CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Since CrossOver 24 update, Steam is freezing / crashing perhaps due to explorer.exe which seems to stop responding and consuming 85-150% CPU.
Makes CrossOver unusable as this causes any game to stutter and fan to come on full blast.
Happens in both Win 11 and 10.
Ive remade bottles and reinstalled Crossover to no avail.

Anyone with similar issue?

Yes, I've also experienced this issue, and am not using Steam. I was obligated to force shutdown the explorer.exe application in Activity Monitor and restart my computer before trying again.

Yeah, Crossover 24 is almost unusable for me. Steam always freezes after a while and not even restarting Crossover helps, need to restart the entire computer ;/

Hi folks,

Please make sure to enter tickets if these issues persist so a member of our team can take a look.

Best,
Meredith

i have this same problem just rolled back to version 23

the new version is unusable

Same for me, had to roll back.
Worse of all is that the Beta and RC worked perfectly, so I spend hours debugging to find out what was wrong.

Back on the latest V23 and all is fine again

go figure :(

Same problem but with any app. I found if you force quit explorer.exe from activity monitor, your app you were trying to use will then run fine. I keep activity monitor open on another monitor to do this. I have opened a support ticket.

just all please log a call with the support team so that they can get it fixed

Manu wrote:

Same for me, had to roll back.
Worse of all is that the Beta and RC worked perfectly, so I spend hours debugging to find out what was wrong.

Back on the latest V23 and all is fine again

go figure :(

How do you roll back to V23?

Guillaume Tourrette wrote:

How do you roll back to V23?

Go to your account page. You can download any current or earlier version of Crossover from there:
https://www.codeweavers.com/account/downloads/archive

You can keep more than one version installed at one time, just don't run more than one at a time.

Same issue here. MacBook Pro 14 M1.
Fresh install of Crossover and Steam and get this freezing / explorer.exe issue.

Will open a ticket with support too in case they need more info.

I opened a ticket.
For 99% of users, the MAIN JOB of crossover is to run Steam. How do they release something so broken?
Its unacceptable for a retail release.

How did you roll back? Is there a link to the old version?

I rolled back, but I'm still seeing the same problem.

Which macOS are you all using? Nobody mentions that. Crossover 24 and Steam work fine for me on both 12.7.3 and 14.3. In Beta 3 there were problems with Steam, EA and other apps "crashing" (but still working) but they fixed it.

Did you install some additional software like DirectX? I'm experiencing the same if I install it in the Steam bottle.

testuser wrote:

Did you install some additional software like DirectX? I'm experiencing the same if I install it in the Steam bottle.

I always install ”DirectX for modern games” and don’t have the problem.

Humang wrote:

testuser wrote:

Did you install some additional software like DirectX? I'm experiencing the same if I install it in the Steam bottle.

I always install ”DirectX for modern games” and don’t have the problem.

Not the OP.
Thanks, will try DirectX again. I'm also running macOS Monterey 12.7.3

I have exact same problem.
Going back to version 23.7.1 resolved the problem.

This seems to be related to macOS's privilege/access control/Sandbox/whatever system blocking access to disks. To me this freeze only occurs once the program hit an obstacle that macOS usually sets for key locations - Desktop, Documents, network volumes - upon first access by a new app. Once all relevant locations are granted access, these freezes cease to occur, for that bottle at least.

My theory is: Considering CX drops a new explorer.exe for each new bottle, and each new explorer.exe would at some time look at /, /Volumes, ~/Documents (contents of drive Y: and Z: for all standard bottles) on behalf of the programs we run, there will be times when they are blocked access and spins instead.

Sadly, I don't think Apple details the exact process how macOS decides whether an attempt to key locations were made by user (so brings up a dialog asking you about it) or secretly by the program itself (so fails silently, without opening an entry in SysPrefs > Privacy&Security > Files and Folders). Former case you can easily correct by giving access, but in the latter case you may re-trigger this spin again, until by other means macOS prompts you to grant access, after which the bug suddenly disappears. May I suggest you to Run explorer.exe from bottles, look at My Computer, enter Y: and Z:, Allow, restart Crossover and try again?

I can run version 24.7.1 without any problems but with 24.0 explorer.exe uses 100% and so my Mac is running hot. I have them both installed.
Support told me to completely remove Crossover with their removal tool and reinstall version 24 which means I also have to reinstall all bottles and applications. What kind of advise is that?
I think they need to fix their software.

