WindowServer memory leak

[robd003]

Has anyone else had issue with WindowServer memory usage growing to insane amounts on Ventura? I use a 2nd monitor (without any custom color profiles) and after 8 hours WindowServer will be consuming 33gb of RAM.

I've been upgrading to Ventura each point release only to downgrade back to Monterey where the issue does not occur.

 

[pshufd]

I've been using Ventura since 2022 and haven't had any WindowServer leak issues. I had some small leaks with the first version of Ventura but things are fine now. My Macs are typically up for about 6 weeks before rebooting.

 

[robd003]

I've been using Ventura since 2022 and haven't had any WindowServer leak issues. I had some small leaks with the first version of Ventura but things are fine now. My Macs are typically up for about 6 weeks before rebooting.

Do you use an external monitor?

 

[pshufd]

Do you use an external monitor?

I have a Mac Studio hooked up to 4 Dell Ultrasharp monitors. 3 are 4k and 1 is 2k.

I also have a 2021 MacBook Pro 16 which I don't hook up to external monitors.

I have an M1 mini which I haven't used since getting the Studio and I had it hooked up to the same 4 monitors though using a DisplayLink device. I did see the WindowServer issues in Monterey. They were really bad in 2021 and early 2022 but they were solved for me around summer 2022. I saw some memory leaks when Ventura came out but they're mostly gone now.

 

[robd003]

I have a Mac Studio hooked up to 4 Dell Ultrasharp monitors. 3 are 4k and 1 is 2k.

I also have a 2021 MacBook Pro 16 which I don't hook up to external monitors.

I have an M1 mini which I haven't used since getting the Studio and I had it hooked up to the same 4 monitors though using a DisplayLink device. I did see the WindowServer issues in Monterey. They were really bad in 2021 and early 2022 but they were solved for me around summer 2022. I saw some memory leaks when Ventura came out but they're mostly gone now.

Could you do me a huge favor and test the MacBook Pro 16 and see if it has any issues with external monitors?

Thats the system I've been having trouble with.

 

[IncreasinglyFrustrated]

M2 Max with 8 external displays attached (3 TB, 1 HDMI, 3 DisplayPort, 1 USB) running 13.2.1. Last reboot was 2.5 days ago (post-update).

WindowServer and DisplayLinkAgent take up one core:



WindowServer is consuming about 6.5gb of memory w/ a dozen active browser tabs open, 2 active Remote Desktop sessions, Moonlight and Photoshop running, and while receiving/displaying 8 camera streams; (this is about as high as mine gets):



When operated as shown, there's a little stutter when triggering Mission Control, but it disappears entirely in clamshell mode. Have 15+ apps open right now with very little swapping, these are amazing computers:



TL/DR: Sounds like something else might be going on with your machine.

 

[pshufd]

Could you do me a huge favor and test the MacBook Pro 16 and see if it has any issues with external monitors?

Thats the system I've been having trouble with.

My recollection on the WindowServer problems is that it took several hours of use to a day for it to show up as a problem and I need my Studio for production during the day. I generally only do modifications to my setup early in the morning or over the weekend as it's a headache to get behind my desk to move cables around.

I saw the WS memory issues with both desktop and laptop and they were both fixed around the same time.

There are a lot of people using MacBooks with external monitors given all of the questions that I've seen about DisplayLink so I do not think that there is a general problem in this area.

 

[mareich555]

I know it has been some time since your post but I am able to recreate the problem you are having. I have an M2 Mac Mini Pro with 32GB with a single 5K 49in monitor. I normally have a minimum of 4 workspaces defined. I just installed MacOs 13.3.

I have been experiencing WindowServer memory usage up to 7GB (I usually reboot then). I reboot because when the WindowServer memory usage gets high there is nearly a 2 second delay between my 4 finger swipe to change workspace and the screen refreshing. From what I can tell, the memory leak occurs each time (about .1 GB) I change workspaces. Since I am constantly doing this eventually the problem becomes to severe and I just reboot.

I originally thought that the problem was with the use of the Brave browser but I switched to Safari and nothing changed. I have been unable to even find this problem elsewhere online let alone a solution.

 

[pshufd]

I'd guess that is either related to a hardware configuration or a piece of software that you're using. I have 3-6 workspaces on my MacBook Pro and shift around frequently too. I also have multiple spaces on my Studio with 4 monitors and these systems stay up for 4-6 weeks before rebooting and it's usually for software updates.

 

[mareich555]

I will just open the workspaces with nothing in them and see what happens. I am running the following apps:

• Slack
• Teams
• Safari x 3
• Citrix Workspace
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Messages
• MS Outlook

All the above apps except for Citrix Workspace are native Apple silicon apps

 

[pshufd]

I will just open the workspaces with nothing in them and see what happens. I am running the following apps:

• Slack
• Teams
• Safari x 3
• Citrix Workspace
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Messages
• MS Outlook

All the above apps except for Citrix Workspace are native Apple silicon apps

Those are some pretty heavy programs. Could you try eliminating them to see if that fixes the problem? I have an M1 mini that I am running next to my studio to workaround a bug from a vendor and it's a bit of a headache to have to drag out a spare system to debug a problem but it might make the elimination process a bit easier.

