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There is an odd interaction between VLC and the application [url="https://www.alfredapp.com/"]Alfred App[/url] in Mojave 10.14.6.

Information on this issue is [url="https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/13360-visual-artifacts-when-alfred-bar-is-activated-while-vlc-player-is-open/"]here[/url].

Basically, using Alfred App with the default theme (or default dark theme) results in graphic glitches when Alfred App is called if VLC is playing. This happens even if VLC is on a different monitor. If the blur of the Alfred App theme is set to "None," the problem goes away.

I'm on a Mac Pro 5,1 with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 graphics card. This issue has only appeared with Mojave 10.14.6; it was not an issue on 10.14.5. I'm using VLC Version 3.0.7.1 Vetinari (Intel 64bit).

Anyway, it's been reported to Alfred App, and the workaround above came up. But it was also suggested to report it to VLC . . . so I am doing so.

Actually, it's not just between VLC and Alfred. I've noticed the same happening on 10.14.6 when I have both iTerm2 and VLC open.

I'm also experiencing this issue on MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2012 (MacBookPro10,1) with macOS 10.14.6 Mojave.

When VLC is playing a video and I try to look at a menu of any application (including VLC's), the menu is complete distorted.
The menu ends up being purple and giant with big empty spacing between lines.

In order to temporarily bypass the issue, I turned on "Automatic graphics switching" in System Preferences -> Energy Saver.
By turning on the automatic graphics switching, my graphics default to Intel HD Graphics 4000.
When automatic graphics switching is off, my graphics default to Nvidia GeForce GT 650M.

If some other application (like a game) causes the graphics to automatically switch to Nvidia, while VLC is playing a video, then the menu issue comes back.
When the graphics are on Intel the issue isn't present.

This menu issue did not occur with macOS 10.14.5.
I tested VLC 3.0.6, 3.0.7.1, and nightly 4.0, this issue occurs with all of these VLC versions.

I have these glitches too on a 2012 MacBook Pro retina. While I do have Alfred installed, the blur option is off. However, I have blur enabled in the terminal, and I always keep a terminal window open somewhere. The odd thing is that the glitches remain even after I quit VLC and are especially rampant if I do the three-finger-swipe-up thing to see all open windows. Reboot is the only way for me to get rid of them completely.

This suggests that this is a system bug, probably somewhere in NSVisualEffectView rendering. Probably also related to NVidia GPUs. I think we need to report this to Apple.

So glad (in some ways) to read this. I have the same broken up purple menus on my 2015 MBP since either last Mojave update or last VLC update.

No issues on my 2018 iMac 5K though.

Any answers yet?

I have the same graphic problem, but I do not use Alfred.
I deleted everything to do with VLC, but the problem still exists.
I created a guest user and the problem went away, but I have not figured out a way of getting files from the guest user into my users folder.
Suggestion for you all - create a guest user and see if the problems with graphics goes away.
Hope that this will give someone an idea.

I have the same problem with VLC and Alfred.
Purple stuff came up flickering on parts of the screen when I bring up Alfred.

Found this thread and it worked fine after quitting VLC.
Also it happens only after I'd updated to 10.14.6

I'm having exactly the same issue, but do not have alfred installed. Problem only seems to abait when I quit VLC

I have a MacBook Pro Retina late-2013 and I want to report:

- i don't need to open Alfred, a right click anywhere should trigger the issue
- minimizing or quitting VLC fixes the issue
- with VLC running, even after quitting Alfred, the issue persists, so I assume Alfred has nothing to do with the issue, it's just another trigger.


Triggers for me are:

- right clicking any window to show a menu
- clicking a menu option from the menu bar 
- opening Alfred
- moving a window around

As far as I can tell this is an issue with VLC and MacOS, not with Alfred

exactly the same issue I have - same configuration of randpx.

any updates on this?

I was thinking of installing Catalina beta to see if the issue will be solved....

This is an issue in macOS, I've reported it to Apple. Feel free to do the same, you can submit reports like these on [url]https://feedbackassistant.apple.com[/url]

There is no quick fix we could do for this in VLC as far as I know and without further information by Apple about what is triggering this issue.

This is an issue in macOS, I've reported it to Apple. Feel free to do the same, you can submit reports like these on [url]https://feedbackassistant.apple.com[/url]

There is no quick fix we could do for this in VLC as far as I know and without further information by Apple about what is triggering this issue.

The URL you provided is for the apple feedback assistant, which is only for people enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program

Is it, perhaps, better to post feedback simply on apple's product feedback page? (https://www.apple.com/feedback/)

Or is this unlikely to actually get noticed?

Is the issue still present with Catalina?

I don't have the hardware to reproduce the problem on, it seems to only affect Mac that have a dedicated NVIDIA GPU. So I do not know if it is fixed in Catalina.

