 10.8.5 watching full screen video. Computer is NOT hot, and I set screen saver to never.

here's your answer

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6501276?start=0&tstart=0

Same issue with full-screen video. However, it is also happening to me if I work in a Word Document, for example. It seems to happen at random.

I don't think this problem will be fixed until Apple releases a patch or something.