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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

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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