Out of application memory error

Question

Out of application memory error

I'm getting the "Your system has run out of application memory" error constantly. At first it was when I using Photoshop or Lightroom, but lately it doesn't take much to trigger it. For example, just now my computer only had Acrobat Pro DC, Mail, Microsoft Word, and Finder running for a total of 700 mb of memory usage. This is on a 2016 MacBook Pro running Monterey version 12.4 with 16 GB ram and a 1 TB SSD that has over 400 GB free. The system report shows that both RAM memory slots have an OK status. I've tried restarting, moving even more data to external storage, making sure all updates are installed, etc. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 14, 2022 4:06 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 14, 2022 4:36 PM in response to BobHarris

In that window, there is the long list under Process Name but nothing looks like it is using a lot of memory. At the bottom of the window, there is the following data:

Physical Memory: 16.00 GB

Memory Used: 5.83 GB

-App Memory 2.94 GB

-Wired Memory: 2.31 GB

-Compressed: 598.8 mb

Cached Files: 5.11 GB

Swap Used: 612.3 MB

I've got to head to work for a bit but will check back ASAP - thank you for any help you can provide!

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

56,531 points

Jul 16, 2022 7:49 AM in response to whyisthissohard69

Is the "Your system is out of application memory" dialog box currently on the screen when you are looking at the Activity Monitor set to view all processes?

Also keep in mind that web browsers run a separate process for every open tab, so while it may not look like your web browser is using a lot of memory, if you have a lot of tabs open, the total sum that the web browser is using could be huge.

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Answer 3

Jul 17, 2022 12:23 PM in response to BobHarris

When I looked at the Activity Monitor to get the information, of course the error wasn't appearing. The next time the error popped up, it showed Lightroom as using 100GB+ of memory. I'll try to catch it again when there is no obvious memory hog and check the Activity Monitor then.

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Answer 4

Mal-S

Level 5

5,056 points

Jul 17, 2022 12:35 PM in response to whyisthissohard69

I'll kick off with a couple of observations of your EtreCheck report.

While they may not be responsible for current issues I advise getting rid of the leftover files from your previous installation of Avast and Norton.

Malwarebytes is a trusted malware removal tool but is best employed as a one off execution rather than a background task so you can alter this in the app's settings.

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Answer 5

BobHarris

Level 9

56,531 points

Jul 23, 2022 12:09 PM in response to whyisthissohard69

100GB being used by Lightroom "IS" the root of the problem.

You only have 16GB of real memory, and some of that is being used by the operating system, and other apps. So a large majority of Lightroom is using virtual memory and most likely paged out to disk.

The "Your system is out of applications memory" means either the operating system cannot create any more virtual memory page tables in kernel address space, or you have run out of free space on your boot disk for storing paged out memory.

In the past, when I've run into memory leaks on my system, about 100GB of page/swap file usage is when my system would give up.

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Answer 6

Jul 23, 2022 12:53 PM in response to whyisthissohard69

I totally agree with the previous comments. Do get rid of these remnants of “antivirus”, and of course 100GB of RAM for Lightroom is the problem.

I would like to add two observations:

[Running] com.wacom.pentablet.plist (Wacom Technology Corp. - installed 2016-10-10)

If you do use a Wacom tablet make sure the driver is up to date.

And last but not least: it is quite possible that some of the problems are caused by the notorious “keystone” daemons that ostensibly are supposed to be there to update chrome but are known to hog system resources and do damage to professional applications. Their effect in FCP and Premiere are well known so it’s no surprise if they also affect Lightroom.

https://chromeisbad.come

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