MBP M1 with 16GB is running out of memory constantly

Michael Tchong wrote:

Suddenly, as of 11.6 and 11.6.1, my 2020 MBP M1 with 16GB of RAM is running out of memory every few days. I have attached screenshots that show, that Safari is culprit. The Force Quit Applications window says that Safari is using 402.4 MB but Activity Monitor shows that just one Safari tab (Amazon) is taking up 3.15 GB of memory. The NY Times is 2.46 GB.

What is going on? 🤔

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/af6d7973-40b9-49b6-b486-c40bb1b95630

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/33bb4942-ffe9-425f-9ee0-676fe659e70e

I am not seeing wide spread reports of memory leaks in macOS BigSur 11.6 or 11.6.1

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN

all known to cause issues on the macOS

if no resolve—

To get a good look at your System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.

Michael Tchong wrote:

Here's my Etrecheck report.

<EtreCheckPro Report.log>

I think major house cleaning is in order—

To trouble shoot further you can:

I would try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache,  etc. 

Login and test. Reboot  as normal and test.  Caches get rebuilt automatically.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a  reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode. 

To trouble shoot further you can:

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

  This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

—Notes on your etrecheck—

<Runtime: 2:20 Performance: Excellent>

Your run time is excellent

<disk3s5 - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (Shared - 1.71 TB used)> this is your User data

SSD like o have 20-25% free storage at all times

<Time since boot: About 7 days>

Booting once a week is a good way to clean things up

You get a better report —allowing Full Drive Access

huge amount of Safari extensions...?

See all these crash reports ?— I would work through deleting apps or updating them...

Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):

2021-11-10 02:35:43 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent High CPU Use (12 times)

Executable: /Library/Apple/*/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

2021-11-09 20:58:49 Evernote Legacy.app Crash (18 times)

Executable: /Applications/Evernote Legacy.app

Details:

abort() called

2021-11-08 23:32:44 signpost_reporter High CPU Use (6 times)

Executable: /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter

2021-11-08 21:27:39 appstoreagent Crash

Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppStoreDaemon.framework/Support/appstoreagent

Details:

dyld3 mode

2021-11-07 09:53:56 mediaremoted Crash

Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaRemote.framework/Support/mediaremoted

Details:

objc_msgSend() selector name: copyWithZone:

dyld3 mode

2021-11-06 11:03:29 assistantd Crash

Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AssistantServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/assistantd

Details:

dyld3 mode

2021-11-06 10:52:11 Grammarly for Safari.app Crash (2 times)

Executable: /Applications/Grammarly for Safari.app

2021-11-05 00:59:30 photoanalysisd High CPU Use

Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoAnalysis.framework/Versions/A/Support/photoanalysisd

You, like me and almost everyone who uses Monterey,. has the dreaded memory leak bug.  Apple will fix it eventually.

Before then there is a simple temporary solution.  Presumably you have several desktops on your mac.  I have 11 at the moment.  Go to one you don’t use often and open up Activity Monitor(its in your applications and on every mac).  Leave it open all the time.  Click on the column that tells you the use of memory by system processes and apps.  Highlight(click on) any that look completely out of control, and then click on the little icon with the x in the middle of a circle.  Choose force quit. If its an app it will quit and you will have to restart it.  If its a process(weird names mostly) then it will quit but come back almost instantly in the small size it's supposed to be.  For me about 15 minutes ago I noticed that the most common culprit, Control Center(which normally uses about 26 mb of memory)  was slowly sucking more and was up to 144mb.  Earlier this week I found it at 14 GB.  

You can keep these little buggers from stealing memory by just keeping an eye on them.  Be advised:  if WindowServer is up at 1gb then its probably doing it too, and if you force quit that one, your screen will go black for about 5 seconds while the OS puts it back, and then you will have to type in your machine password again.

I have found that by doing this, I seem to have less and less and less and issue with the offending apps and processes, almost as if the neural engine is learning what I want.

Hope this helps.  

