[BUG] Claude Desktop blank screen on macOS - GPU compositing fails to paint on Apple Silicon (M1 Pro)

[tsvika58]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Desktop shows a completely blank/empty window on startup. The web content loads (verified via logs showing navigation to claude.ai/login) but the GPU compositor fails to paint it to the screen.

Key finding: The content IS loaded in memory - performing a macOS window swap (Mission Control swipe) and returning to Claude causes the content to appear. This confirms it's a GPU compositing/painting issue, not a content loading issue.

Root Cause Analysis

The issue manifests as a GPU compositing failure where the Electron renderer loads content but fails to paint it. Diagnostics:

1. --disable-gpu flag fully fixes the issue - launching with /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing renders correctly every time
2. Normal launch shows blank screen but window swap/repaint forces content to appear
3. React error Feature: implement aider --watch-files #418 appears in logs as a secondary symptom (hydration mismatch likely caused by the blank paint state)
4. Full cache/data nuke did NOT fix it - only disabling GPU did
5. Network connectivity confirmed working (curl to claude.ai succeeds)

Relevant Log Errors

# GPU-related blank screen with React hydration failure
Uncaught Error: Minified React error #418; visit https://react.dev/errors/418?args[]=HTML&args[]=

# EventEmitter leak from repeated retry attempts
MaxListenersExceededWarning: Possible EventEmitter memory leak detected. 11 listeners added.

# Content actually loads (navigation works)
topFrameUrl: 'https://claude.ai/login?returnTo=%2Ftask%2Fnew'
[info] claude.ai account details provided

Environment

• App Version: 1.1.3189 (1b7b58)
• Platform: macOS 15.3 (Darwin 25.3.0)
• Architecture: arm64 (Apple Silicon)
• CPU: Apple M1 Pro
• RAM: 32 GB
• Electron: 40.4.0

Steps to Reproduce

1. Launch Claude Desktop normally on macOS with Apple Silicon (M1 Pro)
2. Observe blank/empty window - no UI rendered
3. Use Mission Control or window swap gesture - content appears on return
4. Quit and relaunch with --disable-gpu - renders immediately every time

What Should Happen?

Claude Desktop should render its web content immediately on launch without requiring a window repaint trigger.

Workarounds

1. Best: Launch with --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing flag
2. Quick: After launch, switch away from the window (Mission Control) and switch back to force repaint

Related Issues

• [BUG] React Hydration Error Prevents Claude Code Web Session Startup #10995 - React Hydration Error (the Feature: implement aider --watch-files #418 error is a secondary symptom of this GPU paint failure)
• [BUG] Minified React error #418 #11093 - Duplicate of [BUG] React Hydration Error Prevents Claude Code Web Session Startup #10995
• BUG] Claude Desktop shows white/blank screen after Windows Hibernate with external monitor #21803 - White/blank screen after Windows Hibernate (similar symptom, different platform)
• Claude Desktop App - Code tab shows black screen #21764 - Code tab shows black screen

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Claude Desktop black screen with Windows HDR enabled (NVIDIA RTX 4080 + high-refresh monitor) #25801
2. [BUG] Claude Desktop shows black/blank window on restore (Windows) - React #418 still occurring on v1.1.2156 Body: #23637
3. [BUG] Blank/white screen on Windows ARM64 - requires process kill to recover #25929

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[tsvika58]

This is not a duplicate of the linked Windows issues. My bug is on macOS 15.3, Apple Silicon (M1 Pro) — a completely different platform.

The linked issues (#25801, #23637, #25929) are all Windows-specific. While the symptom (blank window) is similar, the root cause on macOS Apple Silicon involves GPU compositor failure in Electron on arm64, which is a distinct issue deserving separate tracking.

Key differentiators:

• Platform: macOS 15.3 (not Windows)
• Architecture: arm64 Apple Silicon (M1 Pro)
• Workaround: --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing flags confirm GPU compositing is the failure point on this platform

Please keep this open for macOS/Apple Silicon users.

[komealy]

windows != macOS

Please keep this open, and actually fix it for Mac users. Claude Desktop re-rendering issues and Claude Code CLI going blank are different issues here, so do not close issue #26631 either. We need the fixes in the Desktop app as well as the CLI app.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.