macOS 26 Tahoe: System runs out of application memory (M4 Pro, 48 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD)

I'm having the same issue. This is happening on both my M2 MacBook Pro and my M4 Mini. Started a day after upgrading both systems from Tahoe 26.01 to Tahoe 26.1. Hopefully Apple will have a patch. You should all report this as a bug to Product Feedback - Apple

I see Chrome in your list of apps, it's a notorious resource hog on macOS. I agree that Messages using 51 GB of memory is not normal, but if Chrome is your default browser then Messages is likely pulling link previews from Chrome.

Here's mine, for comparison.

Regarding excessing storage use: do you have a large collection of images for your wallpaper? They seem to have started excessively caching uncompressed bitmap versions of your wallpaper images in several resolutions and aren't clearing the images soon enough. That swallows up all your storage, and to bring it back to this thread, means you can't swap. Reducing the size of that selection seems to mask the problem, although that's not really a solution (feedback has been submitted).

AlanHirshberg wrote:

I'm having the same issue. This is happening on both my M2 MacBook Pro and my M4 Mini. Started a day after upgrading both systems from Tahoe 26.01 to Tahoe 26.1. Hopefully Apple will have a patch. You should all report this as a bug to Product Feedback - Apple

It's possible that there is a bug, but since many (or most) people are not experiencing this, it is also possible that something in your installation is involved. You may think that it's a bug because it's happening in both macs, but they probably share most of the same software.

You could run Etrecheck and post its report here, we may find something.

In your screen shot it is not evident that something is using 48TB. Safari is at ~2GB; seems normal it goes up to 10GB for me. Do you see any program consuming the RAM, or is it the OS?

By the way, I had issues with my RAID driver after migration from 15, had to manually remove it and install a driver compatible with 26. Do you have any drivers installed (MIDI for example).

I have had this problem on multiple occasions since upgrading to Tahoe, most recently when corrupt Calendar cache files would cause it to instantly gobble up 13GB and immediately throw the "out of application memory" error - even when no other app was running. Whilst I don't believe Calendar is the root cause of everyone's problem, it did provide a repeatable instance of the problem and force me to think about the issue.

It is easy to dismiss the problem as "not Apple's fault" and/or "must be some other software causing it", but there are too many users suffering this issue and the only common factor is Tahoe. The chances of all the victims running exactly the same rogue third party softwares is not even worth considering.

So why do some users repeatedly suffer this problem, while others never do?

I think it's down to drive space. Some have larger drives than others. However, there's more…

As has been stated here, the "application memory" in question is swap space (but Apple have dumbed it down to the point where very few understand what the error actually means) and when the drive is getting full (although still fully operational in all other respects), Tahoe is unable to swap memory to the hard drive and depending on usage, can cause this error. Even the worst affected may not see it all the time and some maybe never. Just depends on the size of their drive and how much is already being used. This is the 'user variable'.

While IMO Tahoe should do a better job at dealing with this issue, I believe there is a bigger problem here that has not been addressed, but is pertinent to the issue.

Where has all the drive space gone?

I specced this Mac Mini M4 with a 512 GB drive, based on the fact that for many years I have had that size in the Mac I was using and it remained approx only half full. Let me repeat that. For probably 10 years or more, my drive usage has NOT increased and my computing habits have clearly not changed in that time nor, I can confirm, since.

So when setting up this Mini, I was using about 250GB. Now, having been using Tahoe for some months, it is over 450GBs. Where has that 200GB gone?

That's for me to look into further, but my point with regard to this topic is that I believe the "application memory" problem, while not well handled by Tahoe, is merely the direct result of Tahoe eating drive space and how that impacts on the remaining space (hence the swap availability) and this will vary enormously between users.

It won't just be down to size of the drive. Someone with a small drive may never suffer the problem as their usage means there is still plenty spare, even after a huge chunk having been munched by Tahoe. Conversely, someone with a large drive may suffer the problem because they were already using a large (but acceptable) portion of it, before Tahoe stole enough of the rest to cause the 'application memory' problem and subsequent error - from which in either case it may not have been recoverable.

So I think the big question is - why is Tahoe stealing enormous amounts of drive space and what is it doing with that space and then of course, how can we get it back and stop it from happening again?

Ultimately, IMO, this entire issue is indeed a Tahoe problem.

UKenGB wrote:

corrupt Calendar cache files would cause it to instantly gobble up 13GB and immediately throw the "out of application memory" error - even when no other app was running.

Let me guess - gmail user?

It is easy to dismiss the problem as "not Apple's fault" and/or "must be some other software causing it", but there are too many users suffering this issue and the only common factor is Tahoe.

People have been reporting this problem for decades.

Don't get me wrong. Tahoe is one of the lowest-quality OS releases that I can remember, if not the absolute lowest. I think Tahoe was perhaps the only OS version that I rolled back after an install. I don't mean Tahoe 26.0, I mean 26.4. It should have been more stable at .4, not less.

So why do some users repeatedly suffer this problem, while others never do?

In order to experience the problem repeatedly, the users would have to be continuing to trigger it. If some rogue 3rd party app (or service) is responsible, then the problem will continue until that software or service is uninstalled. But in other cases, it could be something random - a user trying some operation that was simply too demanding for a simplistic app. For example, one of the few times I encountered this was trying to use Preview on a moderately large GeoTIFF file. I knew the risks, but I thought the file was small enough and Preview could handle it. I was wrong.

