Edit - Ask Different

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

3

I'm with you, Ernie... in Mac OS 10.6 and 10.7 on a MacBook Pro and Mac Pro, inactive memory will creep up, and the OS will start swapping (according to "Page Ins" and "Page Outs") and the system will crawl to a stop. The inactive memory seems to never get reclaimed. I have to use "purge" to reclaim the inactive memory, and get my system active again.

Eric
– Eric

2013-07-31 22:08:25 +00:00
Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 22:08
2

Where does this popup window come from? What is the memory situation as reported by vm_stat when it does happen? What makes you so sure that there can be "too much" inactive memory "to run anything"? As far as I'm concerned, this is all hearsay that has no backing in the code that you know, actually runs in the kernel.

Kuba hasn't forgotten Monica
– Kuba hasn't forgotten Monica

2013-10-23 17:52:43 +00:00
Commented Oct 23, 2013 at 17:52
2

Does your memory allocation look anything like what Gus has presented? Here we're talking about a gigabyte wired and a gigabyte and a half active. The inactive / free ration looks fine to me in this situation. Perhaps you would ask a second question detailing the situation you have where things are breaking down?

bmike
– bmike ♦

2013-10-24 18:27:01 +00:00
Commented Oct 24, 2013 at 18:27
@Eric did you ever figure out how to purge to get your inactive memory back?

c_idle
– c_idle

2020-05-20 04:33:12 +00:00
Commented May 20, 2020 at 4:33
@Ernie short answer: No. Longer answer: It's been almost 7 years from the original question, and even I (who wait years to upgrade to a new MacOS version) am up to 10.13 and 10.14, neither of which report Inactive memory anymore. I can't recall if I ever resolved the issue back on 10.6 or 10.7. I haven't noticed any similar behavior in 10.13 or 10.14.

Eric
– Eric

2020-05-20 18:56:28 +00:00
Commented May 20, 2020 at 18:56

Add a comment |

Correct minor typos or mistakes
Clarify meaning without changing it
Add related resources or links
Always respect the author’s intent
Don’t use edits to reply to the author

create code fences with backticks ` or tildes ~
```
like so
```
add language identifier to highlight code
```python
def function(foo):
print(foo)
```
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
_italic_ or **bold**
indent code by 4 spaces
backtick escapes `like _so_`
quote by placing > at start of line
to make links (use https whenever possible)

<https://example.com>

[example](https://example.com)

<a href="https://example.com">example</a>

formatting help »
answering help »