Memory leak? Not enough memory but barely using any

I think I MAY have found out something about this dreadful Memory Leak in Sonoma. I'd been having this problem for quite some time now. I ended up going back to Ventura with no issues. However I just updated the container running Sonoma (I have two containers, one Ventura, the other Sonoma) to the latest version (14.4). I'm running Mail VERSION 16.0 (3774.500.171.1.1). I have three mail accounts: iCloud (Apple Mail), an Exchange account, and a Yahoo! account. I loaded them in one at a time. First iCloud (no issues), then Exchange (no issues), then Yahoo!. Yahoo! went ballistic and sucked up all available memory (Many GB). The first two accounts don't have a tremendous amount of emails in them, 3.48 GB and 1.46 GB respectively. Yahoo on the other hand has almost 50,000 emails (many with attachments) and is a complete trouble maker. I'm beginning to suspect that it is the users with huge mail accounts that causes the memory runaway in Mail. I deactivated the Yahoo! account and Mail is behaving. I hope this helps somebody!

Welcome!

Maybe not a leak but rather a fat hog at the trough, like Chrome.

Look at Activity Monitor, with its "View" option set to "All Processes." It will show what apps and processes are being greedy. The Chrome app itself is not always piggy, but it unleashes a horde of minion "helpers" that can use massive amounts of resources.

👉🏻 NOTE: The Activity Monitor display is dynamic, changing every few seconds. Observe its window for 15-30 seconds to identify any processes that continue to bubble to the top as most active.

Have users test with another browser like Safari fo FireFox. The Brave browser is getting a lot of attention here as having the functionality of Chrome without the massive overhead load. Those are far less porcine in their appetites for resources and may offer a clue.

DeCrim wrote:

I have two users with the same 2022 M2 Macbook Pro 8GB RAM. Both have the same issue where their mac decides its not got enough memory available and needs to force quit apps. This happens even when there are barely any apps open, for example just 1 Chrome tab, Slack, Notes.

Users both said it was temporarily fixed by last OS update but has since come back with a vengeance. I have looked in activity monitor and there is nothing major apps-wise taking up lots of memory. The only thing that sticks out to me is a process called WindowServer, which was taking up a fair amount but still not enough to take up all the memory. Is there a known memory leak issue? They are both running Sonoma 14.1.2

I would look for updates to your third party apps— memory leaks can not be resolved by the macOS alone if there is a third party conflict here.

if in doubt search the developers website or contact their: Support/Help/FAQ/Known issues/compatibility/updates…

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

Chrome

Slack

The current stable release of Sonoma including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 14.2

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support