 

[mareich555]

I will eliminate the apps in the workspaces over the weekend and report back any findings I run into.

 

[mareich555]

I did more testing and it seems that the Dell software I installed to provide draggable tiles on the 49" monitor was a major contributor to the WindowsServer memory leak. When switching between workspaces memory use would go up. If the app in the workspace was either Microsoft Remote Desktop or Citrix Workspace (these both provide the same remote access capability) when switching workspaces memory usage would go up 100MB for each time the workspace was displayed. So in the course of a day with a lot of switching WindowServer would grow to about 5GB.

I removed and Dell app and there is significantly less memory usage. I will do some more testing and report any findings I have.

 

[Analog Kid]

I've been having problems with this also. 12GB of memory to the Window Server. I've closed all applications and finder windows and no change. I'm not sure where it's allocated. Activity Monitor shows it as 646MB of real memory, 2.9GB compressed, smaller numbers for purgeable, private and shared.

Others have mentioned external displays-- I AirPlay to my desktop as a second monitor but connecting and disconnecting to it doesn't seem to change the number appreciably.

 

[jcscol]

I've been having problems with this also.

Have you tried deleting the Windowserver pref files?:

1) Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist

2) Delete /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.displays.[UDID].plist (if this file is present)

3) Reboot

4) Reapply any display preferences

 

[kim221]

This is an old infamous bug and i can bet you are using Chrome.
You have two options.
1. Remove GoogleSoftwareupdater and update periodically chrome manually and re-do the removal of GoogleSoftwareUpdater or remove chrome totally and use another Chromium based browser or even better Safari.

More info here: http://chromeisbad.com

 

[JeroenVdb]

I did more testing and it seems that the Dell software I installed to provide draggable tiles on the 49" monitor was a major contributor to the WindowsServer memory leak. When switching between workspaces memory use would go up. If the app in the workspace was either Microsoft Remote Desktop or Citrix Workspace (these both provide the same remote access capability) when switching workspaces memory usage would go up 100MB for each time the workspace was displayed. So in the course of a day with a lot of switching WindowServer would grow to about 5GB.

I removed and Dell app and there is significantly less memory usage. I will do some more testing and report any findings I have.

I removed Dell Display Manager and now my WindowServer has normal RAM usage again. Seems like Dell Display Manager has a memory leak or handles CPU/RAM badly.

 

[LeroyK2]

I know it has been some time since your post but I am able to recreate the problem you are having. I have an M2 Mac Mini Pro with 32GB with a single 5K 49in monitor. I normally have a minimum of 4 workspaces defined. I just installed MacOs 13.3.

I have been experiencing WindowServer memory usage up to 7GB (I usually reboot then). I reboot because when the WindowServer memory usage gets high there is nearly a 2 second delay between my 4 finger swipe to change workspace and the screen refreshing. From what I can tell, the memory leak occurs each time (about .1 GB) I change workspaces. Since I am constantly doing this eventually the problem becomes to severe and I just reboot.

I originally thought that the problem was with the use of the Brave browser but I switched to Safari and nothing changed. I have been unable to even find this problem elsewhere online let alone a solution.

I had this exact same issue. Over a couple of days the WindowsServer would be as high as 8gb of ram. It would take 2-3 seconds just to change windows using the swipes. I removed the Dell Display Manager and things seem to be good so far. Only 2gb of ram for WindowServer and switching windows is snappy again.

** Update 1/31/24 ** - iMac (Intel) has been up for 7 days. Still only using a little over 2GB of ram. By this time I would normally need to restart the machine. Bad Dell Display Manager.

 

[kim221]

Everytime Google Chrome updates reinstall that fkin "Google Keystone" service which is causing performance issues and memory leak over windowserver.

So, everytime after you update Chrome use Find any File.app and type "keystone" and delete everything related with it.
Reboot and see the magic, no more memory leaks.

 

[c0LdFire]

I know this thread is fairly ancient, but I am having trouble finding many people with this issue that have actually narrowed it down.

I started noticing this issue with my M2 Max (lower binned / lower GPU count, 32GB of RAM) after purchasing a new ultrawide monitor. I am running it at 5120v1440, and WindowServer would suck up 30gb+ of RAM, to the point of swapping for days until it finally had a kernel panic.

I've narrowed down the issue to running this monitor at 200hz, though. When I drop it to 120hz, the issue seems to be entirely gone -- I now have over two days of uptime and WindowServer isn't ballooning like crazy.

Has anyone heard of any issues with MacOS supporting these higher refresh rates? 120 is certainly fine to keep it at for now, but it is a bit bewildering that would be the cause.

 

[stevechen]

Have you tried deleting the Windowserver pref files?:

1) Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist

2) Delete /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.displays.[UDID].plist (if this file is present)

3) Reboot

4) Reapply any display preferences

Thank you! This solved my problem that I had been having for a long long time (several Mac OS versions). I'm now on Sonoma and WindowServer memory footprint is finally more reasonable.