Mac Os Sierra keep logging out !!

Thank you for doing the grunt work on this. I thought I was going crazy and couldn't find a way to fix this. I'm looking forward to hearing some kind of resolution or bug-fix from Apple.

Unfortunately I was unable to find a fix for many issues this bug poses BUT if you are using chrome as your browser to fix this problem with sites that offer full screen goto settings, then access advanced settings, then goto system, then uncheck "use hardware acceleration when available". This will fix the problem in browser but sadly no where else on the computer. I hope this can help some people as this fix has defiantly been helpful for me.

i just updated yesterday and this logout issue appeared out of nowhere and i was thinking i was hacked for some reason HAHAHA . Apple can you fix this issue really fast.

Well, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news: As of this morning, everything seems to be operating normally: Fullscreen windows, fullscreen apps, two-finger swiping, fullscreen video, etc. I noticed it completely by accident this morning, by mistakenly clicking the green button in a window. Yesterday, I was speaking with Apple Support and reproduced the crash for them—so I know it was crashing—before sending logs. I was using my computer for a couple of hours afterwards and this morning everything seems to be fixed!

The bad news: I don't know exactly what happened. I promised to post a fix, when available, in this thread but I don't know what got fixed. Here is what I know changed since yesterday:

• I discontinued using Safari Technology Preview (an advanced version of Safari available from Apple) as my default browser because, well, it doesn't work very well. I also removed it from my Dock. Reversing this completely back, so that it is my default browser did not reproduce the problem.
• I updated, through the App Store, Microsoft OneNote. This actually made some weird changes to its clipper extension function in Safari, as the clipper now pops up a lot (it didn't ever before the update) and asks if I want to save web pages. I never actually opened the app yesterday, didn't clip anything to it, and haven't used the app in a few weeks.
• I updated, through the App Store, Twitter, but didn't open the app, tweet, or do anything else related to this.
• I updated, through the App Store, OmniFocus 2 but didn't open the app or use any functionality.
• HERE'S THE BIG CHANGE: I installed Little Snitch. I assure you I have nothing to do with Little Snitch, its developer(s), or anything like that. I simply, in usual paranoid fashion, became concerned that, perhaps, someone was screwing with me (though I use BitDefender and had run Malware Anti-Malware and was clear on both), so I bought and installed Little Snitch to check my outgoing internet connections. That's what Little Snitch does: It reports anytime any software is "phoning home." Most of what it reports is totally legit but if someone has installed a program to send your keystrokes to them, Little Snitch can identify and prevent it. Based on the messages that popped up during installation, I believe that in the process of installation, the installer did some kind of deep system flush/rebuild, down to the kernel extension level. So, I don't think it's the program itself that fixed anything (I don't know how it could), but rather something that happened during installation. It's my best guess. I've seen some other threads out there on the specific task of rebuilding the kernel caches and am not an expert on that, so will defer to someone who is. Right now, there's no way for me to reproduce the problem so I can't say that a kernel cache rebuild is the solution, but it may be something worth trying. You can trial Little Snitch (no payment is required for this) so, if anyone feels adventurous, I'd recommend installing it and seeing if the problem is fixed. You can always uninstall it (the download image actually comes with an uninstaller).

I will talk to my Apple Support rep tomorrow and hear what he thinks about this. Probably he will not comment about third-party software, especially relatively deep software like Little Snitch, but he may comment on the idea of some kind of kernel flush—we'll see. I will also email the Little Snitch folks to see what they think. This program has been around for over 10 years so I'm not worried about it doing anything nefarious.

Sorry that this is kind of a deflated answer but there's no question that I had the problem everyone else had, literally from the moment I upgraded to macOS Sierra, and now it's gone. Hopefully, what happened to me will lead to an eventual answer for everyone. I will post further if I figure anything else out.

For those who might understand this stuff a bit more deeply, here is the log output from the Little Snitch installation:

Oct 8 15:24:56 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installation mode: Fresh Install

Oct 8 15:25:10 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Stopping Services

Oct 8 15:25:10 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Removing Components

Oct 8 15:25:10 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Stopping Services

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Removing Components

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Copying Components

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/LaunchDaemons

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Fixing permissions for directory /Library/LaunchDaemons

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Applications

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Directory has SF_NOUNLINK flag set, leaving alone: /Applications

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/LaunchAgents

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Fixing permissions for directory /Library/LaunchAgents

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/Application Support

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Directory has SF_NOUNLINK flag set, leaving alone: /Library/Application Support

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/Little Snitch

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Creating directory /Library/Little Snitch

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/Application Support/Objective Development

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Creating directory /Library/Application Support/Objective Development

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Checking directory exists: /Library/Application Support/Objective Development/Little Snitch

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Creating directory /Library/Application Support/Objective Development/Little Snitch

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing LittleSnitch.kext (4718) in /Library/Extensions/

Oct 8 15:25:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Daemon.bundle (4718) in /Library/Little Snitch/

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Uninstaller.app (4718) in /Library/Little Snitch/

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Network Monitor.app (4718) in /Library/Little Snitch/

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Software Update.app (4718) in /Library/Little Snitch/

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Agent.app (4718) in /Library/Little Snitch/

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing launchd configuration /Library/LaunchDaemons/at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (at.obdev.littlesnitchd): This service is defined to be constantly running and is inherently inefficient.

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (at.obdev.littlesnitchd[3377]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by launchd[1]

Oct 8 15:25:12 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing launchd configuration /Library/LaunchAgents/at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent): This service is defined to be constantly running and is inherently inefficient.

