Some Users Experiencing System Crashes on macOS 10.15.4, Especially During Large File Transfers - MacRumors
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Some Users Experiencing System Crashes on macOS 10.15.4, Especially During Large File Transfers

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A sizeable number of Mac users are experiencing occasional system crashes after updating to macOS Catalina version 10.15.4, released a few weeks ago.

macos catalina imac macbook pro
The crashing issue appears to be most prominent when users attempt to make large file transfers. In a forum post, SoftRAID described the issue as a bug and said that it is working with Apple engineers on a fix for macOS 10.15.5, or a workaround.

SoftRAID said the issue extends to Apple-formatted disks:

There is a serious issue with 10.15.4.

It shows up in different scenarios, even on Apple disks but is more likely when there are lots of IO threads. We think it is a threading issue. So while SoftRAID volumes are hit the hardest (its now hard to copy more than 30GB of data at a time), all systems are impacted by this.

In our bug report to Apple, we used a method to reproduce the problem with ONLY Apple formatted disks. Takes longer to reproduce, but that is more likely to get a faster fix to the user base.

Other users on macOS 10.15.4 have experienced crashes after waking their Mac from sleep, with affected systems suffering a kernel panic and rebooting to the Apple logo, according to comments shared on the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and Twitter.

After updating to macOS 10.15.4, users may also experience continuous spinning up and spinning down of connected hard drives when a Mac is supposed to be asleep, which could result in damage to the drive, according to Jeremy Horwitz.

We've reached out to Apple for comment and we will provide an update if we hear back.

Related Forum: macOS Catalina

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Top Rated Comments

M
MacFather
82 months ago
Deleted.
Score: 104 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cosmos Avatar
cosmos
82 months ago
I was thinking of upgrading from Mojave until I was snapped back into reality by this article.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MakeAppleAwesomeAgain Avatar
MakeAppleAwesomeAgain
82 months ago
Yesterday I did something I haven't done in 15 years of using macOS, having used every major release and patch release. I've downgraded my MBA '13 to Mojave. It became unusable with Catalina. The process sucks, I'm still reinstalling and configuring stuff but I guess it's worth it. Since 10.15.4 it couldn't even wakeup without crashing, last week I got a full system freeze when I was just editing a document and this weekend I had a kernel panic. SSD is fine, I've ran memtest for hours, there nothing wrong with this Macbook. I've been running 10.15 since it came out and it's by far the worst macOS release ever. Lion and Yosemite were heaven compared to Catalina.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
BootsWalking
82 months ago
The "I'm a Mac" thing hasn't aged very well.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
c.s. Avatar
c.s.
82 months ago
Still on Mojave. Longest I've ever waited to upgrade the OS. Will probably just skip Catalina altogether.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
jonnysods
82 months ago
Its this stuff that makes me wish they would go back to the 1.5+ year OS cycle. I know they are stuck because they like to do them all at once - but the pressure to put features into each build causes issues. Imagine 1.5-2 years of rock solid Mojave development and fixes, then come out with Catalina, and have time to perfect it.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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