Memory Overload Diagnosis and Fixes | Generated by AI
Here’s the fresh picture. Some things have changed.
Top Memory Offenders (right now)
| Rank | What | RAM | # Processes | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CGPDFService (×8) | ~16 GB | 8 | PDF files open somewhere → close them |
| 2 | VSCode | ~23 GB | 25 | Close projects not in use |
| 3 | ~20 GB | 12 | Still running! | |
| 4 | mds_stores (Spotlight) | ~14 GB | 1 | Rebuilding index — temporary |
| 5 | Browsers (Safari + WebKit) | ~13.5 GB | 27 | Too many tabs |
| 6 | Python | 2.8 GB | 2 | Depends on what’s running |
| 7 | Microsoft (Teams/Office) | 1.7 GB | 4 | Quit if not using |
| 8 | GitHub Desktop | 1.5 GB | 1 | Quit if not using |
| 9 | Ghostty | 1.3 GB | 1 | Normal |
Total demand: ~95 GB on 16 GB physical. Your machine is a hero for surviving this.
What to clean next (in order of impact)
1. Kill WeChat — still here despite the earlier suggestion
pkill -9 WeChat WeChatAppEx WeApp
This alone drops 20 GB of virtual demand. The mini-program engine is the heaviest thing on your system.
2. Close the PDF files that spawned CGPDFService
You have 8 CGPDFService processes using ~16 GB. These are spawned when Safari, Preview, or Mail opens a PDF. Find which app has a PDF open and close the tab/window.
# Quick check what's using PDF
lsof -c CGPDFService 2>/dev/null | head -5
3. Close VSCode projects
25 processes × ~1 GB each. Only keep the one project you’re actively editing. Cmd+Q the rest.
4. Wait 2 more minutes for Spotlight
mds_stores at 14 GB is still rebuilding the index after the erase. This will crash down to near 0 once it finishes.
Want me to kill WeChat and find which PDF is open? Those two steps free ~36 GB of memory pressure immediately.