You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Your System has Run out of Application memory

I upgraded to Mavericks from Mountain Lion, and I have been getting the error message "Your System has Run out of Application memory", and I am forced to restart the computer to be able to keep working.


I have been monitoring the Activity Monitor and I have not found a process that is increasing the amount of memory used. I have seen a proliferation of processes.


I have an iMac 27-inch, Late 2012 with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 and 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 27-inch Late 2012; 3.4 GHz i7; 24GB

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 7:33 PM

Reply
371 replies

Nov 25, 2013 1:54 PM in response to Kenneth Collins1

Kenneth Collins1 wrote:


This is slightly off-topic, but I always tell newcomers to the Mac not to buy the Mac version of a Windows program.

Totally agree there, Office for Mac is (at best) mediocre in comparison to the Windows version, it is also incompatible with many of Apples services.


And to charge the amount that MS do for it is almost larceny 🙂

Nov 25, 2013 3:05 PM in response to REPG

Unfortunately, you guys aren't reading the whole thread. Here's some confirmed facts about this one from last week:


A) It's a confirmed apple bug and they seem to be working on a fix.


B) It happens in safe mode with only apple software.


C) There is no known workaround (other than using webmail.)


D) It's not the fault of the user. It's apple's fault and it a horrendous bug.


I have tried since day one to allow Mail to finish indexing (if that's what it's doing) but no amount of time seems to let it finish. The bug also seems to get much worse over time. Mail will now fill my hard disk with swap files and fill my ram in under five minutes so no indexing is going to get done. I'm still rebooting multiple times a day although I've used ssh to kill email from another computer successfully, if I catch it in time.

Nov 25, 2013 3:15 PM in response to AlexPower1

AlexPower1 wrote:


Unfortunately, you guys aren't reading the whole thread. Here's some confirmed facts about this one from last week:


A) It's a confirmed apple bug and they seem to be working on a fix.


B) It happens in safe mode with only apple software.


C) There is no known workaround (other than using webmail.)


D) It's not the fault of the user. It's apple's fault and it a horrendous bug.


I have tried since day one to allow Mail to finish indexing (if that's what it's doing) but no amount of time seems to let it finish. The bug also seems to get much worse over time. Mail will now fill my hard disk with swap files and fill my ram in under five minutes so no indexing is going to get done. I'm still rebooting multiple times a day although I've used ssh to kill email from another computer successfully, if I catch it in time.

Can you give us links to these facts please. Not just the link to a couple of posts, official links would be best.


Thank You


Pete

Nov 25, 2013 3:26 PM in response to Csound1

Well, even though I don't think it's a very good guess, thanks for offering your possible explanation.


I don't think it's a very good guess for all of the following reasons:


1) I installed Mavericks c. Oct. 28, 2013;

2) I encountered my "run out of application memory" messasge on Nov. 12, 2013 (around 2 weeks later);

3) I imagine indexing was occuring during those 3 weeks and didn't just happen to commence on Nov. 12th.


So, perhaps it's time to add bug in OS X (Mavericks) to your universe of possible explanations. That is, if it's your intent to reply to posts with no query and offer possible explanations.

Nov 28, 2013 5:33 AM in response to REPG

Good Day Everyone, and thank you all for taking the time and energy to consider this most nefarious situation. I'm not a frequent poster as I find that many out there are far more skillful than I at solving gthe problems and I am incredibly grateful that we, the Mac Community, are so involved and willing to help each other. Thus please allow me to add my two bits:


I am running a Macbook Air 13" Late 2010 Model with 2.13 Ghz Core 2 Duo cpu and 4 gb of RAM. Reasonably saavy with all the assistance from everyone online. Suddenly this past Tuesday, Nov 26 I began receiving "Out of memory" warnings along with the dreaded spinning beach ball. No new software was installed recently and I have NOT YET upgraded to Mavericks due to all the issues we all have been reading about, especially the email stuff. That said, I have many friends who have and have not had any issues at all.


So Running ML 10.8.5, no new software installs, and suddenly awaken from sleep Tuesday Morning to a "Out of Memory" warning. Repaired Permissions in Disk Utility, Reparied Disk in Disk Utility, Rebuilt directory using Disk Warrior from a bootable external drive, plus a plethora of other software I like to use when issues arrise. Reset PRAM, booted into Safe Mode, same problem and then discovered that whenever I restarted magically 15.75 Gb appeared. Then within 1 hour and sometimes less it dropped to 350mb and the warning.


Restarted several times to verify that and since then have been searching for a solution. Just finished reading this thread and even though it is primarily related to Mavericks, based on what I have found I would bet it is an Apple ugrade of some sort because it is happening in ML as well.


One thing that did help was to quite _ip in Activity Monitor, which controlled printing, and suddenly I'm back up to 11 Gb. However I have made no changes to any print drivers or software in months. The only think was the latest OS update released last week which automatically installed. So go figure.


Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestiong beyond what we have in the thread so far.


Best DaO

Nov 28, 2013 6:20 AM in response to Da O

Da O,

This thread is about issues with 10.9, not 10.8. I'd suggest you create your own thread, that way any guidance can be focused on the correct OS. Ths one getting very long, so there is little point in dragging it on with issue for another OS. 10.8 handles RAM differently to 10.9.


I'd suggest you look at how much free space you disk has after a reboot & post that info to a new thread, link it from here if you want. Ideally you will want to have many GB free. Around 15-20% free used to be recommended

Nov 28, 2013 6:40 AM in response to Da O

Da O wrote:


plus a plethora of other software I like to use when issues arrise.

Good rule of thumb: if you have to call in the plethoras, you're probably overfixing the problem.


I remember the good old days when there were no plethoras roaming the earth, eating multiple disparate flavors of ice cream, and dinosaurs weren't just found in zoos. The passive voice wasn't used as often, the existence of the nominalization of expressions wasn't common, and people said "now" instead of "at this point in time." (Time is pointy now.)


I have to lock the door. The plethoras get in and leave my English a mess.


Meanwhile, problems vary from installation to installation, and some are unique to one person.


I had a G5 iMac with Panther. Every single time I opened a window, there was a kernel panic, probably because we didn't have plethoras back then. The geniuses watched with eyes wide with wonder as the impossible transpired before their very eyes. I was the only person in the world with that problem. No one ever figured it out, and no one ever fixed it, because it didn't exist after Tiger came out. Believe it or not, Mr. Ripley has a call on line 2.


I am running Mavericks. I have had the infamous "no more application memory" error a half dozen times. Up till now I haven't posted anything about it. Force quitting the nonresponsive application and then restarting it is all the fix that I need.


Your problem is serious, I understand because of my panicky computer, but this too shall pass. Like a kidney stone perhaps, but it will pass.

Your System has Run out of Application memory

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.