osx yosemite 10.10.5 memory problems

1: ok ilx my visible laptop memory has been zipping up & down like 1xyoyo over the last week & i can't work out why
2: after 1st "not enuff memory notice" i cleared a whole bunch of stuff onto a back-up drive & got it up to 8GB, but it quickly went back to 2
3: i moved more stuff and it is at 4-ish now, but still fluctuates right down when e.g. my cloud back-up is operating (crashplan)
4: possible culprits: mail and/or chrome (the only other thing i use routinely is scrivener)
5: am considering
(a) a complete rebuild of mail (but not sure if currently have the memory) (i have a colossal archive of old emails is probably part of the problem)
(b) full back-up of docs and etc, then wipe laptop & reinstall yosemite

ANY ADVICE?

buy the premium version of this if the price doesn't put it out of reach. this thing is v. worthwhile.

https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac

http://helpenrepair.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/google-1f44c.png

will try this yes

lol there is a ton of garbage in this computer (this is working nicely JD, thank you)

glad to hear it! I have to run it weekly, I am a great collector of garbage

it's still shovelling stuff out 10 hours later!

you're talking about hard drive space or ram?

oh hard drive, it helps when I read

this thread prompted me to order replacement RAM for my antique iMac

so after i used cleanmymac (CMG) i was still having problems, and feel i still am

1: of 120GB hard drive i apparently have 1.4GB available (CMG describes this as healthy): i can move more to my back-up
2: of 4GB memory I have >100MB free which is not decsribed as healthy and seems slim and i don't get this

I reset PRAM and SRC (no idea if this is relevant but it seemed like a move worth making, it bumped up the "available" number from c.870MG to 1.4GB so that's good) (i'm not sure what this number measures, it's the one that appears across the foot of an open folder, next to the number of items in that folder)

a former programming guru for ilxor dot com suggested that all my RAM memory was being dumped to something called the "sleepimage" -- when i looked into sorting this on forums, one suggestion was going into terminal, deleting the sleepimage (which might have become corrupted) and rebuilding it by restarting

i haven't deleted/rebuilt the sleepimage yet, as ppl on forums are often wrong (i except ilxor dot com from this obv)

activity monitor tells me that primary memory use is coming from

a: mail -- 574MB
B: google chrome helper -- 203MB
C: dropbox -- 147MB
D: cloudpaird -- 112MB
E: google chrome -- 104MB

mail has more than ten years emails archived and could REALLY do with tidyding out and rebuilding and probably reindexing, wouldn't be surprised if this was a major culprot

^^^that's mail when open, it drops off completely when closed (i assume this is obvious except nothing is obvious to me)

Don't confuse memory (RAM) usage, in MB, with what's taking up your hard drive or SSD (storage), in GB. In a modern OS, your RAM should be full, i.e. used to its max, for the system to work well. If your *storage* is full, the system runs out of working space and everything slows down. As a rule of thumb your hard drive or SSD should be about 10% free, at minimum.
If you want to find out what's taking up your storage, the most recent macOS (Sierra, 10.12) offers some insight and housekeeping facilities if you click on About this Mac in the Apple menu and then click the Storage tab. For earlier OS versions, an app like DaisyDisk or DiskCare can show you where the storage went - usually photos / movies, they blow out very quickly.
Lastly, NEVER install any "cleaner" or "care" application recommended in a pop-up dialogue or whatever, there is always a hidden agenda.

I should revive this thread some time to ask for some advice which I will not understand.

Omnidisksweeper is free and good for seeing hard drive usage: https://www.omnigroup.com/more

i'm still a bit baffled what's going on: the indicator at the bottom of a newly opened folder, which about an hour ago said "300MB available", now says "30GB available"

all I've been doing is in the time between is working away corrections and additions, about 500 words, to a document in scrivener (if this change in availability had taken place on saturday night after I used CleanMyMac it would have made more sense… why would it take a day and a half to register?)

adding: in general the moments when it tells me there isn't enough memory is when CrashPlan kicks in -- partisans on twitter informing me that CrashPlan is a memory hog (and also that the ppl who own CrashPlan are rumoured to be shutting down its non-business user structure in june)

I should revive this thread some time to ask for some advice which I will not understand.

