macOS 26 Tahoe: System runs out of application memory (M4 Pro, 48 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD)

I just replaced a macMini late 2018 running on intel with 16GB RAM with an M4 MacBook Pro with 16GB. Everything on the mini was migrated to the Pro. My few extensions and all. The macMini never had this problem. The M4 should eat the macMini's lunch, yet it is running out of application memory! It has to be an OS issue with Tahoe.

This has happened to me TWICE now.

2021 M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM.

Both times the same... when laptop screen was closed for several hours / overnight.

Very easy to get back to a working state, and I've been monitoring Memory Usage in Activity Monitor after this second incident, but so far, nothing apparent has shown up.

This definitely feels like a "Tahoe" issue, not specific to any one app, or the same thing would have happened prior to upgrading to Tahoe, right? An app may need to be updated for compatibility, though. Just don't know which one is at fault yet.

not Apple’s responsibility to make macOS compatible with everything.

Disagree because everyone reporting this has only one thing in common — Tahoe — and that this is consistently being observed after a period of inactivity/sleep.

I don't have any Adobe apps installed.

Yes, individual app developers need to maintain compatibility, but the OS clearly needs to do a better job identifying when this issue is occurring, and take some proactive steps to avoid the whole system pausing.

That it's happening across a mix of 3rd-party apps, or a common Apple app, is where it gets hard to identify.

This has happened to me on both my MacBook Air and Mac Studio on four or five occasions now, usually when I wake up the device after it has been sleeping overnight. Only happened since Tahoe. I have different apps and extensions on each device, though with some overlap. Could indeed be a third-party extension, but maybe not due to a change with the extension but with some change to Tahoe or some new restriction. Whether it is the extension or Tahoe that needs fixing is another matter. Either way, it is a very inelegant crash! It is a shame that Tahoe doesn't do more to tell us what app or extension likely led to the crash. A lot of guesswork is involved.

The following does not solve the problem but may help elucidate some as to what is happening.

For this situation of”out of application memory”, it has relatively little relevance whether your system has 8GB or 48GB. Let me explain. A memory leak happens when some software error results in wn app, service, or other piece of software request a lot RAM and fails to properly release that RAM. When memory in use is more than the physical memory, the OS will use several things to cope - use virtual memory (space on your drive), and/or compress some of the contents that are not actively used.

Of course, the lesser memory installed, the sooner the OS needs to use these things. This is one reason why systems with more memory typically perform better under load.

But ULTIMATELY the error occurs not when physical memory is exhausted, but when VIRTUAL Memory is exhausted.

After upgrading to MacOS 26, I have received the very same "System has run out of application memory" error message twice now after waking my device from sleep. I've never had this issue before, even when I've been a lot more apps at once. My machine is an M3 MacBook Air, but only has 8gb of RAM, so I thought it could be due to my inadequate memory. Seeing that your machine has 48gb and is having the same issue makes me believe it is an OS issue.

Just had this happen when waking from sleep on my MacBook Air M4 that has 16GB of memory. I didn't have any more apps open than I usually have open and I've never had this happen on earlier versions of macOS. I believe there is a bug in macOS Tahoe that needs to be addressed.

Ditto. Twice in the last week, I've come back to an alert that my Mac has run out of memory. Needed to Force Quit everything that was open.

Not doing anything that I didn't do before upgrading to MacOS Tahoe

Mac Studio M4, 64 GB RAM, 4 TB SSD, MacOS 26.0.1

Could be an application issue if changes were needed for Apps under Tahoe, but I suspect an OS memory leak,

Will gladly file a bug report, but not sure how to describe it in the report....

You are welcome to that belief, but it is far more likely that a third-party application or extension is causing the problems. It is the responsibility of those developers to update their software for compatibility, not Apple’s responsibility to make macOS compatible with everything.

I’ve just had this system run out of application memory dialogue for the first time on my 2020 M1 MacBook Air. This thing has 8GB of RAM but I’ve never had this occur, and my usage wasn’t different to before. I’ve run Tahoe since July and not had this issue once until now. I note that I had both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook open when this occurred, wondering whether a recent update to one or both of these apps is interacting poorly with Tahoe? All other open apps were Apple default apps.

Same issue 2019 Intel Mac Pro 16GB, never ran out of memory in Sequoia but it's now a constant problem in Tahoe 26.0.1. Now in panic mode saving items constantly when working on designs. This has to be a Tahoe bug.

Oh boy wish that was the case. MacOS 26 is the problem. Sometimes I have photoshop open with nothing else, not even a document open and Your system has run out of memory. Running an M2 Pro Mac mini. this is a HUGE problem. It looks like to me it is an issue with Adobe apps and MacOS26. Hours of work time lost on this.

curtisfromnovato wrote:

Okay a little bit of help from ChatGPT went a long way. Ask it for terminal commands to clear out old cached files. Especially Adobe. This freed up 150gigs of space and things, knock on wood, are running fine now. It is very typical of Apple and Adobe not being in sync. Admins stop telling people to restart as if that will solve it. Do more research and support better.

1) This is a user community. "We" are users, like you...albeit typically with more knowledge and experience.

2) Ironic that you post that deleting cache files with help from AI (a questionable approach at best) "freed up 150gigs of space" and posted that as if you think it will be relevant to a thread discussing application memory. Maybe do some research of your own...ask ChatGPT 'what is the difference between computer memory and computer storage,' heck maybe it will even give you the right answer and you're learn something that you clearly don't know.

Yeah...the memory leak, for me, occurs with Messages, which suddenly consumes over 150 GB of memory. But, sure. It's a third-party problem...

I'm having this same issue and it's causing me a lot of grief trying to work with my emails open while using Safari and other applications at the same time. Has anyone else found any solutions or do we all just have to sit and wait for Apple to come up with a fix? I'm using a 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36GB, and running Tahoe 26.0.1 and honestly should've gone with my gut and not done the update because every time I do when it first releases something always seem to go sideways.