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mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Lion - Memory Usage Problems

Why is Lion using all 4GB of RAM running Mail, Safari (2 tabs), and iTunes? Snow Leopard was bad enough at handling memory, eating up every available byte and Lion seems to be arbitrarily using even more RAM. Windows 7 has zero problems handling RAM, there's no reason OS X shouldn't be able handle memory properly.

Can someone explain what Apple is doing here? I'm at a total loss. For users who just need Safari, Mail, and iTunes... I guess this works. But how am I expected to reliably run Logic, Final Cut, or Aperture with OS X using every available resource for Web Surfing, E-mail, and Music. This is totally unacceptable for a multi-million dollar software company greated towards professionals as well as consumers.

The following responses are not acceptable by the way:

Buy more RAM - I did that already, it will eat up 2/4/8GB, doesn't matter. Not to mention Apple still sells numerous 2/4GB confirgurations.
Buy a newer/more powerful Mac - this is a improper handling of memory issue, not a hardware issue.

I'd really love some insight into this. Thanks for reading.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 13" (late-2009)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 5:45 AM

957 replies

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 29, 2011 9:20 AM in response to harmonica01

harmonica01 wrote:

I'm pretty sure many of us have. I'm dealing with some seniors about the clamshell errors popping up only in lion with laptop to external monitor use as this is affecting hundreds at my department alone. As per this issue somebody else needs to use an official letter head to get in contact with senior technicians. For now, as I posted a few pages back, uncheck the box in system pref pane to drastically improve service and basically make safari function as it did in 4. Will also affect mail and pages and the ram issue.

Harmonica01,

I tried this but didn't notice any difference in performance or memory consumption. I'll try it again.

Jul 29, 2011 9:24 AM in response to John Kitchen

John Kitchen wrote:

Does anybody care sufficiently enough to contact Apple Technical Support, or is it just not that important?

Let me adjust my earlier post.

The OP is looking for a "sensible method of trouble shooting".

So does anybody care sufficiently enough to contact Apple Techical Support and report on the progress, or is this just not that urgent and important?

PS this thread has been going for over a week now, which is why I question the urgency

Message was edited by: John Kitchen - added PS

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 29, 2011 9:36 AM in response to John Kitchen

I'm unable to contact Apple Care because I'm beyond the 90-Day phone support window. I wrote to Apple Feedback and am trying my luck on other users forums. This topic appears on other forums as well, so with all the attention it's my hope that someone has contacted them by phone.

Joe5150

Level 2

339 points

Jul 29, 2011 9:43 AM in response to mightymilk

Well MightyMilk I've been following this thread intently, because I've also noticed some increased memory usage while using Safari, performance however has not been affected. However R c R has answered many of my questions and has put some of my worries to rest, many of the other contributors have also been helpful (John Kitchen). Thank you. You however mightymilk are an arrogant condescending child, whom has been on the attack the whole thread.

Jul 29, 2011 9:48 AM in response to Joe5150

Thank you Joe. Glad I could help. 😀

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 29, 2011 10:24 AM in response to Joe5150

Joe5150 wrote:

Well MightyMilk I've been following this thread intently, because I've also noticed some increased memory usage while using Safari, performance however has not been affected. However R c R has answered many of my questions and has put some of my worries to rest, many of the other contributors have also been helpful (John Kitchen). Thank you. You however mightymilk are an arrogant condescending child, whom has been on the attack the whole thread.

Whatever you say. I'm done getting involved in this. Funny how the problem is still completely unresolved. Makes what you just said totally irrelevant.

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 29, 2011 10:34 AM in response to John Kitchen

John Kitchen wrote:

Let me adjust my earlier post.

If you don't mind, I would like to add an adjustment of a sort of my own:

Resolving issues like this requires more detailed info from users than this discussion has provided, at least so far. Several different things can cause performance issues. For more than one of them, runaway memory use is a symptom, but it is not the underlying cause.

For example, technically speaking memory leaks are a specific kind of programming error that only programmers can identify & correct, but as the link mentions, constantly increasing memory usage is not necessarily evidence of a memory leak.

Anyway, the point is that tech support will need enough info to determine what is causing the problem, & it may not be the same cause for every user. If you contact them, the more info you can provide the better it will be for everyone.

