Run out of application memory

[Tonyburton]

I am getting this warning now on my desktop, and Preview is no longer working. The application memory listed for Preview grows and works up to 60 Gigs.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

How much free space is on your drive?

 

[TonyAguila]

I am getting this warning now on my desktop, and Preview is no longer working. The application memory listed for Preview grows and works up to 60 Gigs.

Some of the information you state are not very clear. It will help if you can indicate the model ID of your Mac, and if you don’t have that information, the type (e.g. iMac, mini, MacBook, etc.), the model year, and version of macOS installed. Where are you getting the application memory for Preview and the 60 gigs of memory. If the situation has recently changed to bring this on (i.e. Preview not working) with everything else much the same, perhaps a macOS reinstallation is what’s needed.

 

[Tonyburton]

Good day Tony, thanks for responding. My desktop is an iMac, 8GB, 21.5" 2017, using Ventura 13.7.4. Until recently, everything has been running fine although I noticed now a little slow. Preview has stopped working. On opening it (ex. clicking on a pdf), I get a "running out of application memory" warning, and the Activity monitor shows Preview increasingly sucking up all available memory until it reaches 60 GB. As you say, perhaps the only solution is to reload the OS. I can reload Ventura, and I note that Apple says Sequoia is compatible with my computer, but should I go with the latest OS? I don't use any memory-hogging apps – InDesign is the biggest.

 

[TonyAguila]

Good day Tony, thanks for responding. My desktop is an iMac, 8GB, 21.5" 2017, using Ventura 13.7.4. Until recently, everything has been running fine although I noticed now a little slow. Preview has stopped working. On opening it (ex. clicking on a pdf), I get a "running out of application memory" warning, and the Activity monitor shows Preview increasingly sucking up all available memory until it reaches 60 GB. As you say, perhaps the only solution is to reload the OS. I can reload Ventura, and I note that Apple says Sequoia is compatible with my computer, but should I go with the latest OS? I don't use any memory-hogging apps – InDesign is the biggest.

Mactracker shows your iMac’s model ID is iMac18,1 with maximum OS as Ventura. Its latest version is indeed 13.7.4. I don’t know if Apple has done something with Sequoia to make it compatible with your model, and you can find out by going to System Settings and select Software Update. It will let you know if you can update any farther than Ventura 13.7.4. Another way to find out is with Terminal. Enter the code:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

and press return. It will list the macOS versions available for your Mac, with the latest on top. If you want to download any of the installers on the list (I would think you’d want the latest), you can enter the code:

sudo softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 13.7.4

or any other version number on the list that you want to have. Follow the prompts for the password, etc., and the download should start, placing the file in your Applications folder, ready to launch if you want, but first make a copy to save for later. And make sure you have a good backup before attempting to reinstall macOS. This saves you from booting into Recovery to reinstall the system.

For all you know, the weird things happening on your Mac could be remedied with a system reinstall. I do it routinely at the first sign of gremlins in my system. If Preview.app is damaged, the reinstallation will automatically replace Apple apps with fresh copies. Preview, Mail, etc., etc. will be fresh copies, but not InDesign. Creative Cloud is having issues that Adobe can’t seem to fix… But that’s for another day.

 

[Tonyburton]

Thanks for the info, Tony. Reading your last paragraph, am I to understand that a fresh install of Ventura 13.7.4 will do the job? Up until 2 days ago I had an earlier version of Ventura and hoped that doing the upgrade would fix Preview, but it didn't.

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks for the info, Tony. Reading your last paragraph, am I to understand that a fresh install of Ventura 13.7.4 will do the job? Up until 2 days ago I had an earlier version of Ventura and hoped that doing the upgrade would fix Preview, but it didn't.

It’s difficult to be certain because the issue might be coming from another area. Have you tried opening files in other apps apart from Preview? The behavior you described seems unusual. How did you update Ventura? Doing it through Recovery is usually more reliable than performing it from an “awake” state or from Safe Boot. I try to do my update or refresh of macOS from Safe Boot using the installer app downloaded from the Terminal method I described before. Just make sure you have good backup(s). I keep three Time Machine backup drives running hourly in addition to maintaining clone copies of my system drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.

And is the Preview.app behavior happening with particular files or file types (e.g. PDF, JPEG, etc.)? A runaway behavior you described is quite unusual especially if it happens widespread and not just with a particular file. Let’s just hope it’s not a hardware issue.

 

[Tonyburton]

Hi Tony. I'm ready to do a reinstall of Ventura after getting a project out of the way. You mention both "Safe boot" and "Recovery" but don't see how to access these as the safer way to do an install, and Terminal just has a one-line comment/date on it.

The Preview problem happens with all pdf and jpeg files. What other apps will open them?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi Tony. I'm ready to do a reinstall of Ventura after getting a project out of the way. You mention both "Safe boot" and "Recovery" but don't see how to access these as the safer way to do an install, and Terminal just has a one-line comment/date on it.

The Preview problem happens with all pdf and jpeg files. What other apps will open them?

