Do you suggest to restart computer when swap is used?

[slo-climber]

I found out that, if I restart computer, swap becomes zero. Then, after several hours, swap increases to around 200 MB.

Firstly, why that actually happens and why only after few hours?

When swap increases, it doesn't fall back to zero any more. When that happens, do you suggest to restart computer, which would put swap back to zero for a while?

Thanks

 

[Intell]

Just let it do what it wants. It was designed by people with great knowledge of how it works best. It is completely normal for Macs to use some swap space, even when they have many gigabytes of memory free.

 

[chown33]

I only suggest restarting if it bothers you to see non-zero.

My personal preference is to see long uptimes.

Do what makes you happier.

 

[ssls6]

I found out that, if I restart computer, swap becomes zero. Then, after several hours, swap increases to around 200 MB.

Firstly, why that actually happens and why only after few hours?

When swap increases, it doesn't fall back to zero any more. When that happens, do you suggest to restart computer, which would put swap back to zero for a while?

Thanks

200MB is nothing

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I found out that, if I restart computer, swap becomes zero. Then, after several hours, swap increases to around 200 MB.

200MB is a rounding error. Don't worry until Swap is into the GB range.

 

[h9826790]

The swap is the TOTAL of ALL in and out of the swap. e.g. 100MB in and then 100MB out, the swap will shows 200MB, and actually there is nothing stay in the swap anymore.

I agree that 200MB is nothing, and most likely is some system event that trigger that 200MB count. As long as it stays there and doesn't increase, it's not an issue at all.

The better indicator is actually the memory pressure graph, as long as it stays green, your computer is good.