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Spontaneous logout diagnosis

B

boberonicus

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
27
3
My wife's 2019 MBP (macOS 11.2) spontaneously logs her out a few times a day. It's not a crash/reboot. The logouts are not periodically consistent. There is no specific action that causes this. She quickly re-enters her machine's password and all is normal. Except the Zoom session drops, etc.

I've asked her to note the time of the failure; the console log for "system" from the 2:53pm failure is attached. Machine name changed to protect my warrior princess. The only thing that stands out (to me) is the line referring to this two-pronged USB-C dongle that provides power, drives two displays, etc. "EvoluentAgent" is the driver for an external USB mouse

Any thoughts appreciated! Also, is there a better way to monitor / diagnose this? I've removed a bunch of things that Etrecheck didn't like but no change.

Code: 
Feb 8 14:52:22 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0600-0000-0000-000000000000[10566]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:52:58 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.user.502): Service "com.apple.xpc.launchd.unmanaged.loginwindow.145" tried to register for endpoint "com.apple.tsm.uiserver" already registered by owner: com.apple.TextInputMenuAgent
Feb 8 14:52:59 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Feb 8 14:52:59 Xena-MacBook-Pro Core Audio Driver (VirtualMic.driver)[243]: [-] Resynced!
Feb 8 14:53:00 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0D000000-0300-0000-0000-000000000000[10569]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:00 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.07000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000[10571]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:00 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0700-0000-0000-000000000000[10568]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:00 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.02000000-0600-0000-0000-000000000000[10570]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:01 Xena-MacBook-Pro EvoluentAgent[436]: IORegistryEntrySetCFProperties Error! Result = 0x10000003
Feb 8 14:53:02 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000[10586]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:06 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000[10588]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:06 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0D000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[10584]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:06 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.07000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000[10585]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:14 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Connector Status | []
Feb 8 14:53:14 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Client Ready
Feb 8 14:53:14 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Background Sync | enabling Dongle
Feb 8 14:53:18 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0200-0000-0000-000000000000[10590]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:19 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Background Sync | Start
Feb 8 14:53:19 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Client Has No Connected Transports
Feb 8 14:53:19 Xena-MacBook-Pro galileod[77]: BGSync: Background Sync | End
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0E000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000[10580]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.10000000-0700-0000-0000-000000000000[10573]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.03000000-0700-0000-0000-000000000000[10575]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0F000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[10577]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0A000000-0600-0000-0000-000000000000[10574]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.09000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[10576]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.04000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000[10582]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0B000000-0300-0000-0000-000000000000[10578]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.01000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[10572]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:37 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.06000000-0500-0000-0000-000000000000[10581]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:39 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0C000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[10579]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:39 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.08000000-0500-0000-0000-000000000000[10583]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:39 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.02000000-0700-0000-0000-000000000000[10587]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:53 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.02000000-0600-0000-0000-000000000000[10593]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:55 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.07000000-0200-0000-0000-000000000000[10591]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:55 Xena-MacBook-Pro syslogd[61]: ASL Sender Statistics
Feb 8 14:53:55 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.0D000000-0500-0000-0000-000000000000[10589]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:53:57 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.05000000-0300-0000-0000-000000000000[10594]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[91]
Feb 8 14:56:10 Xena-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]
 
Last edited:
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This may sound facetious but is it possible the keyboard combination to Log Out (command-shift-q) is being inadvertently typed? On keyboards with extremely short key travel (pretty much every Apple Mac keyboard for the last decade!), it's easy to "type" by brushing over a key when touch typing or using a trackpad. As well, the command key is near a high traffic area for wrist, hand and finger movements.

Another thing to check is System Preferences/Security & Privacy/General and System Preferences/Desktop & Screen Saver/Screen Saver. The logouts could be caused by a combination of the Mac's inactivity timer and a require-password setting when going to sleep or launching the screen saver.
 
Last edited:
First, thanks for the quick and thoughtful reply!

I had her try CMD-SHIFT-Q. A dialogue box (Are you sure...) popped up. So that's not it.

Hadn't thought about inactivity timers. Especially relevant since she talks about this happening on zoom calls.

- Screen saver was set to 20 minutes, we upped it to 30.
- Require password (after sleep or screen saver begins) is (and was) set to 1 hour.

Wouldn't that mean she'd have to be inactive for 90 minutes, including an hour of screen saver, before logout? That does not reflect her experience.
 
boberonicus said:
Wouldn't that mean she'd have to be inactive for 90 minutes, including an hour of screen saver, before logout? That does not reflect her experience.
Click to expand...
That reminded me of another place to check: System Preferences/Energy Saver . The "Turn display off after" setting and "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" setting might be interacting somehow with the other settings we were talking about.

----------
Edited to add: you could also check to see if the computer is just logging out or is actually shutting down. Video conferencing on a MacBook Pro in my household instantly spins up its fans. And they stay on. If any of your Mac's air vents are blocked or it is running in a hot location (say, near a space heater or in direct sunlight), thermal stress can cause unexpected protective shutdowns.
 
Last edited:
boberonicus said:
My wife's 2019 MBP (macOS 11.2) spontaneously logs her out a few times a day. It's not a crash/reboot. The logouts are not periodically consistent. There is no specific action that causes this. She quickly re-enters her machine's password and all is normal. Except the Zoom session drops, etc.
Click to expand...
It is probably a Windowserver crash– this would cause the appearance of being logged out. My laptop on 11.2 did this yesterday, but it's only happened once and I didn't take the time to try to figure out if there might be any cause or pattern.
 
System Preferences/Energy Saver
Click to expand...

She's running Big Sur. Do you mean System Preferences / Battery / Power Adapter? If so:

battery.png

you could also check to see if the computer is just logging out or is actually shutting down
Click to expand...

Too fast for shutdown. She's back on the desktop a few seconds after logoff / login. Do you know which log file captures logouts?
 
Last edited:
boberonicus said:
I don't see that in the system.log. How would you diagnose this?
Click to expand...
It wouldn't necessarily be in system.log. Look in Console under crash reports or in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for a file that has Windowserver in the filename and .crash as the extension.
 
By process of elimination, it seems that her Satechi USB-C Hub was the source of the problem. I replaced with a different brand, no more logouts.
 
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