# Lightroom on M1 MacBook Air eating up all memory in seconds…



## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Good evening everyone!

I got a new MacBook Air M1, with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD. I installed Lightroom, started it up. It pulls the Images from the cloud, and after some seconds the MacBook becomes unresponsive and an alert pops up: there ist no more free system memory, you have to shut down some apps. 
In the list there is Lightroom with 55 GB of system memory in use. 

I have to hard quit Lightroom.

Next start same error. LR latest version, 280GB of SSD free.

Thanks for tips…

Wolfgang


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

Go to Preferences > Performance and set the GPU to Off and see if that solves the problem without hitting performance too hard. There seems to be some issues with memory management on the new M1 machines with unified memory that are still a work in progress.


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Go to Preferences > Performance and set the GPU to Off and see if that solves the problem without hitting performance too hard. There seems to be some issues with memory management on the new M1 machines with unified memory that are still a work in progress.


Thanks for the tip, but...
I can not call Preferences. Starting LR and getting the Beachball of death is a matter of seconds. I was able to stop the sync, I tried starting with Rosetta, I deleted everything Adobe from my computer, re-installed it... no use.

W:


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

Reboot then try it?


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Around 20 times today...



Wolfgang


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

By the way:

This is the second MBAir I have, and on the first one it was also not working. LR Classic on my 16" MB Max runs fast and fine...

W:


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

Oh interesting. Did you transfer the files by macOS Migration or you signed in on this machine and let it download?

A long shot, but what if you go to /Users/[your username]/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.lightroomCC.plist and open it in a plain text editor and search for GPU. I'd try changing gpusetting to off instead of auto. Then reboot the machine and try again.


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## clee01l (May 26, 2022)

lrwok7664 said:


> By the way:
> 
> This is the second MBAir I have, and on the first one it was also not working. LR Classic on my 16" MB Max runs fast and fine...
> 
> W:



I have seen this memory message on my iMac. A MBA with only 8GB of Memory and a 512GB SSD may no have enough horse power to sync Lightroom with the cloud. If you can, pause syncing Lightroom and disable the process to store masters locally. This should free up room on the SSD and allow Lightroom all the space it needs for temporary files AND local storage of originals.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

No, both machines were set up as new, no data-migration.

I already tried editing the prefs-file, both entries are false - no change.
The first MBAir had 16GB of RAM, and I deleted every single piece of Adobe from my computer. I managed to stop syncing, and that was that.

There is currently 243 GB free on the SSD.

Wolfgang


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Thats the alert roughly 15 seconds after start of LR...

Duh.

W:


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

I'm just amazed at how fast it's climbing that high. How many photos do you have in the cloud?


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Hy, Victoria!

14.038 last count...

W:


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

Oh that's teeny. If it was my machine, I'd be inclined to trash the preferences and trash the LR Library file, clear them out of the trash, reboot and then try starting LR again. Go into Prefs quick and disable GPU but leave everything else at default and just see what happens.

Oh, one more thought, there's no antivirus or security software that could be getting in the way, perhaps trying to access files at the same time as LR?


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Deleted the LR Library, restarted. Now there are no pictures, sync is stopped, I cannot open Preferences, and after 15 seconds... you guessed it!
No AV Software.


By the way: Thanks for your ongoing help...

Wolfgang


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## Victoria Bampton (May 26, 2022)

Had you deleted the prefs file before you restarted too?


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## Merak75 (May 26, 2022)

What version of Monterey do you have?


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## lrwok7664 (May 27, 2022)

I deleted everything from Adobe from my computer, prefs, library, Application Supoort, even the receipts...



@Merak75 : 12.3.1

Wolfgang


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## Merak75 (May 27, 2022)

Thanks.
I had the same issue but on versions before 12.3.1. For me memory leaks were fixed after updating.
Maybe try applying  the 12.4 update and see if that helps .


