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tkafka/Detect electron apps causing macOS Tahoe lag.md

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Detect Electron apps on mac where the Electron hasn't yet been updated to fix the system wide lag
Raw
Detect electron apps causing macOS Tahoe lag.md

Electron Apps Causing System-Wide Lag on Tahoe

This script detects apps with not yet updated versions of Electron.

Repo: https://github.com/tkafka/detect-electron-apps-on-mac

See:

Fixed versions:

  • 36.9.2
  • 37.6.0
  • 38.2.0
  • 39.0.0
  • and all above 39

Temporary workaround:

Run

launchctl setenv CHROME_HEADLESS 1

on every system start. The CHROME_HEADLESS flag has a side effect of disabling Electron app window shadows, which makes them ugly, but also stops triggering the issue.

Example output

(as of 1st oct 2025 - it lists all electron apps, but none shows the ✅ checkmark so far)

❌ OpenMTP.app: Electron 18.3.15 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ DaVinci Resolve.app: Electron 36.3.2 (Contents/Applications/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Electron.app: Electron 36.3.2 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Visual Studio Code.app: Electron 37.3.1 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Cursor.app: Electron 34.5.8 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Windsurf.app: Electron 34.4.0 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Claude.app: Electron 36.4.0 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Signal.app: Electron 38.1.2 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework)
❌ Figma Beta.app: Electron 37.5.1 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Beeper Desktop.app: Electron 33.2.0 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)
❌ Slack.app: Electron 38.1.2 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)

EDIT 2025-10-03: Congrats to Signal being first!

✅ Signal.app (Electron 38.2.0) - Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework

What I also make

🌦️ Weathergraph is my weather app that shows hourly forecasts as charts instead of lists. See a week's worth of temperature, precipitation, wind, UV, and pressure in a single visual.

Built in Swift/SwiftUI for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac. Highly customizable if you're into that.

"I first downloaded the app because I caught sight of the large complication on an Apple Store employee's Apple Watch and asked about it. This is the perfect weather app. All information beautifully presented and easily accessible." - lucenvoyage

Thanks! Tomas

Weathergraph

Raw
detect-electron-apps-by-version.sh
# Detect affected Electron versions
find /Applications /System/Applications ~/Applications -name "*.app" -type d 2>/dev/null | sort --ignore-case | while read -r app; do
appName=$(basename "$app")
electronFrameworkInfo="$app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Resources/Info.plist"
if [[ -f "$electronFrameworkInfo" ]]; then
electronVersion=$(plutil -extract CFBundleVersion raw "$electronFrameworkInfo")
if [[ $? -eq 1 || -z "$electronVersion" ]]; then
echo "⚠️ $appName (No Electron version)"
else
IFS='.' read -r major minor patch <<< "$electronVersion"
if [[ $major -gt 39 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 39 && $minor -ge 0 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 38 && $minor -gt 2 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 38 && $minor -eq 2 && $patch -ge 0 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 37 && $minor -gt 6 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 37 && $minor -eq 6 && $patch -ge 0 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 36 && $minor -gt 9 ]] || \
[[ $major -eq 36 && $minor -eq 9 && $patch -ge 2 ]]; then
echo "✅ $appName ($electronVersion)"
else
echo "❌️ $appName ($electronVersion)"
fi
fi
fi
done
Raw
detect-electron-apps-using-cornermask.sh
# Directly detect Electron apps using the _cornerMask override - thanks avarayr!
find /Applications /System/Applications ~/Applications -name "*.app" -type d 2>/dev/null | sort --ignore-case | while read -r app; do
electronFiles=$(find "$app" -name "Electron Framework" -type f 2>/dev/null)
if [[ -n "$electronFiles" ]]; then
appName=$(basename "$app")
while IFS= read -r filename; do
if [[ -f "$filename" ]]; then
ev=$(grep -aoE 'Chrome/.*Electron/[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3}' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null | head -n1 | sed -E 's/.*Electron\/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3}).*/\1/')
[ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(grep -aoE 'Electron/[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3}' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null | head -n1 | sed -E 's/.*Electron\/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3}).*/\1/')
relativePath="${filename#"$app/"}"
if grep -aqF "_cornerMask" -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "❌ $appName (Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath"
else
echo "✅ $appName (Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath"
fi
break
fi
done <<< "$electronFiles"
fi
done
@avarayr
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avarayr commented Oct 1, 2025 •
edited
Loading

@tkafka great work!

To be pedantic, the electron version doesn't inherently mean the app has the issue.

