Need to reduce current RAM on my 27" imac 2020 5k Retina

terrywaggoner wrote:

... I receive a message telling me there's not enough memory (Mac HD: 249.5GB of 250.69 GB). I used CleanMyMac to recover,

😖

Erase the Mac. There is no practicable alternative to the damage such things are capable of inflicting.

They are destructive in nature. It's what they do.

Erase the Mac.

Sorry, your post is very confusing.

There is no way to reduce actively used RAM except by restarting the iMac. That closes down all open apps and data and releases the RAM. Once it starts back up, it will resist the RAM as it requires.

I'm assuming that's what you mean and not that you want to actually physically remove RAM from the iMac so it has less available RAM.

Not sure what you mean by "images are floating around". What exactly is happening? Where do you see these images floating around?

What does the external drive have to do with the RAM usage then? Seems you are mixing up RAM memory with storage. Those are very different things.

Or why deleting the images if you have actual access to them would cause any issues with other programs.

Perhaps if you explain exactly what is happening and what you want to accomplish someone may be able to advise.

Presume you mean reduce the data using up your internal drive storage, not the RAM.

You’re on the right track that you need to delete files on your internal drive to free up space. Moving them to external storage makes sense.

Personally, I’m not comfortable with only one copy of data. I follow the 3-2-1 strategy: 3 copies (at least) of all data, 2 of which are backups and 1 of which is stored offsite. That means my internal drive is backed up to a local NAS system, and also to an SSD that I store offsite. I use Time Machine for those.

I keep all the processed images but only the most recent 5 years of RAW files on my internal drive. Archived RAWs (~25K images) are stored on the NAS and on a separate SSD (different from the TM backups) stored offsite (still meets the 3-2-1 rule since my NAS is RAID1 meaning everything is stored on two disks, and like the TM backups I actually have a pair of drives that I swap offsite every two weeks; really I do 5-4-1 for files on my Mac and 4-4-1 for archived files).

Please read the following user tip and restate your question/problem in detail: 

     Writing an Effective Apple Support Communities Question - Apple Community

Restate your problem in detail with the realization that we are not clairvoyant nor can we see your iMac.

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

terrywaggoner wrote:

I used CleanMyMac to recover, and it now shows 234.77GB of 250.69 GB, but I also lost access to some documents.

As stated bluntly by John Galt, unfortunately CleanMyMac is tantamount to malware. Yes, they have a good sales pitch and yes sites like Macworld pitch the software but money makes the world go around so when a 'review' earns affiliate link revenue you should always question it's validity. There's no practical way to uninstall CleanMyMac. See this thread for some additional details.

Thank you very much for your response, it's much appreciated. What I have a problem with is trying to download images to LR, but I receive a message telling me there's not enough memory (Mac HD: 249.5GB of 250.69 GB).

What I would like to do is remove my images my images (which are stored on an external hard drive and a second hard drive is used as a backup with losing anymore documents.......or anything alse for that matter.

You say you store your images on an external drive, are you trying to download these images to that external drive when you are seeing this message? Regardless, if you have a Mac where the internal storage is essentially full, you will have significant issues (and you may see that message even if downloading to the external drive, as LR will be storing the index and thumbnails for the catalog on the internal drive even with the images stored on an external drive).

You mention a second hard drive as a backup – is that a backup of the first external drive, or a backup of your internal drive, e.g. Time Machine? If you have a TM backup that extends to before you installed CleanMyMac, you can restore your Mac to that earlier state.

Either way, you will need to clear some data off your internal drive – you should always have >10% space free.

None of this seems to have anything to do with RAM. Even assuming you mean dis storage, it still doesn't make sense.