Q: os sierra high app memory usage

Hi,

I have a late 2009 27" iMac 3.06Ghz and just installed macOS Sierra a few weeks ago. The pervious OS worked perfectly. After installing OS Sierra my computer became very slow and sometimes crashed. I concluded it was due to not having enough RAM as i only had 4GB installed, I then installed another 8GB of RAM and my computer is now functioning perfectly - although in the activity monitor it says it is using about 6GB of RAM with nothing open

This doesn't seem right.

Things i have tried:

- Safemode. Even safemode before opening anything the activity monitor says using about 5GB right after bootup
- Removing all startup items in when in safemode

- reseting SMC

- resting PRAM

None of the helped and computer is still using up about 6GB of RAM with nothing open right after boot up. After doing a few things like Facebook, editing blog and listening to Spotify it starts creeping up near 10GB of memory usage.

Can anyone help?

VIN,iMac (27-inch Late 2009), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 20, 2016 9:18 PM

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Q: os sierra high app memory usage

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by MichelPM,

MichelPM Oct 20, 2016 9:45 PM in response to JosefR_Auckland
Level 6 (14,279 points)

iPad

Oct 20, 2016 9:45 PM in response to JosefR_Auckland

Newer versions of OS X ( 10.10 and up) now may need up to 8GBs of RAM, just for the OS, itself.
That is the way it is, now.
Newer Mac OSes use a lot more onboard and offsite server ( cloud) resources, now, that require more processing power and hardware access.

It maybe possible that the Spotlight search functionality may be accessing and indexing your iMac's hard drive and the reason your RAM usage is increasing.
Depending on the amount of data on your Mac's internal hard drive, Spotlight indexing can take a couple of hours to complete.
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by JosefR_Auckland,

JosefR_Auckland Oct 20, 2016 10:02 PM in response to MichelPM
Level 1 (4 points)

Desktops

Oct 20, 2016 10:02 PM in response to MichelPM

That doesn't seem right when the bottom line mac mini and macbook air come factory with only 4GB installed.
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by MichelPM,

MichelPM Oct 20, 2016 10:10 PM in response to JosefR_Auckland
Level 6 (14,279 points)

iPad

Oct 20, 2016 10:10 PM in response to JosefR_Auckland

Most of Apple's Mac model lineups come with a base RAM of 8 GBs, now.
And as you pointed out, those Mac computer models you refernced, are Apple's low cost bottom base models.
You would have to order the optional RAM with those models.
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by JosefR_Auckland,

JosefR_Auckland Oct 22, 2016 1:17 AM in response to JosefR_Auckland
Level 1 (4 points)

Desktops

Oct 22, 2016 1:17 AM in response to JosefR_Auckland

SOLVED

After disabling spotlight with this link..
http://recomhub.com/blog/how-to-turn-off-and-on-spotlight-in-mac-os-sierra/

and then memory wipe with Dr. Cleaner..
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/dr.-cleaner-disk-memory-system/id921458519?mt=12

RAM stays at about 2-3GB and doesn't creep up.
Which is about what it was at with El Capitan.
I hear a lot with people online with problems with Spotlight with new OS.

Apple needs to patch this.
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Q: os sierra high app memory usage

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by MichelPM,

by JosefR_Auckland,

by MichelPM,

by JosefR_Auckland,

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