seancobrien
Level 1 (19 points)
Desktops

Q: Overly Large File Cache

Out of the blue my Mac suddenly is devoting a huge amount of ram to file cache.  I have 32 Gigs of Ram and curretly 27 gigs of that is devoted to file cache.  I am only running mail, iTunes and Chrome and I have 7 mg of ram left.  Yes, MG!  What could be causing this and is there a fix?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 32 GB RAM

Posted on Aug 23, 2014 4:05 PM

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seancobrien

Q: Overly Large File Cache

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 23, 2014 7:04 PM in response to seancobrien
    Level 10 (208,044 points)
    Applications
    Aug 23, 2014 7:04 PM in response to seancobrien

    It's normal in Mavericks for almost all memory to be in use, either by applications or by the file cache. That's what you should want, since unused memory is going to waste. The relevant measure of whether memory is in short supply is what Apple calls "memory pressure."

    Apple's explanation of memory pressure is here. If you want a more detailed, technical description, see here.

  • by seancobrien,

    seancobrien seancobrien Aug 23, 2014 11:06 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 23, 2014 11:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

    The technical explanation was a bit too hard for me, but I appreciate the other answer.  What's am curious about is this just started happening recently.  Would there be some reason that it's just happening now, but didn't before?

  • by Linc Davis,Helpful

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 24, 2014 12:36 AM in response to seancobrien
    Level 10 (208,044 points)
    Applications
    Aug 24, 2014 12:36 AM in response to seancobrien

    Most likely you haven't noticed it before. I suggest you stop worrying about the computer and enjoy life.