How To Free Up Memory(RAM) On Mac/MacBook (2022 Guide)

How to free up memory (RAM) on Mac?

After ensuring that your Mac doesn't have enough memory from Activity Monitor, you can get down to free up RAM.

Here are some fixes to help you free up more memory on your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, etc. And these solutions are also suitable for fixing macOS Sequoia memory leaks.

Quit useless, suspect, and memory-consuming apps

If you've opened lots of apps, quit the useless ones from the Dock. Right-click them one by one at the Dock and select Quit.

To close the suspect and memory-consuming apps, you need to use Activity Monitor.

Under the Memory tab, you can see which apps are not in usage but eat your memory or take up a large amount of memory. Then, select it and click the  icon > Force Quit at the upper left corner of the window to close it.

Close redundant app windows and web browser tabs

For the rest of running apps, you need to close the duplicate or useless windows or merge them. For example, in Finder, move the cursor to the Apple navigation bar and select Window > Merge All Windows. Or, you can close them one by one.

For a web browser, like Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, closing the useless tabs and better keeping no more than five tabs.

Restart your Mac

If you are not dealing with heavy work on Mac now, you can try to save your editing documents and restart the computer.

Commonly, restarting your Mac is the quickest way to free up memory as it can end up all of the proceeding programs and the system and refresh your Mac.

If your Mac is responsive, select the Apple menu > Restart. If not, press the power button for seconds to force shut down your Mac. Then, restart it.

Proceed Software Update

Possibly, a bug of macOS or first-party app causes abnormal memory usage. You can check if there's a macOS update or a new macOS version available. If it has, update your Mac to lower RAM usage on your Mac. You need to back up your Mac before updating in case of data loss.

Here's how:

• Open the Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.
• Click Update Now or Upgrade Now.

Perform a virus checking

Viruses on browser extensions or third-party software may gobble up your RAM. You can use a professional malware scanner or cleaner to check if there's a virus on your Mac. And then remove it to free up memory on Mac.

Then, check if more RAM is available on your Mac memory or not.