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

From what you report, AusMacU, it doesn’t sound like you are actually experiencing a Memory issue.

It is probably good that you have removed «Avira Antivirus», though I cannot guarantee that it was causing your issue(s).

Running slow (what you have been calling «lock up»), is usually traced to some process (usually a background process) making heavy use of your CPU.

Have you tried looking at the CPU tab, in Activity Monitor, with the View set to show All Processes, rather than the default of “My Processes”?

(By the way, decades ago, I got in the habit of running CPU, and other system monitors, all the time, especially on Windows systems. I do the same on my Macs.)

I have a MacMini M1 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. It's the top model of their M1 architecture and I have to tell you guys: DON'T UPGRADE FROM YOUR 8GB TO 16GB, BECAUSE I DO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM (and I have 16GB).

It's 1st October 2021 and I see messages about this issue dating back Dec-2020. It's very disappointing that Apple didn't do a **** about this for almost a year already.

I have a brand new M1 MBP with 16gb of memory and 176gb free on my SSD. Yet I am getting this same "Your system has run out of application memory" multiple times a day. More often than not, this error message pops up while my computer is not in use and is the first thing I see when I log back in.

The only high memory usage I could foresee is Google Chrome tabs and Mail. None of the Intel-based apps I use (of which there are very few) show high memory usage.

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.

In the past two weeks, my machine has already been reformatted and freshly installed 3 times—all related to issues with the M1 chip that appear in these support fora.

I indicated to Apple I have installed no new applications and that my usage is in no way different from my old 2017 MBPR with 4gb memory. On that machine, I never once in years received this warning.

Apple Support told me this is not a known issue and they are not aware of this issue coming up in Apple Support community fora.

No idea whether Apple actually reads any of these, but does seem from a very cursory search of these fora as well as Google and Reddit that many, many people are complaining about this on their M1 machines—with Apple's solutions seeming to be throwing more money to upgrade memory to the amount of memory I have or more (despite users with 16gb and 32gb memory also complaining about this issue).

Abhisyal23 wrote:

I am having the same issue on my MacBook Pro M1 8gb 512GB. Never had this issue on my Intel MBP. Really disappointed. …

The issue, we have found, is not inherent in the macOS, but can be caused by any of a number of (third-party) background processes; especially old Intel based code, run in the background.

.

… Also, MB M1 does not support 2 [external] screens and I can't get over it.

This was expressed in the documentation you can read even before you ordered.

Kevin Geiss:

When I wrote things like «doesn’t sound like it should be a problem», or «That should not be a problem, unless …», I’m not referring to the obvious problem that results from the Operating System (OS) bringing up the dialogue we are all commenting upon. («because the OS will start killing apps», as you expressed of that secondary, resulting problem.)

I’m commenting upon whether the observed Memory usage, etc., is indicative of any actual problem, to which the OS is, appropriately, responding to.

I agree that there is a “bug”, somewhere: Possibly «in the memory manager» (though I have seen very similar affects on Intel architecture), but, also, possibly due to other, interfering code. (Your experience could well be indicative of the latter.)

In general, it is not wise to upgrade when one has issues with one’s machine. This tends to simply “carry over” the issues (potentially even making them worse).

I would not upgrade unless I had (nearly incontrovertible) proof that the issue was inherent in the OS.

Wallace_Ugulino:

I’ve not been able to get Safari to use anywhere near as much “Memory” on forums.macrumors.com as you have shown. (Mine is showing less than 1GB).

Incidentally, I find that “Memory” is about as inconsistent on Monterey as it was on Big Sur: When I pull up the Information window, on a process, I get consistent values for Real Memory, Shared Memory, and Private Memory, between the corresponding Memory columns vs. the Information window; yet, the “Memory” column, of the Memory tab, doesn’t correspond with anything in the Information window (the only remaining memory related value in the Information window is “Virtual Memory Size”, which is, almost invariably, far larger than the “Memory” size).

I've had the exact same issue, even though I purchased my 13in Macbook Pro with 16GB of ram.

To put it in context my work laptop is a 2019 16in Macbook Pro with 16gb ram and I've NEVER had any issues with running out of memory.

I escalated this issue with Apple in March, went to stores about a handful of times *in between our lockdowns and a few computer wipes later. The solution at a store level was to replace the logic board. This to me is ridiculous. Imagine purchasing a brand new car and being told the entire engine needs to be replaced. That didn't sit well with me given no one could with certainty tell me that the problem would be fixed. I ended up contacting Apple's call centre and escalated my case. This was now in August. After speaking to a handful of reps and being thrown around from one rep to the next, I was told I'get a call back which I never did. In October I called again, shared my experience and again I was advised that they would check with their consumer law department as by this stage I was asking for a refund to put towards an intel device. No calls or follow up. And Apple released their latest range meaning I missed out on the getting my hands on the intel based laptops. I had to call again and another couple weeks later, I got another rep whom today has advised me that Apple's consumer law department advised that I would not be eligible for a refund or even a swap. I am shocked and baffled and feel that I have been taken advantage of.

The agreement us as consumers make with Apple is that by paying for a product, is that we receive a device that functions as advertised. This machine does not function, and by the sounds of it, this isn't just my case (as I was advised tonight) but seems to be experienced by many others. As a designer, I can't do the most basic actions, like using indesign and sketch. I can't even use Chrome and Excel. This isn't an Adobe issue as I've been advised but much more wide spread. I've attached a few example to show the depth of the poor chip build.

I'll contact Consumer Law to get further information as this does not sit right with me.

I've also gone as far as putting a hold on purchasing any of these machines for our business as it is not a stable environment for anyone. In this instance, unfortunately this device is but a glorified iPhone 1st gen.

What «memory reports», maorfrommiami?

Certainly, there are issues with webpages that abuse the user’s computer resources, as I’m sure I have mentioned, here, I believe.

Did you see no affect when you disabled the «extensions/plug-ins»? (I know what LastPass is, but I haven’t heard of the other two. [I see they are coupon related.] All three will be taking up memory and looking for website clues for their application.)

Are all three M1 native, or are they having to be emulated (Rosetta 2)? The latter will take up additional resources.

Good advice, as well, woodmeister50!

What’s worse is that, since the adds are not actually integrated into the site, their memory use cannot be server-side: all their resource usage is on your machine!

I just found that the one that I used on my iMac has been updated for

the M1 chip (Skynet). While it doesn't catch everything, and most ad

blockers can't, it does a fairly good job. The ones it doesn't seem to catch

are ad "blocks" that seem to be scripted to link to some other server

somewhere which spews forth its crap.

Hey Halliday,

Thanks for the response. I'm following your reasoning on the matter. As it is clearly bug that I am sure will be ironed out with time.

Still though it may be a temp fix to lower the res to default for those users constantly running into this issue. I know it is a bandaid but still, I know for myself that a lower res is better than that error message all the time while working. Especially, as some commented, when they are in the middle of something important.

So let's see if the screen resolution has anything to do with it.

Welcome, aglasgow1, to Apple Support Communities!

«Especially when I'm low on disk space» is a completely expected time for this warning!

Additionally, under that condition, if no action is taken, such can, indeed, lead to a «kernel panic», since the kernel can get into a “bind” without any recourse!

This last point is the reason for always making sure you have something like 25 GB, or more, Available on your system drive, at all times.