Hi, as in this topic PCBnew got broken 
I’ve exactly the same problem. The screen is entirely gray and I tried with different projects. But the difference is that I’m on macOS and I can open the window and put in full screen.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
I try to uninstall, the reinstall kicad.
I’m on MacOS 10.15.7, and I use sometimes an external screen. Until 4-5 days it always works perfectly.
Thanks 
Found ! The problem is solved when I change this parameter to “Legacy Toolset” or “Modern Toolset (Accelerated)”
So what is the option which doesn’t work? Basically Fallback should work always, and Legacy is deprecated and will be removed completely in the next major version. It’s very worrying if only Legacy works, and strange if Fallback doesn’t work but Accelerated works.
So in my case, Legacy and Accelerated work. I have the gray screen with the option “Modern Toolset (Fallback)” so yes it’s strange…
I have the same problem. Like you, I get an empty grey screen in PCB Layout Editor even though I know the board is fully routed and complete. The board is simply invisible when “Modern Toolset (Fallback)” is selected in Preferences. No background or grid, nothing by a grey screen. The problem goes away if “Legacy Toolset” or “Modern Toolset (Accelerated)” is chosen.
But I also get the same thing in the Footprint Editor. All the libraries are present and every part is present (part names are all visible) but nothing shows up in the display when the part is clicked.
Possible clue: when you click a part, you get a very fast flash of “Loading …” then nothing further.
Have you tried v5.1.9 which is now the latest version?
On MacOS, Cairo (fallback) does not work properly on Retina displays but OpenGL (accelerated) does. This is less of a concern on Apple hardware as Accelerated should work fine on any hardware that runs a supported version of MacOS (unlike the Windows/Linux world where anyone can have any kind of GPU). We’ve removed support for switching to Fallback on MacOS in the nightlies for this reason.
I think a potential problem is its possible to accidentally switch into fallback. How I am not sure but I manage to do it even on nightlies from time to time <.<
I imagine this is what confuses users.
Yes. This latest version and the previous one I had (5.0.0) exhibited the same behaviour. Though it was not always this way; awhile ago everything was OK. I suspect the upgrading of my Mac from Catalina (macOS 10.15) to Big Sur (11.1) played a part in causing the problem but am not positive.
Chiming in to say I had the same issue and same fix. Currently running 5.1.6-0-10_14 on Catalina 10.15.7 (will switch to my newer mini that has Big Sur on it this weekend).
Question for fellow Mac users.
On the window scrollbars, do you any of you have the little arrows at the end of the scrollbar so you can ‘jog’ the screen in any direction just a skosh? They’re present on the Windows version, but there’s bare space where they would be when I open KiCAD on my Mac.
That’s a macOS thing, Apple eliminated them in 2011. Windows has kept its scrollbar arrows all this time.
I’m a brand new user of KiCad Forum and would like to ask if perhaps I should at report an issue at https://kicad.org/help/report-an-issue/. Is this the kind of problem that merits this?
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