Inactive ram

i just got a new intel imac 27" with 4gb of ram. My problem is that i have anywhere from 1gb to 1.6gb of ram that is inactive. What can i do to correct this and make it free? I cant find the processes in activity monitor either to quit them.

Inactive RAM usage is not a problem; it is a normal & beneficial consequence of the advanced memory management system of OS X.
Inactive memory contains items that may be used again soon & are thus temporarily retained in memory to avoid the extra time it takes to fetch them from the hard drive all over again. If these items were released from inactive memory prematurely, the performance of your iMac would suffer. To avoid this, the memory management system constantly monitors what is in inactive memory & tries to release parts of it to the free memory pool only a when it becomes obvious its contents will not be reused again soon, for instance when you quit a process. However, since inactive memory contains items shared by several processes, quitting one process does not generally release all its inactive memory.
Another way to look at this is free memory is memory unused by any process, active or inactive, & thus there is no benefit to having large amounts of it doing nothing.

Similar Messages

Too Much Inactive RAM, Too Little Free RAM

I used to have a 2007 iMac running Snow Leopard, and I switched to a 2011 iMac running Mountain Lion. On both of my computers, I kept running out of free RAM after a while, and my inactive RAM kept taking up all my free RAM. It still does it. I end up with around 30MB of free RAM, a reasonable amount of active RAM, and a massive amount of inactive RAM after a few days, then my computer slows down a lot.
I have to keep flushing the inactive RAM with a memory cleaning tool or else my computer slows to a crawl. Repairing the permissions is supposed to clean out the inactive RAM (thanks, Tuttle), but alarmingly, this doesn't work for me. There must be something causing this problem, and I want to find it. How do I do this? Can processes currently running be using inactive RAM, or is that only possible if they have just been closed? Is there a tool that can check how much inactive RAM is allocated to each process?
P.S. To make it clear: I know that I'm not supposed to worry about inactive RAM and let the system do its own optimization, but it must not be doing it right because it's causing extremely noticeable slowdowns. The computer is like a Geo Metro pulling a whale if I don't flush the inactive RAM periodically.

Since you are so concerned, take your iMac to your local AS or an AASP for a FREE diagnostic test. At least you will have piece of mind when you get a confirmation of what is really going on.

Inactive RAM not reclaimed?

Hi,
I recently got my 27'' iMac. Today I had a lot of apps opened and noticed something really weird: My iMac became really sluggish even though the apps weren't that CPU intensive and CPU wasn't used that much. I then noticed my system memory readings seemed kind of odd:
Free: 40MB
Wired: 480MB
Active: 2.3GB
Inactive: 1.14GB
Swap Used: 1.73GB
I think the computer became sluggish because the RAM was full. But what I really wonder about: Why does mac os start swapping RAM to the hard drive when there is 1.1GB of inactive RAM? Shouldn't the OS reclaim that RAM first which would be much faster than swapping all the time? It was kind of annoying since I was watching an HD movie and it lagged even though CPU usage was low and there was 1.1GB of inactive, fast RAM the system could have claimed.
Ideas on this?
thanks

Yes.
That "works"...but it isn't really annoying, and even somehow, is that not "the way" to solve it?
- I think -
Since I have 4Gb. RAM, a new updated MBP (using basic aps - mail, ical, safari, address-book, itunes,finder,ms.office, adium and skype, - and I do not use PS, FC or VM's) - it doesn't make much sense (to me) to realize (and I do) that I need to upgrade to 8Gb. in order to have a proper and smooth performance (that it should already be), just because the system 'eats' literally the ram installed.
And of course, since the RAM upgrade is not what it could be called "cheap", and not a solution - I can't afford it right now at that prices - I can't keep searching and trying to find a workaround to solve this...
I simply can not understand how I do have page ins/outs and swap use, considering that the inactive memory (usually more than 1Gb. ) is still there, and it's noticeable when the system - sluggish - has to access the hard disk.
And how after a day, 2 or more...the system starts to become fatter.
Because it does.
And how, anyone seems to bother, ask, and complain about it.
Well, some people did, but mostly the answers to them are mainly that the system is ok, nothing's wrong, and just upgrade or permissions repair.¿?
Well I'm may be, a "demanding" user, but my expectations are according to my light-user-tasks and the machine used and its expected performance...or may be I have to start restarting my system every day to avoid it. (or do the permissions repair)
And that there is not response, neither solution still 10.6.4.
It's like no one seems to see it.
Just a few. And most users tend to think that there's nothing wrong about it.
But I do not get it.
Meanwhile, the only thing I can do is, pray for that one of these to things happens: either next 10.6.x update fix it, or RAM prices decreases... but I can't see other options right now.
(Thanks, and excuse my english)
Message was edited by: pereze

