Catalina - *all* web-browsers fail to open new pages after a few hours use.

[Fomalhaut]

After weeks and months without the issue, I had it during the last week. I realized that I disabled Time Machine during exactly the time the issue was gone. Eventually, Time Machine to a Synology NAS has something to do with it?

Now that’s interesting! I do have a Synology NAS that I use for TM backups. But I’ve continued to use it and haven’t had the issue for a couple of months now.

Definitely another data point that’s worth investigating in the problem reoccurs. Thanks for that!

 

[dei79]

Now that’s interesting! I do have a Synology NAS that I use for TM backups. But I’ve continued to use it and haven’t had the issue for a couple of months now.

Definitely another data point that’s worth investigating in the problem reoccurs. Thanks for that!

I would like to be more concrete, the problems start again when I created the Timemachine configuration, and the system stuck in the process of creating the initial backup over Wifi. At least after deactivating TimeMachine I was able to work now a whole day without interruption.

 

[chaindev]

I can say that this issue is been solved! The solution as mention before is working now for more than a week.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I can say that this issue is been solved! The solution as mention before is working now for more than a week.

Was the solution for you to increase the number of file descriptors with "sudo launchctl limit maxfiles 65000 65000" (or a suitably large increase over the default soft limit of 256)?

 

[chaindev]

It was indeed the "sudo launchctl limit maxfiles 65000 65000" but probably it could way lower than my value. For now I must run this for every reboot automatically. I also submitted an issue on Apple bug for a 100% Apple solution.

 

[dei79]

At least for me, I can see the maxfiles fix did not solve it only after I disabled Timemachine the problem was gone but probably it's both.

 

[Fomalhaut]

It was indeed the "sudo launchctl limit maxfiles 65000 65000" but probably it could way lower than my value. For now I must run this for every reboot automatically. I also submitted an issue on Apple bug for a 100% Apple solution.

This page gives some additional info on how the limits work: https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...for-maxfiles-to-unlimited-using-launchctl-lim

It explains why the "unlimited" hard limit that you get by default might not actually be a very large limit at all. It's better to define it to a concrete value that is sufficiently large to never be reached in any possible usage scenario.

If you want to make the change permanent, follow the instructions at:

How to Change Open Files Limit on OS X and macOS Sierra (10.8 - 10.12)

How to Change Open Files Limit on OS X and macOS Sierra (10.8 - 10.12) - README.md

gist.github.com

...and then either reboot, or relaunch the daemons with:
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/limit.maxfiles.plist

 

[Fomalhaut]

At least for me, I can see the maxfiles fix did not solve it only after I disabled Timemachine the problem was gone but probably it's both.

Did you check the open files when using TimeMachine with "lsof -n | wc -l"? This would give an indication if TM is eating all the available file descriptors for some reason .

(BTW "lsof -n" means it will disable DNS lookup for network files, which makes it much faster. You can also combine this "lsof -b" which avoid kernel functions that might block, e.g. "lsof -n -b | wc -l" )

 

[dei79]

Did you check the open files when using TimeMachine with "lsof -n | wc -l"? This would give an indication if TM is eating all the available file descriptors for some reason .

(BTW "lsof -n" means it will disable DNS lookup for network files, which makes it much faster. You can also combine this "lsof -b" which avoid kernel functions that might block, e.g. "lsof -n -b | wc -l" )

I can say now after a couple weeks that my system keeps around 21k files open esp. when using a lot electron apps like Microsoft Teams, Atom or Storage Explorer. As soon I activate TimeMachine over WiFi the system scratches the 65k files barrier and electron apps or better apps with integrated chrome engine stay in the described state.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I can say now after a couple weeks that my system keeps around 21k files open esp. when using a lot electron apps like Microsoft Teams, Atom or Storage Explorer. As soon I activate TimeMachine over WiFi the system scratches the 65k files barrier and electron apps or better apps with integrated chrome engine stay in the described state.

