OSX SL and app memory leaks

Discussion in 'macOS' started by m13, Apr 25, 2011.

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  1. m13, Apr 25, 2011

    m13 macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2010
    #1
    Hello everyone.

    Has anyone find it necessary to close and re-open Chrome, iTunes, and Finder on Mac OSX (SL) from time to time? This applies only if you never turn off your Mac.

    Every once in a while I find it necessary to restart Chrome to reduce memory usage, especially if I have a lot of open tabs with Flash video. If left unchecked, some tabs will start crashing.

    Same thing with iTunes, when memory usage goes haywire, the app store iPhone/iPad screen shots will not load.

    Finally, I need to relaunch Finder when folder icons starts disappearing. This would be akin to re-springing in iOS which also help releasing memory.

    I hate to have to resort to installing more system memory just for the memory leaks. I wonder if other users have similar experience. Hopefully OSX Lion Finder will be improved.
     
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  2. GGJstudios, Apr 25, 2011

    GGJstudios macrumors Westmere

    GGJstudios

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    May 16, 2008
    #2
    I don't use Chrome, but I never have to close and reopen Safari, iTunes, Finder or any other app. The only time I restart is when Software Update requires it.
     
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  3. Consultant, Apr 25, 2011

    Consultant macrumors G5

    Consultant

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    Jun 27, 2007
    #3
    It's not OS X or Snow Leopard problem.
    Never experienced anything you mentioned here.

    Sounds like you installed something that messed with the system.
     
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  4. karohan, Apr 25, 2011

    karohan macrumors 6502

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    #4
    I think that's pretty normal. Apps just start to use more RAM the longer you keep them up, whether or not people admit it.

    For example, after Safari is open for a couple weeks, it uses much more RAM. Of course a large part of that is me having 52 tabs open, but I notice that while Safari uses 1.66 GB now, restarting Safari completely (and restoring all of my tabs via the extension Glims), uses 1.01 GB of RAM. Clearly, having Safari open causes an accumulation of RAM. I don't know if this is because browsing various sites causes those sites to be stored in RAM at all (I always thought they were just stored in the cache however).

    I've noticed this with other programs too, like iTunes and iChat. Opening iChat can use maybe 60MB and it can rise to 100MB. iTunes can rise from 60-70MB to around 100-130MB.

    I don't notice a slowdown really, but that is because I have 8GB of RAM. Nevertheless, if the RAM usage is important to you, you can use some apps over others. I found Adium uses consistently less RAM than iChat. You can quit out of iTunes when you aren't playing music. I'm not sure about Chrome, but maybe closing tabs will reduce the RAM occupied by that tab since Chrome sandboxes each tab. Either way, I don't know if I blame Snow Leopard. Did this happen in Leopard at all? I just figure it's because of lazy application developers who use the wealth of RAM available on computers today to be lazy with optimizing performance and resource intensiveness.
     
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  5. Hastings101, Apr 25, 2011

    Hastings101 macrumors 68000

    Hastings101

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    #5
    Sometimes happens to me with Flash plugin under Firefox, if I do anything that uses flash for an hour or two (like play a flash-based game) it'll eat up all of my 4gb of ram :eek:. It's just a problem with the plugin though, not Snow Leopard.
     
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