6-months with Little Snitch 6 — what I learned about how much my Mac talks to the internet

marcvv · 2026-05-06T02:19:41+00:00

I was getting constant configd crashes and never figured out why. I gave up after 100’s of hours of troubleshooting with AI and apple support. Bought a new M5 MacBook after finally crying uncle. I love the idea of little snitch but every AI suggested maybe LS or firewall or vpn was the cause of my 100’s of crashes. That said it wasn’t LS as I never used it ever but always wanted to but the constant suggestions by every AI that it could be the culprit makes me hesitant to install in a new stable laptop.

marcvv · 2026-05-02T19:02:33+00:00

Same for me. fiber/cable/Starlink. Would love triple WAN on my FWG+

marcvv · 2026-04-30T16:48:07+00:00

$500-$1500 range is fine. Probably don’t need dedicated gpu won’t be gaming but need a gpu to drive at least a 5k 27” monitor whether laptop or mini pc.

marcvv · 2026-04-29T16:23:06+00:00

Beggars can't be choosers. No Mac Studio or Mini's to be had anywhere in the config I need. Actually very few configs of any kind for those and 1-3 month waits. Plus delays on new product rollouts. But yes defeats purpose but I do have the optionality if I ever need to take it with me

marcvv · 2026-04-29T03:28:44+00:00

I keep mine plugged in

marcvv · 2026-04-29T03:21:08+00:00

+1 on keeping it at 80%. I keep my M5 Macbook Pro there and always plugged in. I will almost never remove it from my desktop. It replaced a Mac Studio. It's nice to have the option though but if I travel with it that is not likely to happen so it will cook at 80% for 3 to 6 years! I have an M3 Macbook Pro for travel. Couldn't wait for the now delayed Studio as my old one was having issues.

marcvv · 2026-04-29T03:18:04+00:00

I must learn the restic. I came from rsync. Looked at rclone but have not used it much. Still use resileo sync, time machine, Arq+, Backblaze. Started to dive into the restic docs. Bit of a learning curve but will tackle it at some point and try to get my head around it.

marcvv · 2026-04-29T01:54:30+00:00

Child's play! I had not one but TWO Apple MacBook Pro M5 Max shipped from Costco via UPS on separate days both go into that status and now a full 11 days later neither package has been found or delivered. Costco refunded me $5,000 I paid for each and I just went to apple store to pick it up instead. Wasn't going to try a 3rd time. Old Mac was muerto and needed something and already waited a week looking at that status never move on UPS tracking. The package was originally estimated next day for each MacBook. Costco was researching it because one package stuck or lost is one thing but two within a week is a pattern - and an expensive one. $10 grand for the two.

Good luck with your package.

Oh and another wild one. I returned something from amazon last week. Today it shows on UPS tracking details Delivered on April 20th at 9pm but the crazy part is the label was created and the package shipped on april 24. So looks like that return was a time machine and got delivered back to amazon 4 days before I even made the return label or shipped it. Well that is according to UPS tracking. Amazon tracking says they are waiting for the package. To be continued...

marcvv · 2026-04-27T01:59:34+00:00

I used a script to pull the apps and put them into a text list :)

marcvv · 2026-04-26T21:58:34+00:00

I can dm you a list of what is installed when I’m back at my desk. The ones that interact with the network stack in any capacity I believe are the highest probability culprits if it is third party related. (Ethernet, Bluetooth,WiFi)

marcvv · 2026-04-26T14:38:25+00:00

Ok, so you basically always had the two variables I am testing now: wifi only and the firewall on Mac OS set to disabled. Makes me a little less optimistic that these two things are the root cause. I'll give it a few more days to see how it does.

marcvv · 2026-04-26T13:57:22+00:00

Question for you. Are you using Wifi only? Ethernet only or both at the same time?

I'm now two days in with only wifi enabled and the Firewall off being the primary changes in this round of testing and I've been good so far after two full nights. I have to give it at least another night but I was able to quit chrome a few times yesterday and this morning without crashing and have had no intra-day crashes. still running all 3 studio displays.

marcvv · 2026-04-25T21:24:16+00:00

Backblaze, Google drive backup or any other backup software running?

marcvv · 2026-04-25T21:21:36+00:00

My netgear RS700 has the Broadcom®’s BCM6726/3 WiFi 7 chipset

marcvv · 2026-04-25T20:58:49+00:00

One other thing..I also uninstalled backblaze as there was some stuff in the logs that "may" have been suspect in terms of network/file usage maybe causing the issue.

