I keep getting a Low Memory notice with only Mac Mail and Safari with only 3 tabs open. Activity Monitor shows Memory Used anywhere from 10 to sometimes 12 GB used and telling me that quitting some Apps might solve it. Why and what can I do about it?
iMac 24″, macOS 12.4
You have what are likely self-inflicted wounds—malware—that are crashing:
You can use the path name for each offender to find and manually remove them.
You can also use the only tool most graybeards here consider safe: MalwareBytes. It is the work of a respected contributor here. The free version allows manual scans; the full version stops you from getting more garbage like that in real time. If you are prone to visit unscrupulous download hosting sites, you need the full version to save you from yourself! 😉
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac
That stuff is going to mask other issues, so it has to go first.
It may be something running in the background.
Install EtreCheck and post the report. Allow Full Disk Access.
Use the Additional Text icon to paste in the report.
Too often that message about low memory confusingly refers to storage space. How much Free Space is available on your drive?
Have you installed any third-party anti-virus software or so-called "Cleaning" apps? These have caused many spurious system messages.
Two things I see that are wrong with your system.
Other than those 2 things the computer is fine.
Please post the EtreCheck report as requested.
Forgot to mention that the iMac has 16 GB memory (thought that was assumed).
It shows 330 GB available of 500 GB SSD
No third party anti-virus installed. This mac is still clean from Apple.
Though I don't fully understand what was flagged, would there be a problem if I deleted anything questionable that was found?
I did post it before
Low Memory notice on 24" iMac M1
