Level 1

22 points

WindowServer memory leak

Looks like this problem is coming back in High Sierra.

I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, freshly installed High Sierra after resetting SMC, PRAM, at most 6 apps open at the same time, after 16 hours, this WindowServer process is taking almost 1GB RAM! Notice how much has been compressed. Several days ago, I have been using the High Sierra GM for about a week without rebooting/logging out, and I noticed this WindowServer process took 8GB RAM!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 27, 2017 8:50 AM

Top-ranking reply

welsonsun Author

Level 1

22 points

Posted on Oct 3, 2017 10:25 AM

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.

On my late 2013 rMBP 13'', setting the display to "scaled max (1680x1050)" will instantly create the memory leak. Other "scaled settings", currently at 1440x900, WindowServer stays around 100MB for 24 hours now.

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53 replies

welsonsun Author

Level 1

22 points

Sep 27, 2017 11:22 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I have never seen the memory usage of WindowServer goes down. The majority time I only use 2 apps: Safari and Jump Desktop.

Is there a way to enable WindowsServer log so that I can see which app is not releasing the memory? There used to be a windowserver.log file under /Private/var/log, but no longer there.

welsonsun Author

Level 1

22 points

Sep 27, 2017 5:11 PM in response to welsonsun

There are tons of:

Sep 27 17:10:20 welsons-mbp com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.preference.displays.MirrorDisplays): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

In my system.log.

Something is crashing all the time?

Morgon-

Level 1

18 points

Oct 2, 2017 11:54 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

> The scaled resolution using more RAM is only a bug if that RAM doesn’t get released afterwards.

'afterwards' meaning when setting it to Default? Yeah, it didn't. I'm still at 21.64 GB. The RAM either increases (scaled) or doesn't increase ('Default'); it never gets released.

Further, I'd say that the mere fact it's using 21 GB does not need additional conditions to be a bug.

Morgon-

Level 1

18 points

Oct 3, 2017 10:16 AM in response to welsonsun

It's not max, I use the resolution in between Default/Middle and Max (I have a mid-2014 rMBP which does not use that resolution as 'Default'). However, I can't imagine that it would fix it for this resolution, but not Max; I was certainly having issues to the same degree.

mlaporte

Level 1

4 points

Nov 27, 2017 8:55 AM in response to welsonsun

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

Sep 29, 2017 3:24 PM in response to welsonsun

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?

Jake993

Level 1

4 points

Sep 30, 2017 10:48 AM in response to wealthandnecessity

Could it be because of using an external display?

I don't think so, I never plugged an external monitor to this machine with High Sierra and I still see this issue.

Jake993

Level 1

4 points

Oct 2, 2017 10:36 AM in response to welsonsun

FWIW I tried and reported the issue to Apple.

welsonsun Author

Level 1

22 points

Oct 2, 2017 11:20 AM in response to Jake993

Thanks for doing this! BTW, how do you report an issue to Apple?

Oct 2, 2017 11:25 AM in response to Morgon-

The scaled resolution using more RAM is only a bug if that RAM doesn’t get released afterwards.

luyi7338

Level 1

4 points

Oct 2, 2017 12:06 PM in response to welsonsun

I have the same problem in my mbp 2012 mid retina.

WindowServer takes me 6GB after 10+ hrs. The screenshot was taken in 5hrs after reboot.

CongGao

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2017 7:41 AM in response to Morgon-

Thanks,Hope 10.13.1 can fix this bug.

welsonsun Author

Level 1

22 points

Oct 3, 2017 10:00 AM in response to Morgon-

Good to hear! Are you testing 10.13.1 with retina display resolution set to "max"?

Oct 3, 2017 11:19 AM in response to welsonsun

I'm sending reports via https://bugreport.apple.com/web/

CongGao

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2017 7:18 PM in response to wealthandnecessity

Well,wait 10.13.1 released.

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WindowServer memory leak