Level 1

18 points

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

Top-ranking reply

music-city-it

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Jan 29, 2022 1:45 PM

I support more than 100 macs and this issue has been driving me crazy. This is what I have found and how I have resolved the issue thus far.

The only systems that I have had issues with are systems that have migrated users and applications from an Intel based mac. System with new users and freshly installed applications have had no issues for me
I create a fold in the shared user profile named migration and copy all user data here.
I create a new profile/user account
Manually copy the data from the migration folder ie desktop, documents, etc
Delete the original user profile

This has worked for me without fail thus far. I did not run the numbers, but I believe approx 20 percent of the intel to m1 migrations have had this issue. To avoid this going forward I am avoiding the migration assistant and just copying data and installing the software etc.

I have tested m1 to m1 migrations and so far I have not had any issue, I have not tested m1 to intel or had the need to do that as of yet.

I hope this helps and I hope this continues to work for me

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43 replies

Jan 25, 2022 7:50 PM in response to tyronne98

I noticed the same issue with MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro 16G Monterey 12.1, memory pressure is always high compare with previous MacBook Pro 13 with the same workload and apps opened. It slow down my Macbook and sometime I need to close apps and reopen it.

Jan 29, 2022 9:18 PM in response to music-city-it

Thanks. I am not sure what you mean by 'user data'. Are you moving the user folder as is into the 'migration' folder?

Also, does this mean you do not need to re-install all applications but only 'move' them back to the newly created user account?

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.

ku4hx

Level 7

23,688 points

Dec 13, 2021 12:36 PM in response to john_doe1106

Yep, Apple took note and worked on the problem. I imagine we can expect more fixes in the future.

Jan 14, 2022 6:16 AM in response to music-city-it

Music-city-it: Yes. That was exactly my situation. Intel-based migration to M1. Memory leaked like crazy. Thanks for your feedback.

Jan 21, 2022 2:35 PM in response to music-city-it

What do you mean you did a clean profile? I used Migration assistant after I set it up. Maybe I should have only migrated my music, documents, and photos, and left off the apps...

Jan 24, 2022 5:48 PM in response to windorabug1

I see the exact opposite! Macbook Air M1 w/ 16gb. I did not have these memory issues UNTIL I upgraded to 12.1 :(

Feb 16, 2022 7:53 PM in response to tyronne98

I had the same problem with a brand new M1 iMac and sent it back. Is it the M1 chip? Or is it an issue with Monterey OS? I have heard it has something to do with setting the size of your cursor.

Feb 24, 2022 3:02 PM in response to jimmymac3

Its all B S. Apple doesn't want to help nor does their engineering team.

Mar 31, 2022 11:38 AM in response to tyronne98

I have mine on "Light" and that doesn't matter. Safari tabs can increase to as much as 3GB in a single tab.

hebawom

Level 1

4 points

May 13, 2022 7:17 AM in response to tyronne98

Thank you, this bizarrely did help me!

Dec 12, 2021 12:39 PM in response to tyronne98

I share your frustrations ~ I've got 2 16" 2021 MacBook Pro's and they're both exhibiting frequent memory leaks. I had contacted Apple and was passed off with the same thing. The best thing to do is to keep reporting it via Apple's feedback page or feedback assistant (if you're running a public beta, for example) and hopefully with an increased number of people feeding back about it they'll act on it sooner rather than later.

To answer your questions about builds, I've one custom build and one standard and they're both the same. In my eyes and from experience (I work in Software/Data), it's a software issue. Returning the unit won't provide a fix I'm afraid.

Mac OS Monterey has been riddled with bugs since its release, which is a great shame as the hardware on the new Mac's are being spoiled by excessively buggy software.

As a side note, if you do decide to keep your Mac, every time you see a Memory leak in activity monitor, take a screenshot and keep them in a folder to send to Apple. That's what I do with mine, and hopefully it'll help them figure out what's causing it.

Dec 13, 2021 11:42 AM in response to tyronne98

hey tyronne98,

just wanted to keep you posted: macOS 12.1 is out now and it fixed most memory leaks for me and my use case.

check it out and let us know, if it fixed anything for you ;)

Best regards

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Macbook M1 Pro 2021 memory leak