How to stop WindowServer Memory Leak on macOS?

You can also post the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option when posting. As leroydouglas has posted, make sure you first remove those known problem apps. The report contains no personal information and it will provide more details of what is running on your computer that is consuming so much RAM.

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

Google Chrome is a known resource hog especially if you have multiple window open. Another test can be done by using a different browser to see if you experience the same issue.

The amount of RAM being used by WindowServer is in response to another app causing this problem and not a sign that it is leaking memory.

Janus Ng wrote:

The WindowServer has taken up nearly 200GB of memory

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/ec883163-dc85-4baf-a625-856185f02c96

And a Force Quit Application dialog keeps popping up

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/33c6b2d9-45d3-4203-8d9a-47915ec1115c

This has happened several times on my MacBook Pro M3 Pro since I bought it in March.

The memory leak of WindowServer is severe!

There is no way to recover besides logging out.

OS : macOS Sonoma 14.5 (23F79)

Display: Samsung Odyssey G95NC 57" 7680x2160

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

***if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect the charging cable before booting to Safe Mode. 

This will make it act as a wired keyboard and will result in a successful Safe Boot mode.

unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

Uninstall these things and test again. If the problem goes away, you will know for sure what the culprit was.

If it is Roon, then you can only urge their developers to fix it. For Little Snitch, well... I'd simply not use it.

Hi, I know it's been a while, but wanted to add my $0.02 since I had a slightly similar experience a couple days ago. I noticed that WindowServer was constantly ~20% CPU on my M1 MBA, and in researching found that Chrome and its associated Keystone helper were pinpointed frequently as problematic (e.g., https://chromeisbad.com). What's galling is that anecdotally, the CPU/memory issue is there even when Chrome isn't being used.

I used to use Chrome a lot for work, but not so much on my personal MBA, so I decided to delete it and Edge for good measure.

Now WindowServer is generally ~10% CPU (I didn't check memory usage). I didn't use Chrome at all before, so now I'm happy knowing that my battery will last longer.

HTH

Another user found the Dell Display manager app to be the cause of the problem. Not sure if you are using a similar app with your display.

High WindowServer memory usage - Apple Community

I have a similar issue to Janus on my M3 Max where WindowServer continues to grow slowly over time. In my case, it seems to be related to similar out of control memory growth with both Little Snitch Monitor and Roon. There seems to be an issue on these newer processors with memory not being released.

Flashgo2 wrote:

I have a similar issue to Janus on my M3 Max where WindowServer continues to grow slowly over time. In my case, it seems to be related to similar out of control memory growth with both Little Snitch Monitor and Roon. There seems to be an issue on these newer processors with memory not being released.

And you are not using a Display Manager on an external display or using Google Chrome?

Correct. No Display Manager; I use an external display alongside the MBP screen with management through Apple System Settings. Google Chrome hasn't been open in many months.

All of the processes with ever growing memory issues are use-dependent. The more use, the greater the memory allocation becomes. This is consistent with a failure to release memory when no longer needed.