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Steam Link 1.3.32 crashes at every stream start on macOS 26 (Tahoe) - cause and workaround
Steam Link 1.3.32 (App Store build 5000313) on macOS 26.5.2, Apple Silicon (M2 Pro): the app quits with SIGSEGV every time a stream starts. Crash is on the main thread in libqcocoa.dylib, every time:

0 libqcocoa.dylib 0x1059ce790 (+42896)
1 libqcocoa.dylib 0x105a05f70 (+270192)
2 AppKit -[NSMenu _enableItem:] + 692
3 AppKit -[NSMenu _enableItems] + 156
...
8 AppKit -[NSMenu _simulateOpening:] + 120
...
14 UIIntelligenceSupport 0x27f2f938c
15 UIIntelligenceSupport 0x27f2eedec
16 CoreFoundation __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__
...
27 SDL3 (event pump)
30 Steam Link
EXC_BAD_ACCESS KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x70, x0 = 0: a null menu-item back-end read inside Qt's Cocoa plugin.

Cause. macOS 26's Spotlight "Menu Items" search asks every app that comes to the front for its menu-bar commands. The unified log shows it right before each crash:

intelligencecontextd: starting RequestID(...) for client Spotlight: RequestParameters(timeout: 0.75 sec,
requestedComponents: (commands), targetedAppBundleIdentifiers: ["com.valvesoftware.SteamLink17"], ...)
Steam Link: received request to collect fragments RequestID(...)
intelligencecontextd: client unexpectedly disconnected while pending: ... SteamLink17
AppKit answers by simulating opening every menu (_simulateOpening:), which calls back into Qt's menu delegate.

While the Qt window is up those requests succeed. The one that arrives as the stream starts, when the SDL window takes over and the Qt menu bar is torn down, hits a menu item whose Qt side is already gone, and Qt 5.14.1 (the version bundled in 1.3.32) dereferences null.

Workaround (verified). System Settings > Spotlight > Results from System > turn Menu Items off. Watched live: the moment it was off, intelligencecontextd stopped issuing Spotlight command requests to any app, and the next stream ran without a crash where every previous one had died. This is not related to accessibility apps: closing Wispr Flow, Raycast etc. made no difference, even though the crash report's voucher happened to name one of them.

Suggested fix. Guard the Qt menu delegate (validateMenuItem / menu update) against items whose QCocoaMenuItem has been destroyed, or keep the menu bar alive across the window swap; or update Qt - 5.14.1 is from early 2020 and predates every macOS 26 change in this area.

Happy to send the two full .ips crash reports and the log stream capture from the toggle test (the request lines above were pulled with log show on the day; the live log has since aged them out).
< >
Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
slouken
Oct 6 @ 11:48am 
This is fixed for the next update, thanks!
#1
hitch-hiker
Oct 13 @ 9:12am 
I have a similar issue, altough I'm on MacOS 15.8 and Spotlight is completely disabled on my system:

-------------------------------------
Translated Report (Full Report Below)
-------------------------------------

Process: Steam Link [3085]
Path: /Applications/Steam Link.app/Contents/MacOS/Steam Link
Identifier: com.valvesoftware.SteamLink17
Version: 1.3.32 (5000313)
App Item ID: 1246969117
App External ID: 888256382
Code Type: ARM-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2026-10-13 18:03:10.3399 +0200
OS Version: macOS 15.8 (24H23)
Report Version: 12
Anonymous UUID: 0DA479D5-D814-3EC3-B82C-E7E10A512320


Time Awake Since Boot: 12000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 MainThrd Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000070
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000070

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11
Terminating Process: exc handler [3085]

VM Region Info: 0x70 is not in any region. Bytes before following region: 4336123792
REGION TYPE START - END [ VSIZE] PRT/MAX SHRMOD REGION DETAIL
UNUSED SPACE AT START
--->
__TEXT 102740000-1033d8000 [ 12.6M] r-x/r-x SM=COW /Applications/Steam Link.app/Contents/MacOS/Steam Link