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## lrwok7664 (May 27, 2022)

I re-formatted the MBAir, installed 12.4 fresh, installed ONLY Lightroom, started LR - and guess whats happening after 15 seconds...?

Sorry, but this is awful. There is no way to contact someone or get any help (except here, and I very much appreciate that). I am stuck with useless Applications since several MONTH (and now with the second computer). 

I will cancel my subscription and start switching to Capture One...

Very frustrated and thanks for all the help!

Wolfgang


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 6, 2022)

Hi Wolfgang, sorry I missed your reply. I'm wondering if there's something in your account that's failing, perhaps a cloud catalog. Have you contacted Adobe support at all?


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 6, 2022)

Turns out there’s an active bug under investigation, hopefully won’t be too long for a fix


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## lrwok7664 (Jun 7, 2022)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Turns out there’s an active bug under investigation, hopefully won’t be too long for a fix


Hello, Victoria!

Thanks for the helpful response. I had contact with support, but they were not helpfull...

Wolfgang


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## lrwok7664 (Jun 14, 2022)

Just to let you all know: Installed V5.4, created new prefs: Same problem. 

</frustration on>How is that possible. It is more than 6 month and two computers, that I am NOT able to use my (paid) software. Adobe support is not existent, this is a f.... mess.
</frustration off>

Wolfgang -> (Just bought Capture One)


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 14, 2022)

How frustrating! They'd definitely fixed the bug they'd found, but yours may have a different cause. I saw you posted on the thread that you'd cleared preferences, but I'm wondering if it's worth clearing the Lightroom Library file and letting it download in 5.4 to see if that helps. Doesn't seem like there's much to lose at this point!


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## lrwok7664 (Jun 14, 2022)

Hello, Victoria!

I backed up the machine, reformatted the Computer, installed fresh, installed ONLY Lightroom, started LR: 15 seconds - crash.
Restored from Backup, delete EVERYTHING with Adobe in the name, started LR: 15 seconds - crash.
I created a new user, started LR: 15 seconds - crash.

Wolfgang


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## lrwok7664 (May 26, 2022)

Good evening everyone!

I got a new MacBook Air M1, with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD. I installed Lightroom, started it up. It pulls the Images from the cloud, and after some seconds the MacBook becomes unresponsive and an alert pops up: there ist no more free system memory, you have to shut down some apps. 
In the list there is Lightroom with 55 GB of system memory in use. 

I have to hard quit Lightroom.

Next start same error. LR latest version, 280GB of SSD free.

Thanks for tips…

Wolfgang


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 14, 2022)

That really is weird. I still can't help but think there might be something specific to your user account, because I'm not hearing an outcry of other people with the same issue. Not at that level anyway!

Have I already asked how many photos in the cloud? And what kind of GB in the cloud?


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 14, 2022)

Just an idea, but do you have another email address? I'm wondering if you sign into CC as a trial version (e.g. different Adobe) account and open Lightroom, whether it opens and syncs quite happily. That might narrow down an account-specific issue.


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## clee01l (Jun 15, 2022)

As an M1 iMac user, I think the problem is related to the MBA and 8GB of RAM.  The M1 uses memory differently.   IMO, 8gb of RAM is not adequate to run a heavy-duty app like LrC.


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## dame wang (Jun 28, 2022)

Just a thought, I wonder if there is a corrupt image in the cloud that is blowing up your machine when it hits your machine during the sync process..

If I'm reading your responses correctly you have Lightroom Classic on another Macbook. Is that the same library? In other words, are you accessing the same library using Classic on one Macbook and CC on the MBA? And if so are there any sync errors in Classic?

It doesn't sound like a capacity issue to me. Your MBA is pretty standard-issue so there must be many Lightroom users out there using similar MBAs successfully. The fact that it blows up at the same time, every time, makes it sound like there is a corruption issue, and if you can pin it down to a specific image and get rid of that image (online) maybe you can get past it.


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