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theMotoMan's avatar
theMotoMan
Explorer | Level 4
3 years ago

M1 macOS version uses 500+MB or RAM

I use an 8GB MacBook Air and it routinely runs out of RAM and starts running slow.  I recently was checking to see what the memory hogs are and the biggest is the browser, but I see that DropBox take...
desktop
Mac
Storage space
Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hi there theMotoMan, thanks for flagging this with us.

 

Can you clarify the desktop app's exact version and status when you notice the RAM spikes as shown in your menu bar?

 

Thanks so much!

  • theMotoMan's avatar
    theMotoMan
    Explorer | Level 4
    3 years ago

    The 500+MB of RAM usage (including all subprocesses) is not a "spike", it takes up that much all the time. The syncing was idle when I took the screenshot.  BTW, it was like this with macOS 12 too.  I have wiped my disk and did a clean install of macOS 13.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • theMotoMan's avatar
      theMotoMan
      Explorer | Level 4
      3 years ago

      Here is another data point.  This info is from my M1 Mac mini 16GB model running macOS Ventura 13.1.  The previous reply was data taken from my 2020 MBA 8GB.  Again, I will mention, the 500+MB memory usage is not a "spike", that is normal memory usage.

       

      In the second activity monitor screenshot, you can see the memory usage is actually much more than 300MB when you factor in the DB helpers and Activity Provider - 515.1MB!

       

       

       

       

      • Nancy's avatar
        Nancy
        Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
        3 years ago

        Hi theMotoMan! Sorry for jumping in. 

         

        Is there any chance that your Dropbox app is syncing more than 300k files, in general? Please also check this Help Center article, and let me know if anything mentioned there could be true.

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