New M1 MBA 8gb/256gb runs VERY HOT & Safari crashes daily!

[M1MBAMiami]

Update: M1 MBA now also runs incredibly hot! As in I need a pillow or book because its like a furnace.

Just about daily, my new M1 MacBook Air starts to run warm (thought they were SO much cooler now) and then I get a popup to ForceQuit my applications with the message, "your system has run out of application memory (see screenshot below)" and showing me that Safari is using the most memory by far. In fact, I checked the RAM usage and its showing 6.3gb out of 8gb. Im wondering is this simply a RAM issue and I should return/exchange for the 16gb model?

Funny enough, my 4 month older MBA 2020 never crashed like this (though it ran scorchingly hot which is why I bought the new M1 to replace it).

I called Apple, their solution: "please buy a higher spec'd machine and see if it persists". Seriously.
I mentioned my 4mo old MBA runs the same websites just fine. It gets hot but never crashes.

Conclusion: I ordered the fully loaded 16gb/512gb 8core MBA as suggested. I spent more on a system I didn't need in the hopes this resolves the issues for me. However, in the interim, someone chimed in with an M1 MB Pro loaded with 16gb/2tb and said he gets the exact same error message, Safari crashes, and his machine starts to run hot. So jury is out on this until Apple ever decides to address directly. I assume they'll be releasing updates in short order, or I hope so at least.

Either way, wanted to share for those on the fence about being an early adopted like me!

 

[Gnattu]

If you are using Safari extensions, some of them will cause serious memory leak.
This does not happen to my 8GB Mac Mini

 

[biohaufen]

Yeah, was just going to say this. Safari is using 38GB of RAM! 38GB!!
This is clearly a memory leak issue and has nothing to do with the M1.

 

[Quackers]

Maybe do a search as others have had this issue with Safari using loads of ram.

 

[D.T.]

"Hello, Apple support? Yes, my Safari is crashing constantly, on my new M1 MBA. How many tabs open? Let me check ... looks like around 50,000 ..."

 

[Quackers]

Didn't little snitch cause some problems like this?
Are you running it?

 

[Deadlywrong]

Something is definitely wrong here with Safari using that much memory. Maybe try disable all of your safari extensions and see how it goes.

 

[M1MBAMiami]

Yeah, was just going to say this. Safari is using 38GB of RAM! 38GB!!
This is clearly a memory leak issue and has nothing to do with the M1.

Hey everyone.
So Apple went through the three extensions I have (Rakuten, LastPass, Honey).
They had me toggle them all on and off, and then 1 by 1. They checked some memory report each time. They told the extensions are using about 0.5gb in total and do not seem to be the issue.

I have about 10-15 tabs open at any given time, including when I screenshared with Apple. The checked those and said that while some do appear to be using alot of memory, it shouldn't really be an issue for the M1 either.
They then concluded with, "Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet. We're taking notes of these cases and sending to our engineers. We dont have a solution for you at this moment and recommend either exchanging the machine or recommend to one with more memory as it appears to be memory related at this time." So thats what I did, I ordered an M1 MBA with 16gb/512gb/8core.

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

 

[Quackers]

Try post 2 in this thread but beware all safari history, Bookmarks, settings etc etc will be lost
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/what-causes-safari-to-use-so-much-memory.2028249/

 

[Gnattu]

Hey everyone.
So Apple went through the three extensions I have (Rakuten, LastPass, Honey).
They had me toggle them all on and off, and then 1 by 1. They checked some memory report each time. They told the extensions are using about 0.5gb in total and do not seem to be the issue.

I have about 10-15 tabs open at any given time, including when I screenshared with Apple. The checked those and said that while some do appear to be using alot of memory, it shouldn't really be an issue for the M1 either.
They then concluded with, "Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet. We're taking notes of these cases and sending to our engineers. We dont have a solution for you at this moment and recommend either exchanging the machine or recommend to one with more memory as it appears to be memory related at this time." So thats what I did, I ordered an M1 MBA with 16gb/512gb/8core.

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

I don't think that amount of memory usage is normal at all. If a webpage is using a lot of memory, then we usually see that memory is used by that website in activity monitor, not Safari itself.

And you are having Safari using 38GB by itself. If it's not caused by an extension, it's an internal bug that should be fixed.

 

[spinstorm]

I mean I am running Final Cut Pro and Photoshop and Chrome and my MBP is not hot; no fan; no issues at all.

In fact since I updated my 10-Core iMac Pro to BigSirrrrrrr (am I the only one who thinks of a porno when I hear that name) my iMac Pro has been alot slower.

 

[Gnattu]

Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet.

This also sounds extremely unprofessional to me. The underlying CPU architecture has almost nothing to do with websites, and M1 is better than Intel CPUs in executing JavaScript (the language that websites and browsers use).

I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

MBA is a fanless device, it will be hot under sustained full load, but is is very uncommon for "unprofessional" workloads. Your case is abnormal and I don't think Apple's support knows why you are having this either.

 

[KPOM]

Hey everyone.
So Apple went through the three extensions I have (Rakuten, LastPass, Honey).
They had me toggle them all on and off, and then 1 by 1. They checked some memory report each time. They told the extensions are using about 0.5gb in total and do not seem to be the issue.

I have about 10-15 tabs open at any given time, including when I screenshared with Apple. The checked those and said that while some do appear to be using alot of memory, it shouldn't really be an issue for the M1 either.
They then concluded with, "Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet. We're taking notes of these cases and sending to our engineers. We dont have a solution for you at this moment and recommend either exchanging the machine or recommend to one with more memory as it appears to be memory related at this time." So thats what I did, I ordered an M1 MBA with 16gb/512gb/8core.

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

I've had my MacBook Air since November 17 and it is never gotten hot no matter how many tabs I have had open, though I do have the 16GB model.

