Constant Kernel Panics – userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer

[j2048b]

I don't use Google Drive, I don't use 3rd party mouse or keyboard. Everything is Apple. Removed XCODE, panic still happening...

but did u TRULY remove xcode?

Uninstall Xcode From MacOS

How to Uninstall Xcode Developer Tools on Macbook, Here’s a full guide on how to cleanup Xcode junk files, completely remove Xcode or…

onexlab-io.medium.com

i mean its everywhere...

 

[tiger168]

but did u TRULY remove xcode?

Uninstall Xcode From MacOS

How to Uninstall Xcode Developer Tools on Macbook, Here’s a full guide on how to cleanup Xcode junk files, completely remove Xcode or…

onexlab-io.medium.com

i mean its everywhere...

Thanks for spending the time to help me out. I used a few web tips to remove the XCODE, the most helpful was this link. https://osxuninstaller.com/uninstall-guides/how-to-uninstall-xcode-mac/

I've compared it with the website content that you have provided, I think that I have gotten it all, but, I did double-check them again. There were other developer-related tools and libraries that came as default, I've tried to remove them all. The conclusion was that the more I've removed them all, and continue to try, with panic still happening, the more I think these actions are not related to the panic issues.

I am skeptical that even a clean install of Catalina can still cause panic/watchdog issues. There must be some fundamental issues with the new OS versus Mojave which I have no issues with whatsoever. Why hasn't Apple publish any investigated report, if any? As we all know Apple never public admits any wrongdoing unless you bring them to court.

 

[tiger168]

what have u recently installed, if u ran etre it will show u what has been installed over the last 60 days...are there any files or programs listed near your panic issue on etre? mine actually showed tuxera:

Date:	2021-09-07 10:37:33
Type:	Kernel PanicOpen Report
Details:	panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7faacfaad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds
Count:	5
Last date:	2021-09-07 07:06:01
3rd party extensions:	com.tuxera.filesystems.tuxera_ntfs

Thanks for taking the time to help out.

I check with etrecheck (unfortunately, I have installed it to check, LOL), results show nothing new at all. Then I have to remove it. I installed Mawarebytes to scan, found no anomalies, then uninstall it. I have removed more files than install/adding, I believe.

 

[cjmildenberg]

cjmildenberg, thanks for your post.
Here is a little bit more corroborative data pointing to mediaanalysisd.

Using EtreCheck's Analytics graph, I found that the CPU and GPU temps rise sharply coming into the time of the crash - top graph. (times taken from WindowServer spin reports in Console.app) It looks like something is "running away".

Every time of a crash, the mediaanalysis program was consuming a fairly large amount of resources - bottom graph.

In the chart below, the grey bars represent "User Idle" status. The white slip after each crash is the 5 minutes that the computer is not in "User Idle" state, because it has restarted. The other white spaces are where I was using the computer.
View attachment 1819905



This is a frustrating crash to debug.. because mediaanalysisd doesn't always run (it depends on what work there is to do in photos.app media) and it doesn't always crash.. as cjmildenberg noted, it may depend on stumbling over a broken image file.

Looking at the parameters for the mediaanalysis.plist it shows that it should only run with "Requires Screen Sleep" -- which is an ambiguous term, since in System Preferences, you get options for computer to sleep, and the display to power off.

I suppose that you could toggle that to "No" and it would run without waiting for screen sleep to kick in, allowing one to use tools to monitor what is going on as it is happening.

Likewise, I hope this helps get this bug fixed some year.


View attachment 1819907

These stats are incredible, and I'm certain we are on to the root issue many are having on this thread.

Thank you for doing this. It is 100% verifiable for me that if I disable mediaanalysisd that I get zero crashes.

Question: do you set your monitors for "more space" or "larger text"?

I find that I get fewer crashes (with mediaanalysisd enabled) when I use default or lower resolution scaling on all my monitors. I'm certain this is a bug, and the more we can narrow it down, the better chance I can get somebody at apple to pay attention (before my AppleCare runs out).

 

[j2048b]

Thanks for spending the time to help me out. I used a few web tips to remove the XCODE, the most helpful was this link. https://osxuninstaller.com/uninstall-guides/how-to-uninstall-xcode-mac/

I've compared it with the website content that you have provided, I think that I have gotten it all, but, I did double-check them again. There were other developer-related tools and libraries that came as default, I've tried to remove them all. The conclusion was that the more I've removed them all, and continue to try, with panic still happening, the more I think these actions are not related to the panic issues.

