Mail is using a lot of RAM with gmail IMAP

Question

Level 1

0 points

Mail is using a lot of RAM with gmail IMAP

I'm using a macbook pro 13" with 4gb of RAM.
recently I've noticed that the mail app is using more the 1.5gb of RAM!
I'm guessing it shouldn't be like that.
any solutions?
thanks
Ori

Macbook pro 13", Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on May 19, 2010 10:38 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 19, 2010 5:20 PM in response to MrJonesil

Are you sure it's RAM and not Virtual Memory?

Try quitting Mail and re-launching it. Does it take up a large amount immediately, or does it get larger over time?

How many messages do you have in your inbox? Do those message contain a lot of links or attachments (Mail may be caching)?

Reply

Answer 2

MrJonesil Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2010 1:24 AM in response to musicwind95

Hi. Thanks for you response.
right after i restart mail it says in the activity monitor 272mb under real memory for mail.
after a while it can climb up to 700mb.
I've resolved a part of this issue by not showing the google labels in apple mail so it now uses up to 700mb instead of 1.5gb.
and yes, the inbox is quite large, showing messages since jan 2010 (without attachments).
i thought all the idea behind imap is that the messages are synced with the server but i didn't know it all sits in your RAM. should it act like that?

Reply

Answer 3

May 22, 2010 7:37 AM in response to MrJonesil

I have the same problem.

I don't want the Mail-program to take up all of my memory.
But I also don't want to delete my Gmails.

Is is possible to import only some mails. Like the unread mails, a filter or the "star"-ones?

Or is it possible to use the Mail-program to only send from - without importing any mails at all?

Reply

Answer 4

May 23, 2010 9:02 AM in response to MrJonesil

For me, Mail rarely goes over 150 MBs and I have almost 4 thousand messages in my Inbox alone...Try removing the account and relaunching Mail. Since it's an IMAP account, you shouldn't risk losing any messages.

Reply

Answer 5

MrJonesil Author

Level 1

0 points

May 23, 2010 11:14 PM in response to musicwind95

Thanks for the help.
I've deleted the account and created a new one, for the last 12 hours it's been using up to 60mb of RAM which is great.
I'll wait and see what happens in the next few days. hopefully it solved it.

Reply

Answer 6

MrJonesil Author

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2010 5:27 AM in response to musicwind95

ok, thanks for the help.
the problem seem to be over after creating a new account... it's been a few days and the ram consumption hasn't been more than 80gb.

Reply

Answer 7

May 27, 2010 12:32 PM in response to MrJonesil

You mean 80 MBs? 🙂

Reply

Answer 8

MrJonesil Author

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2010 12:35 PM in response to musicwind95

oops... yea... 80 MB 🙂

Reply