Tahoe Noticed Latency - Why Does This Happen?

BioRich wrote:

Well you'll find that the latency I spoke about, and those in the AI results, don't kill the Mac. The Mac is still usable. Much like how I'm posting now, using my Mac. So they are not meaningless. People having problems with their systems, are supposely complaining of the same issues I'm having. That's why I posted in here to see if anybody else is showing the same. I'm using my Mac as intended. You're trying to shift focus away from the problem. Latency, not a completely broken Mac.

See, if you find others complaining of the same thing, then you should find what the problem is. Etrecheck report attached.

• Remove every Unsigned App/File you see in the report. It is best to use an app uninstaller to remove all remnant files. Apps are Signed for a reason.
• You have Docker installed that is one of the Electron apps identified as being a problem. Remove it.
• Your Hosts files have been modified that are going to cause slowness in Network connections and produce lag. Probably from Debookee Packet Analyzer, but also any previous tool such as that can modify the Hosts file where it is not returned to the default when not properly removed.
• Logi is another Electron app that has been seen by all that used it.
• Display Link was also identified in the links you had already provided and the lag was eliminated when removed.
• Proton Mail is another Electron app previously identified.

Here is a list of some of the Electron apps that have been identified and which ones still need to be updated by the Developer. It is certainly not a complete list, but does show the most popular and many that you have.

https://avarayr.github.io/shamelectron/

You have 2 choices, work backwards by removing problematic apps or perform a clean install. You can truly claim you are experiencing lag from Tahoe when you experience it from a Clean Install, otherwise when you install an app that produces the lag, then you can blame the app and need to contact the Developer for a solution.

BioRich wrote:

But we have seen that a complete list of regular software apps are now potentially problematic because Tahoe is showing issues.

The issues with the electron apps (some of which you have and are using) is that developers (not Apple) incorporated use of a private API that was not supported by Apple as per Apple's documentation provided to all developers, and that unsupported mechanism caused rendering issues when Tahoe updated its window management. 

So it's not your fault, nor Apple's, but the fault of developers who used an undocumented and unsupported construct in their software products. That construct stopped working efficiently with Tahoe but it had never been supported by Apple previously anyway.

I think the options now are: update any electron apps to a new version that does not incorporate the unsupported constructs; remove any remaining electron apps that are still non-compliant; or simply put up with slowness and lags.

My own experience with a 2019 Macbook Pro Intel laptop, the oldest and last Apple laptop that can even run Tahoe, is that the upgrade from Sequoia to Tahoe was very quick and seamless and it feels to me like the laptop is snappier and more responsive. Also some minor bugs in the user interface seem to have been fixed in Tahoe. My Time Machine backups are much faster than before. I checked for any electron apps on my Mac and all that I found (Dropbox, Slack plus a few others) had been updated to eliminate the electron problem so I had no issues there. All my printer/scanners, including 2010 (Canon) and 2015 (Epson), and a brand new Epson eco tank device, are all working properly (I was surprised that the older ones still work under Tahoe). I initially turned off all the liquid glass and motion options in Settings as I had read that those slow down older Intel Macs but I have turned those on back to defaults and no issues found. I have only normal apps installed, things like Office 365, PDF Expert, Slack, TurboTax, some Garmin map software for Garmin devices ... but no VPN, no network security stuff, no anti-virus -- except I do have Malwarebytes installed but without the background monitoring. I am considering whether to remove Malwarebytes as in more than 8 years it has never found anything to quarantine or warn about.

It is your choice how you want to proceed. The only thing possible here is to show you why your computer is lagging, and the steps to take to resolve the problem. No need to wipe the computer to provide troubleshooting for Apple, that was so you can verify there is no lag on Tahoe and if you experienced it after installing some third party software, they you can notify the Developer of that software if you wish. Otherwise it is fine to let them figure it out for themselves or remove the software until they do. At least you would know what is causing the lag.

Whether you use Mac OS or Windows, it has always been the case that third party software has to update their apps for continued support of the OS that they intend to run on, and even provide bug fixes. Both Apple and Microsoft make their OS versions available to Developers to test long before it is released to the public to give them plenty of time to test and update their software. Some are simply better at it than others and you are the customer of that developer.

Nothing wrong with using Homebrew, it just does not have any automatic update process when you use it to install something. It does require constant attention and certainly not an install once and forget method of maintaining any sort of compatibility. That is why it is targeted to advanced users that are familiar with the Github builds to follow and contribute.

DisplayLink has updated their software on 12/22/25, where you are showing an install date of 12/16/25 for the processes running on your computer. They also say you must uninstall the old drivers before you choose to use the new ones, and according to their Support Article you are given that information in their Settings, but I cannot confirm. No need to get rid of it.