I am skeptical that even a clean install of Catalina can still cause panic/watchdog issues. There must be some fundamental issues with the new OS versus Mojave which I have no issues with whatsoever. Why hasn't Apple publish any investigated report, if any? As we all know Apple never public admits any wrongdoing unless you bring them to court.

Whats odd is mine is a 2012 mac mini, and it suddenly just started happening a few weeks ago,

According to etre, i had that one program ntfs program, and it was causing the issue, once removed mine hasnt happened since, but also took xcode out i dont use it and it was like huge in file size

 

[linguinee]

Whats odd is mine is a 2012 mac mini, and it suddenly just started happening a few weeks ago,

According to etre, i had that one program ntfs program, and it was causing the issue, once removed mine hasnt happened since, but also took xcode out i dont use it and it was like huge in file size

Another late 2012 Mac Mini (Catalina 10.15.7) and, just like you, this headache started a few weeks ago and will not go away.

No Xcode, nothing new installed, no multiple monitors...just a 10 year old Mac that's been old faithful. This past week has made up it for it though.

Waking from sleep without a kernel panic/reboot is a 50/50 proposition. If it happens it's after entering the my password at the login stage. Before I came upon this thread I reformatted the drive and restored from Time Machine and deleted a some third party apps thinking data corruption was behind it. All to no avail.

Stumped.

​

Software Installs (past 60 days):​

Install Date Name (Version)​

​

2021-09-21 macOS Catalina Security Update 2021-005 (10.15.7)​

2021-09-25 XProtectPlistConfigData (2151)​

2021-09-30 macOS Catalina Security Update 2021-006 (10.15.7)​

2021-10-13 Microsoft AutoUpdate (4.40.21101001)​

2021-10-14 Garmin Express (0)​

2021-10-25 NordVPN IKE (6.8.2)​

2021-10-27 macOS Catalina Security Update 2021-007 (10.15.7)​

2021-10-27 Device Support Update (1.0.0.0.1.1632960232)​

2021-10-27 MRTConfigData (1.84)​

2021-10-30 Safari (15.1)​

​

​

Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):​

2021-10-30 12:23:57 CVMServer - Crash​

Executable: /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/CVMServer​

Details:​

dyld3 mode​

​

2021-10-30 11:10:10 Kernel Panic​

Details:​

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f8b2faad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.logd in 120 seconds​

​

3rd party kernel extensions:​

com.Logitech.ControlCenter.HIDDriver​

com.Logitech.Unifying.HIDDriver​

com.logitech.manager.kernel.driver​

com.nomachine.driver.nxau​

com.radiosilenceapp.nke.filter​

com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt​

com.rim.driver.BlackBerryVirtualPrivateNetwork​

 

[dolmark]

So just done a completely clean install of Monterey 12.0.1 onto my MacPro (Late 2013) iBin ... deleted drive volumes/partitions and reinstalled from Recovery console. No importing from Time Machine.

Got as far as:
- Attaching iCloud
- MS Office
- Affinity Photo/Publisher
- Chrome
- Evernote

... and it just hung with the watchdog catching WindowServer as usual.

So much for that idea.

 

[cjmildenberg]

So just done a completely clean install of Monterey 12.0.1 onto my MacPro (Late 2013) iBin ... deleted drive volumes/partitions and reinstalled from Recovery console. No importing from Time Machine.

Got as far as:
- Attaching iCloud
- MS Office
- Affinity Photo/Publisher
- Chrome
- Evernote

... and it just hung with the watchdog catching WindowServer as usual.

So much for that idea.

Unplug one of your external monitors and it probably won't crash. I had the same issue with 12.0.1. I am almost certain this is due to mediaanalysisd going through your photos on the new install. This has been going on for years.

 

[dolmark]

Unplug one of your external monitors and it probably won't crash. I had the same issue with 12.0.1. I am almost certain this is due to mediaanalysisd going through your photos on the new install. This has been going on for years.

