High Memory Usage Reported In macOS Monterey

Those who are thinking about upgrading to Apple’s new operating system macOS Monterey should be patient for the time being. After the update caused crashes on older Macs, some users are now reporting high memory usage.

As MacRumors reports, many users complain about so-called memory leaks, where apps take up significantly more RAM than intended. Especially system applications seem to use too much RAM. The Control Center, for example, is said to require ten to 20 gigabytes of RAM. The third-party browser Firefox is even said to occupy up to 80 gigabytes. Since even the latest MacBooks with the M1 Max chip only have 64 GB of RAM, the working memory is quickly maxed out, so a warning is displayed.

Restart Doesn’t Help Much

Currently, the affected users have no other option than to close and reopen the respective applications. Even a complete restart of the system should only help to a certain extent. The problem is supposed to occur again after a short time. At the moment, it is still completely unclear what causes the bug. However, it can be assumed that Apple is already working on a patch and will make it available with the update to macOS 12.1. The high RAM usage is not the only problem that occurred in connection with macOS Monterey. Owners of older Mac models could not boot their devices at all after the installation. So far, it is still unclear which bug is responsible for the crashes. Those affected by the bug will have to resort to recovery software. However, a second Mac is needed for this.