• https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/downloads/macos
• https://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/1932214

Docker has been updated to use the new Electron Framework, I am just not sure what version you have. The only thing I had to go on is the installed com.docker.vmnetd.plist file showing in the report as being installed on 8/21/25 and that was before Electron updated their framework. I have not followed up any further with Docker on whether that would be updated as well, just knew Docker was one of the identified apps and they confirmed that they had updated their software. Thought it was important to bring that to your attention.

BioRich wrote:

First, it's going through a dock, which supports this. The Mac Mini M1 can support 4 displays, and has for years.

According to Apple, it supports "up to three displays." You can extend that to more displays, as you of course already know, via DisplayLink technology.

AI, which you seem to like and trust, says this about DisplayLink:

DisplayLink technology, which uses software-based compression over USB, often introduces noticeable latency (around 30-68ms or 3-4 frames) unsuitable for gaming or fast-paced video editing, though it is suitable for office work.

Performance Impact: Users report frame rates dropping to 30-40 Hz, especially when using multiple high-resolution displays ...

Alternative Connections: For tasks requiring low latency, use native GPU outputs (HDMI/DisplayPort) instead of USB-based graphics ... While optimized for productivity, the inherent lag is a limitation of the technology's reliance on compression.

In fact there are many online posts about DisplayLink latency and delays.

In your setup, I also see at least 4 mechanical external drives, APFS. APFS can be extremely slow on mechanical drives, this is well documented (CCC has a quantitative article about it). For applications like brief Time Machine incremental updates, the slowness is not noticeable but for intensive applications, that's another story. I don't know how your drives are set up to spin down, sleep, or never sleep but mechanical drives spinning up causes delays and "latency." Maybe off topic.

Also your Etrecheck report shows this:

Performance:

System Load: 3.10 (1 min ago) 2.50 (5 min ago) 2.06 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 112.48 MB/s

File system: 6.72 seconds

Write speed: 1830 MB/s

Read speed: 2722 MB/s

Those write and read speeds look very slow to me. That might be worth investigating. You have an M4 Mac Mini, state of the art. For context, on my 2019 Macbook Pro (Intel) I get slightly more than 3000 MB/s both read and write. I have two external drives and am driving two displays with it.

This machine, which is generations later, isn't being strained at all. And since you're off on tangents, I'll repeat that the latency started with Tahoe.

I think your machine is being strained. That's why you posted, to ask about latency, which can be a sign of bottlenecks and strain. The Etrecheck report also says:

"Heavy I/O usage - Your system is under heavy I/O use. This will reduce your performance."

You asked, "why does this happen?" Since you have many moving parts (hardware, software ...) in your setup, it's hard to say. But there are some very simple things you can try without erasing and starting from scratch. The two which I would try are: (1) disconnect all but one external display and connect it directly to the Mac, then test to see if latency is gone; (2) disconnect all external drives and retest; if the latency is gone or improves, that's an important clue. If not, then it may come down to the more complex software combinations that are present, some of which appear to maybe still be utilizing system constructs that are incompatible with Tahoe and while they might have worked ok in earlier MacOS versions, they were unsupported so people depending on them in the past were just lucky.

BioRich wrote:

I asked because I thought there was something well known and specific that people would know about. Telling someone to return their Mac to factory settings, is not what I expected.

There is and that information was provided. It is also confirmed by the Developers of many of those third party packages and the responsible ones will quickly provide an update for not only bug fixes and performance improvements, but also for compatibility with OS updates.

The solution was to either remove those packages causing the problem, update the apps, or contact the developer of those apps. Continuing to express the narrative that it is not due to those third party apps and the problem is Tahoe is what resulted in the suggestion to just do a Factory Reset then to show you Tahoe is not showing the lag you are experiencing. A Factory Reset and installing the same third party app that produced lag before is only going to produce lag again until it is addressed by the Developer.

The EtreCheck report was useful in identifying those apps and for the case of Electron apps, you thought you did not have any, so the report was able to identify those. I would think that was also helpful for you, including the links to other users who had them, which ones have been updated that you may need to turn to the developer directly for the update, and the same reports from those users who said the lag went away when they were removed.

I understand that having to rely on a third party app that produces lag on any OS version would be frustrating. Even worse is when they offer no support forum such as this for users who are using their software or are not listening to their customers. In some cases, this Support Site will catch those complaints due to the fact they have no where else to turn, but it is not Apple that will be able to solve those problems.