Jul 29, 2011 10:55 AM in response to R C-R

Seems our issues were solved turning off the restoring app windows and doing clean install. I've added to my tech reports from the department here screenshots of before and after with activity monitor. Right now I'm sitting at 17 hours up time after doing the clean install and still 0 page outs.

It is not optimal however to have to run a system with software designed to utilize the new features in a restrained state. But it allows productivity for now. Please continue to spam the tech and bug guys with apple's links.

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 29, 2011 10:58 AM in response to Joe5150

Joe5150 wrote:

You however mightymilk are an ...

Whatever you think he is, it is the technical content of posts that should be the focus in ASC. There is a difference between attacking the technical merits of a post & attacking the person who made them.

That may seem an odd thing for me to say given my disagreements with mightymilk, but please understand that they have nothing to do with any real or perceived personality traits, only with the technical merits of what he has said.

Jul 29, 2011 11:04 AM in response to mightymilk

Here's more about this: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/27/os-x-lion-bug-safari-guzzling-massive-amounts-of- ram/

Mine has settled down somewhat, but I do have some concern about Safari's memory usage.

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 29, 2011 11:05 AM in response to harmonica01

After doing the clean install, have you tried turning back on the restore feature to see what happens?

Jul 29, 2011 11:07 AM in response to mightymilk

Thought I'd post a snapshot from Activity Monitor - Safari is eating up a great deal of memory and I'm starting to notice some sluggishness launching new pages and tabs. Safari never used this much memory so quickly under 10.6.x. Additionally, Safari has only been running for about 5 days and soon it will be using 3+GB

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 29, 2011 11:30 AM in response to harmonica01

harmonica01 wrote:

Seems our issues were solved turning off the restoring app windows and doing clean install. I've added to my tech reports from the department here screenshots of before and after with activity monitor. Right now I'm sitting at 17 hours up time after doing the clean install and still 0 page outs.

It is not optimal however to have to run a system with software designed to utilize the new features in a restrained state. But it allows productivity for now. Please continue to spam the tech and bug guys with apple's links.

If you re-enable it, does memory usage climb? I've tried disabling Resume but have not gone as far as to do a Clean install.

Jul 29, 2011 11:39 AM in response to mightymilk

I've just had a clear out of my Safari Extensions (Safari/Preferences/Extensions) and Internet Plug-ins (Library folder), which I suspect can only help ease the memory burden a little.

Safari Extensions:

Right now I have 18 extensions enabled, I rely on them all at least once a day. I trashed a couple of others I can do without. I use ClickToPlugin to get by without a lot of Internet Plug-ins, and I do not run Flash.

Internet Plug-ins:

You can see these at /Library/Internet Plug-ins/ and ~/Library/Internet Plug-ins/ and they can be moved to the neighbouring Internet Plug-ins (Disabled) folders.

Now, I only have the following plugins enabled (which I know I use):

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt

Quartz Composer.webplugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

I've moved the following plugins to the disabled folders (which I know I don't use):

CANONiMAGEGATEWAYDL.plugin

CANONiMAGEGATEWAYLI.plugin

fbplugin_1_0_0.plugin

googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

LogMeIn.plugin

Loki.plugin

Move-Media-Player.plugin

NP-PPC-Dir-Shockwave

npdivx.xpt

npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

O3D.plugin

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

SharePointWebKitPlugin.webplugin

Unity Web Player.plugin

WebEx.plugin

XML View Plugin.webplugin

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 29, 2011 11:45 AM in response to R C-R

R C-R wrote:

Joe5150 wrote:

You however mightymilk are an ...

Whatever you think he is, it is the technical content of posts that should be the focus in ASC. There is a difference between attacking the technical merits of a post & attacking the person who made them.

That may seem an odd thing for me to say given my disagreements with mightymilk, but please understand that they have nothing to do with any real or perceived personality traits, only with the technical merits of what he has said.

Just want to make it clear I have no ill feelings towards you as a person either. Despite the fact that I completely disagree with your assessment of the problem. My only issue is with your interpretation of the problem, and where it originates from.

With that said, all I'm looking for is a solution to the problem... hence the reason I started this thread.

Lion - Memory Usage Problems