Some companies use custom, forked versions of electron (I believe Slack does) and they can cherry pick the fix

here's a more reliable script that scans for _cornerMask in the binary content, which is the definitive culprit.

for f in /Applications/*/Contents/Frameworks/Electron\ Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron\ Framework; do
  app=${f#/Applications/}; app=${app%%/Contents/*}

  # Get Electron version
  ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")
  [ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")

  # Ripgrep the binary for _cornerMask
  if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$f"; then
    echo -e "\033[31m❌ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  else
    echo -e "\033[32m✅ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  fi
done
  • requires ripgrep

@NetOpWibby
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@tkafka great work!

To be pedantic, the electron version doesn't inherently mean the app has the issue.

Some companies use custom, forked versions of electron (I believe Slack does) and they can cherry pick the fix

here's a more reliable script that scans for _cornerMask in the binary content, which is the definitive culprit.

for f in /Applications/*/Contents/Frameworks/Electron\ Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron\ Framework; do
  app=${f#/Applications/}; app=${app%%/Contents/*}

  # Get Electron version
  ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")
  [ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")

  # Ripgrep the binary for _cornerMask
  if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$f"; then
    echo -e "\033[31m❌ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  else
    echo -e "\033[32m✅ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  fi
done
  • requires ripgrep

Running this has shown me that of all the Electron apps I have installed, only Tape lacks the slowness issue.

Thanks for this!

@poyhen
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poyhen commented Oct 1, 2025

@tkafka great work!

To be pedantic, the electron version doesn't inherently mean the app has the issue.

Some companies use custom, forked versions of electron (I believe Slack does) and they can cherry pick the fix

here's a more reliable script that scans for _cornerMask in the binary content, which is the definitive culprit.

for f in /Applications/*/Contents/Frameworks/Electron\ Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron\ Framework; do
  app=${f#/Applications/}; app=${app%%/Contents/*}

  # Get Electron version
  ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")
  [ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$f")

  # Ripgrep the binary for _cornerMask
  if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$f"; then
    echo -e "\033[31m❌ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  else
    echo -e "\033[32m✅ $app \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-})\033[0m"
  fi
done
  • requires ripgrep

this one didnt detect signal compared to OP

@rrrix
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rrrix commented Oct 1, 2025

Here's a 1-liner copy & paste-able version of devnoname120's comment.

Use with a ZSH Shell (e.g. Terminal or iTerm2) to create and load the LaunchAgent.

agent_plist=~/Library/LaunchAgents/environment.fix-electron-resource-hog-bug.plist;
/bin/cat <<EOT >$agent_plist && launchctl bootstrap gui/${UID} $agent_plist
<!--
 https://gist.github.com/tkafka/e3eb63a5ec448e9be6701bfd1f1b1e58#temporary-workaround
 To Remove:
 launchctl bootout gui/${UID}/${agent_plist:t:r} && rm ${agent_plist}
-->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>${agent_plist:t:r}</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/bin/launchctl</string>
                <string>setenv</string>
                <string>CHROME_HEADLESS</string>
                <string>1</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOT

Uses zsh's wonderful variable substitution syntax so you can rename the plist/job if desired.

@tkafka
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Author

tkafka commented Oct 1, 2025 •
edited
Loading

@avarayr This is excellent, thanks!

I asked Claude to make it look for Electron like the original script (which fixes the Signal detection - it has Electron in Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework instead of Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework):

mdfind "kind:app" 2>/dev/null | while read app; do
  electronFiles=$(find "$app" -name "Electron Framework" -type f 2>/dev/null)
  
  if [[ -n "$electronFiles" ]]; then
    appName=$(basename "$app")
    
    while IFS= read -r filename; do
      if [[ -f "$filename" ]]; then
        ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null)
        [ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null)
        
        relativePath=$(echo "$filename" | sed "s|$app/||")
        
        if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null; then
          echo -e "❌ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
        else
          echo -e "✅ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
        fi
        break
      fi
    done <<< "$electronFiles"
  fi
done

This merge is best of both worlds, I added it above - thanks!

@tkafka
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Author

tkafka commented Oct 3, 2025

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

✅ Signal.app (Electron 38.2.0) - Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework

Who's next?

@avarayr
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avarayr commented Oct 3, 2025 •
edited
Loading

Latest beta of GitHub Desktop is also updated.
PR: desktop/desktop#21060

So is VSCode insiders - coming to stable VSCode soon
microsoft/vscode#269279

@avarayr
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avarayr commented Oct 3, 2025

@bpresles You're missing ripgrep, brew install ripgrep

@bpresles
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bpresles commented Oct 3, 2025 •
edited
Loading

@bpresles You're missing ripgrep, brew install ripgrep

Yes I figured it out... And it didn't fail because the @tkafka version ("Claude powered") has "2>/dev/null" on the rg commands, making it ignoring any failure...