The Activity Monitor screenshot suggest to me that you are now paying for the "free" Google Chrome and it minions.

Yes—some sites, regardless of browser, will demand massive RAM amounts. I can reproduce the hogging by Amazon at will, so I never leave it open in the background. That dates back to mac OS 10.13 and is bad coding on Amazon's part. Likely the same issue with NY Times.

How long has it been since you restarted the computer

I am suspicious of this:

[Loaded] Gemini Menu Launcher Site (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2021-11-02)

Modern Login Item

/Applications/Gemini 2.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/Gemini Menu Launcher Site.app

MacPaw is famous —or infamous—for "CleanMyMac," an unneeded "cleaning" app that is proven here to slow Macs. I've also seen at least 25 reports here over the last six month where users were getting spurious "out of memory" reports that stopped once CleanMyMac was removed. Same developer, so that makes me wonder. And suspicious.

You have no need for App Cleaner either.

When I worked in law enforcement, we called this a "clue":

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

Google Chrome Helper (Renderer) (44) 2.27 GB (Google, Inc.)

com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (11) 1.78 GB (Apple)

Airtable Helper (4) 290 MB (Formagrid Inc.)

Google Chrome 165 MB (Google, Inc.)

WhatsApp Helper (Renderer) (2) 161 MB (WhatsApp Inc.)

Surprise! There's your friend Chrome's minion "helper" wanting a huge chunk of RAM. However, immediately below it is a very high value for a component of WebKit, the underlying technology in Safari. That could be due to one or more of your Safari extensions acting badly. You can test by turning off all extensions and then reenabling them one at a time as your check for the return of issues issues at each stage.

I see what to appear to be multiple login/password apps that may be competing. Never a good thing. What can you live without? Slim is good.

2021-11-05 00:59:30 photoanalysisd High CPU Use

Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoAnalysis.framework/Versions/A/Support/photoanalysisd

This is a common resource usurper. See this third-party article for what this is and how to live with it:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/310594/what-is-photoanalysisd-and-why-is-it-using-77-of-my-cpu

The VM use summary reflects all this stuff I've mentioned:

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 16 GB

Free RAM: 15 MB

Used RAM: 15.53 GB

Cached files: 468 MB

Available RAM: 483 MB

Swap Used: 7.53 GB ⚠️

With 16GB of physical RAM, no report should show such a high value for Swap Used (one of two key metrics for evaluating RAM use) even after seven days, your last restart.

I just ran Etrecheck on an M1 MBP running Monterey that has only 8GB RAM and hasn't been restarted in nine (9) days. Its Swaps Used value: 8MB. That is roughly 1/10th of one percent of what yours is demanding after only seven days. That screams that something software-related is seriously wrong with one or more of your third-party apps/utilities and/or your Safari extensions.

The rule for un-installing is:

if you installed it by drag and drop to the /Applications folder, un-install by drag and drop to the Trash.

If it installed with a complex installer script, use ONLY the software-maker's Un-Installer script to remove -- otherwise you will not get all of the pieces.

NB>> Generic un-installers just just GUESS at what needs to be removed, and are notoriously BAD at doing what they claim to do. Most remove too little, but occasionally they have been caught trying to remove the beating heart of MacOS.

<< To manually delete Application Support, Caches, Preferences files, etc., is a big hassle. 🤯 >>

yes, it is. That is why you are supposed to use the software maker's un-installer that promises to get it all.

My experience does not line up with yours.

Most Mac software makers that are using a complex installer either include a separate un-installer -OR- have an un-install function in their Installer. And others can supply an Un-Installer on their Web site.

I am so glad it's not just me. I am deeply regretting my new purchase. I have never had this many issues with a brand new Macbook. What do we even do? I'm nearing the point of returning it and going with something else.

Jennyjoy521--

This discussion is already too crowded with multiple Users technical details to keep them all straight.

If you would like personalized attention, please start a NEW discussion, and include the exact model Mac, what version of MacOS, and some details of the issues you are experiencing.