Free ram to Inactive Ram

I'm not really sure how to ask this, but here goes. I know that inactive ram is better than free ram, inactive ram actually helps speed up my computer. And I know that free ram isn't really being used by the computer. I see that I usually have anywhere from 80 to 120 mb of free ram. I guess the question, how can I get that free ram to become inactive ram so that my laptop is at full potential? Thanks guys.

Free RAM hasn't been used by any process recently, while inactive RAM has been used by a process and is being preserved in case the application which previously used it needs it again. You can use up the free RAM by opening additional applications, but if you don't intend to do anything else in those applications, you will not get any speed benefits by doing this.
(14052)

Inactive RAM - Not Returning to Free

I have come to notice that after launching somewhat memory hungry programs, such as HandBrake (a DVD ripping application), the RAM is slowly activated until there is at least 1 GB Inactive RAM, even though actual active and wired RAM is 1/2 GB at most.
Though this is to be expected, it seems that RAM continues to move to Inactive until there is only 50 MB of Free RAM left, even though no more RAM is being used for the actually application.
You would think this wouldn't cause a difference in performance, but all streaming video moves with short blips every half second, and in general the computer begins to lag.
Yet after I terminate the application, none of the RAM is restored to the Free state, and the lag continues, suggesting that the computer is digging to the actual Hard Drive for memory.
Does anyone know what is going on, or any pointers on how to avoid this?

Hi,
There are some changes to memory garbage collection introduced with Leopard. Of course, there is supposed to be improvement. Here's an article I found:
http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/objectivec2.html
It could be an older application might not be optimized for best garbage collection strategy, and the default under Leopard might not be as efficient. A tweak and recompile might be needed to specify the best suited garbage collection alogorithm. This is the kind of thing that probably wouldn't show unless an application allocates and deallocates a lot of memory. It sounds like Leopard holds off rebuilding its free list as long as possible, so there's more work for it to do and hence a video stutter.
I think for something like VLC, the generational garbage collection strategy may get in the way because moderate chunks of memory are getting allocated at a constant rate as rendering takes place. The garbage collector thread of a Cocoa application runs at low priority and the way allocations are taking place make more work when the collection thread has to examine the object graph for long-lived objects to free. I'm not a heavy duty kernel and Cocoa person; please forgive me if I am in error.
The upshot is that Leopard may be the cause, but not because Leopard is doing something wrong per se.
Bill

Too much inactive RAM + EtreCheck results

Hi, I noticed that my macbook pro is getting slower and slower, even though I close applications that are not being used.
Right now my RAM is the following, with only two applications open, chrome and email.
Out of 8Gb RAM laptop:
Wired: 1.17Gb
Active 1.8Gb
Inactive 4.62Gb
Free 409Mb
Etrecheck report:
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated 19 March 2015 12:58:07 PM AEDT
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
    1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2-core
    8 GB RAM
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
    Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 775
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB
        Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
    Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Time since boot: 1:44:36
Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE HDD HTS547575A9E384 disk0 : (750.16 GB)
        disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 749.30 GB (101.31 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
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Configuration files: ℹ️
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Time Machine: ℹ️
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Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         7%    Google Chrome
         4%    WindowServer
         1%    hidd
         0%    SystemUIServer
         0%    AppleSpell
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    215 MB    Google Chrome Helper
    172 MB    Google Chrome
    120 MB    Mail
    94 MB    SystemUIServer
    94 MB    Finder
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    63 MB    Free RAM
    2.17 GB    Active RAM
    5.04 GB    Inactive RAM
    1.31 GB    Wired RAM
    1.17 GB    Page-ins
    14 MB    Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
    Mar 19, 2015, 11:12:02 AM    Self test - passed
    Mar 17, 2015, 01:32:57 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Kernel_2015-03-17-133257_[redacted].panic [Click for details]