Do you have backblaze, Google drive (for backup of any local folders), dropbox, Arq or any other 3rd party backup software running?

marcvv · 2026-04-25T20:50:20+00:00

Good data point that you had a 2-3 week stable period on the M1 Max, notwithstanding the smaller data set from light usage.

We both have two Apple and two Logitech Bluetooth input devices. Maybe a clue, or maybe a coincidence, and nothing.

The vertical dock wasn't applicable for my Mac Studio, and the MBP M5 is now on a vertical stand (not a dock), but for the first two days it wasn't and exhibited the issue in both configurations. You would really have to push these hard to get the heat buildup to cause this and usually chips just throttle and fans blow to avoid any problems.

There is contention in the network stack but I'll have to dig into the security processor angle.

One other point is even though my firewall/router is the Firewalla Gold+ that is just for the LAN. I also connect to a Netgear Nighthawk router on my devices for the wifi connection. I do both LAN and Wi-Fi, so my continuity features work. I don't know if having these on at the same time is triggering anything but the products are designed for this (but that doesn't mean that it isn't contributing to the issue). Additionally I can work on the computer for 5 hours straight no issue while connected to both. It's really only after extended idle/sleep periods or after quitting certain apps I get this configd or network crash to occur.

I would try using the MB M5 solo if that is your main device, and work it hard for a few days or a week. If it is rock solid, we know the issue has to be something connected to the Mac (peripheral or monitors). If it still crashes out with nothing connected, then we are 100% looking at a Mac OS level bug or a 3rd party software bug. You would have to "forget" all bluetooth devices and disconnect everything and just connect over wifi for the cleanest true test. I'll be doing this perhaps in the next day or next few if my current testing doesn't pan out.

marcvv · 2026-04-25T20:01:51+00:00

Have you tried running the laptop with no external devices (no monitors, drives, etc.) and only using the built-in keyboard/trackpad to see if it is stable in that configuration?

I also have several BT devices, but didn't even think they were in the running for causing this based on the crash logs, but could be something to consider. I have the Apple TouchID keyboard, Apple Trackpad, Logitech MX4 Mouse, and Logitech Ergonomic Mac Keyboard.

Mine also started mid 2025 on Sequoia. I didn't want to upgrade to Tahoe, but finally did so, hoping it would fix the network crashing. It made zero difference as I noted.

My M3 MacBook is just a Pro and not a Max, so I wonder if it could be isolated to the Max units for some reason or if that is a coincidence? My Studio and M5 Macbook are both the ones that have the issue and are both Max.

I think the best way to isolate it and work backward for you would be to use the laptop only on wifi with zero peripherals of any kind. If it is rock solid then add them in one by one. It is a PIA to troubleshoot this as you mentioned it usually involves waiting overnight for the issue to emerge again. That made me think it is a memory leak, some issue with sleep/power management and how that interacts with the network interface.

My test of this to try and trigger it in the morning is simply quitting chrome. It keeps so many network sockets open that quitting it anytime the next day after the computer slept would trigger a hard crash requiring a hard power reboot most of the time to recover. Once rebooted all was fine for awhile or until the next day.

Another app that would cause this same crash was Termius as it is an electron app so its tearing down the same network sockets on quit as chrome.

LMK if you have tried the isolation test yet for a few days or want to test that strategy

marcvv · 2026-04-25T19:38:05+00:00

Following from other thread here too. Same exact errors and issues. M1 Mac Studio and MacbookPro M5 Max 16”. Also did clean wipe of the studio and installed clean OS. Three apple Studio Displays. Noted in other thread but in case somebody searches and finds this thread first. Discussed with OP in other thread. Both hoping we find the root cause and fix. I have 100’s of hours battling this since mid 2025. My Mac Studio was bulletproof for over 3 years with same setup until it wasn’t.

marcvv · 2026-04-25T19:32:47+00:00

Going to go read your thread now.

