RAM - wired, active, inactive, free ?

What are the differences between wired, active, inactive, free RAM ? (for example inactive vs free ?)

Wired: I think is OS X requirements
Active: is actively using programs/files etc.
Inactive: is previous items in RAM not being used anymore, but if a user or program calls it again it's faster to use the RAM version than load it from disk
Free: Is exactly that, nothing in it.
Inactive and Free are both available for new needs, Wired and Active are not unless they are made Inactive or Free (by a reboot)

Similar Messages

Difference between Wired, Active, Inactive, & Free

In the Activity Monitor what is the difference between Wired, Active, Inactive, & Free RAM listing?

This should explain it:
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
For more detailed info on memory management in OS X:
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Memory Usage Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
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Wired,Active,Inactive,Swap...

Hi
In memory section in iStat Pro it shows wired,active,inactive,swap,used,unused and in load/uptime there is load average (three values) what does it mean?
Macbook 2.0Ghz 2Gb 60Gb white 4H619xxxxx Mac OS X (10.4.6)

The memory usage refers to the status of the system memory. From THIS Apple doc -
"Wired memory
This information can't be cached to disk, so it must stay in RAM. The amount depends on what applications you are using.
Active memory
This information is currently in RAM and actively being used.
Inactive memory
This information is no longer being used and has been cached to disk, but it will remain in RAM until another application needs the space. Leaving this information in RAM is to your advantage if you (or a client of your computer) come back to it later.
Free memory
This memory is not being used."
Pretty simple.
I do not use it either, but I assume that the three values under "load average" is a high, low, and average of the CPU percentage of use.
It looks like a neat widget, but I can get a lot of that on my menu bar without having to use Dashboard by using Menu Meters.

RAM and Activity Monitor questions M.B.P. Is sOoOoo slow and I just don't know where to start..RAM and Activity Monitor

   So I am really unsure where to start but I def need a little help getting to where I want to be or feel I should be. I understand that I am pretty much filled when it comes to the RAM on this machine but I need to figure out how to lower it. I back up my machine about once a week which is longer than I would prefer but due to the way Mavericks has been acting I cant deal with the long backup process.... WHY?!?? may be your response to that and I will fill you in. My external Hard Drive is a 1tb Lacie and its about 2 years old. In that time I have dropped, lost, threw and slept ontop of it. Causeing minor damage (each time) to the casing. So now becomes rather hot and I kinda dont want it to burn out. When I first updated to Mavericks the backups were fast and went along mb by mb...now though, the updates drag out for 3-5 hours and update kb by kb. Tried some of the "solutions" posted on here but none seem to work any more than me consistantly purging my system while the backup happens...kinda why I dont have time to do it everyday like I'd like.
     ANYWAY can someone please fill me in on a way, program, application, anything that will help me lower my RAM? Because in the spirit of honesty I just dont have the extra funds to snag some new RAM or another HD. I am almost at the point of saying "F**K IT" and wiping everything off the computer so its as close to empty as can be and manually, one by one redownloading what I want/need. But I dont have the time to accomplish that either. PLEASE lend me your ear and help a brudda out with some information from that exceptional brain of yours.
     Below is a copy of my machines "report" from EtreCHECK and I am including screen shots of what the (Mavericks) Activity Monitor currently looks like in ALL PROCESSES. PLUS it kinda seems that I have WAY TOOO MANY processes going on in the ACTIVITY MONITOR and have NO clue how to lower the amount.    Will truly appreciate any help anyone can toss my way.
    THANK YOU
              TommyTheTuna
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro6,2
          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics - VRAM: 288 MB
          NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M - VRAM: 256 MB
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0
          AirPlay: Version: 1.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3
System Software:
          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 0:12:4
Disk Information:
          TOSHIBA MK3255GSXF disk0 : (320.07 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 319.21 GB (194.65 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898
USB Information:
          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
          [not loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
          [not loaded] com.livescribe.PenCommService.plist
          [not loaded] com.luthresearch.scservice.plist
          [not loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
          [not loaded] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist
          [not loaded] PACESupport.plist
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.luthresearch.savvyconnectmenu.plist
          [not loaded] com.wacom.pentablet.plist
User Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist
          [not loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.Livestation.plist
          [not loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist
User Login Items:
          iTunesHelper
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Flash Player
Internet Plug-ins:
          AdobePDFViewer.plugin
          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin
          Default Browser.plugin
          Flash Player.plugin
          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
          Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin
          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin
          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin
          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin
          QuickTime Plugin.plugin
          SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin
          WacomNetscape.plugin
User Internet Plug-ins:
          Unity Web Player.plugin
Bad Fonts:
          None
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: NO
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 319.21 GB Disk used: 124.57 GB
          Destinations:
                    Tuna's MacBook Pro Hard Drive [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 2
                    Oldest backup: 2013-11-07 13:34:08 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-26 05:08:40 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Excellent
                              Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size 319.21 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
               2%          WindowServer
               1%          EtreCheck
               0%          SystemUIServer
               0%          fontd
               0%          Finder
               0%          Microsoft Word
               0%          aosnotifyd
Top Processes by Memory:
          156 MB             com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
          111 MB             Finder
          106 MB             Microsoft Word
          94 MB              Safari
          82 MB              Preview
          74 MB              WindowServer
          61 MB              CalendarAgent
          57 MB              com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          57 MB              com.apple.internetaccounts
          53 MB              SystemUIServer
Virtual Memory Statistics:
          1.07 GB            Free RAM
          1.92 GB            Active RAM
          237 MB             Inactive RAM
          662 MB             Wired RAM
          223 MB             Page-ins
          0 B                Page-outs

