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macOS Tahoe + WindowServer / memory pressure over long uptimes — anyone else seeing this?
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bogdanw
macrumors G3
22 April 2026 OSXDaily: "Why WindowServer Uses High CPU & Memory on MacOS Tahoe and How to Fix It"
https://osxdaily.com/2026/04/22/why-windowserver-uses-high-cpu-memory-macos-fix/
https://osxdaily.com/2026/04/22/why-windowserver-uses-high-cpu-memory-macos-fix/
SDAVE
macrumors 601
These are pretty basic workarounds, but Apple really needs to honker down and fix the major memory leaks in WindowServer and optimize it. I have a feeling they won't get to it in macOS26, but next release macOS27. Liguid Glass just unnecessarily is a resource hog, even if you disable transparency effects.
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
Except, that these don't really fix it. I have a similar problem. I have a very browser-intensive workload most of the time, and, I use Firefox. Tahoe has really slowed down Firefox, and, switching between apps in general. WindowServer usage is high. My M2Pro w/16GB used to loaf all the time. Now, it is busy all the time. Gets better after reboot.
The suggestion in OSXDaily of basically frequent reboots brings us back to the 90's. Apple needs to fix this.
OP Back here. My machine (32gb) is in for service and I have acquired a machine with the same specs except 64gb RAM. I'm only on day 3 but so far I kinda think my issue was genuinely that I outgrew 32gb. Swap and Page are at 0. Surely Tahoe being more mature helps a lot too. But I would say my orientation is set to 64gb in the future. I am also excited for these under the hood improvements coming with macOS 27. We'll see.
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
It sounds like 64GB alleviates the symptoms, but, based on the description, there has been a major increase in (for lack of a more exact description) "overhead" on 26.x Apple needs to address this issue. If it can't be fixed, because it is an actual required behavior given all the security bug fixes, then Apple should do the analysis and tell us. If it can be fixed, because it is just a side effect of something, then, fix it.
I find my M4 Mac mini with 16gb of ram slows to a crawl after being up for a number of days (it usually remains untouched for a few days). I’ve had windows server crash a few times before too. A reboot fixes the issue until it grinds to a halt again.
This is somewhat strange - I have quite often 4 or 5 different browsers with literally hundreds of tabs open - and Microsoft Teams grabs over 1 GB with its' crappy WebView implementation as well. Swap moves around between 3 and 10 GB but still there's no slowdowns anywhere.
WindowServer eats about 2,4 GB for few days of uptime and does not change that much. Reduce Motion option has been always in use but no other significant tweaks. Memory pressure is in yellow sometimes, but not all the time. For now this M3 Air with 16 GB RAM is usable, but I think that next machine should have more.
It is hard to tell why others have this problem even with much more RAM. It is possible that root of the problem is elsewhere...
WindowServer eats about 2,4 GB for few days of uptime and does not change that much. Reduce Motion option has been always in use but no other significant tweaks. Memory pressure is in yellow sometimes, but not all the time. For now this M3 Air with 16 GB RAM is usable, but I think that next machine should have more.
It is hard to tell why others have this problem even with much more RAM. It is possible that root of the problem is elsewhere...
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
Photos and 5 accounts logged in. Time Machine backup every hour.
One sidenote - I do not use Time Machine and do not have any drives added in its' settings. Only sometimes occasionally I do manual backups - otherwise all Time Machine related activities are disabled. There are no local snapshots either.
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
I asked because Firefox is a bit more prominent on my system now, but, I can't find a smoking gun. e.g. Firefox core process only has around 330MB private memory, and it is the largest. There are lots of isolated content processes, most of them at 0% CPU. No one process has that much private memory. The processes with the most accumulated time over the last couple of days are the kernel, audiomxd, WindowServer, configd. I'm not sure why audiomxd is as high as it is.
Edit: And yet, memory pressure is constantly yellow, in the top half. Until recently, that was never the case for very long. And, the system is sluggish. That was never true either, no matter what I was doing.
Edit:16 hours after rebooting, and restarting all the apps that were running, including multiple web browsers with many tabs, photos, presumably looking for people and pets, and everything is still perfectly normal. No mysterious unattributable memory pressure, perfectly responsive to the keyboard and to mouse clicks to different apps. Just like the old days. If this follows the pattern, in a day or two the system will get sluggish, memory pressure will appear basically out of nowhere, with no visible guilty app, and, it will be time to reboot again.
Edit: And yet, memory pressure is constantly yellow, in the top half. Until recently, that was never the case for very long. And, the system is sluggish. That was never true either, no matter what I was doing.
Edit:16 hours after rebooting, and restarting all the apps that were running, including multiple web browsers with many tabs, photos, presumably looking for people and pets, and everything is still perfectly normal. No mysterious unattributable memory pressure, perfectly responsive to the keyboard and to mouse clicks to different apps. Just like the old days. If this follows the pattern, in a day or two the system will get sluggish, memory pressure will appear basically out of nowhere, with no visible guilty app, and, it will be time to reboot again.