Thread 0 Crashed:: MainThrd Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libqcocoa.dylib 0x104afe790 0x104af4000 + 42896
1 libqcocoa.dylib 0x104b35f70 0x104af4000 + 270192
2 AppKit 0x1869413e8 -[NSMenu _enableItem:] + 692
3 AppKit 0x186940fa0 -[NSMenu _enableItems] + 156
4 AppKit 0x187000a10 __32-[NSMenu _enableItemsWithFlags:]_block_invoke + 60
5 AppKit 0x18700358c -[NSMenu _withUpdateFlags:do:] + 72
6 AppKit 0x1870009c8 -[NSMenu _enableItemsWithFlags:] + 96
7 AppKit 0x1871a1970 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _sendMenuEnableItems] + 268
8 AppKit 0x1871a0bf8 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl viewWillAppear] + 64
9 AppKit 0x186f56138 -[NSContextMenuImpl viewWillAppear] + 60
10 AppKit 0x18707e314 -[NSPopupMenuWindow _orderFrontWithParentWindow:screenFrame:] + 320
11 AppKit 0x18707e0a0 -[NSPopupMenuWindow _commonPresentFromView:animated:] + 572
12 AppKit 0x1871a3144 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl presentSubmenuWindow:fromView:parentFrame:highlightingFirstItem:withDelay:] + 312
13 AppKit 0x1871a2f24 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _openSubmenuFromView:impl:parentFrame:highlightingFirstItem:withDelay:] + 412
14 AppKit 0x1871a2a8c -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _openSubmenuFromView:highlightingFirstItem:withDelay:] + 568
15 AppKit 0x1871a2814 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl openSubmenuFromView:] + 60
16 AppKit 0x1871aa520 __60-[NSCocoaMenuImpl _highlightMenuItemView:shouldOpenSubmenu:]_block_invoke + 340
17 AppKit 0x1871aa134 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _highlightMenuItemView:shouldOpenSubmenu:] + 376
18 AppKit 0x1871a45b8 -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _performBlock:resigningFirstResponder:] + 72
19 AppKit 0x1871a948c -[NSCocoaMenuImpl _routeEventIfNeeded:toSubview:] + 824
20 AppKit 0x1871a8f5c -[NSCocoaMenuImpl handleMouseEvent:] + 144
21 AppKit 0x1875a8104 -[NSMenuBarImpl mouseDown:] + 128
22 AppKit 0x186fa5c74 -[NSMenuTrackingSession _mouseDownEventHandler:] + 360
23 AppKit 0x187063a24 -[NSMenuBarTrackingSession _mouseDownEventHandler:] + 304
24 AppKit 0x1870638c8 -[NSMenuBarTrackingSession _handleMonitorEvent:] + 420
25 AppKit 0x1870635d0 __57-[NSMenuBarTrackingSession _addLocalEventMonitorIfNeeded]_block_invoke + 120
26 AppKit 0x1869d5cf0 _NSSendEventToDequeuingObservers + 252
27 AppKit 0x187180b94 -[NSApplication(NSEventRouting) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 2168
28 SDL3 0x103de104c 0x103dbc000 + 151628
29 SDL3 0x103de1294 0x103dbc000 + 152212
30 SDL3 0x103eaa5d8 0x103dbc000 + 976344
31 Steam Link 0x1028c66f8 0x102740000 + 1599224
32 Steam Link 0x1028c66a4 0x102740000 + 1599140
33 Steam Link 0x10289479c 0x102740000 + 1394588
34 Steam Link 0x102894150 0x102740000 + 1392976
35 Steam Link 0x10274fe3c 0x102740000 + 65084
36 Steam Link 0x10274f300 0x102740000 + 62208
37 dyld 0x182432b98 start + 6076

When will there be a working version on the App Store?
#2
slouken
Oct 13 @ 10:23am 
Originally posted by hitch-hiker:
I have a similar issue, altough I'm on MacOS 15.8 and Spotlight is completely disabled on my system:

When will there be a working version on the App Store?

Now! :)
Last edited by slouken; Oct 13 @ 10:24am
#3
psynikal
Oct 19 @ 5:43pm 
😎✋
#4
KillstreakBRO
Oct 20 @ 11:13pm 
Originally posted by slouken:
Originally posted by hitch-hiker:
I have a similar issue, altough I'm on MacOS 15.8 and Spotlight is completely disabled on my system:

When will there be a working version on the App Store?

Now! :)
Still crashes
#5
hitch-hiker
Oct 24 @ 10:57am 
Yeah, it still crashes when trying to connect to the Steam Machine (even in MacOS 15.8 and with Spotlight turned off)!
Isn't it possible to fix that bug in the Apple Store version of Steamlink?
Last edited by hitch-hiker; Oct 24 @ 10:59am
#6
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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
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Steam Link > Apple macOS > Topic Details
Date Posted: Oct 5 @ 4:27pm
Posts: 6
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