Moonlight macOS: Connection fails / freezes at higher bitrates (>40 Mbps)

[Crejan]

Describe the bug
Using a Mac (M3) as client I only get a stable connection when using very low bitrates. Higher bitrates cause freezes or connection failures. Same server works flawlessly with Linux client at 150+ Mbps.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start Moonlight on macOS
2. Connect to Sunshine server
3. Use 10 Mbit/s → Works
4. Use ~30 Mbit/s → Sometimes works but randomly freezes when moving windows
5. Use 50 Mbit/s → Black screen / connection fails

Screenshots
N/A - issue is connection failure/freeze, not visual artifacts

Affected games
No games, only desktop streaming. Not application-specific.

Other Moonlight clients

• Linux client (same Moonlight 6.1.0): Works perfectly at 150+ Mbps on same network, same server
• Issue is macOS-specific

Moonlight settings (please complete the following information)

• Version: 6.1.0
• Tested all encoders (H.264, HEVC. AV1) - no difference
• Tested hardware and software decoding - no difference
• Tested frame grabbers (NvFBC, X11) - no difference
• Tested V-sync on/off - no difference
• Tested frame pacing on/off - no difference
• Tested different resolutions - no difference
• Tested different framerates - no difference
• Disabled audio - no difference
• Disabled gamepads - no difference
• Client metrics show nothing suspicious, all latencies fine
• Problem persists regardless of settings

Gamepad-related issues
Gamepad disabled. Not gamepad-related.

Client PC details

• OS: macOS 26.2 (Tahoe)
• Device: MacBook Air M3 (24GB)
• Moonlight Version: 6.1.0

Server PC details

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• Sunshine version: 2025.924.154138
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
• GPU driver: 580.126.09
• Hardware: Dell Workstation
• Firewall: Disabled

Moonlight Logs

Moonlight-1770996831.log
Moonlight-1770999661.log
Moonlight-1770999949.log
Moonlight-1771000097.log
Moonlight-1771317908.log
Moonlight-1771318229.log

Additional context

• Network verified with iperf3: 200 Mbps UDP, 0% packet loss, <1ms latency
• Sunshine logs show no errors during connection attempts

[ojsef39]

Same here but my logs look a bit different (have only looked at the first attached one)
Moonlight-1775755344.log

edit: i also tried the nightly build and that produces the same log output

edit2: huh, i did nothing since my last try but now it works