None of the usual problems are present.
Activity Monitor – Monitor Performance Problems
Performance Guide
Why is my computer slow
Why your Mac runs slower than it should
Things you can do to resolve slowdowns see post by Kappy

Inactive RAM won't be released

I upgraded my Mbp to 8gb RAM and have recently installed Lion.
While working in Photoshop I get a Swap about 2-5gb while i still have like 2gb inactive RAM.
The whole system slows down extremely and Photoshop usually crashes.
By using the "purge" command I could free some memory temporarily and everything is fine.
Is there some more elegant solution?
Thanks in advance!

Should have checked with Adobe forums if Photoshop works right with Lion.
It takes time for Adobe to make their releases, just because Apple springs a new OS onto the world every two years doesn't mean the rest of the world can keep up on their rabid release schedule.

Inactive RAM (yes I know what it does)

My question is how Inactive RAM is reported once it has been used by the system. Here is what is happening to me. I sometimes there will be a spike in my RAM used and when I look at the activity I will see that there is about 200-250mb of Inactive RAM but my computer will slow to a crawl like it is out of RAM. I understand Inactive RAM is not currently being used and is supposed to be released when needed by other programs but when it is released should it shift to Active RAM? So should I see my Inactive RAM go down and my Active RAM go up? Or does the Inactive RAM just stay the same even though it is being used by the system.

The following may not directly answer your question, but it should help you better understand how memory management works in OS X.
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.

I have 1Gb ram and the inactive ram keeps on increasing.

Hi , I ugraded my ram to 1Gb, however inactive ram increases even after closing applications. Seems that a restart will free more memory. Does the Mac OS automatically free inactive memory to free memory when applications are closed. Some time the inactive memory increases until free memory is reduced and Mac OS slows down. Is this normal?

Have a look at this page, it might answer a few questions.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Inactive RAM not being used/freed

As I type this, my other computer has 590mb of inactive RAM, with 2mb of page outs and 11mb of page ins. Shouldn't the almost 600mb of inactive ram I have start being used instead of page swapping so much?

About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

How do I prevent inactive ram

I've discovery through Activity Monitor that all my ram is inactive whenever I awake from sleep. Running apps are safari, itunes, CS6 and Bridge. There's 32GB ram so that a lot for these apps. How can I prevent this?
Below are screen shots before and after purge command.

Inactive RAM is not a disease. It is made up mostly of Disk data read by the system, which is being preserved momentarily in case you need it. (why waste it, if it has already been read.)
It is instantly turned into Free RAM when the System needs more.
Much more important for performance is PageOuts and Swap used. Both of these numbers on your graphs are extremely modest.
You are fine. Live long and prosper.
Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Why 1 GB inactive RAM while Photoshop CS3 is at 12% Efficiency?

Kind Mac Users:
why does my G5 have more than 1 out of 4 GB of RAM marked as Inactive or Free when I have set Photoshop CS3 to use 3 GB (it uses up to 2.5 GB)? In rotating a 600 MB file it works at 12% efficiency--while there is room for a bit more.
I have larger tiles enabled. I have enabled Photoshops maximum amount of RAM usage. I have set processor performance to highest. Any other tricks?
RAM: 2 @ 1 GB PC3200U-30330
4 @ 512 MB
ATI Radeon 9600 Open GL Engine
I have Bridge and usually iTunes 7.6 running, and sometimes Entourage and RadioLover.
While I know I may seem greedy--it looks like it's a shame that that 1.1 to 1.3 GB of RAM is not in use.
Thank you.

