NEW MacBook Air M1 8gb 256gb: "your system has run out of application memory"

This happened to me for the first time today on my 8gb M1 MBA and I was so shocked I neglected to take a screen shot. It showed Safari using a gigantic amount of memory with about 15 tabs open and a few other programs; like you, nothing that my older MBA couldn't handle easily. Apple's response is quite disappointing indeed. If/when it happens again to me, I'll be contacting them to complain as well. Keep us posted on how it works out.

banditos_abode wrote:

… Ugh. @Apple - please weigh in.

Apple is not here, nor do they glean Feedback from this forum.

If you wish to provide Feedback to Apple, simply use their designated Feedback mechanisms, such as through Product Feedback - Apple.

something definitely changed. I already posted about this here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253040104 but I'll repost here too:

I have a 16gb M1. got it in november 2020, was very happy with it. I was able to open ALL the apps I routinely use, and just leave them all open! numbers, safari with several windows and dozens of tabs (including 4 large and complex google sheets, big enough that every time I went back to them, safari said they were reloaded for using too many resources lol), DEVONthink, fantastical, omnifocus, iTerm2, 1password, plus a whole slew of iPad apps. so many apps, in fact, that my dock became a tiny little colorful ribbon and the CMD-tab switcher was useless. it was glorious.

then right after a software update (I believe it was the 11.3 or 11.4 update, not exactly sure), I can't do that any more.

now most of the time when I wake it up from sleep, I get the dreaded "your system has run out of application memory". so now I'm in the habit of running an app when I need it, then quitting it. normally when my mac goes to sleep, I only have omnifocus, iTerm2, Finder, Messages, 1password, and obsidian running. and sometimes upon wake, MacOS will kill iTerm2!

I have activity monitor running now, showing memory usage for all processes. the memory pressure at the bottom is always green.

meanwhile, my work intel macbook pro (also 16gb) still routinely has 25 apps open without trouble, but my m1 with only 6 or 7 is complaining.

I do have some background things running, like backblaze, Hook, Hazel, some setapp apps like Paste, Forecast Bar, iStat Menus, Timing, bartender. but all these were also running before the software update, when I was running tons of apps all the time without trouble.

I'd bet dollars to donuts this is a MacOS bug, and I guess I'm just cathartically posting here that I wish they'd fix it.z

I suppose I should make another account just for the fun of it and see if I can run lots of apps there, but since I don't see any culprits in activity monitor, I'm not sure that will help.

P.S., I'm not running VMWare or adobe or anything like that

It’s good to hear, Kevin Geiss, that you appear to have solved your issue, at least for now.

I do wish webpages abided by our “dark mode” choices.

You could provide Feedback directly to Apple, on such: Product Feedback - Apple.

Welcome, Wallace_Ugulino, to Apple Support Communities!

The issue with Safari is a bit different from the issue overall:

In the case of Safari, we have websites that are abusing your browser’s memory.

Wesites are not supposed to use large amounts of browser memory! If websites need large amounts of memory, they are supposed to use Server-side Memory! Not Browser Memory.

This has been a progressive abuse on users’ web-browsers, at least since the demise of Adobe Flash, where many websites replaced their old Flash code with poorly formulated JavaScript!

(I have seen some evidence that Internet Standards are being worked on to provide better feedback to websites concerning what Browsers will or will not accept, in such regards. Unfortunately, such will take time to work out, and, then, for sites to respect.

In the meantime, we have conflicts.)

The best recourse is to complain to websites that abuse your browsers’ resources.

You can, of course, also provide Feedback to Apple, via their designated Feedback Mechanisms: Product Feedback - Apple.

SamhnaDubhadh wrote:

…

When I worked with Apple Support, they simply opened up Activity Monitor to show that the memory was in high use (13gb/16gb). Then they encouraged me to reinstall macOS.

When you say «that the memory was in high use (13gb/16gb)», what are you referring to: the amount of total used Random Access Memory (RAM), in the listing of RAM usage, to the right of the Memory Pressure graph?

If so, that is of no concern, whatsoever!

In fact, if the total RAM usage is not 100%, then you are underutilizing the RAM on your computer: you bought much more RAM than you needed!

(Admittedly, 13GB is more than the RAM available on the next lower memory model, so not a truly big deal, in this case.)

Being concerned about this is an all too common misconception concerning modern computers!

…

No idea whether Apple actually reads any of these, …

Sorry, but no. Apple doesn’t tend to glean feedback from these fora.

If you wish to provide Apple Feedback, you can use Apple’s preferred Feedback mechanisms, such as Product Feedback - Apple.

Working directly with Apple Support would seem to be a good mechanism, as well, but …

Sorry maorfrommiami. I hope you still have your MacBook with you. I also hope that your problem got solved with the macOS updates. I got what you mean especially you were just using Safari. You are a great Apple user for patronizing Apple products and for sharing your issues and insights with other users through this discussion. There are possible reasons why this could happen like a file from a backup got corrupted or is not compatible with the latest software or there was an app running in the background that consume too much memory.

For new users who got a similar issue, I recommend doing these steps to fix it:

1. click the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the screen please.

2. search and open Activity Monitor

3. Check for apps that consume too much memory

4. Delete apps that take too much memory 

5. Reinstall them

__________________________

Next

1. System Preferences

2. Users & Groups

3. click your account name below Current User

4. click Login Items (Make a list of the login items—you’ll need to remember them later)

5. select all of the login items

6. click the minus sign

7. click the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen

8. Restart

__________________________

1. click the Apple logo in the top left corner

2. System Preferences

3. Users & Groups

4. Click the lock icon at the bottom left

5. click +

6. create new User account

7. shut down/restart

8. Log in to the new user account

This will test if you will get the same problem on the new user account.

__________________________

1. shut down your MacBook please

2. press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds (or until you see the startup options window)

3. select your startup disk and press and hold Shift on the keyboard

4. Continue in Safe Mode

Happened again and this time I got a screenshot. I have been using Safari as I also thought this was supposed to be optimized for M1, but clearly something is not right; when I first open it, it shows it using 1GB of memory and it steadily increases over time until this happens. I have the MBA M1 with 8gb of RAM...

The problem is surely in Safari. See the website "macrumors" (I was reading about this issue). After less than 10 minutes it was already using 35GB of RAM. THE WORST THING IS THAT I CLOSED THE TAB AND SAFARI CONTINUED TO EAT MEMORY FOR A NON-EXISTING TAB (see the 2nd picture, it increased to 48GB even after I closed the Tab).

Well don’t get your hopes up with the “more powerful” unit. After the last update, my 16gb now does it about once a day.

Besides sounding like (and feeling as hot as) a Falcon 9 rocket, my 8gb 2014 MBP muscled through tasks like a champ… this is a sad state of affairs for apple loyalists like myself.

[Image Edited by Moderator to Remove Serial Number]

DonHartUK wrote:

I have found I can generate a diagnostics report. I'm no longer an IT techie (haven't the memory anymore) is it ok to post the report here?

Yes. You can attach the diagnostic report to your message using the “Additional Text” button

I'm from Europe and over here we have a 15 day return policy if we regret our purshace.

It you are still in that time period, and you have that over there.... just go over your Mac store and give them that faulty unit!

FWIW, try a different browser beside Safari (Microsoft Edge or Firefox)

and see if the same thing happens. I have the 8 GB M1 Air and I am

seeing Safari gobbling up a lot of RAM, a lot more than I have seen on

my iMac, and I don't open tons of tabs. Perhaps Safari is the culprit and

not ready for prime time on the M1 systems or on any 8GB Big Sur system..