Mavericks is designed to use as much RAM as possible. Free RAM is wasted RAM... it's RAM that's not working for you, not doing anything helpful. Seeing your RAM full is not an indication that there is a problem. Seeing your memory pressure graph spike would be.
As for the performance issues, see my Mac Performance Guide.
Note that you've got a lot of third-party software loaded:
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
          [not loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
          [not loaded] com.livescribe.PenCommService.plist
          [not loaded] com.luthresearch.scservice.plist
          [not loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
          [not loaded] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist
          [not loaded] PACESupport.plist
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.luthresearch.savvyconnectmenu.plist
          [not loaded] com.wacom.pentablet.plist
User Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist
          [not loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.Livestation.plist
          [not loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist
You should probably try to weed some of that out, if possible, or at least make sure it's all updated and compatible with Mavericks.

RAM remaining active when not in use and grinding system to hault

Hello there!
The to point, my RAM appears to be acting very strangely and would be very grateful for any explanation/workaround/solution.
I regularly use the RAM intensive application After Effects CS5. I have 16GB (8x2 GB matching pairs) of RAM which has worked fine for the past year or so until now. I usually tell After Effects not to render one frame at a time (no absurd multiprocessing requests) and to leave 6GB of ram free for other applications in its memory preferences. This used to stop AE from gobbling up too much RAM and slowing down the entire system. However, all of a sudden AE has started to disregard its memory settings and proceeds to use all of the available RAM until none is left. I then see my renders grind to a hault and the entire system move the speed of a snail as little to no free RAM remains.
What is worse is that after I stop the render and quit After Effects, 8GB or so of ram remains active acccording to Activity Monitor, even though nothing is using it. I need to restart in order to get back to normal.
I have tried all of the standard AE fixes, erasing preferences, cleaning caches, changing render settings, etc. I have also done all of the standard OS clean outs with Onxy, Disk Utility, etc. Nothing works.
Below is a screen shot of my idle system with nothing open. The numbers do not add up!
Below is a screenshot of what happens about 5 minutes into any render in AE, completely full RAM with with the Swap increasing with every pass.
I realize that this is quite a specific question I should point at Adobe but I'm thinking it might be more of an OS issue as it has happened so suddenly for no apparent reason. No new type of render, no settings or updates applied lately, just completely out of the blue. Help much appreciated!
I am running an Early 2008 8 Core Mac Pro, 8 GB of good ram in matching 2GB pairs. 4 fast internal drives. Mac OS 10.6.7