I only have one DP 4k monitor left! With the second one also connected it was even more unstable. So far crashing about every 2-3 hours

 

[cjmildenberg]

I only have one DP 4k monitor left! With the second one also connected it was even more unstable. So far crashing about every 2-3 hours

try to delete your photo library and see if it crashes - delete photo library, and turn off iCloud photos (as a test)

 

[dolmark]

Unplug one of your external monitors and it probably won't crash. I had the same issue with 12.0.1. I am almost certain this is due to mediaanalysisd going through your photos on the new install. This has been going on for years.

mediaanalysisd disabled using launchctl, iCloud photos and photoananlysisd left in place for the moment. Will see if that helps.

Also wondering, if it's tickling a hardware heat issue on the D300 graphics cards, and the Mac Pro (iBin) seems to only use one of its two cards, can they be swapped around?

 

[cjmildenberg]

mediaanalysisd disabled using launchctl, iCloud photos and photoananlysisd left in place for the moment. Will see if that helps.

Also wondering, if it's tickling a hardware heat issue on the D300 graphics cards, and the Mac Pro (iBin) seems to only use one of its two cards, can they be swapped around?

Let me know how this works - I was able to 100% resolve my issue by disabling mediaanalysisd - however, I don't get any new face recognition, etc. I've about had it with this bug, as it continues in Monterey. Wondering if anybody has it on an M1 or M1pro.

 

[dolmark]

Let me know how this works - I was able to 100% resolve my issue by disabling mediaanalysisd - however, I don't get any new face recognition, etc. I've about had it with this bug, as it continues in Monterey. Wondering if anybody has it on an M1 or M1pro.

Will let you know. Nothing in 24 hours but it's more random than that. Sometimes I can work for days. Sometimes I've not even got as far as pressing "report" on the crash reporter after restarting.

This issue is now 2 years old for me, starting late 2019 after Catalina upgrade. Completely ignored by Apple it seems. Even if they pointed at the D300 graphics cards, or other hardware, we'd know what bit to replace.

This Mac Pro (Late 2013) is getting old and needs replacing but is anyone who's had this random problem going to spend £/$/€/6000+ on a new machine which may do the same?

 

[3rdShore]

I've been getting similar crashes on Big Sur and previously Catalina with and it's beyond frustrating because I'm pretty sure all the crashes somehow killed my ~2012 Mac mini that had been smooth sailing for a long time (would crash in recovery mode and safe mode, now can't get it to boot at all).

This forced my hand to get a new M1 mini, and at first I thought things were fine. Then the crashes/panics returned.

I've disabled many of the random startup apps I had and also set my external drives to privacy exemptions in Spotlight searches. This seems to have mitigated the crashes, but now mediaanalysisd is hammering my external drives when I'm away and I'm concerned there is still something amiss. Additionally I'm unable to import photos from my iPhone to Photos.app and I'm wondering if these glitches can all be interrelated.

I'm about at my wit's end with Apple, and any help is appreciated.

 

[lodewig]

I've been getting similar crashes on Big Sur and previously Catalina with and it's beyond frustrating because I'm pretty sure all the crashes somehow killed my ~2012 Mac mini that had been smooth sailing for a long time (would crash in recovery mode and safe mode, now can't get it to boot at all).

This forced my hand to get a new M1 mini, and at first I thought things were fine. Then the crashes/panics returned.

I've disabled many of the random startup apps I had and also set my external drives to privacy exemptions in Spotlight searches. This seems to have mitigated the crashes, but now mediaanalysisd is hammering my external drives when I'm away and I'm concerned there is still something amiss. Additionally I'm unable to import photos from my iPhone to Photos.app and I'm wondering if these glitches can all be interrelated.

I'm about at my wit's end with Apple, and any help is appreciated.

if by unable to import photos from iPhone to Photos.app you mean you cannot sync iCloud photos to your Mac, I found that if the cloudd process crashes, the photos.app sometimes has trouble updating again. If that is the case, I found it helps if you go into the system preferences / Apple ID and toggle off the check box next to photos. Then toggle it back on. After a while, photos will start sync itself up again. Depending on the number of photos you have it can take hours to complete, but after it completes your iPhone photos will be sync'ed to your Mac.

I can't comment on the mediaanalysisd issue as it seems to be a different behaviour than what I am experiencing. I feel the issues people are experiencing with Catalina have many different origins and not just one which is contributing to the frustration in finding a fix or workaround.

 

[3rdShore]

if by unable to import photos from iPhone to Photos.app you mean you cannot sync iCloud photos to your Mac, …

Thanks for the reply. I do not use iCloud to sync my photos, as I’m “old school” in that regards where I upload them straight from the phone and don’t use iCloud sync for my Photos Library. I don’t intend to create a tangent here in this regard, but when I connect my iPhone via cable to the mini Photos.app sticks on the loading images segment and it never loads them for import.

