Obsidian crashes on macOS 15.6.1 at startup unless Electron GPU/Metal path is disabled (SIGSEGV)

Bug reports
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1

Environment

  • Obsidian version: 1.12.7
  • Installer version: 0.14.8
  • Electron Framework: 39.8.3
  • OS: macOS 15.6.1 (24G90)
  • Hardware: MacBookPro18,1, Apple Silicon
  • Bundle ID: md.obsidian

Problem

Obsidian crashes immediately after startup. The app reaches the point where a BrowserWindow is created and ready-to-show fires, then the process exits with a macOS crash report.

This happens even with:

  • A fresh reinstall of Obsidian 1.12.7
  • A clean temporary user data dir
  • No community plugins
  • An empty vault list
  • Clearing Obsidian cache / GPU cache / Metal cache
  • Reinstalling and re-registering the vault

The vault itself is not the cause.

Crash report

macOS crash reports show:

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Signal: SIGSEGV
Subtype: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Faulting Thread: 0
Thread name: CrBrowserMain
2

very strange.

When it does start, what is the output of “show debug info command”

3

Any reason you are running that old of an installer? You should be getting an in-app warning to update it.

Go to https://obsidian.md, download the 1.12.7 .dmg (installer), and install that.

I am also using macOS 15.x (Sequoia) with the 1.12.7 installer and haven’t noticed ay start-up or crash issues.

4

Obsidian 1.12.7 (installer 0.14.8, Electron 39.8.3) crashes on macOS 26.5.1. The window appears for a few seconds, then the process exits. Sometimes there’s a crash report, sometimes it just exits with code 0 and nothing in the logs.

Crash report shows EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) in the renderer:

v8::Symbol::GetIterator(v8::Isolate*)
uv_get_constrained_memory
node::AsyncWrap::~AsyncWrap()

Looks like a V8 GC issue. The crash is intermittent, usually within 5-15 seconds of launch.

Started after the macOS 26.5.1 update (June 17). Was working fine on 26.5.0 before that.

Things I tried that didn’t help:

  • Disabled all plugins (sync, bases, everything)
  • Cleared caches, preferences, saved state
  • Reset TCC permissions (tccutil reset All md.obsidian)
  • Reinstalled from Homebrew and from the website (same dmg, same Electron 39.8.3)

Workaround: I downloaded Electron 42.4.1 and ran Obsidian’s app.asar with it:

/path/to/electron /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar     --user-data-dir="$HOME/Library/Application Support/obsidian"

Runs stable, no crashes. The V8 issue seems fixed in newer Electron.

Would it be possible to ship an updated installer with a newer Electron version? The current installer (0.14.8) bundles Electron 39.8.3 which has this V8 incompatibility with macOS 26.5.1.

5

We don’t provide support for third party packages (homebrew).

I don’t know where you are getting that installer version number. It doesn’t make sense to me

I am not sure there’s any problem with the current electron we distribute. Maybe there’s something messed up in the installation of your specific system.

7

Thanks for looking. A few things worth clarifying, since all of this is checkable on my end.

On Homebrew: the cask doesn’t repackage anything. It pulls the same official .dmg from your GitHub releases (Obsidian-1.12.7-universal.dmg) and installs Obsidian.app as-is, signature intact (Developer ID Application: Dynalist Inc. (6JSW4SJWN9)). I also hit the same crash with a fresh download from the site, so Homebrew isn’t the variable here.

On the installer version: 0.14.8 is what Settings → About calls the “Installer version” (the app version is 1.12.7). It’s also the CFBundleVersion in Obsidian.app/Contents/Info.plist, and it lines up with minimumVersion: 0.14.5 in your own desktop-releases.json. The runtime it bundles reports Chrome/142.0.7444.265 Electron/39.8.3.

As for the Electron build, 39.8.3 is the current one in the 1.12.7 installer, and that’s what crashes. The window shows for a few seconds and the process exits, sometimes with a SIGSEGV report and sometimes a silent exit(0):

EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV), KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0
Thread 0 (CrBrowserMain):
v8::Symbol::GetIterator
uv_get_constrained_memory
node::AsyncWrap::~AsyncWrap()

It isn’t specific to my machine. Another user posted the same signature on the same Electron 39.8.3 (same EXC_BAD_ACCESS at 0x0, same CrBrowserMain), on different hardware and a different macOS build, in the topic “Obsidian 1.12.7 crashes on macOS 15.6.1 at startup unless Electron GPU/Metal path is disabled”.

I tried --disable-gpu. It still exits within about 8 seconds, so for me this isn’t the GPU/Metal path. The one thing that runs stable is loading the same app.asar under a newer Electron, which is why I think it’s a V8/Node regression in 39.8.3 on this macOS build.

Any chance of a newer Electron in the installer? I can attach the full .ips if that helps.

8

I am skeptical of your explanation because if obsidian crashed on Mac, we would be flooded with bug reports.

I think there is something specific with your setup that we are not getting.

Eventually, we will update to a newer version of electron.

9

This makes me think that there is something wrong with the way obsidian is installed.
One of the reasons we don’t support third party distribution is because they mess up with the electron installation.

I suggest you try to complete purge you system of any trace of Obsidian installation.

10

Environment

  • Obsidian 1.12.7, Installer 0.14.8, Electron 39.8.3
  • macOS 26/27 Tahoe beta (Darwin 27.0.0)
  • Mac Mini M4, Apple Silicon

Symptoms
Obsidian renderer crashes within 3ms of launch — EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP) in v8::String::NewFromOneByte via the GPU/Metal rendering pipeline. Window appears briefly then goes blank. Repeated crash cycles corrupt the Electron App Support folder, making subsequent launches crash even faster.

What didn’t work
Fresh reinstall, clearing GPUCache/DawnGraphiteCache/IndexedDB, disabling all plugins, blanking workspace.json, rebooting.

What works
Launching with --disable-gpu flag bypasses the broken V8/Metal path entirely:
open -a Obsidian --args --disable-gpu
Made permanent via a wrapper .app in the Dock since argv.json is not read by this Electron version.

Additional note
After repeated crash cycles, the Electron App Support folder itself becomes corrupted. Full recovery requires:
mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/obsidian ~/Library/Application\ Support/obsidian_bak
Then relaunch and re-open the vault from the selection dialog.

And that also does not correct the issue, the Obsidian window freezes. Lather, rinse, repeat…

11

Where is this coming from? Please take a screenshot?

It isn’t helpful that you are running a beta MacOS.

How did you install Obsidian? Did you sue homebrew too? When did this start happening?