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DRFHUD is using the most memory of any process shown in activity monitor. Three times that of 'finder' it's always the biggest memory consumer on my mac. What to do?
MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15
Hello Mike Hitt,
Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. I know it's important to make sure your Mac runs smoothly, and I'm happy to help. It sounds like you're seeing the DRFHUD process is using a significant amount of memory on your Mac.
What you see in Activity Monitor will vary depending on usage, so this type of thing could be normal. To clarify, are you having an issue with anything else on your Mac, like performance? As a good general reference, this has some helpful Activity Monitor information: See how apps affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity
If you're experiencing performance issues along with the memory usage in Activity Monitor, booting into safe mode might be a good start. Knowing whether the issue occurs in safe mode or not helps to rule out certain software causes: How to use safe mode on your Mac
Best wishes.
Hello Mike Hitt,
Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. I know it's important to make sure your Mac runs smoothly, and I'm happy to help. It sounds like you're seeing the DRFHUD process is using a significant amount of memory on your Mac.
What you see in Activity Monitor will vary depending on usage, so this type of thing could be normal. To clarify, are you having an issue with anything else on your Mac, like performance? As a good general reference, this has some helpful Activity Monitor information: See how apps affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity
If you're experiencing performance issues along with the memory usage in Activity Monitor, booting into safe mode might be a good start. Knowing whether the issue occurs in safe mode or not helps to rule out certain software causes: How to use safe mode on your Mac
Best wishes.
DFRHUD is used with macOS's many Accessibility features. If you have reason to conclude it's using an inordinate amount of memory then open Accessibility Preferences and confirm they are correctly set to your needs.
Thank you! Yes, I see spinning beach balls several times daily. Sometimes the program has to be 'force' quit and at other times I just need to wait a minute while the program finishes its' activity. I've used Macs for 40 years and the spinning beach ball, in the early models, was frequently seen and typically the harbinger of the 'sad mac'. I'll check out the resources that you kindly shared the links for. I did reinstall Catalina, but it made no difference for this problem. I haven't used safe mode on this problem, but I will and in the past it has sometimes worked some magic.
I appreciate it! Mike
If it's not as active in Safe Mode, and considering the fact it's somehow related to Accessibility, perhaps it may an input device or its associated driver may be a contributing factor. Something like a Logitech trackball or a Wacom tablet perhaps.
For what it's worth I can't make that process use any appreciable amount of memory. A few MB, if that.
Try Safe Mode.
I'll do that, thanks for letting me know! Mike
John, good thought. I'll do that right now. Mike
PS: Your few MB's vs. my current DRFHUD use of 1.3 GB.
FWIW, DRFHUD is using 5.1MBs on my 5k iMac. It's not even running on my iMac Pro.
It's DFRHUD. Spelling matters.
dialabrain wrote:
FWIW, DRFHUD is using 5.1MBs on my 5k iMac. It's not even running on my iMac Pro.
*DFRHUD (darn typos) :)
Yes, mine is using very little now. Credit goes to safe mode and those who recommended that I try it. The community solves another problem. Thanks to all! Mike
Actually, what that means is you have some third-party app installed that's causing DFRHUD to use so much memory. You can't run in Safe Mode all the time.
DRFHUD is using the most memory of any process shown in activity monitor. Three times that of
