How To Free Memory On Mac

04-10-2021

How To Free Memory On Mac

System cleanup in one click

In the Activity Monitor app on your Mac, click Memory (or use the Touch Bar) to see the following in the bottom of the window: Memory Pressure: Graphically represents how efficiently your memory is serving your processing needs. Memory pressure is determined by the amount of free memory, swap rate, wired memory, and file cached memory. Jul 21, 2021 The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free, or Purgeable. To run Memory Clean, click its icon in the menu bar. A window will appear to show dynamic figures of your Mac's current active, wired, inactive, and free memory. Click the Clean Memory button to.

Make your Mac fast and secure with CleanMyMac X.

To free up disk space, it’s helpful to know exactly what is using disk space on your Mac. A hard disk analysis tool like Disk Inventory X will scan your Mac’s hard disk and display which folders and files are using up the most space. You can then delete these space hogs to free up space.
Clear Inactive Memory via Terminal. Another way to free up your computer’s memory is by purging it using the Terminal. To do this, open the Terminal and type in sudo purge. Hit Enter and type in the admin password. Next, wait as your Mac’s inactive memory is being deleted. Edit Your Finder Settings.

Few things are as frustrating as your Mac telling you it has run out of memory when you’re trying to be productive. But it’s even frustrating when you’ve ignored the problem for quite some time and your Mac’s limitations simply won’t let you put a solution on hold any longer.

How to get rid of low memory notifications

Usually, a popup warning isn’t the first sign that something is amiss. You may have noticed that your Mac isn’t running as fast as it used to, with the fan louder than normal as if it’s struggling to carry a heavy load up a hill.

Although Macs are wonderful computers, like any other, they have limitations. Thankfully, there is plenty you can do to resolve this problem and get your Mac operating smoothly again.

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How to Fix Your System Application Memory

Mac memory usage is often occupied by apps, even browsers like Safari or Google Chrome. In the most dire circumstances, your Mac will toss a warning at you: “your system has run out of application memory.”

Don't despair – it's solvable. The first thing to note is this is a natural issue; your Mac has a limited amount of RAM. Though more expensive Macs have more RAM, even they can butt against limitations when too many applications are running.

It may also be an app that is hogging all of your resources. This is especially true of older applications which haven’t been optimized for modern computer architecture. Websites may also be a culprit. Let’s discuss all these possibilities step by step.

How to check RAM usage on Mac

To check your RAM use on any Mac, take the following steps:

Open Activity Monitor from your list of applications. You can do this in Mac’s control center, via the Finder in your Dock, or by pressing ⌘ + Space and typing Activity Monitor in the Spotlight.
Toggle to the Memory pane in the Activity Monitor window

As you see in the above screenshot, Activity Monitor shows you all of your processes, sub-processes, and how much memory each is taking up. The most pertinent portion of the window is the bottom, where it shows you the total memory usage, and how it’s affecting your Mac.

A better way to monitor your Mac’s memory use is with iStat Menus. After installing the app, it makes a home in your Mac’s menu bar, and monitors just about everything, including memory, CPU, GPU, disks, and network usage.

You can choose which systems you’d like to monitor in the app itself. Only the items you’re monitoring will have an icon in your menu bar. A simple click on the menu bar icon surfaces a drop-down menu of how your Mac is performing at the time, and hovering over each graphic brings up a larger menu to inspect.

How to check CPU usage on Mac

Checking CPU use on your Mac is similar to the steps above for checking memory use. For Activity Monitor, you'd make sure to highlight the CPU section of the window. This will show you all the processes using your Mac's CPU at the time.

How To Clear Memory On Macbook Pro 2012

Similarly, iStat Menus has a CPU & GPU toggle just above the memory section. Activating that will add a CPU and GPU monitor to your Mac menu bar, which has the same interactivity as the memory icon and menu shown above.

But what creates CPU-hogging problems overall and how do they lead to slow Mac performance?

Every Mac has a processor which handles the computing of any task, from opening an app to editing photos. Processors differ in power (expressed in GHz) and efficiency (generally, newer processors are more efficient).

For example, a 9th Generation 2.2 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor means that it has two i7 chips, each of which is able to process data at up to 2.2 GHz, and its the 9th iteration of that processor overall.

However, regardless of the power of your processor, if you throw too many tasks at it, it will start to slow because it’s trying to process too much information at once (try opening 100 Google Chrome tabs), creating a bottleneck. That’s why you can have applications not responding. So you need to do something about it.

App Tamer is perhaps the most powerful smart CPU manager out there. Not only does it show the exact CPU percentage and battery impact each process is taking from your Mac, it lets you create simple rules to prevent certain processes from hogging too much CPU.

To tame any app, just click on it in App Tamer (located in the menu bar), select “Slow down this app if it uses more than” and specify the exact CPU percentage.