As has been stated here, the "application memory" in question is swap space (but Apple have dumbed it down to the point where very few understand what the error actually means) and when the drive is getting full (although still fully operational in all other respects), Tahoe is unable to swap memory to the hard drive and depending on usage, can cause this error. Even the worst affected may not see it all the time and some maybe never. Just depends on the size of their drive and how much is already being used. This is the 'user variable'.

It's more complex than that. While swap space is limited to free disk storage, application memory is limited in other ways.

Where has all the drive space gone?

You're getting off on a tangent in a 7 month old thread. Storage is a huge problem in recent years. If you're having trouble with storage, you should start your own thread about it. You're also free to read any of the hundreds of identical threads as well. But this is a multi-page thread. If anyone ever does come along and give you some definitive answer, you'll never see it because the answer will only appear on page 7.

So I think the big question is - why is Tahoe stealing enormous amounts of drive space and what is it doing with that space and then of course, how can we get it back and stop it from happening again?

Ultimately, IMO, this entire issue is indeed a Tahoe problem.

Categorically, objectively, provably false. People only think this is a Tahoe problem because people are absolutely addicted, in a clinical sense, to OS updates. Very few people are running any older versions of any OS anymore. Those few that are running older OS versions are desperately seeking hacks (or storage solutions) so they can download and install the very latest version of Tahoe. Then, when a new version gets released in two weeks, the entire process starts anew.

Again, let me reiterate that Tahoe is, indeed, a dumpster fire. I'm not saying anything good about it. It's just that all of these problems were present in older versions as well. Tahoe just makes everything more painful.

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. Depending on how much virtual memory is being called for, anything under 50-100GB of free storage may trigger the message.

Apple menu (upper left corner) -> About This Mac -> More Info... -> Storage (scroll down a bit) -> Storage Settings...

B. A process (or set of processes) has asked macOS for excessive amounts of virtual memory address space. In order to keep track of the virtual memory address space, the kernel creates virtual memory page tables. If there is a memory leak (process asks for a virtual address range, forgets to give it back, asks for another range, forgets again, wash, rinse, repeat), eventually there are so many page tables created there is no memory left for applications, and you get the “Your system has run out of applications memory”.

Look at

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

you can see what processes are using lots of memory. Many of these processes will be background agents and daemons used to provide many of the macOS services, as well as your applications.

Also keep in mind that each web browser tab will be a separate process running its own Javascript. If you have lots of browser tabs open, or if one of the browser tabs running Javascript with a bug in it, it is possible these browser tabs will add up to a lot of virtual memory demands, but no individual tab will look all that big.

Most of the time it is a 3rd party daemon or app, but Apple processes have been guilty as well, just less often.

I was writing hardware diagnostic programs to test virtual memory add-in cards for 16-bit mini computers in the 1970’s. I do have a clue about how virtual memory works at the bit level.

What happens in Safe Mode?

I had the same problem on my MacBook Air M2 with OS 26.0.1. I upgraded to OS 26.1 and the Mac works fine, but I also rebuilt the Spotlight index.

Multi-MacMan wrote:

Um - my device is shut down after every use, so it’s been restarted multiple times since this issue appears. Restarting has not been a solution.

I’ll TRY the Safe Boot, but I shouldn’t have to run my device that way just because of an upgrade.

As I wrote before, if the problem disappears in Safe Mode, it will show that the problem is caused by some third party software. Quite often, old stuff breaks after an OS upgrade.

Okay a little bit of help from ChatGPT went a long way. Ask it for terminal commands to clear out old cached files. Especially Adobe. This freed up 150gigs of space and things, knock on wood, are running fine now. It is very typical of Apple and Adobe not being in sync. Admins stop telling people to restart as if that will solve it. Do more research and support better.

Tahoe, or at least 26.0.1, seems to have trouble detecting that RAM is free after it has filled, so when it flushes caches and swaps out data it still can't resume paused applications, either automatically or manually. That seems to be combining with a bugs/bad optimisations causing significant memory usage (10s of GB) from safari and mail.

The Safari leakage may not entirely be apple's fault: Google is known to deliberately make non-compliant JS libraries that leak memory in non-chromium browsers, but unlike Mozilla Apple just regard that as a site bug and close issues as WONTFIX rather than implement a quirks mode. I don't use any Google apps, but who knows what libraries sites might be using.

I'll install 26.1 tonight and see if that makes the problem go away.

I've had the same issues, with a 2020 pro with 8GB/256GB, old now I know. try looking at Spotlight. go in settings, spotlight and turn off "show related content" and "help apple improve search". My App memory usage literally halved, not suggesting yours will halve but it might clear up some ram.

wahspilihp wrote:

Since I was seeing the same bad behaviour triggered by safari and photos, it seems unlikely that all 3 programs have the same bug, and an application bug shouldn’t be able to prevent other applications being resumed.

yes, google’s inefficient memory usage may well make chrome disproportionately likely to trigger the problem, but it appears the issue is in how macOS recovers from the OOM state

Or, there's a problem with your specific configuration. If you're using Chrome, and it's acting the way it did for the person to whom I was replying, that would have repercussions. Try deleting Chrome and seeing what happens.

I don't believe this is some inherent flaw in the OS. Personally, I run two user accounts, Safari, Chrome, and Notion (also a notorious resource hog) without any issues. I am careful with Chrome, though. I keep the number of tabs down and restart it when it starts to get out of control.