Spams MacOS cache folder with CFNetworkDownload files

[yimingzhaomath]

Describe the bug

I am on the latest stable OrbStack release on MacOS.

OrbStack would, over the days, fill the MacOS cache folder with millions of CFNetworkDownload files. While each file is only 15kb, it would over the span of a week, get to a total of 50GB. Then my Mac mini would be out of storage and rebooting it usually clears those files.

I dug deeper today to see what those files are. It turns out that they are PNG files. Those little icons you see to the left of the container name. For some reason, OrbStack would download them over and over and over again.

Like I said, over a span of a week, you would get 50GB of those completely duplicated PNG files.

It happens when you are on the "Activity Monitor" page. You can see the icon being refreshed every second and you can see the CFNetworkDownload files being generated in the cache folder.

To Reproduce

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Diagnostic report (REQUIRED)

OrbStack info:
Version: 2.0.5
Commit: cfe47627f138ffd822c958553b0a93eaf2692c71 (v2.0.5)

System info:
macOS: 26.3 (25D125)
CPU: arm64, 10 cores
CPU model: Apple M4
Model: Mac16,10
Memory: 16 GiB

Full report: https://orbstack.dev/_admin/diag/orbstack-diagreport_2026-03-02T04-02-18.200887Z.zip

Screenshots and additional context (optional)

No response

[Atlas3686]

Having exactly the same issue, surprised there isn't more comment on this issue. Orbstack causes the mac mini to crash once it's filled the cache with these files. A reboot does clear them out but then they simply fill it up again.

Also using the same base m4 mac mini.

[yimingzhaomath]

@Atlas3686 one work-around I've found is when you close OrbStack's window, make sure you are not on the activity monitor page. It seems to only spam the cache when you are on that page and close the window while on that page.

[jt3204]

Also experiencing the exact same issue. Will try the suggestion of not having the Activity Monitor window active when closing/minimising the GUI.

[LouisGordon]

241KB files here, also confirmed to be a PNG of the letters "OI", the icon of a stopped open-webui container. While watching the orbstack UI I can see that the icon of the stopped container line seems to flicker/refresh and this is when I see the file appear. I've confirmed that with the UI closed (but still running, with the icon in the status menu) the problem persists.

I did have this problem more than three days ago when I didn't have this container. I can confirm I'm on v2.0.5 and have been since I started using orbstack.

[kdrag0n]

Fixed in v2.1.0.