How to free up memory on Mac

Knowing how to clear memory on Mac is important, especially if you have a Mac with limited resources. One option is using Activity Monitor:

Open Activity Monitor on your Mac
Select an app using a lot of memory
Click the stop icon in the top bar

This is straightforward, but there's a better way. CleanMyMac X has an automated CPU and memory monitors built-in, which can give you a real-time view of memory usage in your Mac's menu bar. It also has a really quick and easy way to free up memory without digging through Activity Monitor and manually shutting down apps.

All you have to do is click the CleanMyMac X icon, select Free Up in the memory pane, and the app takes care of the rest! Oftentimes, it doesn't even shut apps down.

This is a quick fix, but CleanMyMac X takes it a step further in the app itself. Under the app's Maintenance section is an option to Free Up RAM, which helps you clear RAM on Mac. Once you've got this option selected, simply select Run at the bottom of the window, and CleanMyMac X will do a thorough scrubbing of your Mac's RAM, and clear unused files out of the way.

How to get rid of low memory notifications

Most apps are pretty good about how they use your Mac's resources. Having too many open or running in the background can severely limit what your Mac can handle, and is often why a Mac overheats or slows down.

Below we list a few tips to reduce high memory usage manually if you're experiencing unique warnings or issues.

Fix kernel_task, a high CPU usage bug

You may have noticed through Activity Monitor something called kernel_task absorbing a large amount of processing power. One of the functions of kernel_task is to help manage CPU temperature; you may find that your Mac fan is loud and always on, even if the device isn't hot to the touch.

That's because kernel_task usually performs this way when one or more applications are trying to use too much CPU. Unfortunately, one of the potential downsides is a Mac can overheat to such an extent that internal systems are damaged, sometimes irreparably.

Working through the following steps in this article is one way to avoid similar problems. If none of this work and kernel_task is still absorbing a high percentage of your CPU, then one or more of the following could be the cause:

Cooling system inefficiency
A failed or disconnected temperature sensor
Another hardware issue, including a worn out batter
Your System Management Controller needs a rest

If you're experiencing severe issues, Apple recommends a system management controller (SMC) reset. It's essentially a hard reset for your Mac, and should help your RAM and other hardware components start from scratch. Keep in mind you won't lose any data in this process.

Reduce memory usage in Finder

One common culprit for RAM issues is Finder, your Mac's file manager. If iStat Menus or Activity Monitor has highlighted Finder as using hundreds of MBs of RAM, there is an easy solution: change the default display for a new Finder window so it doesn't show All My Files:

Click on the Finder icon in the Dock and click on the Finder menu, then select Preferences
Click on General. Under 'New Finder windows show', click the dropdown menu and choose any option except All My Files
Close Preferences, press Alt-Control, and click on the Finder icon in the Dock. Click Relaunch

Finder will now relaunch with new windows opening at the option you selected in step two.

Improve Chrome's Task Manager

Chrome is a popular browser, but it's a resource hog! Chrome uses a GPU Process as standard, which means it speeds up the loading of web pages, which can be great except at times when your computer is struggling with insufficient RAM.

Here's how to make it better:

Open Chrome on your Mac
On the right side of the Chrome window, select the three-dot menu
Select More tools
Select Task Manager
Select a Chrome process you'd like to kill
Select End Process at the bottom right of the window

Here's another way to reduce Chrome's use of your Mac's memory:

Open Chrome on your Mac
On the right side of the Chrome window, select the three-dot menu
Select Settings
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Advanced
Scroll down to System, and toggle 'Use hardware acceleration when available' off

This will affect how Chrome runs on your Mac, and your experience won't be as smooth. You can also remove unused or unwanted Chrome extensions to help it use less resources on your Mac.

Get CMM X to free up space

Install CleanMyMac X and streamline the entire process of memory management on Mac. Clever memory usage control done for you.

Clean up other browsers

In every browser you use regularly, there are always going to be extensions and popups that take up space and use RAM. You can manage each one manually or use a tool such as CleanMyMac X to identify and delete them.

In the CleanMyMac X app is a section titled Extensions, which lists each extension you have for your browser or browsers. All you have to do is view the list of extensions, select the ones you no longer want, and remove them. It's really that simple!

Disable login items

Login items, browser extensions, and preference panes, such as Flash, are another common source of memory usage. Most of us have several installed that we rarely use, but which hog memory and reduce performance.

One way to do this is through System Preferences:

From your Mac menu bar, select System Preferences
Select Users & Groups
Select Login Items
Deselect items you no longer want active at login

Another way, one that is even quicker, is to employ CleanMyMac to identify and cleanup login items:

Open CleanMyMac X
Under Speed, select Optimization
Select Login Items

You can remove all login items, or select the ones you'd like to remove individually on the right side of the window.

