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loginwindow process using over 12GB of memory, system running ultra slow

This problem seems to have sprung up right around the time I updated to 10.14.6, but I can't be sure. Either way, my mac mini performance has slowed down to a crawl. Every single app runs slower. I looked in Activity Monitor the other day, and noticed that loginwindow process is using over 10GB of memory. I killed that process, let it crash out to login, and logged back in. Everything runs smoothly--the way it has for the last 4-6 months since I clean installed Mojave. But within a single day (and without any other apps being open), I came back to the computer and it takes a minute to log in and the loginwindow process is now at 12GB of memory usage. If I have more than one app open I start getting errors that I have run out of application memory. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this and/or a potential solution? I'm willing to clean install everything, but I'm hoping to identify a cause before I reinstall all the same apps and potentially reintroduce the same problem. The main things that have helpers/assistants/daemons running at all times are Drobo Dashboard (DDAssist), Backblaze, Plex, and 1Password. I uninstalled Dropbox fully a day or so ago because that was my first suspect, but the problem is still unresolved.


Running 10.14.6 on a Mac Mini Late 2012 2.3 Ghz intel Core i7 and 16GB Ram

Posted on Aug 29, 2019 1:07 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 30, 2019 11:46 AM

Hi jtalcott,


Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you’re having trouble with your Mac’s performance. I’m happy to help.


To start, I suggest testing in safe mode and a different user account to see if the issue persists:


Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support


How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support


If the issue doesn’t happen, I’d advise temporarily preventing your login items in your main account to see if that helps at all:


Open items automatically when you log in on Mac - Apple Support


If that helps, you may want to uninstall the processes / apps you mentioned and reinstall individually, testing the performance after each one.


Let me know if that helps.


Take care.

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 30, 2019 11:46 AM in response to jtalcott

Hi jtalcott,


Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you’re having trouble with your Mac’s performance. I’m happy to help.


To start, I suggest testing in safe mode and a different user account to see if the issue persists:


Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support


How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support


If the issue doesn’t happen, I’d advise temporarily preventing your login items in your main account to see if that helps at all:


Open items automatically when you log in on Mac - Apple Support


If that helps, you may want to uninstall the processes / apps you mentioned and reinstall individually, testing the performance after each one.


Let me know if that helps.


Take care.

loginwindow process using over 12GB of memory, system running ultra slow

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