Black windows in Safari and Mail in Ventura OS

Recently I have been seeing the contents of my Safari tabs and Mail windows turn black (and unreadable). I have a lot of windows open in each of the applications. Windows that were previously opened seem ok, but new ones turn black quickly, or open that way. The little window previews on Safari tabs show what the windows are supposed to look like, but nonetheless the contents of the actual tabs are black. Similarly, email messages that were already open are ok, but new ones I open are entirely black. I've only had this problem since updating to Ventura (MacOS 13.1) a month or so ago. I'm using a MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 Pro chip and 32 GB of memory.


I don't have this problem when I use the Chrome browser, but I also don't have nearly as many windows and tabs open in that.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 23, 2023 12:37 PM

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92 replies

Oct 14, 2023 3:44 PM in response to Caleco

I described the massive problems I had about two weeks ago here … I did not change ANYTHING but simply stopped using Safari. This was the key here – EVERYTHING really works fine, no reboots, no problems, no black or pink windows anymore! All my apps including Mail work perfectly fine, no issues at all since abandoning Safari!!! (Using Chrome now) Did not reboot my MacBook since two weeks+! I am more than happy to have found my needle in the haystack!


(Mac Book Pro, M1, Ventura 13.6)

Oct 15, 2023 10:22 PM in response to Caleco

Same for me, as soon as I installed Ventura I started getting black screens in Safari and mail. Sometimes also the search terms I put in the URL will disappear, and the list of google suggestions in the menu that pops up will also be blank (the list is there, with a line and a little magnifying glass where each suggestion should be, but no visible text for any of the suggestions).


This black screen bug is a real show-stopper and apparently has driven people away from Safari to competing browsers. I've submitted a bug report, others who are experiencing the same thing should go to applefeedback:// and submit a bug report as well.

Oct 15, 2023 11:11 PM in response to Caleco

It’s probably not very helpful but after suffering from this bug for about 1-2 weeks after getting a brand new M2 MBP 2 months ago I haven’t had it again. I did not change anything in my daily habits. Still using Safari with many tabs open and Mail.


The only remote thing is that some connection issues at my internet modem were solved. Don’t think that’s related though.

Oct 16, 2023 6:51 AM in response to riviera00

I had a two calls with Apple support. I took the following actions: (1) I gave them a detailed report of the issues I have been encountering and also passed to them the link of this discussion thread; (2) I demonstrated them (via screen sharing) the issues at real-time. From their side, they asked me to run diagnostics to check the h/w and then suggested to install Sonora. If that doesn't fix the problems, then I will have a follow-up call. I am currently waiting for the opportunity to install the new OS.

Oct 21, 2023 5:29 PM in response to ioannisar

Googling I found that the problem has been traced (maybe if this is true anyway) to Apple WKWebView (the following is a copy/paste from the website under this):


"As mentioned, the macOS has multiple system applications, like Safari, Notes, Mail, etc., that rely on the Apple WKWebView to render the HTML elements and support scripts.

If you’re simultaneously using these apps, WebKit is heavily utilized for rendering. And sometimes, it fails to render the pages, resulting in blank screens or distorted layouts."


https://browserhow.com/how-to-fix-the-black-screen-window-in-safari-browser/


Sounds like, presuming this is true, that the problem is at Apple's end and based on how long this has been going on either they haven't figure out how to easily fix it or don't care.


I certainly am sick of the issue.

Oct 28, 2023 12:46 PM in response to Caleco

At the risk of Jinxing it again...


I'm one of the early posters on this thread, and I was experiencing this mostly on a daily basis on Ventura (I did have a couple of inexplicable respites which would last for a few days or weeks).


I have not experienced this issue since updating to Sonoma, which I installed ~1 month ago. Not a glitch since. I haven't changed any behavior, I haven't closed any Safari tabs (if anything I've opened more now that the issue seems to be gone).


I'm hopeful that Sonoma has finally put an end to this for me.

Nov 2, 2023 9:41 PM in response to Caleco

This is not caused by or isolated to Ventura. Frustratingly, I've had this since day 1 on 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 6gb ram 2tb Hard drive. Ran Monterey many years and had this problem. Upgraded to Ventura not long a go and still have this problem. Is Apple even aware of how prevalent this issue is? There isn't much online about it. I tend to have a lot of windows and safari tabs open at once, and it seems if it gets to be too many and I open more they turn black. And outlook messages and mail messages load black as well. The only thing that helps is closing windows and apps, and rebooting apps and the computer. I don't see this issue in Chrome or Firefox, but they aren't ideal. I assumed it was ram but I've always been below 60gb, usually in 40-50 gb ram range. But that's the whole reason why I splurged on the max Ram to not have to deal with issues like this. It's really frustrating and problematic. I am not usually an early OS upgrade adopter. Does anyone know if Sonoma has addressed/solved this?

Black windows in Safari and Mail in Ventura OS

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