Disable desktop widgets

Older Macs running a version of macOS older than Catalina can disable widgets. Desktop widgets can provide a useful shortcut to apps you need to access fairly often. But they can take up processing memory that is slowing your whole Mac down. One way to close them completely is in System Preferences.

Go to Mission Control ➙ switch off the Dashboard

Declutter your desktop

Apple's built-in decluttering tool is handy for many. All you have to do on your cluttered desktop is right-click, then select Use Stacks. This places all of your desktop files into folders unique to their filetype, like Screenshots and Images.

A better way is to use Spotless, an app that gives you far more control over how your Mac is organized. It has several triggers for automated cleanup of files on your desktop, placing them wherever you see fit. It's particularly useful for power users who produce several files daily, but don't want to take the time to place each in a respective folder.

You can also select many files on your Mac desktop, and tell Spotless to tidy them up. You always have full control!

Schedule regular cleanups

Constant use of your Mac, or leaving it on all the time, will slow it down over time. Shutting it down and restarting is a traditional way of 'cleaning up' a computer.

We also like CleanMyMac X's scheduled cleanup feature. Telling the app when you'd like to perform a thorough cleaning up of your Mac's system is a method many prefer to shutting down and restarting often. It has the upshot of removing files and folders you no longer use, and cleaning up tasks that are slowing your Mac down behind the scenes. A simple shutdown may not do this.

Keeping your Mac in tip-top shape is critical. While we'd all like to think computers are brilliant little devices that can handle anything, they need some care, too.

All of the apps mentioned in this article help with taking care of your Mac, and protecting your investment. Best of all they're each free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp. Give it a try today!

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While reading thru some Apple forums, I found a question people asked a lot. While most responses were generally correct, I felt that all answers lacked some important details and as a result confused people even more. The purpose of this article to clarify those details as much as possible.

First, let’s answer the first question from the title of the post.

What is wired memory?

Wired memory on Mac is reserved for the macOS kernel and its data structures, and it cannot be paged out. The normal size of the wired memory is around 2GB. User applications add on average 1MB per instance, and too many running programs can contribute to high wired memory usage.

Now, let’s dive into more technical details.

When the Mac suddenly becomes too slow, the laptop owners start browsing forums and learn to check the memory tab in Activity Monitor.

The screenshot above which I made after rebooting the Mac indicates that my Mac has 8GB of Physical Memory and 2.33GB of it is in the Used Memory bucket. The used memory then consists of App Memory (1.2GB) and Wired Memory (1.13GB).

Why do people ask about Wired memory?

Wired memory is a memory that can’t be compressed or paged out to your startup drives, so it must stay in RAM. Moreover, other processes can’t borrow it.

The key phrase here is “can’t be paged out.”

Before we proceed further let me explain what paging is.

The architecture of modern computers was designed in the 20th century. Any computer has three main parts: processor, RAM (random access memory) and storage (disk, tape, punched cards, etc.).

The processor works directly with RAM because the latter is thousands of times faster than HHD or SSD. Besides the speed, there are two more differences between RAM and HHD:

RAM needs constant power. When a computer shuts down or restarts, the data in RAM gets wiped. Hard drives preserve data even when the computer is off.
RAM is much more expensive. For instance, for an additional $200, you can buy either 8GB more RAM or 128GB more SSD when purchasing a new MacBook Pro.

The last point is significant. If RAM was cheap, then Apple would stuff its laptops with tons of memory, and nobody would care to read this article. But since its more expensive than disk storage computer engineers invented memory swapping or paging.

Let me use a whiteboard analogy.
Imagine, you work in a startup company which rents couple desks in a coworking space. Amenities in a coworking environment include unlimited coffee and beer, Wi-Fi, bike storage, and a whiteboard.

When Team A needs to brainstorm the Next Big Thing, they go to the whiteboard and start writing down some ideas. Unfortunately, there is only one whiteboard on the floor. Team B wants to brainstorm their TNBT too, and they also need some whiteboard space.

Team A graciously agrees to share some of the whiteboard space. Then another team comes, and another. With each team, the amount of free space shrinks.

When the available area gets too tight, teams decide to write down some of their ideas on the paper and clear the piece of the whiteboard for new ideas. When they need to access their old ideas, they search thru past papers and copy them to the whiteboard.

Memory management in modern operating systems works similarly. In this case, a whiteboard is a physical memory which is shared by apps (teams). When apps request additional memory, and there is no more free space, the OS checks all memory pages.

The OS tries to find ones that were not used recently and copies them to the disk. Apps do not write down unused memory like in whiteboard example, the OS does. When the app needs back that data, the OS reads it back to RAM from the disk.

