I find that my memory gets cluttered with a bunch of junk, even if I close all of the applications and the only way to get it cleared up is to reboot the system. It seems that there should be a way to clean up memory without rebooting.
Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11)
In that case there is a program or process leaking memory. That means it is not releasing memory when it should, and is considered a bug that only its developer can fix. Minor memory leaks are not unusual, but not to the extent you describe. Determining which program or process can be challenging.
You can use the command leaks to identify whether a specific process is doing that, but its results can be inconclusive, and you have to know in advance which process you suspect is responsible. Most likely it will be a non-Apple product, though certain Apple software has been known to leak memory in rare circumstances.
To potentially identify likely culprits use Activity Monitor, click the Memory tab, and sort processes by memory. Start by identifying the process with the largest memory value other than kernel_task.
Compressed memory refers to memory that has been compressed using OS X's proprietary compression algorithm. Virtual memory refers to memory contents that have been written to mass storage, which is slower than RAM. If your Mac uses a rotational hard disk drive virtual memory usage will be very slow. Compressed memory is normal and your Mac's performance will not be affected by memory compression. On the other hand if the "memory pressure" graph becomes "red" it's an indication that your Mac is relying upon virtual memory, and its performance will degrade.
Oh, I agree. But, negligible is not zero. As I said, we are looking at things differently. I want it running as cleanly and smoothly as possible. Hmmm, maybe hard to explain. And, yes, I am content to reboot occasionally. It would just be nice if Apple took "leaks" one step further and had a "cleanup" button. That is really what I was looking for. "leaks" is certainly more complicated than a reboot.
Wouldn't touch Adobe or Microsoft, unless under duress. I wouldn't touch Chrome or Firefox if Safari had a decent way to control cookies. Anti-virus, "cleaning" products and other ill-conceived garbage are out of the question. Wouldn't touch them with a laser pointer. It is definitely certain web locations that are accessed that cause the leaks but not much I can do about it. I am not going to avoid Chrome or Firefox or certain websites because they leak.
I'm not sure that doing what you suggest would really benefit me under those conditions, right? It's not like I'll be able to stop future leaks from the site or the browser, right? It will just tell me where they are and it sounds more painful that just rebooting. I think it has more to do with the particular websites than the browser. I guess I could go and try Safari but I would have hundreds of cookies in the blink of an eye which annoys me greatly. I've already tried pinging Apple about it as they seem to have made a motto out of not taking a users data. That's fine but they leave one wide open to anyone else taking one's data by leaving the gates wide open - or completely closed.
Thanks for all of the help, John. I'll just be rebooting. As I said, I wouldn't touch some 3rd party "cleanup" program. And, antivirus has never made sense to me. It's kinda like closing the barn door after the cows are gone.
I'm sure 4G works fine but, really, I may change my mini-mac (w/ 16G) in the future to a MacPro with 64GB of memory....unless
1. Apple finds a way to clean up leaks or
2. Safari adds cookie control and there are no leaks.
Thanks, again, John.
What is unused memory used for?
Do you honestly think that compressed memory is as slow as swapping to disk? dream on.
Of course not. What a silly thing to say.
Then why are you suggesting it?
Where do you plan on putting the tasks that would have need compressing for lack of real Ram, disk is slow, what's your plan?
Whickwithy wrote:
It's a secret.
Don't bother yourself. Really.
I'll just assume that you have no idea where else these processes can go.
Whickwithy wrote:
.unless
1. Apple finds a way to clean up leaks or
2. Safari adds cookie control and there are no leaks.
Apple surely won't want to lose an SA of your vision,
Well, I found two of the culprits: Pages and Finder.
What's purge?
No, you haven't.
coltrane58 wrote:
have you tried purge?
Why would I?
Is there any way to manually clean up the memory other than a reboot?
