Memory (RAM) used up even after factory reset?

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Level 1

9 points

Memory (RAM) used up even after factory reset?

I have a MacBook Air 11-inch Mid 2013, 4GB of RAM. I know a lot of people say that's not a lot, but in the 6 years i've had this Mac i've been able to download MANY things with absolutely zero problems, it's enough for me. Recently it started getting slow, apps take long to open and load, and when I try to watch a show it lags to the point I don't even want to watch it anymore. Also the fan is always working loud even though my Mac is cool. I still had about 39GB out of 121GB of storage in my drive. In hopes of fixing things I factory reset my mac and started over from the beginning, yet it was still slow and the fans were still going. I did an SMC and PRAM reset, and nothing changed. After performing an EtreCheck I found RAM had 2.63GB used up plus 1.13GB of cached files, leaving me with 247MB. How is so much of my RAM used up even though I deleted literally everything?

MacBook Air 11", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 22, 2020 5:04 PM

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Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

78,656 points

Jan 22, 2020 5:50 PM in response to x_gabiisu_x

After checking the report, a couple of things stand out:

Your battery is close to the end of its life expectancy - it has 971 cycles (should last to 1,000).

You are running Catalina with a paltry 4 GB of RAM - it will respond much better with 8 or 16 GB RAM. As well, you are running the RAM hogging Chrome, it is known to use all the resources you have. So, if you must use Chrome, only have one tab open and quit the app when done (do not let it run in the background).

In general, RAM usage is now set to use all it has available since unused RAM is wasted RAM (or so the engineers tell you). So that is fine except when you use apps that need a lot of RAM - that is when the computer starts to "swap" it to go from one app to another to help out. Not a good scenario.

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Answer 2

x_gabiisu_x Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 22, 2020 6:17 PM in response to babowa

Your battery is close to the end of its life expectancy - it has 971 cycles (should last to 1,000).

You are running Catalina with a paltry 4 GB of RAM - it will respond much better with 8 or 16 GB RAM. As well, you are running the RAM hogging Chrome, it is known to use all the resources you have. So, if you must use Chrome, only have one tab open and quit the app when done (do not let it run in the background).

This is weird to me though since I've been using Chrome for a couple years now, and Catalina since it came out. Everything was working fine until about 3 days ago, even with a bunch of other apps. My Mac was actually still slow before I redownloaded Chrome, after the factory reset. I guess my question is if there anyway to erase everything from my RAM and make it as if it was new? Or is the real problem that the battery is dying and I should probably change it?

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,656 points

Jan 22, 2020 8:34 PM in response to x_gabiisu_x

The general recommendation for running the latest OS versions is at least 8 GB of RAM; of course it depends what you usually do with your device - are you running processor intensive apps, editing videos, photos, etc., gaming, or simply browsing online and writing emails. Mine feels snappy with 8 GB. But, I also quit apps when done (never let them run in the background and, for other reasons, I do not have automatic downloads/installs of updates enabled), so I've not had a problem.

The RAM cannot be "erased" - it takes care of itself and the OS will "assign" it to where it is needed. The only "fix" would be to add RAM, but in your model you cannot. See what can be done here on your model (make sure that is yours). A reinstall of the OS will not affect the RAM usage. It may get rid of some caches or other things though, but I did not see anything in the report.

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_air_11_inch_2013_2014/

It appears you can install a battery if you are up to it. As for that, it is fine; however, I just wanted to call your attention that the average life span is 1,000 cycles and you are getting close to that. Just be aware and check it occasionally.

Lastly, just as a warning to be aware of this: an SSD can die from one minute to the next without any warning. Their life expectancy is generally about 3 - 5 years. So, make sure you have a backup at all times.

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