Since updating to mojave I keep getting messages that available memory (of 8GB total) is low and I should close some apps but I only have Chrome browser and mail open. Activity Monitor shows more than 200 items using memory with me as the user, about 100 with root as user and about 40 others under various users. Currently, wired memory is listed as using 1.68GB and compressed 770MB.
MacBook Pro Retina
Stop using Chrome, it's a known memory hog.
FWIW, background apps that start at login can take up memory. Also Chrome tends to use more RAM than other browsers, the more tabs, the more RAM used. One thing to reduce RAM use is to not let apps startup at login when not necessary and just start them when needed.
Keep in mind that since Mavericks, memory handling has been changed to a system that tries to use all available RAM more efficiently. So, high RAM usage is not necessarily a bad sign. The idea is to keep things in RAM that will be expected to be reused in the near term.
What you want to do is to monitor your Memory Pressure in Activity Monitor, green, yellow, and red.
It's possible one or more apps you have installed are not 100% compatible. Hard to say.
You can post an EtreCheck report for diagnosis.
EtreCheck on the Mac App Store
Use the Additional Text icon to post the report.
how much swap is used ?
What is the size of your Virtual memory file ?
Can your Model upgrade RAM ?
If not, the only step you can do is to close all unused apps, some that run in background
Thanks for your reply. As suggested by dialabrain below, I closed all apps that start at log in, restarted the laptop and, before opening anything else, I checked the memory use again using the activity monitor. It showed a total memory use of 4.23GB made up of 1.44GB apps, 1.19GB wired, 1.57GB cached, 0GB swap. How do I close apps that run in the background if there are any?
Thanks for your reply. I understand that the processor routinely uses RAM. Until I recently updated to Mojave, I never had any issues with the amount of available RAM but since the upgrade, I regularly get messages that memory is low and I should close some apps. The way I use the computer has not changed so it must be something to do with the new operating system.
Are you having operational issues with your computer? If so, please state those. The fact that the computer is using RAM is expected behaviour.
How do I reduce RAM usage on my macbook pro?
