DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper grows by about 33 MB per hour on macOS 27 (v 17.0.24)

marcocavanna · Today, 10:10 AM

Hello,

since I installed DisplayLink Manager 17.0.24, DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper grows steadily by about 30 to 35 MB per hour and its memory never goes down. After six days of uptime it had reached 4.6 GB, and on 30 September it was the fourth largest process in the macOS jetsam report.

Details:
- Mac: MacBook Pro, Apple M2 Max, 64 GB RAM (Mac14,6)
- macOS: 27.0 (26A428), then 27.0.1 (26A434), same behaviour on both
- DisplayLink Manager: 17.0.24, installed on 24 September 2026; previous version 16.1.25
- Dock: iVANKY 14 in 1 USB-C Docking Station, USB ID 17e9:6000, bcdDevice 0x4300
- Displays on DisplayLink: LG 2560x1080 at 75 Hz and Samsung C27F390 1920x1080 at 72 Hz. A third monitor (Dell U3415W) on the same dock runs over DisplayPort Alt Mode.
Memory footprint of DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper, from the jetsam reports and from top.

macOS 27.0, boot on 24 September at 12:43:
- 24 Sep 12:57: 8 MB
- 25 Sep 10:32: 762 MB
- 26 Sep 11:21: 1,863 MB
- 28 Sep 10:21: 2,270 MB
- 28 Sep 23:12: 2,875 MB
- 29 Sep 10:12: 3,337 MB
- 30 Sep 11:58: 4,395 MB

macOS 27.0.1, boot on 30 September at 17:06:
- 30 Sep 17:15: 7 MB
- 1 Oct 10:04: 547 MB
- 1 Oct 11:28: 596 MB

The helper was never restarted within either series; a reboot brings it back to a few MB.

While it grows, its only entries in the unified log are "[com.displaylink.DisplayLinkManager.PrivilegedHelpe r:watchdog] Detected DisplayLinkUserAgent via runningApps", written about every 3 seconds (73 times in 230 seconds). In the same 230 seconds the footprint went from 548 to 550 MB, roughly 28 KB per check, and the same ratio holds between the last boot and 10:04 the next morning. There were 133 running applications at the time. Could you check on your side whether the watchdog's enumeration of running applications retains those objects?

With 16.1.25 on macOS 27.0, from 20 to 24 September, the helper did not appear at all in the jetsam reports of 23 and 24 September, which list only DisplayLinkUserAgent and DisplayLinkXpcService.

A second, smaller point: DisplayLinkUserAgent calls SCShareableContent about once per second (57 times per minute), enumerating around 52 applications each time, and writes about 6,000 ScreenCaptureKit INFO lines per minute to the unified log. Is this polling expected in 17.0?

Two questions:
1. Is this a known issue in 17.0.24, and is a fix planned for a specific release?
2. Until then, is restarting the helper with "launchctl kickstart -k system/com.displaylink.DisplayLinkManager.PrivilegedHelpe r" safe, or is there a supported way to do it?

If you need a specific log or diagnostic from my side, let me know what.

Thanks,
Marco

Today, 10:10 AM	#1
marcocavanna Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2026 Posts: 1	DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper grows by about 33 MB per hour on macOS 27 (v 17.0.24) Hello, since I installed DisplayLink Manager 17.0.24, DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper grows steadily by about 30 to 35 MB per hour and its memory never goes down. After six days of uptime it had reached 4.6 GB, and on 30 September it was the fourth largest process in the macOS jetsam report. Details: - Mac: MacBook Pro, Apple M2 Max, 64 GB RAM (Mac14,6) - macOS: 27.0 (26A428), then 27.0.1 (26A434), same behaviour on both - DisplayLink Manager: 17.0.24, installed on 24 September 2026; previous version 16.1.25 - Dock: iVANKY 14 in 1 USB-C Docking Station, USB ID 17e9:6000, bcdDevice 0x4300 - Displays on DisplayLink: LG 2560x1080 at 75 Hz and Samsung C27F390 1920x1080 at 72 Hz. A third monitor (Dell U3415W) on the same dock runs over DisplayPort Alt Mode. Memory footprint of DisplayLinkPrivilegedHelper, from the jetsam reports and from top. macOS 27.0, boot on 24 September at 12:43: - 24 Sep 12:57: 8 MB - 25 Sep 10:32: 762 MB - 26 Sep 11:21: 1,863 MB - 28 Sep 10:21: 2,270 MB - 28 Sep 23:12: 2,875 MB - 29 Sep 10:12: 3,337 MB - 30 Sep 11:58: 4,395 MB macOS 27.0.1, boot on 30 September at 17:06: - 30 Sep 17:15: 7 MB - 1 Oct 10:04: 547 MB - 1 Oct 11:28: 596 MB The helper was never restarted within either series; a reboot brings it back to a few MB. While it grows, its only entries in the unified log are "[com.displaylink.DisplayLinkManager.PrivilegedHelpe r:watchdog] Detected DisplayLinkUserAgent via runningApps", written about every 3 seconds (73 times in 230 seconds). In the same 230 seconds the footprint went from 548 to 550 MB, roughly 28 KB per check, and the same ratio holds between the last boot and 10:04 the next morning. There were 133 running applications at the time. Could you check on your side whether the watchdog's enumeration of running applications retains those objects? With 16.1.25 on macOS 27.0, from 20 to 24 September, the helper did not appear at all in the jetsam reports of 23 and 24 September, which list only DisplayLinkUserAgent and DisplayLinkXpcService. A second, smaller point: DisplayLinkUserAgent calls SCShareableContent about once per second (57 times per minute), enumerating around 52 applications each time, and writes about 6,000 ScreenCaptureKit INFO lines per minute to the unified log. Is this polling expected in 17.0? Two questions: 1. Is this a known issue in 17.0.24, and is a fix planned for a specific release? 2. Until then, is restarting the helper with "launchctl kickstart -k system/com.displaylink.DisplayLinkManager.PrivilegedHelpe r" safe, or is there a supported way to do it? If you need a specific log or diagnostic from my side, let me know what. Thanks, Marco