Your system has run out of application memory

tkgb606 wrote:

Has anybody had any luck with support helping on this? I'm on 12.1 and get this frequently

Have you followed the procedure and identified the offending processes?

Have you verified that you have sufficient free storage on your boot device?

Do you happen to know if it's the Apple silicon version of chrome or the intel version? just wondering. mine is the Apple silicon version. i wonder if switching back to the intel version would change anything.

Version 97.0.4692.71 (Official Build) (arm64)

Hi! I've got a basic early 2015 "Macbook Air" model with 8GB RAM that started giving me the "Your system has run out of application memory" screen shortly after updating to macOS Monterey 12.1.

I keep using the same set of applications for about 10-15 years – these days it's mostly a few tabs in Safari, one or two documents in Pages and TextEdit, Mail and that's what takes it for the message to pop up. The most basic set you could imagine. But yes, I also put my computer to sleep by closing it often and then have it wake up by physically opening up the Macbook, as some users experiencing the same problem reported, so that may have something to do with it.

Spent like two hours reading various pages linked in this thread but I can't seem to figure out the problem. Sometimes in Activity Monitor there's multiple processes called "Safari Web Content (Cached)" or a process named after the website (e.g. a process named "https://mail.google.com" – your basic Gmail) that seem to grow to a few hundred megabytes but wiping out the cache, restarting Safari, rebooting the computer, even resetting the NVRAM memory etc don't help. In the end the problem always comes back sooner or later.

I'm puzzled and would like to point out this really is a bug: Apple made computers 20 years ago that handled more than this. Reported the problem to Apple. As usual thank you kindly to anyone who might figure out a solution.

Very disappointed that Apple is getting more like MS as each day passes. Don't address or acknowledge the problem and it won't be their problem.

I have the same issues on it manifests itself in Mac Mail. It appears to be a memory leak, but I wonder if it isn't something bigger and if it could be resulting in security problems.

janana01 wrote:

I have the same issue on MacBook Air m1 2020 16GB RAM. Mac OS Monterey 12.1

honestly, I buy apple so I don't have to worry about this stuff so this is so disappointing. is there a recall or a fix for this? unable to use the computer for work.

You have something in the background that is consuming memory, or you have run out of free storage on your boot device.

Go back to the first page of this thread, and read my reply. Then follow the instructions to diagnose what is causing your issue. Is it no storage left on your boot disk or is it a background task consuming all your memory.

I apologize I wasn’t aware you are not working for apple. It’s hard to believe there is not an official apple response on a mission critical problem that clearly effect many people? Thank you for volunteering and trying to help. For what it’s worth I updated the Os to 12.2 and so far no pop up. Hope it helps.

I'm having the same problem too. Didn't have it in my previous macbook pro running even more applications and it was definitely with a lower configuration. I have 64 Gigs of Memory and over 1TB of storage, so I'm not sure what the system is crying about. I'm guessing it's a bug and Apple hasn't yet thought about fixing it.

I'm having the same problem. It's been going on for the last week. I'm running an M1 Max MacBook Pro 16" with 32GB memory. Storage is half full. The message occurs even when the only things I have open are Safari and Finder.

Thanks to everyone who keeps posting. Just to clarify, the problem hasn't disappeared in the past few months since I posted in the thread. I just started permanently closing all applications throughout the day as soon as I don't need them, generally keeping Safari tabs to 4-5 max, rebooting once or twice a day... it's like being back in the 1990's.

As for what BobHarris posted: from what can I tell most of the times it's Safari that creates 10-15 different processes, each gradually using gigabytes of virtual memory. Doesn't really matter if you don't have anything on your hard drive, it will eventually eat up all the space, I've already cleared my Mac of everything else than text documents but it's never enough. Since Safari is an Apple-created app and I'm dealing with the hard-drive that I bought my Macbook with I really don't see what I could do to fix the problem other than keep rebooting constantly. Usually before the "Your system has run out of application memory" message appears you'll see like 15 processes named like this upon typing the "ps ax" command in Terminal.

136464540 27290 /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

As far as I remember the problem started with the new version of macOS and Safari.

macOS Monterey, Version 12.2.1, Safari Version 15.3 (17612.4.9.1.8)

I'd be so grateful if anyone found a solution. Sorry to keep bugging you all!

I have also been having this problem on my brand new MacBook Pro. It happens when almost no applications are running—two or three—Safari, Numbers, and the Finder. It is worse if there are a couple more. I finally did a restart today, and so far it is better, but a brand new computer shouldn't be having really irritating problems like this. OS12.2.1, 8 RAM, 441gig of memory available. My old computer of six years was doing better than this. Not a selling point for Mac.

Bottom line—Apple has screwed up somehow, and it's causing problems. I've been using Macs for over 30 years as a graphic designer, artist, and teacher. This is an operating system problem not being caused by users. Apple needs to fix it. The question is, will they?

Frustrating that this issue has been around well over 6months now with no fix. Fingers xed for next os update.

Our current workaround is using cleanmymacx app ( recommend for all apple users!) and clicking on " Free up memory" in the dashboard. Saves having to quit and restart apps to clear cached app memory usage.

Re: CleanMyMac... most veteran users in the Communities will tell you that app is akin to garbage. I agree. CMM has the potential to do real damage to user files and cause more trouble than it claims to fix.

On 4/26/22 Emacartist37 posted that a restart improved things for them. That's no surprise because caches get cleared on reboot. While CMM can clear some of those same caches, if you stick to the recommendation to restart at least once a week, a lot of this can be avoided, I believe.