Someone who can reproduce the issue and wants to help find a workaround for this and is familiar with the Terminal, it would help if you could try launching VLC like this from Terminal:
And then play a (not too large as hardware decoding will not work) video and check if it glitches the OS menus. Note that it probably will crash VLC at the end of the video.

I did the test: yes it does glitch

this is in the terminal:

VLC media player 3.0.7.1 Vetinari (revision 3.0.7.1-1-0-g26acdaa9ca)
[00007fab31c0e9e0] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[00007fab31f010f0] main libvlc error: interface "(null),none" initialization failed
[00007fab31f010f0] main libvlc: Esecuzione di vlc con l'interfaccia predefinita. Usa 'cvlc' per utilizzare vlc senza interfaccia.
[00007fab31e2b550] main playlist: playlist is empty
objc[22555]: Class FIFinderSyncExtensionHost is implemented in both /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FinderKit.framework/Versions/A/FinderKit (0x7fffaaeca3d8) and /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FileProvider.framework/OverrideBundles/FinderSyncCollaborationFileProviderOverride.bundle/Contents/MacOS/FinderSyncCollaborationFileProviderOverride (0x118129f50). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
[00007fab379bc9f0] videotoolbox decoder: Using Video Toolbox to decode 'h264'
[00007fab379bc9f0] videotoolbox decoder: vt cvpx chroma: 420v
2019-08-16 11:34:26.891 VLC[22555:3167094] Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client
2019-08-16 11:34:27.092 VLC[22555:3167094] Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client
[00007fab3a9f3cd0] caopengllayer vout display error: Error while initializing opengl display.
[00007fab349e28f0] main video output error: video output creation failed
[00007fab379bc9f0] main decoder error: failed to create video output
[00007fab379bc9f0] videotoolbox decoder error: decoder failure, Abort.
2019-08-16 11:34:27.252 VLC[22555:3167094] Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client
2019-08-16 11:34:27.427 VLC[22555:3167094] Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client
[h264 @ 0x7fab3320be00] co located POCs unavailable
[00007fab3ac6db80] bonjour renderer discovery: starting discovery
[00007fab3ac6db80] bonjour renderer discovery: stopped discovery
[h264 @ 0x7fab33075e00] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7fab33075e00] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7fab33075e00] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7fab33075e00] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7fab3315fe00] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7fab3315fe00] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7fab3315fe00] Missing reference picture, default is 65738
[h264 @ 0x7fab3315fe00] Missing reference picture, default is 65738

Ok, thanks for testing. So then even using CAOpenGLLayer is not a workaround for this issue…
Do you happen to have mpv (https://mpv.io) installed and could try with that? If it has the same issue while playing videos, then there is probably nothing we can do at all except hope for a fix by Apple.

just tested with mvp.io
no problem whatsoever

it seems to only affect Mac that have a dedicated NVIDIA GPU

if I switch from the NVIDIA GPU to the Integrated GPU, artifacts and weird behavior disappear. Maybe it's a bad driver?

Brief report on similar issue:
issue: colored and spaced artifacts when opening VLC menus *during* playback. Back to normal, when stopped.
happens only with an active secondary display, not if only playback on laptop. Independent of display on laptop display or secondary display. In shell mode with only secondary display active, artifacts also appear.

context: VLC 3.0.8; MacOS 10.14.6; Mac Book Pro 2013, late, with NVidia and graphics card switching
Alfred installed, but not running (for months), stopping all running utilities has no effect.
Running on a test account (without other installations): no issues observed (so probably some sort of installation interaction)
Quicktime: no issues observed
Deactivating automatic graphics switching: problems occur even if only laptop display active.
(even with running video on laptop display only mode the problems can be switched on and off through this)

Hi there, folks. I created an account just to reply to this thread.

I have been experiencing similar funky purple gpu/menu artifacting ever since updating my 2012 iMac from Mojave 10.14.5 to 10.14.6. While I don't even have any of the software you're talking about installed, the symptoms sounded similar to what I had been running into with Final Cut Pro and Safari.

I tried creating a new user like someone suggested, and the issue did indeed go away... but it made no sense to me why that would fix anything. So, I kept digging.

TL;DR - Try turning off "reduced transparency" in your Settings > Accessibility > Display settings. For whatever reason, that was the culprit for my issues. If this works for you, there's no need to create a new user and have to set things up again.

I have to assume it somehow messes with the new way Metal utilizes GPU power to render menus, but no idea why. Anyway, I hope this fix works for some of you!

Thanks!!!

confirmed, it fixed it!

TL;DR - Try turning off "reduced transparency" in your Settings > Accessibility > Display settings. For whatever reason, that was the culprit for my issues. If this works for you, there's no need to create a new user and have to set things up again.

I can confirm this fix worked for me.

I LOVE THE INTERNET!
Thanks so much. This fixes it to the extent that you can even toggle the glitch on and off while watching a video in VLC
I had some really snarky people in another forum telling me which software I do and don't need on my machine...