I was thinking whatever the “glitch” in the constant mediaanalysisd process, the kernel panics/crashes, the Spotlight indexing of the externals, and the Photos.app issue could have possibly been interconnected because my Photos library is also on my external. Wondering if some Apple process between all of those is getting conflicted and hung up.

 

[dolmark]

@cjmildenberg
Well it's looking good nearly 3 days and no crashes yet - even managed a zoom meeting which normally is impossible.

At the moment I am running with mediaanalysisd Enabled, iCloud Photos Enabled, photoanalysisd Disabled.

Will see if it goes a whole week!

 

[Jupeman]

I've posted before in this thread. Interestingly Monterey fixed my watchdog kernel panics for a few weeks and then they resumed regularly all of a sudden. Going back to the mouse jiggle to prevent the machine from ever thinking there was inactivity has once again stopped the panics (but of course the machine never turns off displays, etc., not ideal). Yes, the $25 Amazon buy fixes Apple's stupid problem in a bad work around way. Just thought I'd post to complain. Note that this is very clearly a MacOS bug. It started in Big Sur. I have had my machine (Mac Pro) replaced for this because they were too lazy to diagnose and work on the problem, new machine is exactly the same. FIX YOUR OS, APPLE! Sincerely, Mac user since 1985.

(Btw, my watchdog kernel panics are almost "last started kext at 84656598730: @filesystems.smbfs")

 

[dolmark]

@cjmildenberg
Well it's survived 10 days without a single kernel panic from WindowServer!

Somehow photoanalysisd seems to have arrived back (I can see the process running), although not sure how.

Also found some nicely written notes about how to stop the services properly (not just removing the plist files!)

First, you'll disable and kill the GUI instance:

launchctl disable gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd && launchctl kill -TERM gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd

As well as the actual service:

launchctl disable user/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd && launchctl kill -TERM user/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd

From https://dev.to/gjbianco/controlling-photoanalysisd-3j2a

 

[MarineBand5524]

I was and still am having this problem, even with upgrades now to Big Sur, Apple even has replaced my logic board and track pad twice now with everything being BRAND SPANKING NEW!!!!!

 

[j2048b]

I was and still am having this problem, even with upgrades now to Big Sur, Apple even has replaced my logic board and track pad twice now with everything being BRAND SPANKING NEW!!!!!

Damn thats crazy, and yet apple doesnt have an answer as to why? Seems very odd, everything is pointing to a non return time out when trying to access a certain server.... Maybe they are blocking certain machines especially ones (if they are hacked) that have bypassed their security or running a patch?

But that wouldnt be yours in this case,

Honestly it has to be a third party software issue, it was for me, once i removed the logitech crap from my computer it hasnt occured since... I also changed out my ups batteries as well...

 

[thekev]

I was and still am having this problem, even with upgrades now to Big Sur, Apple even has replaced my logic board and track pad twice now with everything being BRAND SPANKING NEW!!!!!

If it's an older model, they mostly use refurbished parts, not new ones.

 

[donikatz]

Doubt this will be very helpful, since most people aren’t using it, but my problems have mostly gone away recently, as soon as corp tech finally removed McAfee AV. Good luck, everyone!

 

[nosajgames]

Can we sign a petition or put some pressure on APPLE to try and get this issue situated? There are 44 pages and Big Sur along with Catalina seem to be the culprit here for this Bug. We really have been talking about this for almost 3 years now.

 

[cjmildenberg]

Can we sign a petition or put some pressure on APPLE to try and get this issue situated? There are 44 pages and Big Sur along with Catalina seem to be the culprit here for this Bug. We really have been talking about this for almost 3 years now.

I can 100% fix this issue (watchdog timeouts after computer idles) by disabling mediaanalysisd or photoanalysisd by using the app Launch Control - it requires SIP to be disabled to do so.

OR, if you let photos do a media/face analysis for several days until it's fully done (with a single monitor attached), then you can attach more monitors and it won't crash.

OR, you can run the app amphetamine and make sure your computer never enters the "idle" state. It keeps your computer running, but you'll never get face analysis in photos because that only happens when the computer is "idle."

I have called Apple 3 times to explain this to them, but the weren't interested in anything except replacing my computer.