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 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.

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m1 out of memory

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