mayurbyte MA
@mayurbyte
macOS Nov 05, 2026

Mac keeps saying it has run out of application memory

Getting the popup that my system has run out of application memory, and it asks me to force quit apps. I only have Chrome and Mail open. 8GB M1 MacBook Air. Is this a RAM problem or something else eating it?
system has run
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nina_fixes Nov 05, 2026
mayurbyte
Check how much free disk space you have before blaming the RAM. When the 8GB fills up, macOS swaps to the SSD, and if the drive is nearly full there's nowhere to swap to. That's when this exact popup shows up even with only a couple of apps open. Keep at least 15-20GB free. If you have plenty of space, open Activity Monitor > Memory and sort by memory. One Chrome tab or a misbehaving process taking several GB points at a leak, not your RAM being too small.
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