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m1 out of memory

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

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Aug 11, 2021 3:03 PM

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Posted on Sep 3, 2021 5:03 PM

I audited my safari plugins, and turned off a couple I didn't use very often, and also turned off "dark reader" which I'm pretty sure I added this summer. (I started getting the "out of application memory" message this summer). I'm starting to leave more apps open, and I haven't gotten the message again since disabling those plugins! so this may be the solution. will post again if I get the message again.

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Sep 3, 2021 5:03 PM in response to Kevin Geiss

I audited my safari plugins, and turned off a couple I didn't use very often, and also turned off "dark reader" which I'm pretty sure I added this summer. (I started getting the "out of application memory" message this summer). I'm starting to leave more apps open, and I haven't gotten the message again since disabling those plugins! so this may be the solution. will post again if I get the message again.

Aug 12, 2021 9:37 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

Hello Kevin Geiss,


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!


It is our understanding from your post that you are receiving an error that your memory is running low and you cannot leave apps open like you previously could. We recommend testing the issue while your Mac is in safe mode.  The following article has the steps you will need to test the issue in safe mode:

 

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support


"Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed."


Best Regards. 

Sep 16, 2021 7:50 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

another day, another morning check. window server is always the biggest memory user on activity monitor. backblaze was next highest today, then the YNAB website. no error today. uptime is now 2.5 days.


Memory Used: 12.21 GB

Cached Files: 3.72GB

Swap: 668.5MB

App Memory: 5.94GB

Wired memory 2.11GB

Compressed: 3.32GB


while running the etrecheck report, I noticed that app and wired memory went down, and compressed memory went up. compressed is up to 5.42GB now.




Oct 3, 2021 9:40 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

this morning I got the "out of application memory" notice! will attach the etrecheck report.

activity monitor said:

memory used: 14.13GB

cached files: 1.79GB

Swap used: 532.8MB

App memory: 4.42 GB

Wired Memory: 1.92GB

Compressed: 6.96GB

windowserver was using 2.82GB, bztransmit (backblaze) was at 2.0GB, obsidian renderer was at 743.7MB, then website community.nesslabs.com at 646MB (I have like 7 tabs there), then DEVONthink at 476.0MB, then sourcetree 491MB, and then ticketmaster.com website at 461.4MB, then mail at 435MB.


Oct 5, 2021 7:43 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

and again this morning. it works fine all day, I let it sleep over night, and I'm greeted with "out of application memory" when first opening it. maybe it's gone to hibernate mode or something?


I forgot and left DEVONthink open, MacOS killed it. not sure what else it killed.


I had closed all the largest web pages from yesterday's report.


from activity monitor:

memory used: 13.49 gb

cached files: 2.4 gb

swap: 730.5mb

app memory: 6.39gb

wired: 2.3 gb

compressed: 3.98gb


window server again the biggest app at 2.69gb.

obsidian helper (renderer) 760.3mb

bztransmit 694.1mb

obsidian helper (GPU) 484.1mb

mail 457.4mb

safari page, https://app.youneedabudget.com 416.3mb

Numbers 405.7mb



Dec 8, 2021 9:45 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

well I was hopeful the mouse pointer memory leak was the problem, but I didn't have a custom pointer color or size set, and I even turned off "Shake mouse pointer to locate". still got the Out of Application Memory error though. plus I was getting the error before upgrading to Monterey.


anyway, I did notice something interesting in the "memory pressure" graph in iStat Menus. I'll attach a screenshot, but basically it shows the memory pressure much higher before a reboot than after. the activity monitor memory pressure graph doesn't have any history (that I can find) so I couldn't see it there.



the graph only shows 60% but that is when I got the Out of Application Memory error.


anyway, I'm going back to my weekly reboot practice.

Sep 4, 2021 8:46 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

Activity monitor, over time, is staying in a range between 3gb and 6.something gb of App memory used. I've never seen it hit 7 yet, and I have 26 apps showing in my dock, with 17 safari tabs distributed among about 8 safari windows. no errors, everything is running just as fast as when I only had 4 apps open. I can live with bright white web pages at night.

Sep 10, 2021 7:00 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

Well I’ve since gotten the “out of application memory” error a couple times. I don’t think the system actually killed anything these new times though, so I just closed the dialog and ignored it. Application memory is still below 7gb, the graph isn’t showing any memory pressure. “Memory used” has climbed to 13gb but then starts to go down again as I use the system. I’m starting to leave a few less browser tabs open again, and I close devonthink whenever I’m not using it, to protect the databases.

Sep 13, 2021 8:57 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

since I'm still getting the problem with "out of application memory", i figured I'll try rebooting, maybe the virtual memory system isn't working so well after a couple weeks. so here is a baseline EtreCheckPro report just after rebooting, and setting up my minimum apps. I intend to use my laptop as normal for the next few days, and see if I start getting the error right away or if it takes a few days to start happening. I'll post another EtreCheckPro report as soon as I get the error again (although of course by the time I run EtreCheckPro again, the system will probably've killed one or more of my apps, so it won't be a perfect snapshot, but it's the best I can do).


at this time, activity monitor shows:

Memory Used: 9.97GB

Cached Files: 6.33GB

Swap Used: 0

App Memory: 6.03 GB

Wired Memory: 1.64GB

Compressed: 1.16GB



Sep 16, 2021 7:57 AM in response to Kevin Geiss

Thank you for the update.

It seems that things are working normally.


The several amounts of memory that you mention will change as you use your mac.

Compressed memory may increase if you have more applications open. As the OS and applications may need to use more, the OS may compress some RAM by applications that have launched but are not being actively used. This can be faster with modern machines than it would be to use more swap space. It is all part of how the OS manages your mac, in particular the RAM and the storage, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

Oct 5, 2021 2:55 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

ok, I didn't think of restarting it when I got the error. it seemed to me that if I just close some stuff, the memory manager should recover. that's what I'm used to from linux.


I had rebooted on sept 24 for a software update, and then ran the system without issue until sunday morning (oct 3), when I got the out of application memory message. next time that happens, I'll go ahead and reboot.


this time, I started closing web pages, then got the error monday morning, closed more things, got the error again this morning and this afternoon. then I ran some more software updates and rebooted.


anyway, next time, I'll reboot after I get the error. maybe I'll start a habit of rebooting every friday morning or something too since somewhere between 8 and 9 days is where I seem to run into the issue.


m1 out of memory

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