WindowServer memory leak

Well, looks like the current consensus of the bug is that for retina display with Intel graphics card, if the resolution is set to the "scaled max", you will get the WindowServer memory leak. Other resolutions seem to be fine.

No, in my case it happens with the "middle" scaled option (doubled 1680x1050), so the 10.13.1 finding is definitely a good sign.

I updated to 10.13.1 beta and it looks fixed. (testing for half a day now).

I'm using a late 2013 13" rMBP as well at max ("More Space") setting. WindowServer has been stable at ~250MB ram usage the entire time.

I'm having the same problem on a new Mac Pro with an external scaled 4K monitor attached. When I turn off scaling, the problem seems to go away. Also see: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/windowserver-memory-leak-on-high-sierra.23351 0/

Hopefully 10.13.1 will fix things as I'm having the same issue.

On my system (2012 MacBook Pro Retina 8Gb) it gets to the point where the mouse starts to glitch and the whole system freezes. Safari is one of the main culprits, though many other apps do it as well. For my case, I used an external monitor (4K Dell with the macbook cover down) as well as trying scaled and un-scaled resolutions without having an external monitor present.

Using the 4K monitor, the issue takes about 4-6 hours to reach a "critical" state, where the whole system freezes until windowserver is restarted. Using a "more space" scaled resolution, it takes roughy 12-18 hours and using the default resolution requires a daily or every-other-day restart. So it's clear that the issue worsens with resolution increase, but all tested resolutions do show the issue, at least in my case.

I've seen the issue from day 2 after installing High Sierra and tried safe-mode boots, SMC and PRAM resets and even re-installed the whole OS to make sure it wasn't an in-proper install or 3rd party software.

I can confirm this on a 15" 2015 MBP. When running scaled resolution WindowServer starts to consume in excess of 20GB after a while. (I'm running the latest version of MacOS High Sierra, 10.13.1?)

I have no additional monitors connected.

Disabling scaled resolution tames WindowServer memory consumption but this is not a viable solution as I need the screen Realestate for my design work.

I can confirm too.

I have MBP mid-2012 1200x800 and when I connect external monitor in clone mode and use calling to internal monitor then I have 5GB WindowServer memory usage in 4-6 hours.

This memory can be released after logout or reboot only.

If I don't connect external monitor then there is no memory leak (no scaling on internal monitor).

If I connect external monitor and arrange external and internal side by side without scaling on any of them then memory leak don't occur.

If memory leak occur and I change monitor arrangement and disable monitor scaling, them memory leak stops but memory already leaked won't be released - need to logout or reboot.

10.13.1 didn't fix a thing for me. With any of Apple's display settings the graphics stutter and a re sluggish.

What did "fix" things was a command line utility called screen-resolution-switcher where I could set the screen's resolution of my 15" MBP to 2048x1280. With this, everything is smooth again and windowserver's memory use is kept in check. The only thing that's not quite there is that fonts look a tiny bit nicer with Apple's resolutions, but that's a cheap price to pay.

I noticed this issue when my MPB started to slow down ... WindowServer was using 38GB of RAM on my MBP (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3). I enrolled in the beta program and while the problem is not as significant (some memory is reclaimed) it still exists on 10.13.2 Beta, but is nothing in comparison to before. It currently peaks at 168.3MB and then reclaims a few MB down to ~164MB and repeats.

Kudose wrote:

I noticed this issue when my MPB started to slow down ... WindowServer was using 38GB of RAM on my MBP (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3). I enrolled in the beta program and while the problem is not as significant (some memory is reclaimed) it still exists on 10.13.2 Beta, but is nothing in comparison to before. It currently peaks at 168.3MB and then reclaims a few MB down to ~164MB and repeats.

If the memory usage of Window Server stays, as you say, within 164-169MB then it's probably fixed. That is a pretty reasonable amount of RAM.

I'm having the same problem on a new Mac Pro with an external scaled 4K monitor attached. When I turn off scaling, the problem seems to go away. Also see: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/windowserver-memory-leak-on-high-sierra.23351 0/

From the latest news in that forum it appears that the problem has not been fixed even in the latest 10.13.1 patch.

Having same windowserver issue.

High Sierra 10.13.1 (17B48)

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

With an Apple Thunderbolt display hooked up. No scaling on either Macbook or Thunderbolt display. However, when I turn on scaling, then turn it back off, the issue goes away for a while until it builds up again and makes the mac stutter it's so slow.

I've got a late 2014 Mini, 10.13.1, 16gb ram.

The windowsserver process hovers at 70mb used and 87mb real mem. Been up over a week. The ram isn't the issue here, its flooding the logs with

(com.apple.preference.displays.MirrorDisplays): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

Messages, anyone else seeing and/or fixed this?

thanks

No, mine is in a server room getting prepped to run a small intranet so I've turned off all the sleep options except for the display is set to 15 minutes.

I only saw this issue while looking through the logs trying to get a ssl cert installed (still unsuccessful)

I just disconnected the monitor (as its not needed 99% of the time) and restarted the mini. No errors since booting but its only been a few minutes.

I was seeing thousands of these messages in the logs as well, even after updating to latest beta:

com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.preference.displays.MirrorDisplays): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

and noticed that they went away for me when I disabled the third party utility (SwitchresX) I was using to manage my external monitor's resolution and rebooted. My current config is:

Macbook Pro (Retina 15-inch, Late 2013)

10.13.2 Beta (17C83a)

16GB RAM

Automatic graphics switching UNchecked in Energy Saver pref pane

Clamshell mode with external Samsung U28E590 - Resolution: 3200 x 1800 @ 60 Hz, connected from thunderbolt port to Display port of monitor (not hdmi)

I get the same thing after upgrading to High Sierra using a late 2013 13inch rMBP.

Could it be because of using an external display? Any fix?