WindowServer memory leak

The problem seems to be caused by the discrete NVIDIA GPU (at least for me). When I turn on the discrete GPU (by disabling "automatic graphic switching" I can also reproduce the memory leak without external monitor (e.g. by opening/closing/opening many Safari windows).

High Sierra on Mid 2014 MBPR exhibits GPU memory leak with external displays

8GB seems over the top, but 1GB is perfectly ok.

In my limited testing, I see no indication of memory leak. The memory usage goes up and down as applications are launched and quit, and windows are created and destroyed.

If there is a memory leak, it is likely not in WindowServer itself, but in one or more applications - WindowServer, as the name indicates, *serves* other processes when they request the creation or deletion of windows.

If an application does not properly dispose of windows once they are closed, it may have a memory leak that causes what you experience.

I suggest you make a note of the applications that are running to try and figure out if this problem happens consistently with one application.

welsonsun wrote:

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?

So it seems.

Do you have an external display? Which one?

Do you have some third party program to handle extra resolutions of the display?

Do the crashes also occur if running with just the MBP display?

Same issue here after updating. WindowServer process just keep on hogging memory with time without ever releasing it until it's forcefully restarted (logout or reboot).

I have no external monitor, and while I use a scaled resolution I can reproduce it with the regular one.

Here's an EtreCheck's report, in case it could be useful:

EtreCheck version: 3.4.5 (455)

Report generated 2017-09-28 18:53:11

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 2:01

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: No problem - just checking

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,5

1 2,5 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4870HQ) CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 446

iCloud Quota: 4.62 GB available

Video Information: ⓘ

AMD Radeon R9 M370X - VRAM: 2 GB

Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 3360 x 2100

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0512G disk0: (500,28 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted> [APFS Container]: 500.07 GB

USB Information: ⓘ

USB30Bus

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks: ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk1s1 - APFS) / [Startup]: 500.07 GB (340.46 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 500.07 GB (340.46 GB free)

(disk1s2) <not mounted> [Preboot]: 500.07 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 500.07 GB

(disk1s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 500.07 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 500.07 GB

(disk1s4) /private/var/vm [VM]: 500.07 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 500.07 GB

System Software: ⓘ

macOS High Sierra 10.13 (17A365) - Time since boot: about 17 hours

Configuration files: ⓘ

/etc/hosts - Count: 15

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 9 Apple tasks

[loaded] 167 Apple tasks

[running] 112 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 37 Apple tasks

[loaded] 183 Apple tasks

[running] 109 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2016-12-25) [Lookup]

[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.agent.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.status.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 9c0d8d87 72ac4dde - installed 2017-08-03) [Lookup]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist (Apple Inc. - XQuartz - installed 2016-10-26) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-10) [Lookup]

[running] com.adobe.adobeupdatedaemon.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2016-12-25) [Lookup]

[running] com.adobe.agsservice.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-05-29) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 4898e928 - installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? 1963bf56 0 - installed 2017-09-25)

[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (Bare Bones Software, Inc. - installed 2016-04-03) [Lookup]

[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.daemon.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.bjango.istatmenus.installerhelper.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-09-13) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (Shell Script e3fefdd2 - installed 2017-07-22) [Lookup]

[running] com.tclementdev.timemachineeditor.scheduler.plist (Thomas CLEMENT - installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist (Apple Inc. - XQuartz - installed 2016-10-26) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2016-12-25) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-08-10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-07-10) [Lookup]

User Login Items: ⓘ

ClipMenu Application

(/Applications/ClipMenu.app)

Backup ans Sync Application

(/Applications/Cloud/Backup and Sync.app)

Cinch Application

(/Applications/Cinch.app)

gfxCardStatus Application

(/Applications/gfxCardStatus.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Cloud/Dropbox.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

AdobeAAMDetect: 3.0.0.0 (installed 2016-12-25) [Lookup]

FlashPlayer-10.6: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-12) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-09-21)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.010.20060 (installed 2016-02-26) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 15.010.20060 (installed 2016-02-26) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-12) [Lookup]