Here a version checking for the installation of ripgrep:

#! /bin/bash
# Directly detect Electron apps using the _cornerMask override - thanks avarayr!
# Needs ripgrep - brew install ripgrep

if [[ ! -f $(which rg) ]]; then
  echo -e "❌ this script requires ripgrep, you can install it with: brew install ripgrep"
  exit 1
fi

mdfind "kind:app" 2> /dev/null | while read app; do
  electronFiles=$(find "$app" -name "Electron Framework" -type f 2> /dev/null)

  if [[ -n "$electronFiles" ]]; then
    appName=$(basename "$app")

    while IFS= read -r filename; do
      if [[ -f "$filename" ]]; then
        ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2> /dev/null)
        [ -z "$ev" ] && ev=$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2> /dev/null)

        relativePath=$(echo "$filename" | sed "s|$app/||")

        if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$filename" 2> /dev/null; then
          echo -e "❌ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
        else
          echo -e "✅ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
        fi
        break
      fi
    done <<< "$electronFiles"
  fi
done

@mrleblanc101
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mrleblanc101 commented Oct 3, 2025 •
edited
Loading

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

✅ Signal.app (Electron 38.2.0) - Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework

Who's next?

✅ Visual Studio Code - Insiders.app: Electron 37.6.0 (Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework)

@mrleblanc101
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The "kind:" mdfind keyword in the script didn't work on my Dutch system install. I found that it only works when the system language is English. As an alternative, you can use mdfind "kMDItemFSName == '*.app'".

Same.
detect-electron-apps-with-macos-lag.sh works, but not detect-electron-apps-using-cornermask.sh
Would be nice to update the script.

@mrleblanc101
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mrleblanc101 commented Oct 3, 2025 •
edited
Loading

Also, not sure why, but one of the script has echo, the other echo -e which doesn't seem to work on my machine (I'm no bash expert), so the output is prefixed with -e
Capture d’écran, le 2025-10-03 à 11 51 36

@tkafka
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tkafka commented Oct 3, 2025 •
edited
Loading

@bpresles @mrleblanc101 Thank you both!

  1. I added a check for ripgrep, and a same detection for both scripts, thanks!
  2. echo -e is no longer necessary (it enabled escape sequences for coloring the text; I didn't realize some shells might not have it).

@avarayr
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avarayr commented Oct 3, 2025

https://avarayr.github.io/shamelectron/

made a website that tracks this bug and automatically updates every day.

feel free to make a PR with your favorite app to track — see example https://github.com/avarayr/shamelectron/tree/main/lib/apps

@MadMacMad
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MadMacMad commented Oct 4, 2025 •
edited
Loading

i've had some trouble with all those scripts.... non worked ...
so changed the script to make it work...

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

if ! command -v rg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "❌ requires ripgrep (brew install ripgrep)"
  exit 1
fi

scan_dirs=(/Applications "$HOME/Applications" /System/Applications)

find "${scan_dirs[@]}" \
  -path "*/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework" \
  -type f -print0 2>/dev/null |
while IFS= read -r -d '' filename; do
  app="${filename%%.app/*}.app"
  appName="$(basename "$app")"

  ev="$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Chrome/.*Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null || true)"
  [[ -z "$ev" ]] && ev="$(rg -a -m1 -o -r '$1' 'Electron/([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3})' -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null || true)"

  relativePath="${filename#"$app/"}"

  if rg -a -q -F "_cornerMask" -- "$filename" 2>/dev/null; then
    echo -e "❌ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
  else
    echo -e "✅ $appName \033[2m(Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath\033[0m"
  fi
done

chmod +x ~/Desktop/detect-electron-fallback.sh
bash ~/Desktop/detect-electron-fallback.sh

@devnoname120
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avarayr.github.io/shamelectron

made a website that tracks this bug and automatically updates every day.

feel free to make a PR with your favorite app to track — see example github.com/avarayr/shamelectron/tree/main/lib/apps

@avarayr Very cool, thanks for sharing!

@tkafka
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tkafka commented Oct 21, 2025 •
edited
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Update: @chockenberry noticed that the script uses strings command which is a part of Xcode tools (and not normally available on mac), and provided a workaround.

I have merged Craig's contribution, and also replaced ripgrep for regular grep (which is several times slower, but always available).

Now both detection scripts can run on out-of-the-box macs.

Thanks!

@devnoname120
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devnoname120 commented Oct 21, 2025 •
edited
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@tkafka Perfect! Any chance you could add this website?
https://avarayr.github.io/shamelectron/

And its repo:
https://github.com/avarayr/shamelectron

@tkafka
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tkafka commented Oct 21, 2025

@devnoname120 Added the tracker, thanks

@rubnogueira
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Alternative way for people that don't have Spotlight enabled:

Replace first line:
find /Applications /System/Applications ~/Applications -name "*.app" -type d 2>/dev/null | sort --ignore-case | while read -r app; do

@tkafka
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tkafka commented Oct 22, 2025

@rubnogueira Thanks, replaced :)

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