Force Quit app pop up when lots of still memory available?

What would invoke the appearance of the Force Quit app that includes the memory usage in column on the right when I can see there is memory available?

I have screen grabs showing System Memory available at 2.5 gigs with FQ asking to quit apps!


Remember this isn't the Opt/Cmd/ESC Force Quit, this has per app memory listed.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 30, 2020 8:15 AM

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6 replies

Oct 1, 2020 1:18 AM in response to exrobotguy

I meant your screengrabs, the ones you said you had in the original post...


But I think we both are talking about something like this (image pulled from the internet):


This example seems particular egregious, in that the memory usage of those applications is tiny.

I can only surmise that something in the system, other than applications, is using all that memory that is missing.


To try and dig deeper we need some more information.


Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.


Sep 30, 2020 5:57 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Whether or not it is an 'app', there is a 'thing' which a user can evoke using the keys, Opt/Cmd/ESC. That is as 'something', please tell me the correct terminology. A 'something' like this shows up but included on the right, the amount of memory being used and it asks me to 'kill' whatever app happens to be the foremost app. It changes as I( switch apps and it hapopens when there is NO NEED to kill the app, or any app!!

Oct 1, 2020 12:20 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks, Luis, for your help. Yopur screen grab shows the 'thing' I'm talking about. What does Apple call that iteration of Force Quit? The page [above] that I was to paste reports etc. into, was confusing. After clicking here and there, I just dragged two 'TextEdit' Entrecheck reports on to page. I then dragged two screen grabs, which actually showed on screen, so I don't know if the others were accepted. I sent one report w/o Memory Clean loaded, then the next w/ it loaded. There may be some interaction there. let me know what came thru and how to do it correctly, if not. Thanks.

Sep 30, 2020 9:15 AM in response to exrobotguy

There is no FQ app... if I understand correctly, there are situations where your mac may "run out of application memory", where a dialog will popup suggesting that you quit applications. In my opinion, if you get there is because something went quite wrong, and it is better to restart your mac, and try to figure out what happened. Maybe an application has a "memory leak", an error that results in it consuming and not releasing memory - potentially leading to this situation.


These screen grabs may be useful.




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Force Quit app pop up when lots of still memory available?

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