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Imac 24" M1 chip 16 GB memory Ventura 13.0.1
Started getting this message today while using LR. The first time it happened I also had Safari open. I shut down Safari and tried using the app again, it locked up again. No other apps were open at the time and I was not doing any task that I have not performed many times before without issues.
I have no 3rd party anti virus apps installed.
I ran etrecheck and will attach the results.
iMac
If you are getting "Your system has run out of application memory" dialog boxes, and a list of most likely innocent apps listed, then here is the explanation.
For the record, there are 2 reasons for the "Your system has run out of application memory" dialog box.
A) Your boot disk has very low free storage, and macOS cannot create page/swap files to offload virtual memory contents to disk. This is generally not the case, but I mention because if you do have very low free storage, it might apply.
B) A process (or set of processes) have asked macOS for excessive amounts of virtual memory address space. Virtual memory address space requires macOS to create Virtual Memory Page Tables in the kernel address space to keep track of the application virtual addresses given out. Generally, if there is a memory leak (process asks for a virtual address range, uses the addresses, forgets to give them back, asks for another virtual address range, uses the addresses, wash, rinse, repeat), eventually there are so many virtual memory page table entries trying to keep track of the virtual addresses, that macOS no longer has memory available for applications, and you get the "Your system has run out of application memory".
If you look at Applications -> Utilties -> Activity Monitor -> View (menu) -> All Processes -> Memory (tab), you can see what processes are using lots of memory.
You can also issue the following command from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:
ps ax -o vsz,pid,comm | sort -n
which will display the virtual memory used sorted so the largest virtual memory consuming users are at the end. The virtual memory sizes are in 1024 byte units.
NOTE: I have seen situations where no single process is using all the memory, but rather a host of smaller processes are using up all the virtual memory. That is to say, a 100 instances of the same program all running with a moderate amount of memory eventually adds up to a lot of page table entries being used.
I have also seen users with 100's of web browser tabs open, where each tab is being managed by its own separate process. And just because you are not looking at any give tab, does not mean the Javascript running on that web page, is not taking up memory and virtual addresses.
If you are getting "Your system has run out of application memory" dialog boxes, and a list of most likely innocent apps listed, then here is the explanation.
For the record, there are 2 reasons for the "Your system has run out of application memory" dialog box.
A) Your boot disk has very low free storage, and macOS cannot create page/swap files to offload virtual memory contents to disk. This is generally not the case, but I mention because if you do have very low free storage, it might apply.
B) A process (or set of processes) have asked macOS for excessive amounts of virtual memory address space. Virtual memory address space requires macOS to create Virtual Memory Page Tables in the kernel address space to keep track of the application virtual addresses given out. Generally, if there is a memory leak (process asks for a virtual address range, uses the addresses, forgets to give them back, asks for another virtual address range, uses the addresses, wash, rinse, repeat), eventually there are so many virtual memory page table entries trying to keep track of the virtual addresses, that macOS no longer has memory available for applications, and you get the "Your system has run out of application memory".
If you look at Applications -> Utilties -> Activity Monitor -> View (menu) -> All Processes -> Memory (tab), you can see what processes are using lots of memory.
You can also issue the following command from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:
ps ax -o vsz,pid,comm | sort -n
which will display the virtual memory used sorted so the largest virtual memory consuming users are at the end. The virtual memory sizes are in 1024 byte units.
NOTE: I have seen situations where no single process is using all the memory, but rather a host of smaller processes are using up all the virtual memory. That is to say, a 100 instances of the same program all running with a moderate amount of memory eventually adds up to a lot of page table entries being used.
I have also seen users with 100's of web browser tabs open, where each tab is being managed by its own separate process. And just because you are not looking at any give tab, does not mean the Javascript running on that web page, is not taking up memory and virtual addresses.
Thank you Bob for your very helpful comments. I did have a look at the activity monitor while I was working in Lightroom (as I was when the problem first occurred) and it did show almost 8 GB of app memory being used by LR. It fluctuated between 3 and about 7.8 GB.
Is there any fix or is there a work around. I did finally manage to finish my project by forcing LR to quit and then rebooting the computer. I had a 16 GB intel 16" mac before this new one whitch has the M1 chip and never had a problem with it. The new mac really seems to be a lot faster which I attribute to the M1 chip.
Not really.
It is the sum of all the processes that consumes virtual memory, not just Lightroom.
You can quit apps, especially browsers that have lots of tabs open, as each browser tab is a separate process consuming virtual memory, and some JavaScript running in browser tabs are poorly written can consume more memory than is necessary, so quitting a browser will free up that memory.
Activity Monitor (View set to All Processes) is going to show you all the processes and memory being used, the top 'n' are the most likely candidates, but like I said, a web browser that has lots of tabs open may have lots of processes not using a lot each, but in total, it might add up to a lot.
Sorry for popping in here, but you may want to take a look here - your name is mentioned:
Why is it so hard to thank a poster (like… - Apple Community
Thanks so much Bob. You have been very helpful.
Your system has run out of application memory