Micky Holdorf wrote:

I can run version 24.7.1 without any problems but with 24.0 explorer.exe uses 100% and so my Mac is running hot. I have them both installed.
Support told me to completely remove Crossover with their removal tool and reinstall version 24 which means I also have to reinstall all bottles and applications. What kind of advise is that?
I think they need to fix their software.

If you use the same bottle for all your applications/games like I do installing the bottle takes only a minute. You don't either need to install all your applications. If you have Steam games they're still on your external drive and you can start them with the Steam client. I always launch games through Steam and don't use the shortcuts in the bottle, except for the Steam client itself.

The performance difference is quite drastic from 23.7.1 to 24; in 23.7.1, I average 150fps in rocket league, high quality but special effects disabled. In 24, I average barely 70fps. Going to stay on 23.7.1 for now

lamersc wrote:

The performance difference is quite drastic from 23.7.1 to 24; in 23.7.1, I average 150fps in rocket league, high quality but special effects disabled. In 24, I average barely 70fps. Going to stay on 23.7.1 for now

Using D3DMetal?

I reported this issue during beta 1,2 an 3. I even went to so far and reinstalled macos on new partition to make sure it's not some leftover configuration issue on my end.

I am not 100% sure this is 100% related to CX24 though as someone else pointed out, rather some change in macOS. Workaround is to alt/tab to mac, activity monitor, kill explorer.exe and you can see the cpu load/heat goes down.

It's not something in MacOS. I am on Monterey 12.6.3 and it also happens on newer versions.
I have 4-5 bottles with games and apps and 1 with Steam. I don't want to spend time installing the bottles again because v24 has a bug. I will wait until they have fixed it. I got an email saying that they are looking into it, but recreating the bottles in v24 is a workaround.

not steam related, using apps like winbox/putty/dude same problem

macOS 14.3.1 (23D60), M2 Pro

This has been going on for over a month. I have sent 2 requests to get it fixed with no responds except we are working on it. The last time we all had a problem with Quicken it took them over 2 months to fix. HELP !

Having same issue with explorer.exe on CrossOver 24.0.1, MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1. Persists on Steam and BattleNet bottles

Zsolt Polgar wrote:

not steam related, using apps like winbox/putty/dude same problem

macOS 14.3.1 (23D60), M2 Pro

same

14.4 (23E214), M2 Pro

How has such an obvious bug not been fixed for so long?

I'm having the same issue with an application using Windows 10 with Version 24. Had to add the application using Windows 7 and even that's not quite perfect and it's a simple application. Have you heard anything about whether there is a fix coming for Version 24 and/or where I can look for more information? I'm new to Crossover, still on the Trial version to make sure this is going to work for me. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Explorer.exe is invoked any time you run a program. Once I close it via Activity Monitor the issue goes away. The next time I run the program it opens again.

Crossover asked to update to 24.0.3 today and the change list only had one line: "Fix explorer.exe".
And it worked perfectly... thanks Codeweavers!
But it took almost 3 months...

Would you please give post your Mac OS version ,crossover full version number and CPU . Currently, I am personally running M1 ultra with the latest macOS (14.5) Crossover 24.0.3 and I'm not seeing this problem. The information you provide would help me follow the problem.

Just reviewed sorry I missed post. Most of you were on Mac OS 12.

Yes, it was working 30 minutes ago when I had to restart Steam. Then Steam updated and now Steam won't work on Crossover. Says "Steamwebhelper is not responding".

I'm on M3 Mac Pro MacBook Pro.
Sonoma 14.4
Crossover 24.0.3

I can also confirm this behavior. After a steam update inside CrossOver, the restart of the application hangs. This is happened on both my M1 and M2 chips. (Mac OS 14.5 and earlier.) Full restart of the application have corrected the problem. Also, I noted that Steam offered several options when this occurred. The selections did nothing to correct the restart.

As a note, we currently run steam on three versions of OS. macOS native, macOS running parallels (NO Direct X 12, limited graphics for new games.) Mac OS running Crossover with Direct X 12 has displayed superior graphics. All applications have suffered from anti-cheat software.

Games currently tested BioShock Infinite, Monster Hunter World, Homeworld 3, The Front.
We can provide observations on the above apps.

This has been a problem since Crossover 23.

I haven't experienced it at the newest version (24.0.3) "YET" and have been in complete communication with Customer Support.

If by any chance I still experience this, it is still a occurring problem.