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent[3387]): Trampoline was terminated before jumping to service: signal: Terminated: 15 sent by launchd[1]

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Installing Little Snitch Configuration.app (4718) in /Applications/

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: *** Starting Services

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: This is a major new install. Configuring appropriately.

Oct 8 15:25:13 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: Updating boot caches...

Oct 8 15:25:24 Pegasus ReportCrash[3379]: Saved crash report for Little Snitch Daemon[3377] version ??? to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Little Snitch Daemon_2016-10-08-152524_Pegasus.crash

Oct 8 15:25:45 Pegasus Little Snitch Installer[3273]: INFO: done.

Oct 8 15:26:25 Pegasus Little Snitch Daemon[85]: 3.7 (4718): Permissive Mode ON

Oct 8 15:26:44 Pegasus com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent): This service is defined to be constantly running and is inherently inefficient.

Oct 8 15:26:48 Pegasus Little Snitch Agent[356]: Little Snitch Agent version 4718 started.

Oct 8 15:26:49 Pegasus Little Snitch Daemon[85]: 3.7 (4718): Permissive Mode OFF

Oct 8 15:26:50 Pegasus Little Snitch Network Monitor[510]: Little Snitch Network Monitor version 4718 started.

Oct 8 15:42:11 Pegasus Little Snitch Network Monitor[510]: BUG in libdispatch client: kevent[EVFILT_MACHPORT] monitored resource vanished before the source cancel handler was invoked

Oct 8 15:45:58 Pegasus Little Snitch Configuration[689]: BUG in libdispatch client: kevent[EVFILT_MACHPORT] monitored resource vanished before the source cancel handler was invoked

I also noticed that some permissions were repaired during the installation, or at least this was reported. That function appears to not be present in macOS Sierra, so perhaps there was something there.

Anyone also have this issue when not using an external monitor?

I haven't had this happen to me yet when not connected to the external monitor.

When it is connected, I have this issue often.

So could this be down to some faulty display drivers?

I am seeing this issue very frequently. Most often when I'm in a WebEx with a customer. One thing I find really odd is that the Guest account always shows up when this happens even though it is disabled in the System Preferences.

I've got the same issue. I've tested having full screen apps on and off. No difference. Didn't know I had rage issues until this came up.

Also, having the same issue. Highly annoying. I'll continue to watch the thread.

I also have the same issues with my mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina.

It appears randomly when using fullscreen apps or video, or, and that is of course the weird thing, when i plug in some USB device. It doesn't matter if it is an USB drive or a simple USB-Hub with no devices plugged in (or when I plug a device in the hub)...

Sometimes the display shows colored bricks of pixels for a second before the OS is logging me out.

All since Sierra... *cough*

Hooray!! I installed Little Snitch, and fullscreen works now – even after uninstalling LS. Thank you so much for this tip!

Apple clearly needs to fix this issue for all users, and I'm confident that they will in time, but at this point I just want my non-crashing Mac back.

Same here - double Hooray!! I installed Little Snitch and my Mac no longer logs me out randomly, even after uninstalling Little Snitch. Was tearing my hair out until I found this thread. Thanks everyone (and especially Dhalgren)!

Same here.

I installed Little Snitch (Free Trial version). After install was finished (restart and initial buch of windows/settings), I uninstalled it.

Haven't had any log-outs since. Hope this keeps it fixed.

To download Little Snitch:

https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

I'm downloading Little Snitch now and will report back my results.

In addition to the other symptoms previously described, is anyone also have issues with "Preview", especially with manipulating PDFs? Prior to the Sierra download, I could do menial tasks like combining multiple PDFs into one, filling in forms fields, etc. without too much trouble - and something mind you I refuse to pay Adobe hundreds of $ to be able to do for a full version of Acrobat. Since Sierra, Preview has been acting very strangely, locking up after any PDF manipulation and requiring a restart of the program, only to find the action that I wanted to accomplish actually was done but I couldn't see it prior to close and restart/reopening. I have no idea if these are separate issues from the main logging out issue or not, but thought I'd share and ask.

For those who don't want to go through the hassle of Little Snitch installation/de-installation (though I kind of like having it, so I kept it), this is a response I received from the developer. It's a terminal command to update the boot-cache. I used this on my laptop yesterday (it didn't have the problem but I figured, "What the heck?") and it didn't appear to cause any problems. I'm still focusing on the permissions issue because macOS Sierra removed the ability to repair permissions, and I've fixed a lot of problems in the past by repairing permissions.

If someone is adventurous and wants to try this, it could be all that is needed to fix the Spaces/Fullscreen problem. Note: It takes a number of seconds (20?) and all sorts of text will fill your Terminal window; do not freak out!

I would restart after running it before trying to go to Fullscreen.

If anyone with the Spaces/Fullscreen problem tries this, please report it back here. If it works, I will report it back to Apple Support; it may help them fix the problem at the system level.

Here is the response. You can simply cut and paste the sudo touch command, but you will have to put in your Password at the next prompt to get it to run:

thank you for your request.

I would assume fixing the permissions for the /Library/ folders does not interfere with your issue, but since Little Snitch updates the boot-cache in order to install its own kernel-extension, it might be the effect that some corrupt system kernel extensions are updated coindicentally.

You can trigger a manual boot-cache update via the following Terminal command:

sudo touch /Library/Extensions/ && sudo kextcache -v 6 -update-volume /

this probably reveals some errors in case.

On the other side, if this is an issue of kernel extensions it is a bit odd that it only happens on certain user accounts. This would of course more lead to the assumption that some preferences at ~/Library/Preferences/ are to blame, but the Little Snitch installation does not alter any other plist files in there of course.

Hope this helps at least a little.

Best regards,