Very High Memory Usage - Differences between Safe Boot and New User Account

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Level 1

8 points

Very High Memory Usage - Differences between Safe Boot and New User Account

I'm having big memory usage issues with Adobe CC. I'm getting memory warning pop-ups and jittery operation.

Illustrator or Photoshop in my main user acct. and Safe Boot is using 37GB of memory (without a file open). However, after creating a new user account, Illustrator is only using 1GB of memory.

Adobe Forum is not getting me any answers.

So... I don't know where to turn in what differences to investigate that the New User is doing better/differently than the Safe Boot.

This issue isn't showing up on my older MacBook Pro (2018) on Catalina.

MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max, OS 12.3, 64GB Memory, 2TB SSD, Latest version of all Adobe software.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Mar 25, 2022 12:27 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

markfug Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 26, 2022 12:04 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

CleanMyMac might be evil somehow, but it wasn't responsible for this. There must of been corruption going on with the apps themselves because uninstalling/reinstalling AI and PS has brought the apps back to normal usage.

AI is at 1.79GB and PS at 1.07GB.

Adobe really makes it difficult to organize/locate as files like patterns., gradients, etc. None of it were in any of the folders with those names in either the app folder or Library's Application Support. I looked so hard to find the locations of this stuff to save out. I just couldn't find them by names. This was my fear with this. I have backups. I just need to find them.

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Answer 2

markfug Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2022 2:59 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I tried removing the pref file, but that made no change. I'm not sure how to read a EtreCheck report, but looking at the memory usage section, the memory usage by Illustrator and Photoshop have completely different amounts compared to Activity Monitor. With no files open in either app, this is the usage: PS 21.74GB, AI 18.89GB with AIRobin 18.01GB.

EtreCheck Report

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Answer 3

markfug Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2022 4:21 PM in response to lllaass

So... I've removed CleanMyMac and cleaned out all of Malwarebytes. Unfortunately not the cause. AI is still using 37GB of memory. I had done a EtreCheck on the new user account (attached). Is there another area on the report that could be compared since the new user is not using excessive ram?

EtreCheck Report (new user)

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Answer 4

Mar 25, 2022 1:07 PM in response to markfug

I don't have Adobe applications, but sometimes misbehavior can be due to corruption in an application's preferences.

You may perhaps delete the preferences and see if that helps.

Quit any of the problem applications.

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/Preferences

find the files starting with com.adobe

for example

com.adobe.illustrator.plist

(or similar)

and drag them out of the folder. You can put them temporarily on the desktop and, if this does not help,

put them back later.

If the above does not help: from the problematic account, run Etrecheck and post its report here.

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Answer 5

lllaass

Level 10

210,471 points

Mar 25, 2022 3:36 PM in response to markfug

Start with uninstalling CleanMyMac using the instructions provided by them. CleanMyMac often results in more problem than it may solve.

Next delete the items listed under Clean up near the end of the report. It appears that you once had MalwareBytes install but did not completely remove it. the end of

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