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Macbook M1 Pro 2021 memory leak

Bought a 16” macbook pro m1 1TB 16GB recently, waited for these to come out. Then their was all apples hype how great they were with multi tasking. Truth be told my iphone handles memory better.

i got on chat with Apple they told me to restart in safe mode - worked for about 2hrs. Then your look on the web, loads of theories. Apple does not have any fixes for this. I went into a Apple store this evening asking about it, they say i must book a slot at the genius bar. I said are you not aware of the issue, there are literally loads of users experiencing the issue. I told them i am returning the device. At least tell your consumers what you are going to do about it. If Apple don't answer users question WTH is going on. Oh and here is the wierd thing, i went to 8 different new 2021 macbook devices presumably running all day some with various apps open, none of the had memory leakage having to use swap memory. So my question is, are there certain build that are ok and others not?

Posted on Dec 9, 2021 1:24 PM

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43 replies

Feb 24, 2022 3:02 PM in response to tyronne98

I have a m1 MacBook Air that I got in November 2021. I complete agree with your comments about Apple's lack of care/concern or consideration of this GLARING issue! People are paying way to much money to work on a computer that has memory leak issue that harken you back to 2004! I will say, after completely restoring and manually moving all my files over as suggested, it did work for a while. My problem with the ram issues are website loaded on Safari. I have always used Safari, it has always been my main and only browser. Not anymore. I was reading a simple article and it said that the website (only one of two tabs) was using significant resources. Well, I opened up activity monitor and it was close to 6gbs of my ram used for it! Crazy! I nearly lost it but I tried that same website and like six others on FireFox (Apple Silicate one) and it was like 900mbs for like 7 websites, which sounds normal to me! So it seems the M1 issue is connected to Safari Browser to me. What about you guys? This is why I use my Dell laptop for work stuff, I don't have time for this non-sense. I have 16gbs of ram, 1tb hd, MacBook Air and Apple told me, "Sorry we cannot help you unless you upgrade to Monteray! They need to fix M1, Safari, and Big Sur before I would even consider it. Window 10 doesn't seem bad at all after this experience. It will definitely be my last Mac. I would rather use Linux instead of a Mac..For work I use Windows 10 Pro on my Dell. Works amazing. No issues. 16gbs of RAM with a 11th Gen i3.

Apr 19, 2022 7:02 AM in response to Adam Cone

As you use a *nix type OS, it caches more and more of what it reads and writes to the SSD. Like the first time you do “ls” from the command line is way slower than the 2nd (and 3rd, etc) since the SSD access is slower than RAM access. Apple’s OS is smart in that it will compress less accessed memory to make more real RAM available. Decompression is faster than SSD access, too!


My m1 max MBP constantly runs with about 32GB used, and I haven’t rebooted it in recent memory. I use it to develop software, specifically I use VS Code to edit and run over a dozen back end microservices (in Docker) and have both Safari and Chrome open with dozens of tabs open.


I would not consider a reboot unless all 64G were used and swap (on SSD) filling up. I haven’t seen that situation, though.

May 6, 2022 2:53 PM in response to tyronne98

I had a 2014 MacBook Pro w/8gbs of ram prior. Never had any "Memory Leak" issues ever before. I never even heard of that term. Now, I have a M1 MacBook Air and I hate it. I hate the keyboard and I hate all the memory issues I have been experiencing. It is nuts, for sure! I have the m1 Air w/16gbs of ram and 1tb of HD. I can't have but 2 tabs opened or so without it giving me a message about the memory leak issues. YouTubers went on and on about the M1 Processor. Yet, the RAM is the major issue and Apple refuses to help me unless I upgrade to Monterey, which, according to my research, is still having the same memory leak issues with the M processors that Big Sur is having. So upset! $1,700 for crap and my $500.00 Dell laptop with a i3 blows this thing out of the water with ram use. Beside that and the horribly crappy keyboard, its nice. What's odd, is that one of my clients just got a new m1 MBA and the keyboard is nicer and its the same model as mine, but not customed made like mine. I am not happy. Unless they really listen to their computers and fix this issue for current and future M processor users, I will not be getting any Mac computer again.

May 6, 2022 3:42 PM in response to jessfromfl

I have an m1 iMac (16GB of RAM) using Monterey. With Safari I have lots of GB of Ram sucked up with each tab. If I switch to the Brave Browser, that issue goes away. Just a thought. Outside of that issue, love the mind blowing speed of this vs my 2010 i7 iMac running Big Sur. Not sure why you wouldn't upgrade to Monterey from Big Sur.


Mark

May 13, 2022 7:52 AM in response to hebawom

I have been posting for a while that the memory leak seems fixed. I have m1 mini w/8GB RAM, m1 iMac, and m1 max mbp. my MBP has not required a reboot ever. It took 5 or 6 weeks for the m1 class machines to need to be rebooted as memory grew to 3GB Free and 6GB+ of swap used and system monitor showing no particular process using absurd amount of memory.


I have never experienced slowness some describe. these machines do fly at everything I do.


I have safari open with several windows and many tabs. I have apple mail open forever, and I archive emails, never delete. On the iMac. Also three Numbers spreadsheets that I update severall times a day, the biggest one with 1700 rows. I am running quicken 24/7, and the iMac serves as a local LAN based iTunes media server - I also have the TV App open 24/7.


I have Docker Desktop installed on the three, which creates a 2GB RAM virtual machine to run containers within. otherwise, the TV App is most RAM usage at 600MB, DropBox 470M, Quicken 400MB, Numbers 200MB. 0 swap used, 5GB+ free RAM. Uptime is > 3 days since last software update.


The mini is a backup iTunes media server, but I have nothing running on it. I have not considered it stable to use for my production needs. The memory leak is way better after recent software updates, but 24/7/365, it runs out of RAM, running only istats menus and Remote Desktop to it (it's headless). It was running out of RAM after 2-3 weeks. Now it tuns out after 6-8 weeks. Doing nothing at all, basically.


My MBP is used heavily for software development. I have VS Code running 24/7 on it, though I do close the lid when not in use.


The ones that run out of RAM do have external USB 3 or Thunderbolt drives attached...


Macbook M1 Pro 2021 memory leak

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