Ventura bug: images failing to display properly

[Pierre Igot]

I have a very serious problem on my Mac with picture files since I have been forced to upgrade to macOS Ventura (13.5.2 right now). Things work fine for a while, and then after a few days (cannot be more specific yet), image functionality starts acting up in various apps, including Pixelmator Pro. All of a sudden, Pixelmator Pro appears to be unable to display PNG and JPG pictures at all. All I get is an invisible layer with the check pattern:



The same picture still appears to display properly in macOS Preview, although occasionally if I try to make any color adjustments there, the picture turns white and all is lost.

When it occurs, the problem doesn't just affect Pixelmator Pro. I have the same problem in Affinity Photo 2.

And if I try to view the same image in a separate user environment I just use for testing purposes, it appears to be even worse, with even Preview itself being unable to display the image:



At this point, I have no choice but to reboot my Mac. But then I live in constant dread of the problem recurring, which it does eventually, forcing me to reboot again… and again… and again…

All this points to a bug in Ventura itself, but I cannot find ANYTHING online in Apple Discussions or elsewhere, so I am turning to this community of fellow users in case someone else has encountered the same problem in Ventura and found a solution.

Any help would be appreciated!

macOS 13.5.2
Pixelmator Pro 3.4.1
Affinity Photo 2 v2.2.0

Pierre

[mccoytest]

macOS 13.5.2, okay. me too. More details about your hardware, please. I have been using PixPro on Ventura since day one on my Apple M1 Max, 32 GB without anything like you describe. Your problem seems to be hardware related because it appears to be system wide.

[Pierre Igot]

I am using a 2023 Mac Pro. I doubt it's caused by the hardware (like I said, rebooting fixes it), but maybe it's a macOS software bug that's limited to specific hardware configurations and is therefore not widespread.

[mccoytest]

You didn't say what was attached to your machine - extra boards? - other software ? running, etc. I guess because you have a powerful machine you might have other stuff going on that is affecting you video display rendering to be messed up. I assume, knowing the full definition of assume, that you have unplugged all kinds of stuff to see if it stays better.

[Pierre Igot]

Hardware wise, I only have ordinary USB/TB peripherals and drives, nothing internal.

Software wise, I have all kinds of apps, of course, but as noted, the problem also occurs in a separate user environment with no third-party apps. As far as apps that modify the system, I only have audio stuff (Audio Hijack and SoundSource). All the rest is plain vanilla software.

[EllenM]

Why isn't there a file extension for the highlighted file "Cleanshot......."?

[Pierre Igot]

EllenM: Because macOS. For certain file types, in certain contexts, macOS fails to honour my user preference to always display the extension. But the extension is just hidden. It's not missing. That's not the problem.