Days ago while debugging crashes I was pretty sure there was a memory leak (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251610118). Here is what I am seeing now....
Imac27(Late 2103... 24GB ram)... No crashes since purging 32 bit applications. Running Activity monitor and watching memory allocations... Memory ramps up under heavy use, but is (Mostly) returned when apps quit... If system left logged in and unattended, memory slowly builds... but the system has enough ram to swallow it. When system logged out, memory cleaned up and next log in looks ok. Not like a fresh boot, but lots more memory available then prior to log out. Anecdotally I would say that WindowServer process is suspect, as it's memory allocation keeps growing.. Long running apps (Carbon Copy Cloner directing multi GB network backups) cause memory usage to ramp up. But system stays together. Unfortunately, the system that is the target of the network back up crashes.....
MacMini(Late 2012.... 16GB ram).... Under light use, no crashes after purging 32 bit applications. However, crashes still occurring under 2 cases.... When a usb drive attached to the mini is being used as the network target of a multi GB backup (>150GB), and when running VMware Fusion.
When the usb drive attached to the MacMini is the network backup target, the machine crashes after it receives about 130GB of backup data. Seems very repeatable. System just drops dead. Looked at logs... See nothing posted in log files for minutes on end, until hardware reset button initiates forced boot. I don't think that the process which causes the crash is caught by the OS before the system goes down...
When the MacMini is running VMware Fusion... have not established a pattern other than don't turn your back on it... We only run Win10 using Quickbooks in Fusion... Generally stays up for 15-20 minutes of use, allowing quick things to be done... if interrupted and leave the machine without logging off, will find it has crashed if not attended to within 60 minutes or so...Unlike the crash when the system is a backup target, this one seems totally random. Probably because VMware and Wind10 are pushing the system harder and in random directions.
My bottom line....
- if you are upgrading or have upgraded, purge all 32 bit apps and their companion crud... The system is not stable at all if a 32bit app or its agents or daemons gets touched. Absolutely huge difference in machine stability.
- Memory Leak Work Around..... Be very careful with long duration or cpu/memory intensive processes. While you are running them, run activity monitor and watch the 'Memory Used" number. If that approaches 60-70% of physical memory, be prepared to stop your process and log out to reset memory if you can. Lots of people are reporting crashes with VMware or Virtualbox.... but I suspect that other memory intensive apps would also be having the same problem, as I see it in a long duration process on a MacMini just accepting network data and writing to disk.
- Hope, keep your fingers crossed, practice what ever superstition works best for you.... and hope that APPLE fixes this bug quickly....