To get a selection of apps to open PDF and jpeg files, or pretty much any other data file, do a Control-click on the file and a window will open a list of choices. Go to “Open with” and you can select the app of your choice from the list.

In order to boot into Recovery, I believe you need to reboot and immediately hold down command-R to go into Recovery. I think a reboot while holding down the Shift key will bring you into Safe Mode, although on my Mac Studio, I have to press and hold the power button to go into either Safe Mode, and then holding down the Shift while selecting a startup drive; or Recovery by selecting the Options button.

 

[Tonyburton]

To get a selection of apps to open PDF and jpeg files, or pretty much any other data file, do a Control-click on the file and a window will open a list of choices. Go to “Open with” and you can select the app of your choice from the list.

In order to boot into Recovery, I believe you need to reboot and immediately hold down command-R to go into Recovery. I think a reboot while holding down the Shift key will bring you into Safe Mode, although on my Mac Studio, I have to press and hold the power button to go into either Safe Mode, and then holding down the Shift while selecting a startup drive; or Recovery by selecting the Options button.

I'm not sure of "reboot", is that the same as "restart"?

 

[TonyAguila]

I'm not sure of "reboot", is that the same as "restart"?

One and them same, except a “cold” boot is from the Mac turned off, a “warm” boot is from while it’s running.

 

[Rodananne]

Tonyburton, you did not answer the question in post #2. How much free storage you have is important because all macs use what is called "Virtual" Memory to compensate for a shortfall in Random Access Memory (RAM).
If your storage is over 80% full you will see a gradual decline in CPU performance especially as you only have 8GB of RAM to begin with.
It is a common fallacy that reinstalling the OS will fix problems, unless the problem is directly related to OS damage.
In Activity Monitor the thing you want to look at is Memory Pressure.
See my screen Shot below;

I have a fairly demanding game running in the background but as you can see Memory Pressure is constant and all green and significantly less than Physical Memory (RAM).

So check your Storage Level in Apple Menu > About this Mac and see how much available storage you have then go to Activity Monitor and see if you are going into the Red when several apps are running especially Preview.
If so you need more Physical Memory, more useable storage space or limit the number of apps running at any one time. My wife was in this position a couple of years back where she needed to quit demanding apps to run others.

 

[TonyAguila]

Tonyburton, you did not answer the question in post #2. How much free storage you have is important because all macs use what is called "Virtual" Memory to compensate for a shortfall in Random Access Memory (RAM).
If your storage is over 80% full you will see a gradual decline in CPU performance especially as you only have 8GB of RAM to begin with.
It is a common fallacy that reinstalling the OS will fix problems, unless the problem is directly related to OS damage.
In Activity Monitor the thing you want to look at is Memory Pressure.
See my screen Shot below;

View attachment 5426

I have a fairly demanding game running in the background but as you can see Memory Pressure is constant and all green and significantly less than Physical Memory (RAM).

So check your Storage Level in Apple Menu > About this Mac and see how much available storage you have then go to Activity Monitor and see if you are going into the Red when several apps are running especially Preview.
If so you need more Physical Memory, more useable storage space or limit the number of apps running at any one time. My wife was in this position a couple of years back where she needed to quit demanding apps to run others.

Great lesson, teach! I was going to bring up the Activity Monitor thing myself, so I took a part of it,

Notice the difference in Memory Pressure makes when you have 32 vs. 16 gibibytes of memory? But, beside the point, it’s really the amount of free storage space that you have the most control over. For starters, try deleting unnecessary files from your drive, empty the Trash more often, and if you feel that it’s not enough, an easier fix is to add an external SSD to your Mac to move a lot of your documents to. If you have Time Machine, the additional storage will not fill up your TM drive(s) because Time Machine automatically deletes older files when it gets close to filling up.

 

[Tonyburton]

Hi Rodananne, thanks for your response.
Activity is 5.44 of 8 GBs. My problem is that Preview has quit working after months of no problems, so I expect a glitch in the OS. I have tried reloading Ventura through the Recovery route, with no fix. I expect that I'll have to do a full clean reinstall. What is the best way to do that? Thanks

 

[Rodananne]

Okay, first you will need to download an Installer for macOS Ventura from Apple
.
Then you need to create a Bootable macOS Installer on a removeable media such as a USB Thumb drive.

You boot your Mac from the thumb drive and use Disk Utility to erase your internal drive (Macintosh HD).

On completion you run the installer to install a fresh copy of macOS Ventura.

I have deliberately kept the steps brief to give you an overview of the work involved. Each step probably requires some further instruction.
For Example; erasing Macintosh HD involves identifying it correctly in Disk Utility and renaming, reformatting and mapping the drive.

If you think you're up for it I can supply more details.

 

[Tonyburton]

That's much more work than I'm willing to risk so will drop my Mac off to a local expert. Thanks

 

[Rodananne]

Sure thing. In the later Mac models and OS's it's a simpler task. You can erase the device from the Apple menu and reinstall the OS.