Thanks for the update. Interesting to see that TimeMachine has such a large usage of file descriptors.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Damnit this bug just bit me on an install... Have tried all the solutions in this thread without success. 2 of the last Intel Mac Mini’s on Catalina 10.15.7

Any progress on this?

 

[Fomalhaut]

Damnit this bug just bit me on an install... Have tried all the solutions in this thread without success. 2 of the last Intel Mac Mini’s on Catalina 10.15.7

Any progress on this?

Did you increase your file descriptor limits using the temporary or permanent solutions mentioned in the thread?

What is the output from running "launchctl limit maxfiles" (from the terminal)?

What number do you get from running "lsof -n | wc -l"

 

[Flint Ironstag]

@Fomalhaut I did that the other night and the expected values were returned - the command 'took'. Still no go. Will be taking another stab at it this afternoon.

 

[Maddcow]

For several reasons, I had to update to Big Sur 11.1 and haven't experienced this problem since. I gotta say that it's such a nice feeling again being able to spend time online without feeling anxious wondering if my browser will suddenly stop responding!

 

[Flint Ironstag]

About to try Big Sur... no change.

 

[keylight2021]

I am also having this issue (few hours of use, new tabs / websites will start to fail / then a full computer freeze).

Currently 10.15.7 Mac Catalina , MacBook Pro 2019. Can't find any solution, was considering sending this Macbook for repair if it's a hardware issue.

I tried to update to Big Sur a few weeks ago and it basically just bricked the computer (would get stuck on startup), so I had to roll back to Catalina.

Really stuck on this one....

 

[Fomalhaut]

I am also having this issue (few hours of use, new tabs / websites will start to fail / then a full computer freeze).

Currently 10.15.7 Mac Catalina , MacBook Pro 2019. Can't find any solution, was considering sending this Macbook for repair if it's a hardware issue.

I tried to update to Big Sur a few weeks ago and it basically just bricked the computer (would get stuck on startup), so I had to roll back to Catalina.

Really stuck on this one....

Which of the solutions posted have you tried so far?

I'm on Catalina 10.15.7 on a MBP16 and haven't had the issue since I permanently increased the file handle limit. (I'm the OP, BTW)

 

[Fomalhaut]

@Fomalhaut I did that the other night and the expected values were returned - the command 'took'. Still no go. Will be taking another stab at it this afternoon.

You may have a different error; possibly DNS. Have you tried using different DNS servers, or trying to access web-sites via their IP address instead of domain name?

 

[Flint Ironstag]

It’s definitely DNS. I’ve largely overcome it by now because the staff use the same set of websites over and over. Manually bookmarked the sites by IP.

Tech support is useless, just like they were for Catalina “Server”.

 

[Maddcow]

Just thought I'd chime in to say I haven't had any issues at all since updating to Big Sur. Fingers crossed!

 

[Fomalhaut]

It’s definitely DNS. I’ve largely overcome it by now because the staff use the same set of websites over and over. Manually bookmarked the sites by IP.

Tech support is useless, just like they were for Catalina “Server”.

I changed my DNS settings to use Google's servers, which seemed to help sometimes...but you'd need to test to see if DNS resolution is fast or more reliable than your ISP's.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

It's Comcast and no, changing to cloudflare or google does nothing.

 

[keylight2021]

Which of the solutions posted have you tried so far?

I'm on Catalina 10.15.7 on a MBP16 and haven't had the issue since I permanently increased the file handle limit. (I'm the OP, BTW)

Tried reformatting, Nvram clear, diagnostics, pretty much everything. Ended up going to apple and they said it was a faulty logic board. Replaced and no issues now.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Tried reformatting, Nvram clear, diagnostics, pretty much everything. Ended up going to apple and they said it was a faulty logic board. Replaced and no issues now.

OK - that's fairly drastic! Did you have other issues apart from web site connection failures? I would expect that a faulty logic board would cause errors all over the place.

 

[keylight2021]

OK - that's fairly drastic! Did you have other issues apart from web site connection failures? I would expect that a faulty logic board would cause errors all over the place.

Usually the web pages started crashing after an hour or two at first - but after that I couldn't launch new applications, then the freeze and crash.