Randomly running out of system application memory since upgrading to Sonoma

[swingerofbirch]

I've been having issues with Sonoma. First I had an SD card failure (was able to recover the data eventually) that I feel was more than coincidental post-updating to Sonoma:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sd-card-formatted-in-and-used-with-mbp-14-will-no-longer-mount-files-inaccessible.2405641/

But I've also kept running into running out of available application memory which is something I've never had before on my MBP 14" M1 Pro 16 GB RAm. It's an issue I had on older Macs, but not on this one, and I've had it maybe 4-5 times since updating to Sonoma.

I'm wondering if anyone else has?

I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary and in the past have had way more tabs open and never experienced that.

I also wanted to make another thread in this sub-forum—but thought it may be too many to post two in a row—about the SD card issue I linked to above. I posted about it in the Mac Basics forum, but I thought there might be more eyeballs on it here from people who have upgraded to Sonoma.

I feel very nervous with this computer now and regret having upgraded, worried that it's both at risk with its internal data but also the external locations it connects to where that internal data is backed up to (given the SD card situation as that's not my only external drive).

I'm normally never a X.0 adopter of software and this reminds me why I should have stayed that way. I was too mesmerized by those screensavers, like a siren song.

 

[zevrix]

But I've also kept running into running out of available application memory

Do you mean that your memory pressure goes into red (or yellow) in the Activity Monitor?

If so then sort the table by memory usage and see what apps consume unreasonably high memory. It won't solve the issue but may give a better idea of what exactly happens. Then post results here and maybe other users will have some more specific suggestion/explanations for your issue.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Do you mean that your memory pressure goes into red (or yellow) in the Activity Monitor?

If so then sort the table by memory usage and see what apps consume unreasonably high memory. It won't solve the issue but may give a better idea of what exactly happens. Then post results here and maybe other users will have some more specific suggestion/explanations for your issue.

I'll check when it happens next. It's a warning dialogue that says you need to quit applications to avoid problems with the computer.

 

[zevrix]

I'll check when it happens next. It's a warning dialogue that says you need to quit applications to avoid problems with the computer.

I see. I've never seen this dialog. Sounds like a serious memory issue. So yeah I recommend to keep Activity Monitor open (Memory tab) and check it regularly. Also, google this exact error (unless you already did) - there are quit a few results and suggestions which may or may not be helpful for your situation.

 

[nobackup]

I've been having issues with Sonoma. First I had an SD card failure (was able to recover the data eventually) that I feel was more than coincidental post-updating to Sonoma:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sd-card-formatted-in-and-used-with-mbp-14-will-no-longer-mount-files-inaccessible.2405641/

But I've also kept running into running out of available application memory which is something I've never had before on my MBP 14" M1 Pro 16 GB RAm. It's an issue I had on older Macs, but not on this one, and I've had it maybe 4-5 times since updating to Sonoma.

I'm wondering if anyone else has?

I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary and in the past have had way more tabs open and never experienced that.

I also wanted to make another thread in this sub-forum—but thought it may be too many to post two in a row—about the SD card issue I linked to above. I posted about it in the Mac Basics forum, but I thought there might be more eyeballs on it here from people who have upgraded to Sonoma.

I feel very nervous with this computer now and regret having upgraded, worried that it's both at risk with its internal data but also the external locations it connects to where that internal data is backed up to (given the SD card situation as that's not my only external drive).

I'm normally never a X.0 adopter of software and this reminds me why I should have stayed that way. I was too mesmerized by those screensavers, like a siren song.

I have had the same memory issues since the upgrade, I have been using macs since 1999 ..., and never seen this before

 

[Harries94]

yep been having the same issue since updating. it's happened 3-4 times in the past 2 days despite closing pretty much all my apps and I didn't notice anything unusual in activity monitor

 

[Count Blah]

Thank you for posting this. I was teetering on the edge of hitting the upgrade button, but been talked off the ledge. PLEASE provide any updates with your issue.

Thanks again!

 

[thejoel]

I've been having the problem almost daily since upgrading to Mac OS Sonoma. The culprit seems to be Safari (and I keep a wholly unreasonable number of tabs open, so... it's also me). Since I'm on an M1 Max Mac Studio with 64 gigs, I was... taken aback by the first appearance of the out-of-application-memory warning. EtreCheck Pro says that my top memory hog offenders are: com.apple.WebKit.WebContent, kernel_task and WindowServer.

 

[tekfranz]

I just noticed this for the second time recently. I guess we should report to Apple.

 

[petercomeau]

Yes, I had this issue last night. I had a VPN service running overnight and when I accessed my Macbook Pro M2 in the morning the Force Quit popup was open complaining that I had run out of system memory. The VPN app was showing at using hundreds of Gb! I force quit the VPN app and normal service resumed.
This hasn't happened before using any other OS. I've now updated Memory Cleaner (from Nektony) so I'm hoping this will avoid any more problems.

 

[CooperBox]

I've never been an early OS adopter, but prefer to wait for the final issue of an OS before leaping in. Currently on Big Sur which imho is a great OS (like High Sierra) and never let me down, especially on this 2020 27" iMac.
Yesterday I installed Sonoma on an external SSD just to try it out, and definitely didn't like the new System Preference navigation. So I'm sticking with the iMac internal SSD and Big Sur and still loving it.

 

[Mark Sieber]

I have an M1 MBP, and also get the memory warning messages--but memory pressure in Activity Monitor is in the green. I had similar false warning problems in earlier OS's when they were new, and they were (eventually) repaired with updates. I'm not sure if it's unique to M1 chips.