Finder using too much memory

optimizedwastaken wrote:

I hope you take this seriously instead of mocking me like I'm really dumb, it's not helping at all

I wasn't mocking you. I asked why you were concerned, and if your applications are not running properly, taking an excessive amount of time to perform tasks, etc., that's certainly cause for concern. But all you said was your RAM was being used, and my point was that RAM is there to be used. Macs do use RAM efficiently, although some always-on background applications are problematic (often ones like CleanMyMac or antivirus software).

As a comparison, looking at one of my MacBook Pros right now, I have Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote open and together they use more than the 8 GB of RAM your system has; with the many other apps also open the system is >13 GB of the available 16 GB, but the system doesn't lag at all. Just for kicks, I opened even more apps (Photoshop, DxO PhotoLab launched at the same time) and I was briefly able to push Memory Pressure into the yellow, but then macOS pushed it back down into the green and after that the total RAM usage was actually lower than just before opening those apps.

Incidentally, both the MacBook Pros I have open now show many instances of "com.apple.iconsservices.store" when inspecting Finder, so I suspect that's normal as my Finder instances are using <0.5 GB of physical RAM. But that brings up another point...physical RAM vs. virtual RAM.

As TheLittles highlighted, you have <7 GB free storage space on a 128 GB internal drive. That is not wise – and can be crippling. It best to have 20% of your internal storage free, 10% at a minimum and you have down near 5% free. Applications need swap space for temporary files, macOS needs space for caches and virtual memory – the latter is where those swap files go, among other things, and it's essentially the macOS using SSD space as accessory RAM (which it's always done, but now with SDDs instead of HDDs the access is fast enough that it's actually useful). Below are two processes, Finder (left) and Mail that together use only 0.55 GB of physical memory but use >10 GB of virtual memory – that's more than the available space on your SSD.

I suspect Adobe Premiere is trying to use more virtual memory than your SSD has available, and it's running into trouble.

As TheLittles recommends, clear some files off your SSD – move them to an external drive if you want to keep copies.

optimizedwastaken Said:

"Finder using too much memory: Memory: 8GB 1600 Mhz DDR3[...] Hard drive: total 128GB, Remaining 6.85GB, mainly occupied by some large raw unedited game footages/anime raws.[...]"

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Why you need to do:

Avoid Multitasking (IOW: running many things at once) and extremely-empty your Hard Drive. To get around this "need", consider the following.

• Rid of unneeded items(photos, media, etc)

6.85GB remaining would heat up your hard drive, as the dual core processor would need to work to its maximum.

• Avoid Multitasking:

Seems good enough RAM for basic, everyday use usage - but 8GB is not proficient enough for multitasking high-end apps. Multitasking is running many things at once. So, uninstall any Security Software, as it will be running in the background as you perform items.

• Avoid Streaming:

If you were to watch movies or play games - then only use one at a time. For my lower-end Mac, I have the same about of data - 8GB of RAM and 128GB hard drive - no Security Software - and when I'm using it - its only one Application at once that I am running (i.e. iTunes to a Projector)

If it were High-End:

My other Mac has 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of hard drive space. I run Virtual Machines on it - 32GB is highly-proficient for multitasking and gaming.

Can I ask why you're concerned about this? Modern Macs manage RAM very efficiently. Rather than looking at how much memory is being used (it will be a significant amount, because unused RAM is useless), look at memory pressure and page in/outs.

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?

So you have a Macbook Air. What are the exact specs? How much RAM do you have? How much hard drive space (total and how much of it is available)?

For one thing, Chrome is a known resource hog on Macs. It can eat all the RAM and CPU processing power for breakfast. Adobe isn't much better. Are you running any cleaning apps or AV apps?

And, yes, do look at the memory pressure in Activity Monitor. Also, download and run Etrecheck, either from the developer or the app store. Post it here using the third little icon from the right in the tool bar.

Okay, if you want to download it directly from the developer, I can post the link (you can just do a search in the app store if you want):

www.etrecheck.com

Just use the free version, run it, and post it here.

And, yes, you have an extremely small drive, so you need to be cautious with how many things you store there. And, 8 GB RAM is considered a minimum to run the latest OS; I would not have less than 16 GB. Adobe likes a lot of RAM as well.

And, CleanMyMac is not worth having. As well, Catalina has some new safety features: your OS and system are now "quarantined" on a separate volume (Macintosh HD) which is now read only - otherwise it is not accessible. Your user folder, apps, and other folders are separate in the Macintosh HD - Data volume which is read/write. So, your CMM cannot even access the OS/system which makes it pretty much useless.