Mark if you're using a Mac with Time Machine turned on, it will store local backups of recently changed files, which get shuffled off to whatever your main Time Machine store is, and the local backups are cleared. Also as you use more or less RAM with lots of apps open, temp swap-out files may appear and disappear. These are the reasons you need 10% of your storage free, so the OS can dip into it as needed.

Thank you MatthewK --

in fact I was not referring to your post at all though I always appreciate people who do respond to me when I ask about technical things.

I was referring more to the fact that I get awful technical problems which I cannot solve and sometimes in great frustration and despair I ask about them online. People sometimes try to be helpful and I appreciate that a lot but it usually comes to no good.

Apart from anything else, it is difficult to assist from afar - really, one needs someone to help on the spot.

I have a Mac computer which no longer works properly. I have asked about it on another forum but not, yet, this one.

i haven't deleted/rebuilt the sleepimage yet, as ppl on forums are often wrong (i except ilxor dot com from this obv)

if you're at the point where this seems like a good idea, take a step back. it's not. you have too much stuff on your computer's hard disk. it's almost certainly in your home folder. itunes? photos? use omnidisksweeper or diskinventoryx to find it. also you're confusing ram and hard disk.

xpost to MatthewK: nope, time machine isn't on, nor have i ever had many apps open (rarely more than mail, chrome -- several tabs -- and scrivener at any one time)

(with crashplan kicking in now and then)

caek: except i don't seem to have too much on my hard disc any more (if i now have 30GB available)? i spent most of last week moving or deleting stuff, without it apparently giving me greater availability (which is why i was baffled) -- but it finally has… may it just take several days to notice :|

when i now look at about this mac > storage, the scary blue bar for "other" -- which was going right across, filling up most of the space, now only fills up abt half (e.g 60GB of 120GB all told) (i can and will cut this down more, but not quickly)

but the big change came between abt midday and now (and i did nothing to cause it in that time-space), so it is registering something from earlier (late saturday?) or something else

it was the "moving a lot of stuff to no visible effect and still getting lots of "low memory" warnings" that was bafffling me

I think macOS has quite a few background garbage-collection type processes - maybe things like silently deleting redundant backups of your phone or stuff like that. I think apps like Photos spawn quite a few workfiles which get purged too.

suddenly having 20+ more gigs than you thought is very unusual

is it possible you updated your system yesterday or recently? i have heard anecdotally that a recent system update cleared a lot of space for people

basically i moved c.8 gigs off onto a back disc last week -- but it seemed to create no extra availability per the number you see at the bottom of an open folder (whatever this number means)

then on sat i used cleanmymac (as per JD's suggestion upthread): it removed abt 12 gigs background garbage but again no extra availability registered per the number you see at the bottom of an open folder

i reset PRAM and SRC first thing today -- a slight improvement registered

then suddenly today, just after lunchtime, the availability made itself known -- so first i was puzzled that i'd made lots of space but none was apparent; then i was puzzled that the space all appeared, at least 18 hours after i'd finished making it

i don't think anything's updated today (maybe, but you usually have to approve an update don't you?)

When in doubt, I search the hard drive via the finder by size, setting it at something like files over 50MB, or 100MB. It's a quick, easy way to call up the most conspicuous memory(storage) hogs.

ahhhh fine that makes much more sense mark. i think all is well :)

DiskInventoryX will give a complete breakdown of what's taking up space

i just subscribed to crashplan so i hope those rumours are malicious gossip spread by envious company

competitors!! f'in autocorrect

here's the rumour:

This was sent to us privately. We are unable to confirm the veracity of the claim. Is @Code42 ending @CrashPlan? https://t.co/hYvA3hcYB9 pic.twitter.com/Vlx5k1tNcE

— CrashPlan is Slow 🐢 (@CrashPlanSlow) May 13, 2017

fuck. how do you protect yourself against the company itself crashing? :(

seatbelts at boardroom