BioRich wrote:

For instance, as I keep needing to repeat in here, which nobody has picked up on, is that I was looking to see if other reports were around about latency.

I think it has been shown that other users who have the same third party software as you do will experience lag. And for many of them the reason for that has also been documented. You are not going to see Apple update a third party package and Yes, OS updates may require a third party developer to issue their own update for compatibility. That has always been the case, even on Windows platform, and you should expect it to be the same in the future.

I did not ask for a fix.

This is a Support Site, not a Social Media site, so the purpose is to provide an issue you are having where others may be able to provide some assistance for a resolution. That is why Polling violates the Terms of Use here, as that has nothing to do with providing support.

This is why I prefer AI, because it doesn't peacock while avoiding the question.

Not sure which question was avoided. The one that says "Does anybody else see a massive delay in many actions?", was answered by many here who are not seeing any lag, although they also do not have the same software packages. Links were posted for the ones that contained many of the same software packages as you and confirmed that those were experiencing lag, and the solution was not only provided here but also in the links you provided in your AI post where those users found the lag disappear when a particular package was removed or updated (if available). The problem with the AI response you posted here was addressed very specifically, you were trying to prove a point and the failures there were noted. I have found AI to do a miserable job of proving a point, but can be helpful for providing additional information for you to research and fact check.

It is clear, you have some third party software that is causing you problems on Tahoe. Instead of turning to those developers of the software for a resolution, you took the route of blaming Apple because the issues just appeared after the update. That is a rather simplistic approach to any sort of troubleshooting where no resolution is going to come from Apple for any sort of a compatibility issue with the third party software.

Also note that legitimate Developers have a website that shows compatible OS they target, update their software when a new OS is available, include a blog or their own support for users having problems, and will act fast when an issue with their software arises. The reason they do that is because you are the customer of their software and it is expected you will be updating to the latest OS offered by any company for the device they target.

Ignore the AI results as they are generally meaningless. All of the referenced links provided by your AI are to forum posts/threads. Guess who posts to the forums......people who are having problems with their systems. Generally people who are not having issues are not posting on the forums because they are using their Macs as intended. That tends to skew the results considerably where you will always find someone having problems with their devices on the forums.

Generally issues are caused by third party installed software. You should run the third party app EtreCheck and post the complete report here so we can examine it for clues.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting an EtreCheck Report - Apple Community

BioRich wrote:

I'm on a Mac Mini M4/24 GB. From ChatGPT:

You forgot to include the solutions that have been provided or maybe ChatGPT could not figure that part out. It is a common failure when using any AI Model and often "forgets" to include resources that don't accommodate your question with an intent on providing you a pleasing answer.

For example, many of the problems that were identified with the result of Electron app sluggishness. The problem was that the Electron framework used by many other apps used a Private Framework that should NEVER be used by a developer. Electron realized the error they made and updated their Frameworks, but each individual app would also need to rebuild their app with the new Framework and provide an update to their users. While ChatGPT could not figure that out, you can find the information here:

https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/11/macos-26-tahoe-electron-gpu-slowdown-bug-fix-rollout/

Also note that some of your posts are going back to September when Mac OS 26.0 was initially launched and there have been 3 point updates since. If you actually paid attention and read the information provided, follow ups there say:

• Updated to .01 and it seems fixed.
• All good on a Mac Studio M2 Max (beta 2.1)
• Absolutely no issues on standard M1. Using Chrome with a bunch of plugins.

For the Cubase issue linked, you also see:

• Sorry for late response, was working. I just tested this and interestingly enough, going into “Mission Control” and back out ( did not select anything, only toggled it), it resolved that behavior.
• Interesting. I‘m running C15 on Tahoe as well (M1 Max with 64 GB RAM) and I‘m not seeing this.
• this looks like a different issue. If you close the plugin windows is the UI working as expected again? Then this points to some incompatibility with the plugins and you should contact the developers of the plugins.
• Just an update — from yesterday to today, the issue seems to have resolved itself. 

The MacReports Article you referenced specifically talked about the Electron problem with apps like VSCode, Slack, Cursor, Chrome, and even Adobe apps with the solution to remove those apps or look for an app update.

The Apple 26.2 Update article doesn't mention the fix for Electron because the update is not something to be fixed by Mac OS.

Hopefully I was able to clarify why you are unable to rely on ChatGPT, and they may help give you more information for you to research, but that research must be done by you without accepting results as being factual. I don't need to get into the previous responses of telling users to add Elmer's Glue to their pizza to keep the cheese on slices or eating rocks to increase your mineral intake, as there are entire websites devoted to exposing those.