 

[acidfast7_redux]

I've had my MacBook Air since November 17 and it is never gotten hot no matter how many tabs I have had open, though I do have the 16GB model.

I have the 8GiB MBA model and have no issues like the OP.

 

[ghanwani]

When you start safari for the first time, does it immediately show high memory usage and with the machine heating up? If not, it would point to a memory leak. A memory leak builds up over time, so it would be very hard for the Apple tech to diagnose that with you on the phone. You might want to repeat the process you went through with the Apple tech but instead let each configuration run for a long enough time.

But it really does look like a memory leak with safari consuming 38GB.

 

[hans1972]

Update: M1 MBA now also runs incredibly hot! As in I need a pillow or book because its like a furnace.

Just about daily, my new M1 MacBook Air starts to run warm (thought they were SO much cooler now) and then I get a popup to ForceQuit my applications with the message, "your system has run out of application memory (see screenshot below)" and showing me that Safari is using the most memory by far. In fact, I checked the RAM usage and its showing 6.3gb out of 8gb. Im wondering is this simply a RAM issue and I should return/exchange for the 16gb model?

Funny enough, my 4 month older MBA 2020 never crashed like this (though it ran scorchingly hot which is why I bought the new M1 to replace it).

View attachment 1687425

I called Apple, their solution: "please buy a higher spec'd machine and see if it persists". Seriously.
I mentioned my 4mo old MBA runs the same websites just fine. It gets hot but never crashes.

Conclusion: I ordered the fully loaded 16gb/512gb 8core MBA as suggested. I spent more on a system I didn't need in the hopes this resolves the issues for me. However, in the interim, someone chimed in with an M1 MB Pro loaded with 16gb/2tb and said he gets the exact same error message, Safari crashes, and his machine starts to run hot. So jury is out on this until Apple ever decides to address directly. I assume they'll be releasing updates in short order, or I hope so at least.

Either way, wanted to share for those on the fence about being an early adopted like me!

Ordering 16Gb RAM version will not help you.

Something is seriously wrong with Safari using 38Gb RAM.

How about trying to use Chrome or Firefox and see if you get the same problem.
Try opening one simple webpage and nothing more and see if RAM increases.
Try running Safari without any extensions.

And as a last resort reinstall macOS.

 

[Runs For Fun]

Hey everyone.
So Apple went through the three extensions I have (Rakuten, LastPass, Honey).
They had me toggle them all on and off, and then 1 by 1. They checked some memory report each time. They told the extensions are using about 0.5gb in total and do not seem to be the issue.

I have about 10-15 tabs open at any given time, including when I screenshared with Apple. The checked those and said that while some do appear to be using alot of memory, it shouldn't really be an issue for the M1 either.
They then concluded with, "Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet. We're taking notes of these cases and sending to our engineers. We dont have a solution for you at this moment and recommend either exchanging the machine or recommend to one with more memory as it appears to be memory related at this time." So thats what I did, I ordered an M1 MBA with 16gb/512gb/8core.

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

It still could be a leak with the extensions. It just might take some time if it's a slow leak. But I think your problem is definitely related to Safari.

 

[Fairchild]

Hey everyone.
So Apple went through the three extensions I have (Rakuten, LastPass, Honey).
They had me toggle them all on and off, and then 1 by 1. They checked some memory report each time. They told the extensions are using about 0.5gb in total and do not seem to be the issue.

I have about 10-15 tabs open at any given time, including when I screenshared with Apple. The checked those and said that while some do appear to be using alot of memory, it shouldn't really be an issue for the M1 either.
They then concluded with, "Not all apps and website are optimized for the M1 yet. We're taking notes of these cases and sending to our engineers. We dont have a solution for you at this moment and recommend either exchanging the machine or recommend to one with more memory as it appears to be memory related at this time." So thats what I did, I ordered an M1 MBA with 16gb/512gb/8core.

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

You clearly have a problem with your user account. Create a separate new admin account, and recreate what you were doing, and see if the problem persists.

 

[blaraka]

I’d just like to say that I’ve seen Safari supposedly taking some ridiculous amount of memory (30+GB) on my Intel MBP13 Late 2016. It seems like a Big Sur/Safari problem and frankly it looked like a report error as memory pressure was low!
Cannot recreate it as I don’t have access to that machine at the moment. I actually suspected it’s Last Pass’s fault; from my experience it’s obviously a badly written extension so I was thinking about switching to 1Password.

 

[4sallypat]

Update: M1 MBA now also runs incredibly hot! As in I need a pillow or book because its like a furnace.
...

Sounds like my 16" MBP !

Sounds like you need a fan driven M1 like the MBP ?

Send it back and get a MBP 16GB!

 

[Maconplasma]

That said, Im not really surprised by this, the M1 processor is all new. I am, however, very surprised by just how HOT the m1 MBA gets when this is happening given how much they touted these as "never gets hot, super cool running, doesn't need a fan, etc".

Your experience had nothing to do with the processor.

 

[George Knighton]

I have a 2015 iMac i7 with 32 GB of RAM.

I do not know what they are doing but some kinds of advertising by Google will cause an overload even with 32 GB of RAM.

Internet Brands was able to find and block some Google ads that were causing the problem.

 

[dsemf]

While there appear to be memory utilization issues, running hot implies high CPU utilization.

DS

 

[alien3dx]

I have a 2015 iMac i7 with 32 GB of RAM.

I do not know what they are doing but some kinds of advertising by Google will cause an overload even with 32 GB of RAM.

Internet Brands was able to find and block some Google ads that were causing the problem.

hardware acceleration on. Off it . if google chrome

 

[johnkree]

This sounds like a memory leak. Did you try Firefox? Or chrome? Big Sur seems still to be a mess...