VLC Plugin: 2.2.7 (installed 2017-08-14) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 144 build 01 (installed 2017-08-03) Check version

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

[enabled] uBlock Origin - Chris Aljoudi/Raymond Hill - https://www.github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari (installed 2017-08-09)

[enabled] Search Alias - Damian Carrillo - http://damiancarrillo.com/blog/search-alias-a-safari-extension/ (installed 2016-12-21)

[enabled] Safarikai - James Chen - http://ashchan.github.io/safarikai/ (installed 2017-08-09)

[enabled] Tampermonkey - Jan Biniok - http://tampermonkey.net (installed 2017-08-09)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

RCDefaultApp (installed 2009-09-20) [Lookup]

Flash Player (installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]

FUSE (installed 2017-09-21) [Lookup]

Java (installed 2017-08-03) [Lookup]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 500.07 GB Disk used: 159.61 GB

Destinations:

Data [Network]

Total size: 3.00 TB

Total number of backups: 55

Oldest backup: 30/03/16, 03:54

Last backup: 27/09/17, 23:44

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 3.00 TB > (Disk size 500.07 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

25% plugin-container

25% firefox

17% WindowServer

6% kernel_task

3% hidd

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

3.13 GB WindowServer

1.52 GB firefox

1.40 GB kernel_task

627 MB plugin-container

533 MB plugin-container

Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

836 KB 915 KB firefox

1 MB 43 KB Mail

1 MB 126 KB mDNSResponder

374 KB 507 KB Dropbox

245 KB 185 KB Transmission

Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

19.34 firefox

16.10 plugin-container

6.92 WindowServer

2.58 plugin-container

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

2.38 GB Available RAM

482 MB Free RAM

13.62 GB Used RAM

1.91 GB Cached files

228 MB Swap Used

Software installs: ⓘ

TimeMachineEditor: (installed 2017-09-03)

FUSE for macOS: (installed 2017-09-03)

Microsoft OneNote: 15.38 (installed 2017-09-08)

Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-09-12)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

2017-09-27 22:37:12 WindowServer Crash [Open]

Cause: StartTime:2017-09-27 20:40:26

GPU:IG&AMD

MetalDevice for accelerator(0x3827): 0x7fde7fc3eb78 (MTLDevice: 0x7fde8189a600)

MetalDevice for accelerator(0x5307): 0x7fde7fd19f68 (MTLDevice: 0x7fde81888000)

IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/IGPU@2/AppleIntelFramebu ffer@0

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type std::__1::system_error: mutex lock failed: Invalid argument

2017-09-27 20:40:36 corespotlightd Crash [Open]

Cause: [0x700002dd3000] Finalizing journal 0x7fdd40a00ed0 0x108dc5000 100000

Initializing

2017-09-26 12:37:10 installd High CPU use [Open] [Details]

2017-09-26 10:53:27 iStatMenusDaemon Crash [Open]

Cause: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSPlaceholderArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object from objects[0]'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

CongGao wrote:

Adjust the resolution to the default, windowserver memory is ok,but set [more],windowserver memory leak.

Not happening here. I changed the resolution to More Space, created some two dozen windows, and watched the memory used by WindowServer go up; then closed them and memory went down.

There is something else involved.

I can confirm that there's at least a correlation. My scaled resolution increases utilized RAM while playing video, but did not when I set it to 'Default'.

I've also reported this via the macOS Feedback Assistant.

> 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.

This seems to work! I tested it for a bit and the default setting and the second highest setting for Scaled Resolution seems to not have a memory leak. Only when putting it to the highest "More Space" option on my 2013 13inch rMBP does windowserver memory leak. But switching to the default resolution doesn't "release" memory if you had it on "More Space" prior, it just doesn't leak more. I hope Apple fixes it soon.

Awesome work, CongGao!

I wasn't going to post after only 12 hours of use, but I actually saw memory _decreasing_, so I feel like this is doing well.

At its height, I was at 270 MB 'Real Memory' usage, but as time has gone on, macOS has reduced it to 173 MB. I am satisfied.

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.