Kind Mac Users:
why does my G5 have more than 1 out of 4 GB of RAM marked as Inactive or Free when I have set Photoshop CS3 to use 3 GB (it uses up to 2.5 GB)? In rotating a 600 MB file it works at 12% efficiency--while there is room for a bit more.
I have larger tiles enabled. I have enabled Photoshops maximum amount of RAM usage. I have set processor performance to highest. Any other tricks?
RAM: 2 @ 1 GB PC3200U-30330
4 @ 512 MB
ATI Radeon 9600 Open GL Engine
I have Bridge and usually iTunes 7.6 running, and sometimes Entourage and RadioLover.
While I know I may seem greedy--it looks like it's a shame that that 1.1 to 1.3 GB of RAM is not in use.
Thank you.

My macbook pro model mid 2009 is running slow. free memory is 35 mbs and inactive memory is 1.36 gb with a total of 5 gb RAM memory

Problem description:
too much inactive memory 1.87 gb and free memory only 35 mb
EtreCheck version: 2.1.1 (104)
Report generated 10 December 2014 3:30:26 pm IST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5
1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
5 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
1 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 4:42:54
Disk Information: ℹ️
WDC WD5000LPVT-80G33T2 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
[redacted] (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (142.01 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Anywhere
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.driver.KUSBModemCDC07 (4.0.2) [Support]
[not loaded] com.driver.KUSBModemDataA07 (4.0.2) [Support]
Startup Items: ℹ️
JHHPortDetect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/JHHPortDetect
Sudochmod: Path: /Library/StartupItems/Sudochmod
Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite
Launch Agents: ℹ️
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[running] com.bjango.istatmenusagent.plist [Support]
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Launch Daemons: ℹ️
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Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
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Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
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FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
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zako: Version: zako 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]
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Volumes being backed up:
Arupreet: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 357.24 GB
Destinations:
CHIKKI [Local]
Total size: 331.41 GB
Total number of backups: 2
Oldest backup: 2014-06-10 13:36:00 +0000
Last backup: 2014-09-08 13:57:40 +0000
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 331.41 GB < (Disk used 357.24 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      8% python
      3% WindowServer
      3% uTorrent
      2% SystemUIServer
      0% mtmfs
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
1.29 GB JavaAppLauncher
123 MB SystemUIServer
102 MB iStatMenusDaemon
86 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
81 MB WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
50 MB Free RAM
1.97 GB Active RAM
1.90 GB Inactive RAM
673 MB Wired RAM
6.70 GB Page-ins
8 MB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 10, 2014, 10:48:11 AM Self test - passed
Dec 9, 2014, 02:54:15 AM VLC_2014-12-09-025415_Arus-MacBook-Pro.crash

Not sure if using Terminal would help:
Launch Activity Monitor
Select Memory tab
Launch Terminal
type sudo purge
password
10-15 sec later Terminal should refresh and show freed memory & cache

16 Gig of total RAM - Only 1 GIg Free but 11 Gigs Inactive

What does this mean??? Is the 11 Gigs locked by applications. Do I need to free this memory?

It means you need to take a quick course in OS X memory management:
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.

RAM keeps going inactive (iMac)

Hello!
A few hours ago i upgraded my iMacs RAM to 12GBs from the standard 4, and now the majority of it keeps going inactive for no apparent reason (well any i can find).
I just want to know why this happens and is there anything i can do to stop this? Also can i run programs when the RAM is reading a lot of inactive memory?
This is what my RAM is reading currently;
http://gyazo.com/a4e4557ddbeeba71a969a55195eeabcc
Can i get any support for this problem please, really confused how OS Lion works for managing memory
Thanks
Josh.

Niel wrote:
This happens because some process uses and then releases the RAM; the difference between inactive and free RAM is that inactive RAM's contents are preserved to boost performance if the process that released it wants it back. If there isn't enough free RAM to do something, inactive RAM will be allocated to it.
(75240)
So i should be able to use intense applications like normal even if a large portion of RAM is reading inactive? Or am i getting that wrong?

Inactive ram

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