Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Getting "Heavy Memory Usage" error with M1 Macbook pro
- Thread starter AdamHaider
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is correct. I have a 16GB M1 Macbook Pro and I used to get the same error. I got rid of CleanMyMac and I have had no issues at all.
Yeah I even swap a lot when using VMs and running certain Rosetta apps (tsk tsk What's App and FB Messenger).. For anyone doing virtualisation and connecting to Dual HiDPI displays.. 32GB is the option to go.
I agree, but this thread is more about what to do with a M1 machine with 8GB that has already been bought, not which is the best to buy in the future, which would be a totally different narrative.
That’s right. There’s a YouTuber that uses a tag line at the end of his videos which is common sense, Buy it nice or buy it twice.
it’s unfortunate too many people get lulled into getting only 8gb of ram because its supposedly “enough”. I don’t want enough, I want a comfortable ceiling
That’s a nice, catchy version of “penny wise, pound foolish.”
When I was younger I would buy “minimum viable” specs, then later regret it.
Just to summarise; 8GB of RAM is just enough for average use but a bit inadequate for todays demanding applications if you run a lot of them at the same time. You mentioned Firefox, Google Chrome too is a big CPU/RAM hog. So the answer is simply don't run them at the same time.
Check the levels in Activity Monitor occasionally to learn which apps are using the most Memory and try to run them on their own. Quit the apps you are not using regularily, using the Command + Tab method I described earlier.
Lastly, going back to the beginning of this thread, I notice that the notification you pictured is from the CMM Assistant.
Unlike everyone else I'm not going to say you should get rid of CleanMyMac, I have it myself and you probably paid good money for it BUT you can quit the assistant. CMM has some handy features just take care to understand what it's about to do before you use any of its custom functions.
Open the Assistant from the Menu Bar, go down to the Cogwheel (bottom right), click on it and scroll down to Quit and quit it. That will save you about half a gigabyte of RAM immediately and you wont get any more annoying notifications.
The other big memory hog is CMM Live Protection, it uses CPU and RAM resources if you have it on. I have mine turned off because I can do a Malware Scan any time I want using a different app. Again, you only need to Quit the Assistant to turn this off. Of course it will startup again any time you launch CMM so you will need to quit it after each use.
Background app assistants are real resource hogs.
Alternatively you can turn off Protection completely in CMM Preferences, see below.
Remember it will still run when you use Smart Scan but not all the time in the background.
**Like all "cleaning" apps CMM is a tool which can be very useful but can also be dangerous if used the wrong way.
Last but not least, make a complete backup of your device. Time Machine is built in and for the cost of an external hard drive will provide you with valuable insurance against accidentally losing your precious data.
Check the levels in Activity Monitor occasionally to learn which apps are using the most Memory and try to run them on their own. Quit the apps you are not using regularily, using the Command + Tab method I described earlier.
Lastly, going back to the beginning of this thread, I notice that the notification you pictured is from the CMM Assistant.
Unlike everyone else I'm not going to say you should get rid of CleanMyMac, I have it myself and you probably paid good money for it BUT you can quit the assistant. CMM has some handy features just take care to understand what it's about to do before you use any of its custom functions.
Open the Assistant from the Menu Bar, go down to the Cogwheel (bottom right), click on it and scroll down to Quit and quit it. That will save you about half a gigabyte of RAM immediately and you wont get any more annoying notifications.
The other big memory hog is CMM Live Protection, it uses CPU and RAM resources if you have it on. I have mine turned off because I can do a Malware Scan any time I want using a different app. Again, you only need to Quit the Assistant to turn this off. Of course it will startup again any time you launch CMM so you will need to quit it after each use.
Background app assistants are real resource hogs.
Alternatively you can turn off Protection completely in CMM Preferences, see below.
Remember it will still run when you use Smart Scan but not all the time in the background.
**Like all "cleaning" apps CMM is a tool which can be very useful but can also be dangerous if used the wrong way.
Last but not least, make a complete backup of your device. Time Machine is built in and for the cost of an external hard drive will provide you with valuable insurance against accidentally losing your precious data.
Last edited:
you don't need such bloatware. CleanMyMac is more about convincing you to buy software tools than it is about helping your mac run better. Get rid of it. Don't pay attention to the cleanmymac popups that show up on some web sites. If I see that, I run from the web site and don't go back...