Level 1

41 points

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

Just about daily, my new M1 MacBook Air starts to run warm (thought they were SO much cooler now) and then I get a popup to ForceQuit my applications with the message, "your system has run out of application memory" (and showing me that Safari is using the most memory by far). In fact, I checked the RAM usage and its showing 6.3gb out of 8gb. Im wondering is this simply a RAM issue and I should return/exchange for the 16gb model?

Funny enough, my 4 month older MBA 2020 never crashed like this (though it ran scorchingly hot which is why I bought the new M1 to replace it).

Only apps Im running when this happens are: WhatsApp, iMessages, Safari (with LastPass/Rakuten/Honey extensions). Safari has about 15 tabs open, which is nothing for my 10 year old iMac, or the prior MacBooks, so cant imagine its too taxing for this new M1 MacBook?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 30, 2020 10:30 PM

Top-ranking reply

piscies75

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Mar 20, 2021 7:42 AM

I had a mid 2014 MacBook Pro with soldered in 8 gb Ram, 512 gb HD storage. I was getting this same "your system is running out of application memory". I purchased the MacBook Air with 16 gb & 1 TB . I used my Time Machine back up of the 2014 MacBook Pro to migrate all my files and applications over to the new one. I then downloaded Big Sur.

I had seen so many videos on YouTube showing people running many programs and tabs in Safari. Almost immediately I got the error as above to my shock. I called Apple a few times but the best advise was from the first representative I spoke too. Re-install Big Sur without deleting everything.

It worked great and I have not had the problem again. I watch my Memory pressure on the Activity Monitor right now I am running PS, LR, Safari with ten tabs and Firefox with six tabs, Ibooks , iTunes , Messages, Calendar , Apple Mail and others and the memory pressure is low. Right now the Memory is 11.81 gb (out of 16 gb) and this machine is lightening fast. I use Topaz filters and they operate swiftly. I re-boot every few days and the initial memory is reduced to 6 gb. I am very happy with this machine. It still has a few bugs, my SpyderPro5 keeps saying it is not running but is. To get my Topaz and Nik plugins to work in PS I have to go through Bridge. Topaz customer service says they are working on fix and will have it shortly. Adobe also says they are working on fixes. Hope that helps.

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138 replies

dryanw

Level 1

4 points

Nov 26, 2021 7:26 AM in response to woodmeister50

I am not a fan of Safari but switched to it from Firefox when the problem became acute (several reboots within a few minutes, all with a DX of 'too many allocation tries'. Safari has not been as problematic, but I just received my first DX that 'Safari has run out of memory'. Sigh! PS - running on a 2020 MBA; not problems on a 2018 Intel MacMini.

banZ3y3

Level 1

4 points

Nov 28, 2021 4:56 PM in response to dryanw

Apple sent the M1 into the wild not-ready-for-prime-time. The advertisement on the MBA should have a disclaimer warning it is not for professionals. I did talk one of my designers into waiting when I told him not only about the inability of this build to support more than 1 external monitor, but also the increasing frequency that my workflow freezes or crashes due to this memory issue. So disappointed.

jarmeearc220 Author

Level 1

41 points

Dec 5, 2020 11:40 AM in response to ewl930

I like how Apple tagged your post as "Solved" when this hasn't been solved for anyone!

Halliday

Level 4

2,677 points

Dec 7, 2020 12:06 AM in response to sh9001

Why am I not surprised, sh9001? Not in the least!

Halliday

Level 4

2,677 points

Dec 7, 2020 11:04 AM in response to ewl930

Welcome, ewl930, to Apple Support Communities!

I’m glad to hear that sh9001’s experience helped you, as well!

jarmeearc220 Author

Level 1

41 points

Dec 9, 2020 9:54 AM in response to woodmeister50

Which adblocker do you recommend? Id be open to trying one to see if it helps.

mory.w

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2021 10:21 AM in response to jarmeearc220

Hey maorfrommiami, I posted a reply to the thread but just to ask you specifically, what screen resolution are you using?

Jan 8, 2021 3:35 AM in response to jarmeearc220

Same here, M1 mini, happens multiple times a day. Especially when I'm low on disk space.

It'll also kernel panic about once a day and reset completely.

Feb 10, 2021 8:42 PM in response to jarmeearc220

Same issue here too :(

Halliday

Level 4

2,677 points

Mar 20, 2021 1:21 PM in response to piscies75

Good to hear, piscies75!

May 8, 2021 4:44 AM in response to banditos_abode

hi did you find a solution; I am having the same issue with Mac mini M1

though it was incpmatable plugins ,worked ok for a few hours then went back

Jun 18, 2021 12:37 AM in response to piscies75

Please advise how you do the te-instal of big Sur

Jun 18, 2021 12:42 AM in response to Alanportable

I haven’t been importing/exporting videos or photos that’s not my issue.

Jun 18, 2021 1:01 AM in response to jarmeearc220

16gb MBA same issue, didn’t happen on my 2015 4gb Air.

Today I have gone to open up to find it’s gone into recovery. I’ve had the MB Air about a month, not happy.

Aug 19, 2021 2:19 PM in response to jarmeearc220

Just got a new 13", 16 GB and 1 TB SSD and STILL ave this problem!

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