This is why they invented software updates.
A number of users who recently upgraded to macOS Monterey are experiencing a memory leak, a scenario in which a specific macOS process or application is bugged out and stays running for prolonged periods in the background, consuming abnormally high amounts of memory of RAM.
It’s unknown as to exactly which models of Mac are affected, but the range seems to be fairly wide, and also includes the newly-released 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks. According to reports on Twitter, Reddit, the MacRumors Forums, and the Apple Support Communities consist of users reporting their Mac warning that the system has “run out of application memory” or that specific applications are consuming ridiculously high amounts of RAM in Activity Monitor.
Some reports highlight the macOS Control Center as the main culprit, and per YouTuber Gregory McFadden, the Control Center application was cited as using up to 20GB of RAM on their 64GB M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Another cluster of related reports includes Mozilla Firefox. As shown in the tweets below, Firefox for some users is taking up incredibly high amounts of memory, as high as 80GB for one user.
Other reports suggest that the most common bug is a pop-up window stating “Your system has run out of application memory.”
Long story short, if you’re apprehensive about upgrading to macOS Monterey (albeit it’s worked just fine on my end,) it may be wise to wait until the next major software update before downloading and installing it.
If you’ve had any issues with macOS Monterey on your end, please let us know about your experiences in the comments.
Via MacRumors, @GregoryMcFadden, @y80481629, Reddit, and support.apple.com