You have solutions and steps to take for provided here for additional information on this Support Site, now it is up to you to follow up. Posting the free EtreCheck report is a good step to take.

BioRich wrote:

Considering all of these applications you posted, including the link of Electron apps listed, specifically show that Tahoe is the new addition to this that creates the problem. Some are fixed and some are not. So by all evidence, by my experience and the very page that was posted about these applications, shows that it is Tahoe.

You did not read the provided article. The problem was that Electron used a Private framework that should NEVER be used by a Developer. In fact, the tools supplied by Apple (Xcode) to build the framework would not even allow that to happen, so the Developer had to circumvent those checks using a different process to build.

Electron admitted to THEIR mistake and resolved the problem by building the Framework without the Private API. It is then up to the apps that used that Framework to update with the correct one. The reason why they are Private is because Apple will make changes to them for their own use. For some reason it appears that you blame Tahoe for the fact that Electron was using the Private _cornerMask API when it was not supposed to.

I'm not a macOS software expert so I will bow to the other contributors on those points since I am not familiar with a lot of them. I have heard Docker can be a performance hit even without any issues introduced by Tahoe. Plus Homebrew has been implicated many times for macOS issues especially with PATH related issues. In addition, you not just just installing your main Homebrew formula, but also a lot of other support libraries required for the main formula you needed. The PATH issues I mentioned can also affect which of this other third party support libraries are used. If they are at the front of the line for usage, then the macOS system may end up using those third party libraries instead of the built-in macOS system versions of those libraries. This may lead to unusual problems.

Where you noted the performance metrics.....normally the EtreCheck will be the top most item on those lists for most people's systems. The fact that EtreCheck didn't even make the list is very telling about your Mac's configuration.

You definitely have a lot of network interfaces listed which is also unusual.

You also have a lot of external drives connected to the system. This may also be contributing to the problem.

SoftRAID is a software RAID solution which means that it will impact system performance. If you have multiple simultaneously connected drives that are managed by SoftRAID, then that system performance impact will be more severe.

While you may need all of these things and the other items the other contributors mentioned, by you will not solve the problem unless you perform the troubleshooting steps offered which means uninstalling certain apps, and disconnecting various external devices to see which one(s) may be the source of the performance issues. Yes, you may be temporarily inconvenienced while performing this troubleshooting, but it is a necessary evil if you wish to solve your computer's performance issues.

While you may not like what we are suggesting here, you are getting the wide range of knowledge of multiple high level forum contributors with years of knowledge. If you don't like what they offer, then you can go to Apple, or an AASP, or some other local Apple expert to get assistance....I am sure you will dislike Apple's options even less than what has been suggested here. Or you can just live & suffer through with the performance issues, or find another system which can do the work you wish without those performance issues.

As for the your issue with the discussion of AI, you brought up that distraction yourself which did nothing to promote your own issue, but side tracked everyone including you. Out of millions/billions of people, you are sure to find someone online with a particular problem and the other contributors did a much better job than I did to explain why the AI result was meaningless. As another contributor mentioned, we do not doubt your computer is having problems, but we needed more details which you have since provided with the EtreCheck report.

Software wise

The machine is being pushed beyond what and how it is intended to be used

One fact appearing in the report that does jump out to me

Running 4 Displays where it is designed by Apple to run with a Max of 3 ?

Video Information:

    Apple M4

        U28E590 3840 x 2160

        LU28R55 2160 x 3840

        ASUS PB278 1440 x 2560

        DELL S2725DS 1440 x 2560

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs

Simultaneously supports up to three displays:

• Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI
• Up to two displays: One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI

Long shot: Have you tried testing with the Western Digital externals disconnected? I had fits with an older iMac using a WD MyBook Mac Edition for Time Machine—stalls and overheating were the main issues. One day I disconnected the WD encl so i could clean around my workstation and restarted the iMac, forgetting to plug in the WD.

No stalls or overheating with it disconnected. Further testing I did confirmed the issue was with:

a) WD's odd partitioning scheme, and

b) the encl hardware.

For issue a), erasing and reformatting the drive helped some but not enough. Only when I removed the drive inside the MyBook and installed it in an OWC encl did the problems go away once and for all.

Easy enough to test.

Remember that Apple won't see bug reports in this user-to-user setting, but will if you use this:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? Delete it completely, not just the app, everything.

Have You run the Etrecheck Report through you favourite AL Chatbot ?

I have and the conscience being and Quote " Alright, thanks for pasting the full EtreCheck report — this is actually very informative, and your Mac isn’t “slow” because it’s weak. You’ve got a beefy M4 mini. What you’re seeing is death-by-a-thousand-background-processes. "