Macbook Pro M1 Ram usage

1) With minimum RAM, restarting the computer every 3-4 days can help reduce virtual memory (VM) swaps:

System Software:

macOS Monterey 12.3.1 (21E258)

Time since boot: About 8 days ⚠️

Also, remember VM writes to storage, so full or slow storage (you have both) can slow VM performance. Keeping VM swaps low is one key to managing minimum RAM. Your swap use is high, 25+% of your physical RAM:

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 14 MB

Used RAM: 7.78 GB

Cached files: 213 MB

Available RAM: 227 MB

Swap Used: 2.29 GB ⚠️

2) Restarting may also help with the "stuck" files the report detected:

iCloud Status: 39 pending files

Check that iCloud is working.

3) Your SSD is showing write speeds far slower that I've seen in other M1 Macbook Pros:

Performance:

System Load: 1.32 (1 min ago) 2.12 (5 min ago) 2.02 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 109.05 MB/s

File system: 7.58 seconds

Write speed: 946 MB/s ⚠️

Read speed: 2855 MB/s

Other reports showed M1 write speeds within about 10% or less of the Read speed.

Your Job 1: make a full backup of the drive immediately because the drive could signaling a potential failure. That discrepancy usually shows up only on aftermarket SSDs where TRIMforce is not enabled. That is not the case with yours.

Hopefully getting rid of the useless-ware will help that but don't; take the chance. Rerun EtreCheck after evicting the **** and repoat so we can see if some of the isses we've spotted have mellowed.

6a6 wrote:

I have a MacBook Pro 2020 13" 8gb.

...result in crashing, glitching specifically when listening to music in YouTube/Spotify while surfing, the music often glitches, skips, crackles when switching between tabs, apps.

I've tried apps like CleanMyMac but this has 0 affect.

CleanMyMac is a known cause of issue on the macOS.

Typically third party Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN does nothing but add issues

It is advised to Uninstall all third these party apps...

You have not had to micro-mange RAM for quite a few years now....

View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

I would verify you are using the current stable release of Monterey including bug fixes, is macOS 12.4

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

A SafeBoot is know to sort anomalies clearing cache files—SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

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

if you continue to have issues—you can get a good look at your System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com Allow the Full Disk Access for best results.

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.

6a6 wrote:

Hi,

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Is it recommended to run this report while I'm experiencing these issues?

<Etrecheck report.log>

< Surfshark Antivirus >

uninstall— you should look for the in-app official uninstaller or If in doubt refer to the developers website, search: Support/Help/FAQ/known issues/compatibility/updates

https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us

Sometime the uninstaller can be found: in Preferences, some time the About, Sometime tucked into the Package Content (Control click on the app itself in Applications folder and sometimes there is a clue in the readme.txt same location

ex.

Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apples own built in security:

 macOS - Security - Apple  macOS - Security - Apple

Apple Platform Security - Apple Apple Platform Security - Apple Support

more—https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf

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

have a YouTube video playing music while I work and it glitches and stutters all the time. Surely a MacBook Pro should be able to cope with light web browsing and YouTube vids?

Playing music is not the lightest task you can find.

However, as others have checked off most known causes, I must strongly support Leroy's recommendation of an Etrecheck report. In this venue where we can neither see nor touch your computer, we are stuck without further data.

EtreCheck can provide that WITHOUT revealing any personal or security information. It is the work product of one of our most valued contributors here. Most users L6 or higher know him.

NOTE: When you run EtreCheck, set it to allow "full disk access." Instructions for doing so are in the EtreCheck Help Menu under "More Help."

That will show log entries of crashes, High RAM/CPU use recored by apps used. Very useful to seeing apps that are using more than their fair share of resources.

Since Maverick, MacOS has used essentially all available RAM, by design.

The key indicator is memory pressure.

MacOS since about 10.11 El Capitan uses more than 6GB for MacOS itself for appropriately responsive operation. later version of macOS and M1 Macs use more.

8GB is not a lot of real RAM for Video editing or sound production.

In my opinion, you should be using a Mac with more real RAM.

Uninstall AVG. Not needed and may cause problems.

It appears you are low on free storage space on your mounted drive.

Unused RAM is wasted RAM. RAM usage is not "causing crashing and glitching".

Post an etrecheck report so that we can see your computer's configuration and installed apps.

what do you have installed?

post an Etrecheck report and readers are eager to assist you in attaining a "lean-and-mean" responsive Mac.

Recommend that the next time that you buy a MacBook Pro, don't settle for the minimum amount of RAM and the minimum sized SSD.