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Luis_Mercado Author

Level 1

46 points

Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage

I post this hoping to help those users who, like me, are experiencing high CPU usage and massive memory leaking with OS X core services and apps, leading to slow performance and battery drain.

I've tried everything mentioned, but found the right combination of steps to follow. I've tried this with seven different Apple computers, including mine, and has worked well so far. I applied this method yesterday to give these process a 24 hour window to fail again, so far everything good.

First step: disconnect any external or secondary monitors, if any is present. The video memory allocation leak can also happen if you have a system with an integrated card, like Intel, with no external monitors attached.

Second step: Shut down your machine and enter Safe Mode (press shift once you turn on your computer again, more info below). Once you're there, fix your disk permissions.

Guide of how to access Safe Mode: OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

Third step: From Safe Mode turn off your machine again and reset your System Management Controller (SMC). There are different methods, depending on machine, to do this. To know what method applies to yours read the following guide.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Fourth step: Once your machine completes a full boot after resetting the SMC turn it off again and reset your PRAM (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, BUT THE PREVIOUS ONES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THIS ONE TO WORK). The PRAM stores small bits of data that indicate our Apple computer how to interact with the devices connected to it, including monitors and video cards. It also affects software.

To reset it you should hold the OPTION, COMMAND, P and R keys in your keyboard immediately after turning on your machine again.You'll hear the start up chime, continue pressing the keys until the machine boots and the chime starts A SECOND TIME, then release. IF YOUR YOSEMITE INSTALLATION LOCKS UP AT A BLACK SCREEN AFTER THIS, DONT PANIC! It's normal, just turn off your computer and let it boot again.

More info about PRAM: OS X Mavericks: Reset your computer’s PRAM

Voila, reconnect your external displays and enjoy your system.

Message was edited by: Luis_Mercado

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 10:45 AM

557 replies

Nov 3, 2014 10:18 AM in response to Kevin Neal

Can you post the link to the Apple-feedback?

If you consider it as useful, everyone here then should given them a feedback.

nlesh

Level 1

21 points

Nov 3, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Kevin Neal

I have tried,PRAM, SMC reset, rebuild, reindex nothing works and Mail is very unresponsive when going in preferences, takes 10 seconds or more with the coloured wheel turning before it does something after clicking. The latter definitely did not disappear when turning of the draft option.

This is the worst screwup I have seen for Apple upgrades, inexcusable, tried to get help from Applecare for the iMAC I installed Yosemite, right that was useful NOT ! And all the folks on this and other fora wasting their time, in the mean time nothing from Apple. Can I ask you how you can file a bug report without being a beta-tester or developer ? I have done it before but I can't seem to locate the page.

thanks !

lilynz07

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2014 10:51 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

Hi MadMacs, sorry I have not replied to your post (forum is buggin out on me).

Thanks for your detailed response. I have followed those steps but the slowness persists (just took 3 minutes to launch chrome after a reboot). Is there any issue with the [invalid?] status for some of the Launch items?

Otherwise is there an option to do a clean install and start from scratch? Thanks for your help.

Riaantal

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2014 11:16 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

Hi Mr Mecado,

I have a mac mini late 2012. I tried the steps you provided but it did not fix my issue, however i thought maybe you would know how to fix it. My SystemUIServer use approx 99.7% of my CPU and about 40GB of my ram. 8GB is installed and i assume the rest is virtual memory. It slow my machine extremely down, and it make my icons on top right menu non usable.

I have reinstalled a new fresh copy of Yosemite, it works perfect like it should, until i switch off my machine, ones i then switch the machine back on it is a nightmare all over. Please can you help.

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Nov 3, 2014 11:18 AM in response to monostone

monostone wrote:

Can you post the link to the Apple-feedback?

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Nov 3, 2014 11:25 AM in response to lilynz07

lilynz07 wrote:

Is there any issue with the [invalid?] status for some of the Launch items?

There probably is. It looks like you have partially uninstalled software such as DivX, but it certainly could not be responsible for the problem you described, so I didn't bring it up.

Otherwise is there an option to do a clean install and start from scratch?

Before doing that I would do a re-install from the Recovery HD. Many users (including me) have found that cleared up several different issues. About OS X Recovery.

Nov 3, 2014 11:38 AM in response to monostone

I took part in beta test so I have the Feedback Assistant application installed

Nov 3, 2014 12:31 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

This only worked temporarily for me. In fact, this solution seems no better than quitting and relaunching Mail, or restarting my Mac. The problem always returns, with Mail consuming 40GB, 50GB, or even more memory.

Incidentally, for me, the memory leak seems to occur most often while composing a new message and switching away from Mail to another app. This doesn’t always trigger it; sometimes the memory leak occurs when doing nothing but having Mail open. The best solution for now is simply to launch Mail only when I need it, and quit as soon as I’m done.

I’ve become quite used to keeping Activity Monitor open to keep tabs on the memory load imposed by all processes. So far, only Mail is the memory hog. I hope Apple fixes this soon.

Nov 3, 2014 1:25 PM in response to Buffalo Chuck

@Buffalo Chuck: "Mail consuming 40GB, 50GB, or even more memory" are you sure about that? My mail is at 30 MB. That would be about 1500 times bigger. Does it grow over time?

Nov 3, 2014 1:48 PM in response to ThomasKilian

Yes, quite sure. This is a very common problem, covered in many other comments in this thread. As with others having this issue, memory consumption tends to spike rather suddenly. Do a web search for “Yosemite Mail memory leak,” or similar phrases, if you’d like to see how widespread it is.

Nov 3, 2014 4:21 PM in response to Buffalo Chuck

Thank god my mail works with no issue.

Today Apple support asked for more information (sysdiagnose) which I sent them.

Humbs

Level 1

10 points

Nov 3, 2014 6:57 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Hi, try this: Disable the "Display have separate Spaces" in Mission Control...

LogOff and Login again, check the process...

all fine?

Nov 3, 2014 8:03 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Luis_Mercado's great suggestion bought me two days of peace. Unfortunately, it didn't work with my wife's 2012 MacBook Pro at all, and my MacBook Air, also 2012, is back to its old tricks. I'll try the complete physic one more time tomorrow, and hold my breath for 10.10.1. In the mean time, gracias Luis!

RRMARKS

Level 1

35 points

Nov 3, 2014 8:24 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Thanks Luis. Worked like a charm.

Nov 3, 2014 8:31 PM in response to ThomasKilian

That's the memory leak: open resources never cleaned up. It's an elementary problem that surprisingly surfaced at OS level, where it could act worse than a DoS virus! Actually, it's a self-made virus.

Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage