Help! Why is kernel_task using up all my memory?

Does anyone know what I can do to reduce this "kernel_task activity?

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HT1386 I don't want to sync my photos. I can turn off everything else but the photo's and it this is using up all my memory. How do I shut off photo sync when I plug in my iPhone?

I don't want to sync my photos. I can turn off everything else but the photo's and it this is using up all my memory. How do I shut off photo sync when I plug in my iPhone?

Open itunes, connect iphone, go to photos tab select what you like, sync

After closing Firefox to use IE8 or any other program, everything is very choppy and slow. I have to go into Taskbar, Processes, and close firefox.exe manually (which is using up all the memory/CPU). Then, and only then, does everything behave normally. W

After closing Firefox to use IE8 or any other program (like InterVideo to watch a DVD), everything is very choppy and slow. I have to go into Taskbar, Processes, and close firefox.exe manually (which is using up all the memory/CPU and should have closed before). Then, and only then, does everything behave normally. What is going on and what am I doing wrong or missing??
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== about a couple months ago and happens every time I close Firefox.

'''Kill Application'''
In Task Manager, does firefox.exe show in the '''Processes''' tab?
See: '''[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Kill_application Kill Application]'''
'''Causes and solutions for Firefox hanging at exit:'''
'''[[Firefox hangs]]'''
'''[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs#Hang_at_exit Firefox hangs at exit (Mozillazine article)]'''
'''[[Firefox is already running but is not responding]]'''
'''Safe Mode'''
You may need to use '''[[Safe Mode]]''' (click on "Safe Mode" and read) to localize the problem. Firefox SafeMode is a diagnostic mode that disables extensions and some other features of Firefox. If you are using a theme, switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes before starting Safe Mode. When entering Safe Mode, do not check any items on the entry window, just click "Continue in Safe Mode". Test to see if the problem you are experiencing is corrected.
See:
'''[[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]'''
'''[[Troubleshooting plugins]]'''
'''[[Basic Troubleshooting]]'''
If the problem does not occur in Safe-mode then disable all of your extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears. You have to close and restart Firefox after each change via File > Restart Firefox (on Mac: Firefox > Quit). You can use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window.
'''''Other Issues''''': to correct security/stability issues
'''Update Java''': your ver. 1.6.0.19; current ver. 1.6.0.20 (important security update 04-15-2010)
''(Windows users: Do the manual update; very easy.)''
See: '''[http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Using+the+Java+plugin+with+Firefox#Updates Updating Java]'''
Do the update with Firefox closed.

My macbook shows that I used up all my memory but I didn't

My macbook shows that I used up all my memory which is listed under "other". I don't know why

Read Pondini's "where did my disc space go" : http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DiskSpace.html. He is a valued member of this forum.

Why is Safari Using up All My RAM?

I've read, and posted various topics related to this issue, and have not yet seen any answers to this.
Some say "why is this a problem"? Well, this is a problem if all I'm basically running is Safari, Mail, & maybe iTunes, and the Activity Monitor shows:
Safari - using 662.30 MB of "Real RAM", & (really) 24.62GB of Virtual Memory (& it's gone as high as 135 GB) which is ABSURD!
Plus, even though I'm using 1.09GB of "Active memory", & 680.14MB is "Inactive", they are added, to show 1.96 GB of Used memory, leaving me a whole 35.86 MB of memory left!
Thus, I get big slowdowns, some programs won't even work, etc.... I empty the cache constantly, use flash only on the windows I'm choosing to activate flash for, thus it forces me to close Safari, or use Firefox if I need to use any other programs! This is very frustrating, and would love to hear if anyone has either a fix for this, or at least a rational explanation as to why Safari is using up nearly all of my available memory. (it would be nice if my iMac could hold more than 2GBs)...

HI,
If an application freezes or crashes, and you need to Force Quit, use the Activity Monitor.
Safari VM on my iMac runs about 146MB. Are you absolutely certain it says: 135GB and not MB?
Just emptying the Safari cache isn't the only maintenance available.
Troubleshoot third-party plug-ins
If you're using the latest versions of any third-party plug-ins yet Safari still unexpectedly quits, try disabling plug-ins:
Open Safari.
From the Safari menu, choose Preferences.
Click Security.
Deselect "Enable plug-ins".
Use Safari for a while until you are reasonably certain it is no longer unexpectly quitting
Go to:
/Library/InputManagers
~/Library/InputManagers
If there are any files in the Input Managers folders, move them to the Trash.
From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Reset Safari. Select the top 5 buttons and click Reset.
It's always possible there's an underlying issue.. perhpaps a problem with the Mac OS X itself.
Go here for help Maintaining Mac OS X
Mac OS X: How to force background maintenance tasks (logs and temporary items)
Carolyn

What's using up all my memory?

Hi,
I have a late-2011 MBP with 4GB of memory. A minute ago I noticed that 72% of my memory was being used even though I had no applications running. I restarted the computer, and as soon as it booted up it showed 40% was being used, again with no apps running. The top processes (in descending order of usage) were:
kernel_task
SystemUIServer
mds
WindowServer
Dock
My only startup items are iTunes Helper and a server app that lets me use my phone as a trackpad. I doubt the latter is the problem, because quitting it doesn't change the total usage %.
What's going on in the background, and how do I stop it?
Thanks for your help.
Shawn

OS X uses memory very efficiently. You paid for 4 GB and OS X will use all it wants to use. There is no benefit to having memory remain unused.
Decoding the system memory pie chart above: Green means it is unused. Blue means it has been recently used, and remains available to the same process that used it but since released it. If the process requires its recently released memory again, it remains available to load quickly. For purposes of memory that remains available to use for whatever needs it though, green = blue.
As you can see from the above this system has 16 GB memory so it has essentially unlimited resources available for most reasonable purposes, but it appears as though it is using 4 GB. It's really using only about three quarters of that, and remember OS X is using all it wants to use. This is approximately equal to what you described: it's normal.
Examine the values for page outs and page ins. The total number is not important; it is only the recent activity that matters. If page outs are constantly occurring that means your system is constantly writing memory to disk, which will degrade performance. This will be associated with nearly constant disk activity.
SSDs such as in the new iMacs and MBAs effectively hide this performance degradation.

How do I combine an old itune library thats on an external hardrive and a newer library thats on a newer computer into 1 library and keep them on the external hard drive so I won't use up all my memory on my newer laptop

I copied an old iTunes library off my old Toshiba laptop with windows xp and put it on an external hard drive. I have a newer Microsoft surface pro laptop with windows 8.1. I have a small iTunes library on my newer laptop. I want to combine the 2 libraries into 1, add newer podcasts to the combined library daily, but keep it all on my external hard drive, so I don't use all my memory on my surface pro. I have an older ipod classic that I have all my old library on. I love it and don't want to stop using it, but want to be able to add podcasts from my 1 library from time to time. What I usually do is download podcasts for a few weeks then, download them to my ipod. Haven't done any of this in about a year. But want to start getting regular with it again. PS I'm not very computer savy Thanks for any help or advice!

This article explains how to open a different library: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one. The assumption is that the whole library was copied to the external drive from the old Toshiba laptop, not just the media. If that isn't the case make a new library on the external drive in a folder called \iTunes and move the media inside \iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library.
Once iTunes is using the library on the external drive you can add any content stored on the internal drive to the library by drag & drop or by moving/copying the content into \iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes. Make sure the option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to Copy files to the folder iTunes Media when adding to library is selected. Once complete you can delete the original copies on the internal drive.
Should your library contain duplicates after merging see this recent post on deduping.
If there are ratings, playlists, play counts, or content stored on the iPod classic and not located anywhere else then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
Ideally you should backup your library to a second drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested strategy.
tt2

Why does AE CS4 consume all my memory when running a preview?

