Q: Preview App memory leak

Any computer can run out of memory. It's why some can run with 4GB and some need more. As I mentioned previously, I have 32GB in my primary iMac. I've never run into a low memory condition but I could if I ran certain apps and enough apps simultaneously. I have Macs with as little as 8GB and I could run them into low memory conditions much sooner. If that were not true, everyone could run their Macs with 1GB. Or Windows 10 for that matter.

No, the point here is that PDFKit doesn't need this amount of money. You don't need 16 GB of memory to open a PDF document of 2 MB. PDF Expert doesn't need that amount of memory. Foxit reader does not need that amount of memory. Acrobat Reader doesn't. Preview on Yosemite didn't. A computer with a total of 16 GB of RAM can not run out of memory because of a PDF document if the other applications are using 2 GB total. This is a bug, or very poor design. Also, this is a regression, because on Yosemite the problem was not there.

I don't know if you are a lawyer working for Apple and I can't explain your urge to contradict me but I can live with that. I've reported my experience in this thread (and I'm not the only one having the problem, I'd say) and I hope that someone will come with an answer or a workaround for this.

MRossi90 wrote:

 

I don't know if you are a lawyer working for Apple and I can't explain your urge to contradict me but I can live with that.

Geez, I wish I was a lawyer for Apple. $$$$$$

It's nothing personal. I just like to work on ideas out loud. Plus I miss being on my debating team.

Carry on.

I have the same problem.  Preview regularly takes 20GB of memory and renders my MacBook unusable.

I have been reading your answers , you don´t know what a memory leak is.

jmmun wrote:

 

I have been reading your answers , you don´t know what a memory leak is.

A memory leak is the gradual loss of available computer memory when a program (an application or part of the operating system) repeatedly fails to return memory that it has obtained for temporary use.

Thanks for letting me know.

jmmun wrote:

 

I have been reading your answers , you don´t know what a memory leak is.

In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations in such a way that memory which is no longer needed is not released.

anything else?

Fine, let's stop calling it "memory leak". From now on we will call it "clever memory management". Apple should have put it on the advertisement page for OSX.

What's new in OSX El Capitan:

Clever memory management: opening a 2MB PDF document will only require 10 GB of RAM. Up to 1000x more memory used than the previous OSX version! And OSX doesn't even need to free that amount of memory: it will simply force quit other applications if the system runs out of memory!

It isn't the same thing "memory which is no loger needed is not released" and "If it had a leak OSX would not be able to release that memory when needed". The second one is what you say.

Preview simply doesn't stop increasing his RAM usage, this is actually a memory leak

jmmun wrote:

 

It isn't the same thing "memory which is no loger needed is not released" and "If it had a leak OSX would not be able to release that memory when needed". The second one is what you say.

 

Preview simply doesn't stop increasing his RAM usage, this is actually a memory leak

It is exactly the same thing.

And FWIW, Preview does stop increasing it's memory use.

Anything else?

Same problem here, greatly suffering from the incredible Preview RAM usage.

No doubt, this is a big bug no matter what it's called.

From OS 10.11.1 on, there has been problems with Preview, from no response to RAM usage. It's a disaster for the frequent-pdf-users.

BTW, I really can't agree with dialabrain.

FWIW, Everyone can try Foxit Reader. It uses less memory than Preview.

It isn't the same thing "release the memory when you don't need it" and "release the memory when you need it". And maybe not in your case, but in mine and in the others, it don't stope increasing, test it doing zooming and scrolling.

Software engineering here, it's a memory leak.

This is insane, more than 10GB, only one PDF, 5MB, 37 pags, it increase at the same time I'm doing scrolling and zooming, I can continue doing it and it didn't stop increasing:

EDIT: OSX 10.11.3 here

jmmun wrote:

 

It isn't the same thing "release the memory when you don't need it" and "release the memory when you need it".

No one said "release the memory when you don't need it"

Maybe there is a language barrier.

"If it had a leak OSX would not be able to release that memory when needed"

You said it, and well, that phrase makes no sense in anything related to this problem. OSX can release memory when it needs it, like closing others programs to release RAM (problem that have other people).