systemd[1]: apport-autoreport.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'

Solution 1:

As a temporary workaround: Delete all files under /var/crash/ It is not a long or even medium term solution, but better then nothing for a start.

Solution 2:

old obsolete solution see below UPDATE for better approach

just shut off the out of control service apport

sudo systemctl disable apport-autoreport 
#  sudo apt-get purge apport    #  avoid it works yet is too heavy handed
sudo apt-get purge apport-noui

then after a reboot systemd cpu usage was normal yet

tracker-miner-fs

was using 100% cpu even after another reboot so I issued

gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files crawling-interval -2  
gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files enable-monitors false
echo y | LANG=en tracker reset --hard

now all is well

UPDATE

edit file /usr/lib/systemd/system/apport-autoreport.path

#  PathExistsGlob=/var/crash/*.crash  #  <-- old bad comment it out

PathChangedGlob=/var/crash/*.crash    #  good new replaces above line

save then issue

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

for details see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1891657

Here we are months later after this issue has been resolved below is contents from a healthy normal box ( Ubuntu 20.04 as of 20210812 )

cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/apport-autoreport.path 

[Unit]
Description=Process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled (file watch)
ConditionPathExists=/var/lib/apport/autoreport

[Path]
PathExistsGlob=/var/crash/*.crash

[Install]
WantedBy=paths.target