macOS High Sierra: parts of the window not rendering

[bpasero]

• Electron version: 1.7.x
• Operating system: macOS High Sierra

Expected behavior

The window contents should draw normally.

Actual behavior

Parts of the window are not drawn correctly.

How to reproduce

We got reports from users on macOS high sierra that see major UI paint issues such as:

or

So far it is not yet clear why these users are impacted. The issue does not reproduce for everyone on macOS High Sierra. It also seems to impact other Electron apps like Slack (@felixrieseberg see microsoft/vscode#35527 (comment)) so I am filing this issue here to start a thread on how to deal with this issue.

Refs: microsoft/vscode#35527

[NKjoep]

I can say it happens to me everytime I drag-resize the electron-like windows.

My system specs:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
2,4 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

[alexeykuzmin]

@bpasero Does it happen with the Electron 1.8.1 too?

[felixrieseberg]

Confirmed that we're having issues with 1.7.x for sure – we'll know soon(ish) whether or not it happens with 1.8, too.

[Thomas101]

We've also had users reporting this issue (wavebox/waveboxapp#395).

Seems to be focused only around macs with two GPU's. We've had reports on...

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

Disabling GPU acceleration has worked for some users so definitely points to an issue around that.
We've been trying to get together a test-case we can reproduce the issue on but to no avail.

In terms of versions, we've only had reports for 1.7.x, but will be releasing a 1.8.1 version shortly so will report back on feedback in case that helps anyone.

I've also managed to get my hands on 2012 mac for testing, but I haven't seen the issue arise on that yet. If that changes, I'll post back Seeing the same behaviour on the 2012 mac too

[Thomas101]

Updated the previous comment, issue does occur on our 2012 model too. I've also just run a build with 1.8.1 and unfortunately we see the same behaviour

[brian-slate]

Seeing this regularly on my 2014 model as well.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

[eppsilon]

A coworker and I are also experiencing this issue with one of the models listed:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

(Seems identical to the 2.3 GHz model GPU-wise. The model ID is MacBookPro11,3.)

[joelday]

I filed this earlier today: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=773705

Appears to be the same issue.

[raptor235]

I've been having issues all week... Atom has been absolutely brutal...

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
and
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

I'm also not sure if it's electron related but I've seen corruption on Chrome as well.

[armincifuentes]

Experiencing this same issue with both Atom 1.21.0 and VS Code 1.17.1

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

• 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB
• Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

I'm available to run tests and provide further info, if it helps.

[thewashingtonhua]

Same here. Frequently with all electron apps & occasionally with Chrome.

Macbook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)

• 2.3GHz Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB
• Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536MB

[dengyaolong]

+1

[olivierkaisin]

Same here (mostly noticed on VS Code 1.17.1).

Minimizing and then maximizing the window seems to help fixing the render problem temporarily.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

• 2,8 GHz Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB
• Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

[psymeon]

Same for me here. My system specs are:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
2,4 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

Disabling gpu acceleration as mentioned by @Thomas101 (via the --disable-gpu option when launching the apps from the terminal) seems to be a temporary solution, but it also affects the performance of graphics-heavy apps (or websites in Chrome).

[mofux]

I'm also affected.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2,3 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

I can see the same rendering issues in Chrome (61.0.3163.100 ).
It also happens with Automatic graphics switching setting in OSX disabled.

[raptor235]

Is there any open tickets for this with Chrome? seems like a wide scale issue but not sure if the Chrome team or Electron team is aware.

On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 4:56 AM Thomas Zilz ***@***.***> wrote: I'm also affected. MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7 NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB I can see the same rendering issues in Chrome (61.0.3163.100). — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10736 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AATJ4cVGNv-1yvZQPWUEiy9P3CNx1hZdks5ssxovgaJpZM4PzuL9> .

-- Bart Dabek *Co-Founder, CTO* Technology FlowPress Inc m: 647-588-6285 a: 119 Spadina Ave. Suite 1203 w: FlowPress.com <http://flowpress.com/> e: bart@flowpress.com <https://twitter.com/bartdabek> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartdabek> To Book a meeting click here <https://calendly.com/bartdabek>.

[mofux]

There seems to be an open Chromium issue filed here:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=773705

[zzswang]

same problem

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB

seems related to Nvidia

another mbp with ATI is working well with exactly same softwares and os. (Time Machine recovery)

[jhogervorst]

Same issue here, with Visual Studio Code and Slack. Resizing the affected window sometimes seems to fix the issue for me.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

I also experience freezes of the window server on High Sierra with this Mac, after which I have to force shutdown the machine. This keeps happening every few days, even after a clean reinstall. So there’s probably something wrong with the video drivers, I guess.

[jarnovanrhijn]

Updating, disabeling or removing some plugins seems to have fixed it for me.. not sure if and which plugin was the problem tho.

[RMGarrett]

Same issue for me on gitkraken and VSCode, minimizing and reopening seem to fix the issue.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

[bpasero]

Fyi it looks like a patch landed in Chrome nightly to address this: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/bb354ab52392a11204cd3fc2d443d6ba5cbb87ed%5E%21/#F0

/cc @MarshallOfSound @cifratila

[MarshallOfSound]

@bpasero Do you have a device you can use to test a patch? I'm happy to pull that patch into libcc so we can test it but I don't have an affected device

[raptor235]

There is a fix waiting to be merged in... big discussion here...