Last edited:
smithrh
macrumors 68030
Photos almost certainly the culprit. It's constantly analyzing your library, even when it's not open.
(OK, not constantly, but you get the idea)
If your Photos library is on an external disk, eject it and you'll find the memory usage will moderate. If the library is internal, not much you can do.
Having said this, it absolutely should not be causing memory pressure. Normally you will see a huge chunk of inactive memory usage, which should be memory that will be overwritten if the OS needs more RAM.
Also, one can try `sudo purge` to release some of both inactive and even active memory.
(OK, not constantly, but you get the idea)
If your Photos library is on an external disk, eject it and you'll find the memory usage will moderate. If the library is internal, not much you can do.
Having said this, it absolutely should not be causing memory pressure. Normally you will see a huge chunk of inactive memory usage, which should be memory that will be overwritten if the OS needs more RAM.
Also, one can try `sudo purge` to release some of both inactive and even active memory.
kagharaht
macrumors 68020
For me, 4 days uptime since last Mac OS update. iMac never set to sleep. Always on. I'm not seeing any of these issues with my little iMac M3/24GB/2TB/4Port system. Daily workflow and apps running. Many times I never quit the apps and they just sit there in the background for days when I finish a project. Fan only ramps up these days with Topaz only. Handbrake doesn't even ramp it up anymore. Guess I'm lucky so far with the update that fixed all my issues when I first got this machine and previous OS. The only thing bothering me is the Liquid Glass UI silliness.
I'm not experiencing these issues listed by the OP below. I do remember the nightmare I had when I first updated to Sonoma. I had to do a full erase and started new to get it back to normal. Synced my files from iCloud and reinstalled all my apps manually one by one.
"After moving to Tahoe, the machine just felt “thicker” over time. Not immediately after boot, but after a day or two:
• UI responsiveness degraded
• Window switching felt heavier
• Typing latency crept in
• Reboots restored things temporarily
Activity Monitor showed:
• WindowServer frequently sitting at 40–50% CPU
• WindowServer memory growing into the 3–3.5 GB range
• Memory pressure still “green,” but compressed memory climbing fast
• Swap starting to engage even with 32 GB RAM"
What I run daily and leave open. Among other apps that I would open and close like Calendar and Maps. These below are always used and left open.
Mail
iMessage
Safari
Firefox
Home Sharing Enabled to stream various ATV devices at home and music
Topaz Video Ai, Gigapixel, Photo Ai ( I do a lot of old family photo/video restore and repair )
Pixelmator PRO
Handbrake
I'm not experiencing these issues listed by the OP below. I do remember the nightmare I had when I first updated to Sonoma. I had to do a full erase and started new to get it back to normal. Synced my files from iCloud and reinstalled all my apps manually one by one.
"After moving to Tahoe, the machine just felt “thicker” over time. Not immediately after boot, but after a day or two:
• UI responsiveness degraded
• Window switching felt heavier
• Typing latency crept in
• Reboots restored things temporarily
Activity Monitor showed:
• WindowServer frequently sitting at 40–50% CPU
• WindowServer memory growing into the 3–3.5 GB range
• Memory pressure still “green,” but compressed memory climbing fast
• Swap starting to engage even with 32 GB RAM"
What I run daily and leave open. Among other apps that I would open and close like Calendar and Maps. These below are always used and left open.
iMessage
Safari
Firefox
Home Sharing Enabled to stream various ATV devices at home and music
Topaz Video Ai, Gigapixel, Photo Ai ( I do a lot of old family photo/video restore and repair )
Pixelmator PRO
Handbrake
boppin
macrumors 65816
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
Looks like Adobe Illustrator and/or InDesign might have (a) memory leak(s). That's good -- reportable to Adobe. See what you can find out with Activity Monitor.
In my case, my machine is Adobe-free. (Unless something is embedded in something else). So, I'm still looking for something identifiable.
AslashA
macrumors newbie
The memory leak problem in Tahoe affects not only third-party programs (such as Adobe, etc.), but also native Apple system software (for example, Calculator, Finder, etc.). So I think the problem is specifically with MacOS Tahoe.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
I've started to reboot every few days. I haven't had to do that on MacOS since - forever? Snow Leopard I guess? Now, Windows is another story, of course.
I shouldn't have to, either. And, I didn't. Prior to 26.x, only rebooted during upgrades.
boppin
macrumors 65816
Somewhere I wrote that this process did used up to 1 GB or even something more. But everything runs fine.
AslashA
macrumors newbie
Have you considered downgrading to 15.7.x (until MacOS 27 comes out)? Sequoia is even better at memory management and more. It's the perfect system for the M1 Max right now, in my opinion.