The numbers don't add up as 6GB is shown as active in the pie chart while the amount of ram used by the processes list barely reaches 1GB. So what is using the remaining 5GB of active memory?
I would not mind this so much if it was being used by some unseen system resource, and was made free if needed by other apps, but that is the problem. When I load more apps from this state the ram does not clear out and I see the computer struggling and writing page outs/ins even when the amount of ram being used in the list of prcesses is well below 16GB. The mystery process seems to remain active and does not release the ram.
Hatter - I have gone through MANY threads about Adobe not releasing memory. I have been using AE for years and never and very aquainted with the best settings to use for rendering in accordance with available ram, processors, and fast drives. Many of them complain about inactive memory not being released and Apple's memory management. This is more of an oddity as until now everything has been fine. I am doing a render of the sort I have done hundreds of times in the past with this system.
My problem is that this started happening all of a sudden for no apparent reason. AE allows one to control how much ram it uses and how much is left for other applications. I keep this at the Adobe forum suggested 6GB, and until a few days ago it would leave 6GB free. The render would progress smoothly, no need for page outs, no maxing of the ram. A simple render.
Now the same simple renders max out all of the RAM despite my telling AE not to use it all. Changing the memory use settings seems to make no difference no difference at all and I gradually see the ram fill out to maximum and then the page in/outs go through the roof, the render taking 4-5 times as long as previous.
So a bit stuck here! Do yall think I'll need to re-install my system to fix this or perhaps it might be more of a hardware problem? I am hesitant to wipe and re-install from a backup image so if any other possibly solutions come to mind please let me know...Possibly a hardware problem? =/
Thanks for yout time!

System Profile= 5.5GB RAM but Activity Viewer= 1.5GB RAM ???

I've been running 1.5GB of ram on my G5 Dual 2GHz for a couple years. I'm running 10.3.9.
I just purchased and installed 4GB of RAM from Crucial.
Why is the System Profile showing 5.5GB and the Activity Viewer still showing 1.5GB?

Does that explain why the Activity Monitor periodically (just noticed it) changes back and forth the amount of total RAM being 1.5GB and 5.5GB! Is the AM only showing the newly added RAM when the free RAM and the Inactive RAM gets too low? That would seem odd.
The AM has always shown the total RAM as 1.5GB (since I bought the computer). that is why I assumed that the AM shows the total physical RAM by the number under the pie chart. Now I see that number usually bieng 1.5GB and then briefly showing 5.5GB.

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?

I have Mac OS X 10.5.8 on mid-2009 Macbook Pro (683MB RAM used, 81.67GB free space), do I need additional RAM to update to Snow Leopard?

I have Mac OS X 10.5.8 on mid-2009 Macbook Pro (683MB RAM used, 81.67GB free space), do I need additional RAM to update to Snow Leopard?
I was told I can update to Snow Leopard without adding RAM but just read on another discussion thread that someone with the same age Macbook Pro that I have was told to purchase more RAM then update to SL.
Serial # W8*******6D
Model Identifier: MacBookPro 5,5

Thanks!
I ordered 4 GB from crucial.com, product info below. Do you know if it will be 1 or 2 sticks? If only 1, will I be able to use the original 2 GB installed in the machine and the 4 GB from crucial.com?
Part Number: CT4G3S1067M
Module Size: 4GB
Package: 204-pin SODIMM
Feature: DDR3 PC3-8500
Specs: DDR3 PC3-8500 • CL=7 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1066 • 1.35V • 512Meg x 64 • lead free • halogen free • for Mac