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=773705

It's a fix but it might cause other performance issues... so worth giving a try till Apple fixes the drives... not sure how we would go about submitting this to apple...

If you're experiencing this issue, can you please open "about:flags" and find the entry labeled "Gpu Rasterization" and try setting this to "disabled". This may address the issue, but it would be great to confirm that this fixes it for everyone.

[bpasero]

@MarshallOfSound unfortunately not, but a lot of users that I can give a build to test that can tell me if its fixed. I will get this during this week.

[Thomas101]

@MarshallOfSound I've got a device I can test with if it helps

[Firefishy]

OSX 10.13.x is the issue. This issue is not caused by Electron.

[Firefishy]

Haven't seen to happen again in OSX 10.13.2 (yet).

[dafergu2]

@Firefishy what hardware are you using? I'm debating on updating to 10.13.2 from 10.12.x on my early 2013 MBP with discrete graphics.

Also, have you turned on the discrete graphics manually so that it isn't using the lower powered GPU?

[Firefishy]

@dafergu2 MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB + Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB. Only the Discreet GPU is used because I use an Apple Thunderbolt Display.

[ytilis]

I began running into this issue on macOS Sierra v10.12.6, with Slack and Visual Studio Code. Hardware is MBP Retina 15-inch, Mid-2015.

Resetting the NVRAM seems to have cleared it up, at least for now:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

[alexeykuzmin]

@ytilis Electron version?

[rorz]

Still messing up... With either native or beta drivers. I would advise people who still experience this issue to file radars until Apple gives this issue proper notice.

[SimonWaters]

We haven't seen these issues in Slack for a while, so I suspect that Apple are right, in that at least one issue with these symptoms is fixed before 10.13.3

[ytilis]

@alexeykuzmin This was over a week ago now so I can't guarantee that the current versions I had are the same as what I have now, and unfortunately I didn't think to check the versions at the time.

Also, is there a way to check which version of Electron is used by a compiled application?

My current versions are:
VSCode: 1.19.3 (1.19.3)
Slack: 3.0.5

I'm fairly sure I was on the latest versions available at the time I made my comment 9 days ago.

[GregYeo]

VSCode use electron and VSCode still use electron 1.7.0

• https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/master/package.json#L66

If electron/mksnapshot#6 is merged, VSCode might fix it.
(Of course, VSCode also should update their package.json for it)
Slack is also based on electron but i'm not sure they are using mksnapshot.

[GregYeo]

Temporary solution until fixing if you got rendering performance trouble electron + nvidia graphic

1. Add alias for the application in your shell profile ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc

# For Visual Studio Code
alias code="/Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron --disable-gpu"
# For Slack
alias slack="/Applications/Slack.app/Contents/MacOS/Slack --disable-gpu"

2. Open terminal and run command

code&
slack&

It's done.

You might make automation of MAC but you can just start it by terminal without extra job because of temporary.

[SuperBarracuda]

Issue went away in 10.13.2 for me, believe Apple updated the Nvidia graphics drivers in that release.

[blahdy]

so this is what made whatsapp unusable on high sierra. also nvidia graphics here. can confirm --disable-gpu resolves the issue. damn, it's been stuttering like hell for half a year now. really grown into telegram because of this

[jelling]

Same issue here and it effects nearly every app I use on a daily basis including VSCode, Slack, Spotify, Trello, Postman. It's most noticeable when moving between spaces; a definite lag.

Mac OS 10.3.3
Hardware: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

[drewlustro]

Same issue affecting me.

Launching Visual Studio Code with --disable-gpu resolves the issue, but with other artifacts and poorer performance.

[jarek-foksa]

My Electron 2.0.2 app is affected by a very similar graphical glitch on at least one device. The app window initially renders fine, but it gets blank after opening a popover dialog. The renderer process keeps responding to keyboard events. The issue does not occur when --disable-gpu flag is used.

[r-souza]

About the VSCode, I had the same issue this week and solved it by changing the following "User Setting":

"terminal.integrated.rendererType"

I've changed it to use "dom" instead "canvas" and the terminal come back working normally.

[bpasero]

@rodrigoevildead can I ask: does it also reproduce for you with VSCode insiders, where we recently switched to use Electron 2.0.7?

[r-souza]

@bpasero I tried now and the problem continues the same way.

Code - Insiders - Version 1.27.0-insider (1.27.0-insider)
fd610b4b6ab8d4735a4d84a2b59206ad3a9c8099

[sofianguy]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Electron better.

The version of Electron you reported this on has been superseded by newer releases.

If you're still experiencing this issue in Electron v4.2.x or later, please add a comment specifying the version you're testing with and any other new information that a maintainer trying to reproduce the issue should know.

I'm setting the blocked/need-info label for the above reasons. This issue will be closed 7 days from now if there is no response.

Thanks in advance! Your help is appreciated.

[bpasero]

Yeah I think we no longer hit this.