I have Windows Vista x64 with 4Gb of RAM but everytime i want to make a RAM PREVIEW the program does not release the memory in use. For example: I start with AE CS4 using 2gb of ram, then i make a preview and it reaches to 3gb of ram. If I continue making previews it comes a time when all hangs up becouse i have no more memory left!
I remember from previous versions of After Effects that the "green bar" over the timeline, when you were lack off memory, it started to move at some point and the older rendered frames start to disapear in order to render the new ones, making the lenght of the green bar as long as possible but without taking out ALL your memory.
I've found in Premiere CS4 an option that says: Optimize Rendering for Memory/Performance. This help me out with the same issue in Premiere, but I can't find anything like this en After Effects.
Any suggestions?

Take a look at the memory and cache settings. Try increasing the amount of memory to leave for other applications. Also, MP4, due to it being long-GOP, does require a higher memory footprint to decode than some of the other formats. AE is designed to use as much ram as you tell it when doing a RAM preview. Depending what else you have running on your system, our defaults may be too much.
For instance Internet Explorer is taking 100 MB just to show this page. If you launch task manager, you'll need to add the Working Set column to get an idea of how much RAM something needs.
--chris

Why is Dashboard using up tons of memory and freezing my computer?

I was having this problem on my early 2012 Macbook Pro running Mavericks, and now it is happening on my refurbished late 2013 iMac. I did some research into this and some people were saying that if you run weather apps or similar on Dashboard which constantly update data, it can cause Dashboard to start eating up all your memory. So I ended up disabling Dashboard completely on my Macbook Pro and haven't had any similar issues on that machine. But my iMac has 24 GB of RAM and I'd really like to keep Dashboard running because I like to use it to check the weather or my calendar or use the calculator. Is this a glitch with Mavericks? Has anyone reported this on Yosemite? It's happening more frequently and unless I have Activity Monitor open where I can forcibly quit Dashboard, all my programs start locking up and the whole system becomes unusable and I have to force reset it. You'd think Apple would have fixed this by now. At first I thought it was an issue with my Macbook Pro, but now that I'm seeing the same problems on my blazing fast iMac, I think this is a Mavericks glitch. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Running OSX 10.9.5 on a late 2013 iMac with 24 GB of RAM, 3.5 Ghz i7 processor, and 4GB Geforce GTX 780 card.

So it looks like the removal of the .plist file didn't fix the problem. I am starting to notice a potential correlation though. I've been keeping Activity Monitor open to check the status of Dashboard to try and catch it before it overloads the memory. It seems that the issue arises generally when the CPU is undertaking an intensive task. Recently I caught Dashboard overloading the memory while I was doing some intensive video compression. The iMac's internal fans started whirring so I went into Activity Monitor initially to see how much memory the compression software was using up. That's when I saw Dashboard starting to eat away memory, and it kept increasing more and more. The compression software was only using about a gig of memory (though a fairly high % of the CPU) while Dashboard steadily increased to 4, 5, 6 gigs and so on. Even after the compression software was done and the CPU started to cool down, Dashboard continued to eat memory. I've attached two screenshots (before compression was done and after) and you'll notice the memory usage of Dashboard (the video compressor was using the ffmpeg process listed)
Here are some system notes I grabbed from Dashboard in one of the tabs from Activity Monitor by double clicking on the process. Maybe these will help solve the problem?
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/DashboardClient.app/Con tents/MacOS/DashboardClient
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DashboardClient.framework/Versions/A/Dashboard Client
/usr/share/icu/icudt51l.dat
/System/Library/Keyboard Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle/Contents/Resources/AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.d at
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.kbdx
/private/var/db/mds/messages/se_SecurityMessages
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/sRGB Profile.icc
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic Gray Profile.icc
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/DB LCD Temp-Black.ttf
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-shm
/Library/Widgets/Calendar.wdgt/Calendar.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/Calendar
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/UC-LCD.ttf
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/ConverterPlugin.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/ConverterPlugin
/Library/Widgets/Dictionary.wdgt/Dictionary.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/Dictiona ry
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic RGB Profile.icc
/System/Library/Fonts/HelveticaNeue.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Times.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/LucidaGrande.ttc
/Library/Fonts/Baskerville.ttc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ArtFile. bin
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SArtFile .bin
/Library/Fonts/Futura.ttc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Calculate.framework/Versions/A/Calculate
/System/Library/Fonts/Helvetica.dfont
/private/var/folders/lz/xymjhj3955l_05603k8kp14m0000gp/C/com.apple.LaunchService s-044502.csstore
/dev/null
/dev/null
/dev/null
count=2, state=0x2
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-wal
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-shm
/Users/Philip/Library/Widgets
/Applications
FNetwork.defaultStorageSession
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-wal
/Users/Philip/Applications
->0x4a5646e02860346f
->0x4a5646e02860427f
/Library/Widgets
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc

