Detect Electron apps on mac where the Electron hasn't yet been updated to fix the system wide lag

README.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:

• electron/electron#48311 (comment)
• https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/09/30/electron-apps-causing-system-wide-lag-on-tahoe/

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

A bit of promo

If you'd appreciate a visual (Tufte-like) hour by hour forecast for iOS/Apple Watch/mac with nice widgets, I made one - check out 🌦️ Weathergraph.

Thanks! Tomas

detect-electron-apps-by-version.sh

# Detect affected Electron versions
mdfind "kMDItemFSName == '*.app'" | 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
      electronVersion=$(strings "$filename" | grep "Chrome/" | grep -i Electron | grep -v '%s' | sort -u | cut -f 3 -d '/')
      
      if [[ -n "$electronVersion" ]]; then
        IFS='.' read -r major minor patch <<< "$electronVersion"
        
        relativePath=$(echo "$filename" | sed "s|$app/||")
        
        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: Electron $electronVersion ($relativePath)"
        else
          echo "❌ $appName: Electron $electronVersion ($relativePath)"
        fi
        break
      fi
    done <<< "$electronFiles"
  fi
done

detect-electron-apps-using-cornermask.sh

# Directly detect Electron apps using the _cornerMask override - thanks avarayr!
if [[ ! -f $(which rg) ]]; then
  echo "❌ this script requires ripgrep, you can install it with: brew install ripgrep"
  exit 1
fi

mdfind "kMDItemFSName == '*.app'" | 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 "❌ $appName (Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath"
        else
          echo "✅ $appName (Electron ${ev:-unknown}) - $relativePath"
        fi
        break
      fi
    done <<< "$electronFiles"
  fi
done

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

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

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!