MacOs Monterey - run out of memory

Can you boot in safe mode and check if still happens?

In order to boot in safe mode you need to switch off yuor mac and switch it on holding the switch button until the startup hd and the options icon appear. Then you select with the mouse the startup disk and, while holding down the Shift (not Shift lock!), key hit the enter key (under the boot hd the "safe mode" option should appear).

Please note that in safe mode, third party extension will mot work together with the related services.

https://support.apple.com/en-en/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

There seems to be a bunch of memory leaks in Monterey. See https://eclecticlight.co/2021/11/22/more-memory-leaks-in-monterey-12-0-1-how-to-avoid-them/

Personally I see "Run out of Memory" message with (IMO wrong) suggestion to force quit apps when some OS service, (like mds) gets confused and runs away with memory, making an ever increasing swap file. When that happens the short term solution is either restart the Mac OR quit the guilty process vith Activity Monitor.

In Activity Monitor, View -> All Processes and see the Memory tab. If you see that some iconless process like for example mds, fseventsd or WindowServer takes way more memory than any of your "real" apps, that is a sign that they are not being friendly.

Long term solution would be Apple fixing their OS.

This error message can have many causes:

Yes it’s totally possible it’s the hardware or the programmed OS. However more than likely in my experience it IS third party software installed, or external connected devices, and even the network it’s connected that can’t handle or allow the current process’ running.

I’ve also seen in the past on previous OS’ an issue with corrupted user permissions causing the error, or even Spotlight issues, both/all of which can be fixed.

My go-to’s are testing in safe mode (Which I know some have attempted) and in a new Admin user account.

These aren’t overall solutions, but more of an isolation steps(s). And are very revealing as to a cause.

Of course my first bet would be to quit ALL open applications, and open them in intervals, testing performance (Activity Monitor) after each launch and use.

Likewise, testing the issue with:

All external devices disconnected (Especially hubs, hard drives and monitors).

Testing with the internet totally turned OFF.

Activity Monitor is an awesome tool to use. And just because the configuration you have on your Mac either worked fine on another Mac or a previous OS, doesn’t rule third party apps out, any malfunctioning program can cause this error message and everybody’s Mac is configured and connected differently.

Worst comes to worst, you can install a new, fresh partition on your HD without erasing any data, reinstall the OS and see how it goes. If all works just fine, great! Then you can move your data to the new partition if needed, so there are many causes, but also options and results. Hope that helps somewhat.

That's what we're trying to find out. Download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Also, Google Chrome is a known resource hog. Have you considered another browser like Firefox which would also be a lot more secure from a privacy standpoint.

I am having the very same problem on my new MacBook Air with 12.01 installed. It asks me to force quit Word (and says it’s using 20+Gb of RAM). It has happened a few times and with very few programs open (such as Dictionary). I believe it must be an issue in Monterey.

Really don't know.

Check here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3100953

Also deleting Keynote and reinstalling can help as per other duscussion.

I kinda regret having said that you can "quit the quilty process" as the consequences may vary a lot. Quitting mds tends to be harmless whereas killing WindowServer should harm the session a lot. Better just restart. And maybe yell at Cupertino..

Is that the latest version of Keynote? (11.2, if I'm not wrong)

Just another question: is it happening with just a partcular file or with any file?. The question is: are you maybe inconsciously importing many and/or large file into that doc?

I bought my first macbook (air m1 2020) last week. I am leaving Windows after 30 years.

I was very happy even knowing that 245gb and 8gb ram are very bad and limited disk space near 2022.

I paid too much money, very expensive, here in Brazil you have to sell a car or motorcicle in order to by a mac.

I paid 7,000,00 mil reais. much money. It is like to buy 5 macbooks in Eua.

So now, i noticed that everytime my CleanMyMacX app shows that I Am with very low memory,

and it needs to liberate memory! What??? 7,000,00 mil reais for something that not support even a browsers loading??? just 5 tabs in a browsers (whatever, chrome or safari) is showing just 150mb of memory is remaining.

sad with that!!!

I think Apple is treating us like a dumb!

Macbook Air IS GARBAGE! It is just an old branding, status about something that is no longer good as it could be in the past. Apple is dead!

i want my money back!

You can install anything you want. However, research has shown that public VPNs are not that privacy oriented. If you want privacy use Apple's Private Relay. That would be the most secure VPN except for those for banks, schools and employers. But not any public.

As for CleanMyMac, if you had done your due diligence before spouting off you would see that our recommendations are based on hundreds of cases where CMM has trashed someones system and performance.

If removing CMM doesn't fix the problem at hand it will improve system performance because it's not needed and only takes up system resources.