Ran out of app memory using Apple Music

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Level 1

4 points

Ran out of app memory using Apple Music

Hi everyone, I'm using a 13" 2017 MacBook Pro running Mojave and I've been getting an error asking me to force quit some apps I'm not using while simply browsing the web and listening to Apple Music on iTunes in the background. It's usually showing that iTunes is somehow using 53-59 GB of memory (see pic). All of my Apple Music is in the cloud, I haven't downloaded any of the releases to my laptop for space concerns. It usually happens about once a week, and during this time I keep iTunes running and don't shut off the laptop, just put it to sleep for the night. I reckon maybe it keeps all of the tracks I play in memory and they accumulate over time, but why would it need to keep the tracks in memory? Why do you think this is happening?

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, 2 TBT3), macOS Mojave (10.14), pretty cool

Posted on Oct 24, 2018 1:58 AM

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Answer 1

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,268 points

Oct 24, 2018 3:15 AM in response to chill22dude

The error message is clearly taking about “application memory” (i.e. RAM and scratch disk), not downloaded files. That being said, 54 GB is an enormous amount, and iTunes should never get anywhere near that amount. Apps including iTunes should be able to purge memory on their own, if they behave well.

Is your iTunes version up-to-date?
Do you have any third party plugins or apps that function with iTunes? Perhaps one of those is running amok, gobbling up memory.
Do you have cleaner apps or automatic duplicate finders, memory optimizers, or similar unnecessary tools running in the background? They often interfere negatively with Apple’s system management.

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Answer 2

jagered

Level 1

28 points

Oct 24, 2018 2:04 AM in response to chill22dude

That makes no sense... you obviously have something checked in the preferences that is storing the music on your hdd.

I suggest checking and re-checking your preferences. I put all my music on a micro SD card and my iTunes is sitting at about 160Mb of memory usage... I would be willing to bet that you are duplicating the music on your hdd.

good luck!

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Answer 3

chill22dude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2018 7:05 AM in response to chill22dude

I've noticed, with the Activity Monitor open, that the memory usage for iTunes not only steadily grows over time, it seems to grow much faster whenever I scroll through the Up Next or History menus, and also a bit faster when I go through songs/albums/artists lists, but mainly when I look at Up Next and History. I kept scrolling up and down through Up Next (it only shows the next 20 songs, I wasn't loading up more) for five minutes (it would use up another ~500 MB of memory every couple of seconds) and in five minutes the iTunes memory usage grew to an absurd 61 GB and it crashed. I really hope there's a reason/explanation for this, anyone? Thanks.

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Answer 4

chill22dude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2018 2:10 AM in response to jagered

Thanks, I actually checked all of my settings an hour before this happened just now, and I can't find anything more relevant than "Copy files to iTunes Media library when adding to library", but that folder seems to only contain one album that I added to iTunes manually as m4a files, it's nothing to do with Apple Music downloads, I think? I've unchecked that (despite the fact that I'd like to have albums I add to be copied there), will see if this works, but I'm not convinced. Couldn't find anything else about downloading streamed music in the settings.

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Answer 5

chill22dude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2018 3:06 AM in response to Urquhart1244

Thanks for your reply. I have to mention I'm new to Mac, only switched from Windows about a month ago, so still figuring stuff out.

iTunes is up to date (12.9.0.164)
I have the Last.fm Scrobbler running, it's receiving info about tracks played from iTunes and sends it over the internet to Last.fm. I will turn it off and see if it works, but you can see in the screenshot the app itself only takes 75 MB of RAM.
I haven't installed any cleaners and I don't think there are any unnecessary tools running in the background, see pic.

Since I've restarted iTunes about an hour ago it seems to have jumped up to 2.70 GB of memory already. It also seems to me that the tracks I've already played in this session, however long ago, play immediately when clicked on, but tracks I haven't played today take a second to buffer. Does that not mean they are possibly being kept in the RAM? Thank you!

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Answer 6

chill22dude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2018 5:46 AM in response to chill22dude

It's not the Last.fm Scrobbler, unfortunately - I quit it, restarted the computer and iTunes, after a couple hours of Apple Music streaming, is already using 4.5 GB of memory. Any further advice would be appreciated.

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Ran out of app memory using Apple Music

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