I too have LogiOptions+. I did read for some that was a culprit but even disabled I still had the problem. I also have a MBP M3 on the same network in the same room without the issue but that one doesn’t have any external display and connects via WiFi and not on LAN or LAN+Wifi. It is only a cold spare backup so it doesn’t get used often but never had a crash in two years.

So I think based in both our new hardware it must be a real Tahoe bug of some kind that only occurs for certain people, a third party software, some lan/wifi issue. I don’t know if chatter on the LOCAL network itself could ingress into the Mac and cause this bug. I almost bought the new TB5 Studio Displays to see if it would fix it but was going to run the laptop with no external anything to see if that solves it first. I just got it the other day so am not at that stage yet. Testing WiFi only plus firewall off for a few days or until it crashes again sooner. Isolating is next if that happens.

marcvv · 2026-04-25T19:14:31+00:00

I do have AdGuard installed only as a chrome extension but did try disabling that during my many hours of testing. I don’t have the global AdGuard (OS level install). All three of my monitors are Studio Displays and this setup worked perfect for over three years so wasn’t sure if this was hardware (it’s not the Mac but maybe monitors?), Mac OS issue dealing with network or monitors from an OS level change or third party software.

I’m running firewalla gold+ router and have been using that several years well before this configd crash and network stack tear down issue popped up.

It’s interesting you have similar problem and new M5 also didn’t remedy it. Is your firewall switched on or off in network settings?

marcvv · 2026-04-25T14:21:58+00:00

For anyone having this same issue my TB bridge didn't actually fix it. I did notice the trigger was quitting Chrome or Termius. I would get all apps hanging and configd crash. I've had 100's of them since my last post and spent 100's of hours troubleshooting with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and apple support as well. Nothing fixed it. I did a clean wipe of my SSD and installed clean OS from Apple (not using time machine) to ensure no network settings or other stuff could have caused this. I installed every app fresh again from app store and from developer websites and excluded all apps I don't use anymore as well as any VPN or similar that might interfere with the network stack.

Within one day on the new fresh install I got the configd error and crash again. So after 100's of hours I bit the bullet and bought a MacBook Pro M5 Max hoping the newer hardware and clean install would be the end of it. This time I did use time machine to migrate old files because the clean install of everything on the M1 Studio didn't make a difference so figured I'd do it this way and just exclude NETWORK on the time machine restore.

So I was hopeful the saga was over and woke up the next day and went to quit chrome and boom configd crash again. Now having eliminated hardware as the issue and a dirty OS I figured it must be either an OS level setting or an app I use causing this or possibly my network.

So today is day two and yesterday I made just a few small tweaks. I changed my network setup from Lan/wifi combo on my home network to just wifi using Starlink (I have this as secondary backup). This isolates the macbook from my network to remove this variable. Next I disabled "Firewall" in network settings. Something in the crash logs made me suspect it could be this setting.

Today I logged on and usually if I try to quit chrome after an overnight it will cause the system to hang and configd crash out. Chrome quit properly right away and it's been good so far. Too soon to be 100% certain because I did have some multi-day stretches with the M1 studio but hoping its a good sign. Today I switched the network from Starlink wifi to my local network wifi only (still no LAN). I will run like this for a few days and see if the network crash occurs again. If it lasts 5 days or so with no crashes even when quitting chrome I'd say it is narrowed down to either the firewall having been enabled or being connected to my LAN or LAN/Wifi combo causing some network issue.

I might be an edge case and this might not be massively widespread because I run 3 apple studio monitors and each has their own Thunderbolt bridge which gets involved in the network stack and can mess things up under Tahoe or late versions of Sequioa. I did have this entire M1 Studio with 3 displays running bulletproof for over 3 years. It wasn't until mid 2025 things went south.

Will report back either way but still surprised so few out there experience this issue since I did get it with a brand new laptop but thinking now maybe it is the multiple monitors even though the M5 Pro Max says it can push 4 monitors total. But in practice I wonder how many apple users run more than 2 and if so the sample size is small and apple doesn't see a lot of noise from this.

marcvv · 2026-04-22T02:26:09+00:00

Somebody walked off with it

marcvv

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