In theory, more disk storage the computer has more RAM can be extended by paging. The reverse is also true, in case of little or no free disk space swapping is almost impossible.

This wonderful mechanism, however, has a significant flow: disk is thousands of times slower than RAM. When there is no enough memory, the system keeps paging in and out data continuously, which causes so-called disk thrashing.

In the latter case, the computer, instead of executing programs keeps moving data making the life of a computer user miserable.

So what it has to do with wired memory? Continuing the analogy, imaging the coworking administration decided to block the quarter of the whiteboard and write a schedule of events on it. Plus they disallowed any team to wipe off the schedule.

More space the administration takes less whiteboard space teams can use. More wired memory the macOS uses fewer memory apps can share.

By the way, if you were wondering what represents Cached Files in the first screenshot, it’s a memory that was used by an app which was recently terminated. It’s as if Team A decided to go to a nearby restaurant to grab some lunch.

If by the time they come back, their ideas are still on the whiteboard, they can start from where they left. If not, then they have to copy everything from their papers back to the whiteboard.

Cached Files is a mechanism which macOS uses to speed up the recently closed applications in case if a user wants to start them again. If meantime another app needs more memory, the OS will claim it from Cashed Files.

So, if you see too much Cached Files don’t worry, it’s same as free memory.

If you need proof, try following in Terminal:

In the Terminal app type sudo purge and hit Enter
Type in the admin password

When I ran this command, the only thing that has changed in Activity Monitor was Cached Files: its size dropped from 1.89GB to 594MB.

Is it ok to use sudo purge? There is no harm because all it does is clear unused memory. But it also doesn’t do anything valuable. macOS can release unused memory when apps ask for more.

What’s included in the Wired memory?

According to Apple documentation, wired memory is a part of memory reserved for OS kernel and its data structures. Following kernel objects belong to the wired memory: Virtual Memory objects, virtual memory and I/O buffer caches, various drivers.

User applications do not directly work with the hardware; they send requests to kernel drivers and those, in turn, perform hardware operations. For instance, the internet browser does not send pixels to the MacBook screen. Instead, it sends requests to the video driver, which then changes colors of pixels on the screen.

However, user apps can also influence how much of wired memory is used, although indirectly.

Following is a table with some (not all) types of objects user apps indirectly create in the wired memory. Note that the data in the table is outdated, but it at least gives some idea why the wired memory changes every time we load or unload an app.

Let me explain some of the objects in the table on the example of the Google Chrome browser. When I first started Chrome, it created several processes: one Google Chrome and 8 Google Chrome Helpers. The wired memory immediately jumped to 1.35GB.

Each line in the Activity Monitor is a process: an application instance. Each process is a collection of threads and threads perform actual work on the computer. If data in Table 1 was current, we could count that Google Chrome process added 16KB to store process data, plus 46 * 21KB = 966KB for threads.

Chrome is an interesting app. Every time you open a new tab, it starts additional helpers. Each helper is a separate process, and each process spawns numerous threads.

When I opened one tab, the number of Chrome helpers jumped from 8 to 16. After opening a second tab the number of helpers increased to 24, and after third to 26. After opening three tabs, the wired memory size increased to 1.61GB.

As you can see each process indirectly increases wired memory because macOS has to record those threads somewhere.

And this is not all. While Apple claims that wired memory is reserved for kernel and some objects which describe user processes, some applications can tap into the wired memory directly.

For instance, if you ever used virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop or VMWare, you should know that they use the wired memory directly to improve the performance.

If you think about this, it makes perfect sense. Virtual frameworks are designed to act like real machines so that OS running inside can handle the memory the way they always do. For instance, if you run macOS virtual machine on Mac, the macOS will create its version of wired memory inside VM.

After digging a bit in the Kernel Programming Guide, I found that applications can allocate memory in the kernel by calling kmem_alloc_wired function instead of regular alloc.

Now, what all of this means in practice?

How to free up memory on Mac

There are two main reasons for the high usage of wired memory:

1) Some applications modify the kernel and use wired memory deliberately. Examples are drivers and applications working on the kernel level such as antiviruses, or virtual machines. If for instance, there are some widgets in the Mission control, turn off those you don’t need.

In the case of virtual machines, the remedy is to limit the memory configuration. For example, if the Windows VM is configured to use 8GB of RAM lower it to 4GB.

2) When too many applications are active, they still use RAM. Unlike Windows, where clicking on close button unloads the app, in macOS, the app continues staying in memory. You can tell them by a little dot under the icon in the Dock.

Use Command and Q key combination to quit the app altogether. If some apps still stay in the memory rebooting the computer sometimes can fix the problem.

And finally, high wired memory usage is not always a sign of a problem. In the following example used memory was almost 31GB on a 32GB Mac, and wired memory accounted for the bulk of used (26.61GB).