memory leak in macOS 12.6.3 Monterey

The macOS 'purge' command basically flushes all your cashed file information and forced the file system to use slower and more power hungry storage I/O access to get it back.

I am not aware of an other way to force macOS to free up memory. What many memory clearers do is have their process keep allocating memory until they have forced macOS to push many apps to page and swap, then they free up all the memory and macOS puts it on the free list, and the user is happy.

Of course now macOS has to page back into memory an apps code and data when that app needs it, again using slower storage I/O and consuming more power.

An iMac does not care that much about power, as it is plugged into the wall outlet. Laptops do care.

And the user may (or may not) notice it takes longer to switch to an app that had all its stuff paged out. Then again, if they have a systemic problem of other apps consuming all of free memory, taking it down to a very low value, then identifying that app (or apps, or background daemon or agent) would be a good idea.

NOTE: a memory clearer app that forces other processes out of memory by consuming tons of memory and then freeing it, could be considered an app that uses a lot of memory until the memory free list is exhausted.

In many ways, how macOS behaves is similar to many other operating systems. The fine details are always different. Where other operating systems are Linux, AIX, Solaris, Tru64 UNIX (previously known as DIGITAL UNIX), OpenVMS (previously known as VAX/VMS), and before that the systems did not have virtual memory (Z80 CP/M, PDP-8 (no OS at all), PDP-11 (company specific OS not used anywhere else), a series of UNIVAC systems (both 1's complement 😱 and 2's complement binary 😁 )

Refer to image below.

The Last Time this specific Application was updated was in Sept 2019 - 4 years ago.

Further, have yet to find any specific Info from the developers as to what Exact Version of macOS it support on.

Outside of that, it remains the ongoing issue of Who or What is Controlling what is kept in Memory (RAM )

Right now there is a " Tug of War " between the Operating System, Monterey and this Application.

It is the users computer to install whatever it ( OS ) allows to be installed and suffer any consequence including what is occurring now on the machine

To quote Albert Einstein " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” 

Unless you are paging and swapping excessively, you WANT the operating system to use nearly all your memory, otherwise you wasted your money paying for extra RAM.

RAM is faster access then storage, so anything that can be kept in memory will be accessed faster. You said an iMac, but the same operating system is used on laptops, and accessing storage cost more power than accessing memory, so the more stuff kept in memory the less battery drain caused, so the laptop last longer between charges.

Again, unless you are seeing excessive paging and swapping, having lots of data cached is good.

Look at Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> View (menu) -> All Processes -> Memory (tab)

See if there is a process (or set of processes) that are consuming excessive memory.

Thoughts on the Application the user is using " Memory Diag to recycle the memory." ?

Kind of reminds me of some other similar application used Memory Clean 2

Both are basically fighting with the OS as to who controls what is kept in Memory ( RAM )

The following is a hack, and should not be needed, as chances are something is guilty of consuming all your memory besides file system cache.

But this hack will increase the minimum amount of free memory macOS will maintain that should allow running apps some freedom and avoid some spinning beachballs.

Increasing the minimum free memory size:

Applying the sysctl values in the following URL seems to greatly

minimize my macOS Spinning Beach Balls:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57674233

I have been experimenting with them, and after a few days, my system

seems to have a lot less Spinning Beach Balls, and the ones I get seem

to be less severe.

Basically add the following sysctl values to /etc/sysctl.conf:

    kern.vm_page_free_target=262144
    kern.vm_page_free_min=147456
    kern.vm_page_free_reserved=16384
    kern.vm_page_speculative_percentage=1
    vm.vm_page_background_exclude_external=0
    vm.vm_page_background_mode=1
    vm.vm_page_background_target=262144
    vm.compressor_timing_enabled=1

Then reboot.

If you want to just set them for the current booted system, then:

    sudo sysctl kern.vm_page_free_target=262144
    sudo sysctl kern.vm_page_free_min=147456
    sudo sysctl kern.vm_page_free_reserved=16384
    sudo sysctl kern.vm_page_speculative_percentage=1
    sudo sysctl vm.vm_page_background_exclude_external=0
    sudo sysctl vm.vm_page_background_mode=1
    sudo sysctl vm.vm_page_background_target=262144
    sudo sysctl vm.compressor_timing_enabled=1

and they will go away on the next reboot.

Storing the values in /etc/sysctl.conf will set them after every boot.

You can look at the current values using:

    sysctl kern.vm_page_free_target               \
           kern.vm_page_free_min                  \
           kern.vm_page_free_reserved             \
           kern.vm_page_speculative_percentage    \
           vm.vm_page_background_exclude_external \
           vm.vm_page_background_mode             \
           vm.vm_page_background_target           \
           vm.compressor_timing_enabled

Well perhaps the Original Contributor @ BobHarris , who work on multi Platforms outside of the Apple Eco-System will bring some additional insight to this issue