32gig Memory on Macpro 8 Core - How to use it all the memory and processor speed

Hello Everyone,
I was wondering if any of you out there know a way to have my Mac Pro use more of the memory it has. I have 32gig of memory and I would like to have it use more processor power and memory if possible. I am aware you can use the "renice -10 -p PIDNUMBER"
How can I make it use more of the processors and memory my machine has. Ex. Running Photoshop or Final Cut, Imovie etc.

Using the Unix nice command raises the priority of a process, but software will use the amount of memory it needs. You cannot make a program use memory it does not need. Same with processor cores, if software is written to use only one processor or core you cannot make it use more, the software has to be designed for multi-threading to do that.

"Installer" using up all my memory and slowing macbook down

"Installer" seems to take up all my memory and slow my macbook right down, anyone know a solution?
Also the "18.68MB" is from the memory clean app showing how much ram is free, Installer seems to just eat it up

There is some adware called Genieo that often comes packaged in installers named "Installer." If you have installed that, you need to force the installer to quit, delete the installer and then follow the Genieo removal instructions here:
http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/
I would also note that I see µTorrent in your Activity Monitor. Be aware that downloading illegal material through torrents (or other means) is very dangerous behavior, and there has been a significant upsurge recently in adware infections coming through such files. Even a few malware infections as well. Do not download such things.

Why Does kernel_task use 80 % cpu?

Hi,
Ive been having a problem with my 2ghz macbook running slowly. The first thing i did when i noticed the slowdown was to open Activity Monitor to find out what process was causing the slowdown. kernel_task was running at 84% of the cpu and had 54 threads running. I restarted the computer and PID 0 kernal_task was still running between 70 and 90% cpu.
Things i tried to fix the problem
1 uninstall all programs and games
2 remove everything connected to the computer
3 boot to os disk and repair permissions ( on boot volume and disk itself )
4 reinstall os and download updates
5 reinstall os and don't download updates
6 reinstall os and choose "erase and install" option
7 boot to os disk and use disk utility to erase disk then reinstall os
8 boot to os disk and use diskutil from terminal to repartition and reformat, then reinstall os
9 reset NVRAM/ PRAM
after this i took it to the apple store. they put a new hard drive in it (probably cause i wore out the old one reformatting it) and the problem still exists.
most of the forums say that the problem is either overheating, or a kernel extension misbehaving. both of these explanations could be the problem.
Overheating-
many macbook air users report high kernel_task cpu usage related to high cpu temps, broken fans and broken logic-boards. this is further supported buy how the problem goes away when the ambient temperature is below 60 but comes back at room temp. could this be a hardware ploblem like a bad fan, bad temp sensor or heatsink that got popped off?
CoolBook
coolbook should help solve the temp problem buy lowering the voltage to the cpu, but that sounds uber dangerous to me. plus it adds its own kext's and im trying to fix the kernel not add a bunch of 3rd party junk to it. has anybody had any luck with coolbook?
Bad kext (kernel extension)
when i boot to safe mode kernel_task behaves normaly so could the problem be a bad kext? safeboot only loads the required kernel extensions so could one of the other kexts not loaded in safe boot be the problem?
1 first question: kernel_task is a process scheduler and memory manager so is messing around with kernel extensions going to have any affect?
2 some people found that replacing the trackpad kext with an earlier version got the kernel_task to settle down has this worked for anyone?
3 i booted regularly and in safe mode and used kextfind -loaded to find out what kexts were running normally that didnt run in safe boot. I then booted to safe mode again and used kextload to load back each kext one buy one. they all loaded and kernel_task stayed the same. there was one exception GeForce.kext caused a panic and wouldnt load. is geforce.kext the problem or am i on the wrong track?
4 the way i understand it kextd is a daemon (whatever that means) that loads kernel extensions. the man pages say that the "-x" switch will make it only load the safe boot kernel extensions but kextd doesnt work from the command line because its started buy launchd (right?) is there a way to get kextd to start with the "-x" switch every time the computer boots normally?
Im a total computer noob and i welcome and any correction and advice at any level. please help me! i want to solve this whole kernel_task for everyone once and for all!
Message was edited by: Duezle
Message was edited by: Duezle

