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Memory Leak on App

kuntryklucker

kuntryklucker

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 3, 2013
57
0
The Funny Farm
Hi All,
I am new to mac and new to the idea of apps in general. Anyway, purchased a new macbook pro. Downloaded some apps from the app store, one review said that a moon phase app has a memory leak. Can someone tell me what that actually means.

Also, in your experience, how safe it is to download apps from the app store on apples desktop? Just wondering, are they virus scanned or protected since it is from apple?

Thanks,
:)
 
Apple has a standard app store evaluation process that all apps have to pass. There shouldn't be an issue with getting funny things from the app store.

A memory leak is basically the idea that the longer you run an app the more memory is used up or "leaked out". Instead of using the normal 500 mb of RAM it slowly creeps toward using 1GB. If it feels like computer is getting a bit slow, save what you are doing and quit the app. Restart and it should be back to normal.
 
Corrosive vinyl said:
Apple has a standard app store evaluation process that all apps have to pass. There shouldn't be an issue with getting funny things from the app store.

A memory leak is basically the idea that the longer you run an app the more memory is used up or "leaked out". Instead of using the normal 500 mb of RAM it slowly creeps toward using 1GB. If it feels like computer is getting a bit slow, save what you are doing and quit the app. Restart and it should be back to normal.
Click to expand...

Technially, it means an app acquires memory and then fails to release it. Simply acquiring memory is NOT a leak; the leak is when the app fails to release the memory. I remember dealing with memory leaks before I retired and they could be a real pain to track down. The way it happened the app would just keep getting memory and failing to release it and eventually things would go south. Apps tend to get and release memory quite frequently depending on how they are designed.
 
Corrosive vinyl said:
Apple has a standard app store evaluation process that all apps have to pass. There shouldn't be an issue with getting funny things from the app store.

A memory leak is basically the idea that the longer you run an app the more memory is used up or "leaked out". Instead of using the normal 500 mb of RAM it slowly creeps toward using 1GB. If it feels like computer is getting a bit slow, save what you are doing and quit the app. Restart and it should be back to normal.
Click to expand...

Ok, thank you for your description. I had no idea what a memory leak was. As long as it goes back to normal I am fine.

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old-wiz said:
Technially, it means an app acquires memory and then fails to release it. Simply acquiring memory is NOT a leak; the leak is when the app fails to release the memory. I remember dealing with memory leaks before I retired and they could be a real pain to track down. The way it happened the app would just keep getting memory and failing to release it and eventually things would go south. Apps tend to get and release memory quite frequently depending on how they are designed.
Click to expand...

Ok, so should I delete the app from my computer, or does it only "leak" memory when it is being used? I have a moon phase app, that a review said leaked memory. I did not see this review till after I downloaded it. Now I am a little concerned about the safety of my computer. What is the best thing to do in this situation? This is my first Mac and my first time playing with apps. I do not have an iPhone so my experience with apps is quite limited.

Thanks
 
kuntryklucker said:
Ok, thank you for your description. I had no idea what a memory leak was. As long as it goes back to normal I am fine.

----------



Ok, so should I delete the app from my computer, or does it only "leak" memory when it is being used? I have a moon phase app, that a review said leaked memory. I did not see this review till after I downloaded it. Now I am a little concerned about the safety of my computer. What is the best thing to do in this situation? This is my first Mac and my first time playing with apps. I do not have an iPhone so my experience with apps is quite limited.

Thanks
Click to expand...

A memory leak only occurs if the program in question is running.

/Jim
 
Memory leak that matters...MS word

Going back to a recurrent problem I wave had with MS Word over several years, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1117271/ , I now understand that in certain circumstances, e.g. large documents in track changes, MS Word has a serious case of memory leak. It hogs memory until it crashes unless I notice and close it first. Does anyone have an idea where the problem lies? I am guessing it is with the program and MS. MS didn't seem to know or care-- except that they gave me free copies of Windows and Office for Windows and told me just to run Word as a virtual machine. Has anyone else had this problem recently with Word.
 
kuntryklucker said:
Ok, so should I delete the app from my computer, or does it only "leak" memory when it is being used? I have a moon phase app, that a review said leaked memory. I did not see this review till after I downloaded it. Now I am a little concerned about the safety of my computer. What is the best thing to do in this situation? This is my first Mac and my first time playing with apps. I do not have an iPhone so my experience with apps is quite limited.
Click to expand...

You just need to be aware that the app takes more memory (unnecessarily) the longer it is running. If you quit the app and start it again, everything is fine again. It's just a slight inconvenience. If you keep it running longer and longer, eventually your Mac will not have enough RAM to handle it well, and at that point things will get slowish. You quit the app and start it again, and everything is fine again.
 
gnasher729 said:
You just need to be aware that the app takes more memory (unnecessarily) the longer it is running. If you quit the app and start it again, everything is fine again. It's just a slight inconvenience. If you keep it running longer and longer, eventually your Mac will not have enough RAM to handle it well, and at that point things will get slowish. You quit the app and start it again, and everything is fine again.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks. To make sure I have this right, apps to require memory to run. If I find that may mac is running slow, quit the app, restart and things are fine. Thanks so much for clearing that up for a newly to mac's.
 
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