Hidden processes taking up a lot of ram?

Just leave it be. Unused memory just sits there doing nothing, so macOS keeps cached files and does not immediately release some memory that may get to be reused soon. It all works very well.

If you want, you can switch Activity Monitor the the Memory tab, and see which applications are using more memory, but if you try to manually release memory you will make your mac perform worse, not better.

In the old days (before 10.9 Mavericks) there were occasions when forcing the system to release memory helped, but that has not been the case for over a decade now.

See > View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

patrick2000q wrote:

As you can see the sum here doesn't really add up.

That's a common problem with Apple math. It never adds up.

But let’s say “App X” needs 4 GB of RAM.

What do you mean by that? Memory allocation is not a simple thing. It has a long and complicated history.

Apple's memory system is heavily based on virtual memory. As soon as virtual memory was introduced, apps started abusing it. So, in turn, operating systems started lying about it. It's a constant battle between apps trying to take all RAM and the operating system trying to preserve RAM for other tasks.

Unfortunately, RAM, like storage, has gotten to a really absurd level of complexity. So that means that the math doesn't add up anymore. And it isn't even "managed" anymore. Apps can ask for however much they want. But they only ever get what they use. And if they don't use it, they lose it, sometimes even if they do use it. Sometimes there are tricks like compressed memory and auto-quit. But ultimately, it's free hard drive space that becomes the decider. When free drive space is exhausted, so is memory.

But until it gets to that point, there's nothing you can do to improve upon it. Apps shouldn't go crazy. And you should quit them if they do. But as long as everything is reasonable and the system is performing well, there's nothing you can do to improve upon it.

patrick2000q wrote:

I’m not trying to improve anything. Apple would have to pay me to do that ahahah.

Sorry. I was still thinking of someone else using a "memory cleaner".

I’m just trying to understand where the 4 gb go. What process is using them. Because a few years ago with older operative systems this wasn’t the case. There was no hidden memory usage. The sum was always exactly the same as the manual sum you can do with a simple piece of paper :))

That's not so simple anymore. As I said before, Apple math simply isn't ever going to add up. It would be great if it did, but those days are over.

If you want to try to figure it out yourself, you're welcome to try. Just don't look at those pretty-picture totals that obviously don't add up. A good place to start is the Memory tab in activity monitor. But instead of looking at the bottom, look at the top. There will be a column for "Memory" (or maybe just "Mem..."). Control-click or right-click on that column. This will allow you to add additional columns.

Now do more math. How many additional "Memory" columns can you find? Enable them all. Try to make sense out of it. Let us know if you ever succeed.

This is how Macs work. You can't change it. If App X needs 4gb of Ram then the OS will make sure it has what it needs. If you want more fine control than that you need to be using a different computer system, frankly.

There are some misinformed users who insist on using a Third Party Memory Cleaner

Misinformed in that the application sets up a Conflict between the Operating System and the memory cleaner

Who or What is going to Control the allocation of the RAM

Really counter productive IMHO

The OS has very sophisticated memory management and it works really well. Trying to second guess what it does in the misguided belief that you can do better will not bring you any benefit. If you are experiencing a specific problem where your mac is not performing correctly and adequately, please explain. Otherwise you should just enjoy using your mac. As already mentioned, you won’t gain anything by forcing the OS to release memory. Let it manage it.

Activities related to Memory Usage and Control there of is opening this up to include Memory Cleaners

Memory Used is Dynamic and always changing

Suggest one ( you ) do not micro-manage this

Just let the Computer that was Builtin / Designed / Made by Apple use the Operating System Builtin / Designed / Made by Apple work hand in a glove - per se

As long as the " Memory Pressure " remains Green

No issues, at least on this M4 Desktop, M2 Desktop and M3 Laptop all with Sequoia 15.3.2

You are welcome for the free advise

While some individuals visit these forums seeking technical solutions to specific Apple-related issues, there are also those who seek recognition or fame through their contributions.

It is extremely unlikely that anyone with that kind of knowledge will respond to you here; first because probably there aren't such people here, and second because if they do have internal knowledge about things that Apple implemented deep inside the OS, they are not going to discuss it in an open forum like this.

Good luck, though.

"Memory Used: 23.61 GB

"Unaccounted for": 23.61 GB - 19.4538 GB = 4.156 GB

Which in my opinion is a lot."

Your opinion as .... what? A qualified Apple dev? A qualified software engineer? A professional SW developer? A layman? Some opinions are worth more than others.

Significant parts of the macOS kernel are open source or based on open source software so in fact many questions like in this topic are or were discussed in an open forums, and what you called internal knowledege is likely publicly available for those who seek that knowledge.