Have you counted the number of processes in AM? They are all running from time to time whether you use the computer or it sits for an hour. Not including applications you have loaded there may be upwards of 80-90 system processes running. Applications you aren't using are still partially in memory and partially being paged out to disk.
All this activity will in part use the kernel. My kernel_task process is running 1.5 GBs just now.

Laptop always looking for e-printer? Using up all my memory!

In the task manager window on my computer, I see that there is a process that does not end that keeps trying to find the e-printer when I'm away/undocked near the printer. Is there a fix out there for this? A way to turn it off? I'm running out of memory . Thanks

Hi kat61,
Thank you for the detail. Please try disabling the Scan Activation to resolve the issue. Use the steps below to disable the Scan Activation.
1. Open the HP software by clicking on the desktop icon or by opening it from the programs folder <All Programs>HP>Product>
2. Navigate to the Heading Scanner Actions in the software and click on the link titled Manage Scan to Computer
3. Disable the activation and uncheck the box to automatically restart the activation when you log back in.
Keep the scan deactivated unless you need to scan, at which time simply enable the activation by reversing the steps above.
Set ink alerts to show only when you print if it is not already. To do this, open the HP software and click on estimated ink levels.
The printer toolbox appears - Select the advanced settings tab
On the advanced settings tab, make sure the default is set to 'Only show me ink alerts when I print'. Let me know if that has any impact
You will need to uncheck the box that states re-enable after computer restarts / reboots automatically
-Source
Another possibility is the ink alerts. Lets set ink alerts to show only when you print if it is not already. To do this, open the HP software and click on estimated ink levels.
The printer toolbox appears - Select the advanced settings tab
On the advanced settings tab, make sure the default is set to 'Only show me ink alerts when I print'.
Please let me know the outcome of these efforts, thanks.
Please click the Thumbs up icon below to thank me for responding.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Sunshyn2005 - I work on behalf of HP

Why does Firefox use up so much memory? My Windows Task Manager shows it using 109 Meg just now asking this question. Thanks

Pretty simple: I want to know how I can keep Firefox from using so much memory when in use. 100-200 meg is common. Thank you

Hi musicfan, Sorry you are having problems with Firefox. Maybe you should have asked earlier and we could have fixed it.
Reading your comments I do not see that rolling back to an insecure Firefox 22 will actually help you much. You are probably best using IE, unless you have also damaged that.
*[[Export bookmarks to Internet Explorer]]
You should not use old versions they are insecure. Security fixes are publicised and exploitable.
* [[Install an older version of Firefox]]
* https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html
Most others will not be having such problems. We are now able to say that with confidence because after developers missed a regression in Firefox 4 telemetry was introduced so that data was obtained. It may be an idea to turn on your telemetry, if you have not already done so, and decide to stick with Firefox.
*[[Send performance data to Mozilla to help improve Firefox]]
Trying safe mode takes seconds. Unfortunatly if you are not willing to do even rudimentary troubleshooting there is not anything we can do to help you.
*[[Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode]]

Mobile Synch is using up all my memory - can I safely delete some of the files?

I keep getting "start-up folder is full" errors when trying to run applications (such as Minecraft). My hard disk reports only about 500MB free space left. When I review my files, I see many gigabyets in the application data folder under "Mobile Synch."
Can I delete some or all of these files with affecting other operations?

Profiles with a .slt file extension are profiles from a Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey profile and you can remove such a profile if you aren't using those applications anymore.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder

Help! Why is kernel_task using up all my memory?

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