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Memory Leaks in 15.3.1

P

pshufd

macrumors G4
Original poster
Oct 24, 2013
10,331
14,659
New Hampshire
My system was around 24 GB of RAM and not running much so I rebooted and it went down to 10 GB with one of my production programs running. I normally leave my systems up running for one to two months at a time and reboot when there's an update. It may be that I need to reboot more often though. This is on an M1 Max Studio but I'm also seeing it on my iMac Pro.

It could also be an application but I wasn't seeing this before 15.3.1.
 
Did you not review Activity Monitor to understand how much memory applications/processes were consuming?
 
Bigwaff said:
Did you not review Activity Monitor to understand how much memory applications/processes were consuming?
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Of course.

The memory usage isn't reflected in Activity Monitor. So there are leaks of memory that aren't charged to processes that you can see in Activity Monitor.
 
pshufd said:
The memory usage isn't reflected in Activity Monitor. So there are leaks of memory that aren't charged to processes that you can see in Activity Monitor.
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So how are you seeing them if not in AM? What did Memory Pressure show before you rebooted ?
 
gilby101 said:
You do know that you can view all processes in Activity Monitor?


Please show a screenshot showing what is disturbing you.
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Yes, I've dealt with RAM and Core memory issues since the 1970s. I've even fixed a fair number of them.

There are leaks and I'll just manage around them until they're fixed.
 
Also seeing memory leaks here in 15.3.1, hadn't noticed anything like this in previous releases.

If I reboot my machine and let it sit completely idle for (say) 10-12 hours the memory usage will climb; not necessarily at a completely constant rate but still the increase is very significant even without any app usage.

I use `sudo purge` to work around the situation but should not have to do that.

Have also diagnosed, fixed and worked around memory leaks in all sorts of OSs and apps. I find this community odd in how it seemingly believes memory leaks to be non-existent and a non-issue simultaneously.
 
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smithrh said:
I find this community odd in how it seemingly believes memory leaks to be non-existent and a non-issue simultaneously.
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I think the community has a desire to troubleshoot rather than blatantly disregard. A problem without evidence is treated with healthy skepticism. Using the term “memory leaks” is very specific and implies author have a certain level of knowledge and troubleshooting skills. Announcing there are memory leaks in macOS is akin to a PSA. The public want more detail.
 
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Bigwaff said:
I think the community has a desire to troubleshoot rather than blatantly disregard. A problem without evidence is treated with healthy skepticism. Using the term “memory leaks” is very specific and implies author have a certain level of knowledge and troubleshooting skills. Announcing there are memory leaks in macOS is akin to a PSA. The public want more detail.
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I'd think that someone with my username would be considered to have a certain level of knowledge and troubleshooting skills. And I'm fine with what I posted as a PSA.
 
Bigwaff said:
I'd think someone with your username would not be defensive when asked for more details.
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Why? I can diagnose my own problems if I care to put the effort into it. Some problems I'll spend a lot of time on if I think that the benefit to the community warrants it. Other problems I just report as I have an efficient workaround. Lots of people want to know if what they're seeing is being seen by other people so that they know it isn't them.

I assume that Apple will get around to fixing it at some point.
 
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. MacOS will preload things it thinks you might need into RAM, but will re-allocate it if it's actually needed for something else. My MBP has always been hovering around 24GB of RAM (out of 36GB), even when I'm not doing anything. It's the memory pressure and swap you need to be concerned about.

1741359727923.png
 
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pshufd said:
I'm saying that there are memory leaks. That should be enough.
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After working with thousands of customers in technical support learned that you need documented facts, not opinions, to get problems solved. Opinions are often wrong.
 
HDFan said:
After working with thousands of customers in technical support learned that you need documented facts, not opinions, to get problems solved. Opinions are often wrong.
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Who says that I wanted to get this solved? I was just letting people know.

I'm a retired software engineer who worked in big-cap tech.
 
BigBlur said:
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. MacOS will preload things it thinks you might need into RAM, but will re-allocate it if it's actually needed for something else. My MBP has always been hovering around 24GB of RAM (out of 36GB), even when I'm not doing anything. It's the memory pressure and swap you need to be concerned about.

View attachment 2489454
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Absolutely correct! You can see this so easily, so many times I have migrated from on older Mac to a new, often with more memory in the new Mac. Same apps, same setup - and yet memory usage jumps! Why? Like @BigBlur showed so well, since there is more memory, MacOS takes advantage of it. Also, how many times do you see posts on this and other forums, users saying something like, "I just got a new Mac and all of a sudden it's using a lot more memory"?

It would be totally insane NOT to use the memory if it's available.
 
donawalt said:
Absolutely correct! You can see this so easily, so many times I have migrated from on older Mac to a new, often with more memory in the new Mac. Same apps, same setup - and yet memory usage jumps! Why? Like @BigBlur showed so well, since there is more memory, MacOS takes advantage of it. Also, how many times do you see posts on this and other forums, users saying something like, "I just got a new Mac and all of a sudden it's using a lot more memory"?

It would be totally insane NOT to use the memory if it's available.
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That's really irrelevant.

I'd prefer it used for cash than just getting allocated, used, and then not freed up.
 
pshufd said:
That's really irrelevant.

I'd prefer it used for cash than just getting allocated, used, and then not freed up.
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I think you mean cache. You're entitled to your preferences, you won't find a modern OS that does that however.
 
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