MacBook Pro M1 Memory Issue

Hey there, James.

It appears that you're running out of memory with your MacBook Pro, to where you're being prompted to quit Finder and possibly other apps to use your MacBook Pro. When you did the reinstall of macOS, did you erase your drive and reinstall macOS or only reinstall macOS? You'll also want to ensure that the installed apps on your MacBook Pro are updated: Use the App Store to update apps on Mac

We'd also like to see if this happens in a test user, which can possibly isolate this further: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Let us know your results. In the meantime, take care!

James,

Thank you for those additional details. If you reinstalled macOS and restored a backup or any data, we'd still like to see if this behavior happens in a new test user: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac We'd also like to see if this happens in safe mode as well: How to use safe mode on your Mac That article has great steps to take if you find the issue does or doesn't happen in safe mode.

If you restored macOS and set it up as new, then you can contact Apple Support for further assistance here: Contact Apple Support

Cheers.

You need to make some changes in the Activity Monitor to get an accurate picture. for example, that report does not show kernel_task or WindowServer.

Your report show "My Processes". from the View menu, select instead "All processes".

Scroll the window, if necessary, to put the biggest memory user at the top.

Post THAT report.

Hi Joseph, I am also facing same exact issue as James mentioned. I also reinstalled os with latest version. my ram is occupying more faster. also few times when I started the system mouse does not work and I had to restart my device. Please suggest. this seems to be an issue with Mac Book pro M1.

I don't have vmware anywhere on my 8GB RAM M1 MBA (luckily!) but I have found that Adobe Photoshop is a real memory hog and memory is not being released as well as one might hope after app is shut down. Hopefully Apple will be looking at this as the later versions of Big Sur arrive. I have now, some £600+ later, got my mended 2017 15"/16GB MBP back with its new screen, where the old one died for no apparent reason. I will tend to stick with that for any intensive Photoshop use. My regular files are quite large from a 41 Megapixel camera, especially if using 16 bit TIFF conversions from the DNG/RAW images.

Wilson

<< ...Adobe Photoshop is a real memory hog ... Hopefully Apple will be looking at this as the later versions of Big Sur arrive. >>

APPLE will Not be looking into that. If you want action on that issue, you will need to apply pressure to ADOBE, the software maker.

It was the failure to release memory I was hoping that Apple might improve, rather than the memory hogging of the programs themselves. From the Adobe POV, they are working on a version of their 4 main photo apps, which will run natively on Apple Silicon processors. This is predicted to arrive by April. I would guess this will improve memory utilisation, not least as they will not have to run via Rosetta-2.

As usual, Adobe have been privy to pre-release of Apple new hardware and software.

And also as usual, they have failed to produce appropriate upgrades to their products in a timely fashion, and what they are offering has numerous incompatibilities. This is inexcusable. "They are working on it" is NOT adequate..

The idea that failing to release memory is somehow Apple's fault makes no sense. NO other Applications appear to be having such issues. These adobe guys were snoozing, and still are.

I'm also having this exact same issue with my brand new MacBook Pro M1. The only applications running are Mail and Messages... Very disappointed with this new device.

Hi, Could you give me the name of the extension that was causing the problem? My M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM only has available like 1 GB available and I don't know why.

I'm having this same issue - Apple is saying it's my Ad Block extension. I removed it, still not helping! My old 2013 works better than this M1!