Cash discount - F-28 - how to control Active / Inactive setting

Hi All,
When I try to post incoming posting through F-28 for a customer and choose the open items, the cash discount value is INACTIVE.
But when another user tries to post incoming payment for the same customer, Cash discount value is ACTIVE.
We are building a custom program for clearing the open items, so this is causing some discrepancies in the amount to be posted.
We checked the editing options(OPEN ITEMS tab) and it looks same for both of us.
Can anyone please let me know if there is any setting through which we can control the cash discount (ACTIVE / INACTIVE)
Thanks in advance.
Krishna

Please try executing f-28 once again and check case discount column, if it is not there, execute transaction /nSU53 and check the authorization which is missing in your case.
Hope this helps!!!
Regards,
Murlidhar Khatri

Change status(Active/Inactive) of file adapter by the external command

Hi, all.
Is it possible to change status(Active/Inactive) of file adapter by the external command?
Let's say, like
"$ switch_file_adapter_status.sh <File Adapter name> <active|inactive>"
or something like that.
Actually, we have the following requirement for the file adapter.
For example, we have many "file adapter to R/3" scenarios and we only want to allow data transfer between 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.(R/3 service time).
In order to achieve this requirement, one option would be to switch file adapter status between active and inactive by external command line.
And this command will be controlled by the job scheduler(like Tivoli).
Does XI(3.0 or above) have this kind of feature?
Best Regards.

Hi,
I don't think that this is possible.
But one Solution for your problem could be a job on xi who execute the Queue.
So that Adapter work the hole time and send the Message to XI Queue which process them not automatically.
And the XI Queue you can trigger with a Job like normal R/3 Jobs.
Hope that helps,
Regards,
Robin

Table name to display status for maintenance plan with active /inactive status

i need status table which display only active/inactive status of the maintenance plan.

really it helps me ..........
thanks raymond
regards,
priya

Data source active/inactive button grayed out in LBWE

Hello,
When I was activating the Logistics datasource in LBWE, my data source status became red and the Active/Inactive button grayed out? how can I make this data source active again?
Thanks,
KK

Hi Kumar,
The status will become Red and Active/Inactive is disable due to Extract structure activated but data source is not maintained. This happens once you change the extract structure to Include additional fields. Please do the below step:
in LBWE, Click on Data source (Technical name of your data source beside maintainance) and you will get maintainance screen, change if you want some thing or else leave as it is and save, Now the status for data source in LBWE will become yellow and activate/deactivate will enable.
Regards,
Kams

[SOLVED]What is the meaning of any/active/inactive session in polkit?

Wiki said ｢inactive sessions are generally remote sessions (SSH, VNC, etc.) 」.
So I changed the *.policy file like below to execute the action without password only when I am logging in remotely.
(Just for clarifying the difference between any/active/inactive session.)
<allow_any>no</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>yes</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>no</allow_active>
Contrary to expectations, I couldn't execute the action remotely without password.
So I changed again like below.
<allow_any>yes</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>no</allow_active>
This time, I was able to execute the action remotely without password.
From the above, I think the remote session is neither active nor inactive.
Is it true? If so, what is the inactive session?
What is the definition of active/inactive?
Last edited by remingtontonpon (2014-08-04 06:16:52)

'man polkit' explains that 'allow_inactive' and 'allow_active' are for sessions on local consoles.
Only 'allow_any' applies to any client local or remote.
This seems confirmed by what you observe on your machine.

Active/Inactive sessions

Within AMserver console --> Sessions, I can view a list of active/inactive sessions. Is there a configuration that will remove all sessions that are inactive? The list does not clear invalid sessions automatically.

I have the same problem! Is there any solution ?

I am unable to install Lion. I have a Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of Ram and 120GB of free space - and no Bootcamp or other partitions - and yet repeatedly get the 'no recovery' error. Can anyone help?

I am unable to install Lion. I have a Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of Ram and 120GB of free space - and no Bootcamp or other partitions - and yet repeatedly get the 'no recovery' error. Can anyone help?

Run Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities before trying to upgrade to Lion in case the startup disk needs repairing.
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks

RAM - wired, active, inactive, free ?

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