Zotero using 6.82 GB of memory debugging D1032212325

ThymeThamesBlack
hi,

i've been trying for the past few days to problem solve with MS Word Community why Word for Mac 16.81 (23112712) on MacOS 14.1.1 (23B81) keeps crashing.

this links to all the error reporting from Word for Mac crashing: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/officeinsider/forum/all/word-for-mac-crashes/53d2ff0f-d0f8-4bd4-ab0d-9744457b4969?page=2&messageId=68fddc63-0e24-4b83-b433-2dd6039cfc6b

It seems to crash if i have multiple documents open and then open a document with comments in it, it will crash.

something is going on with the memory because Zotero is using extreme amounts at 6.83GB (similarly is Obsidian 3.37GB), with 1.77GB Swap Used.

version => 6.0.30, platform => MacIntel, oscpu => Intel Mac OS X 10.16, locale => en-AU, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 6.0.30, extensions => ZotFile (5.1.2, extension), scite Plugin for Zotero (1.11.6, extension), Mdnotes for Zotero (0.2.3, extension), Obsidian Note for Zotero (0.2.0, extension), ZotServer (0.1.2, extension), Get date from URL last-modified for Zotero (0.1.5, extension), Zotero LibreOffice Integration (6.0.4.SA.6.0.30, extension), Zotero Word for Mac Integration (6.0.10.SA.6.0.30, extension), Zotero Tag (0.3.0, extension), Zotodo (0.10.1, extension), Folder Import for Zotero (0.0.7, extension), Better BibTex for Zotero (6.7.139, extension), Sci-Hub Plugin for Zotero (1.4.4, extension, disabled), Zutilo Utility for Zotero (3.10.0, extension, disabled), Zotero Citation Counts Manager (1.3.0, extension, disabled), Night for Zotero (0.4.23, extension, disabled), Zotero Better Notes (1.0.4, extension, disabled).

i hope you can help, and thanks for your time.
  • dstillman
    You should try with all plugins disabled. Zotero definitely should not be using 7 GB of RAM.
  • ThymeThamesBlack
    hi

    thanks for responding. i disabled all the add-ons but it's still running on 7gb ram.

    is there anything else you think i should try?
  • DWL-SDCA
    Did you close and restart Zotero after disabling the plugins?
  • dstillman
    Yeah, there's no way it would be at 7 GB RAM after restarting Zotero unless you've opened one or more extremely large, highly compressed PDFs.
  • ThymeThamesBlack
    oh, i do have a few PDFs open. i'm try closing some. and yes, i restarted.
  • ThymeThamesBlack
    yesterday i closed Zotero and it remained high in the memory use, so i now believe that i only clicked the x and didn't quit Zotero because I've closed all the open PDFs and now with one PDF open it's using 1.93 GBs which seems ok to me but you may have guessed i know nothing about computers other than how to use apps.

    So, maybe 1.93 GBs is still high? it's higher than Word at 478.8 MBs.

    And, it's still using 1.47 GBs of Swap. More than likely not your problem, but could you point out where i might head?

    thanks for your help
  • llity
    Its memory usage on macOS can reach up to 2GB.
  • dstillman
    @ThymeThamesBlack: If it's at 2 GB, you likely have a fairly large PDF open — Zotero will start below 1 GB, and most PDFs would not increase it nearly that much. But 2 GB is normal, whereas 7 GB was not. There've been some reports of excessive memory usage with plugins installed, so you'd have to do some experimentation to see if one of the ones you had installed was contributing to that.
    And, it's still using 1.47 GBs of Swap. More than likely not your problem, but could you point out where i might head?
    The amount of swap the system is using isn't all that meaningful on its own — that would reset to zero after a restart, and doesn't necessarily indicate active swapping. The "Memory Pressure" graph at the bottom of the Memory tab of Activity Monitor is the main thing to look at. Unless that's into yellow or red, you don't need to worry. If it is, you might want to close some programs.
  • ThymeThamesBlack
    ok, thank you.

    i've got 3 PDFs open now and it's using 3.12 GBs. so fairly normal by the sounds of it.

    thanks a lot for your help.

    the funny thing is, last night after turning off Zotero and forgetting to quit the app properly and the RAM stayed just as high. and today i thought it must have been that i didn't quit it. today when i hit the x for InDesign, it still showed in Activity Monitor but did not for Zotero. i took a screenshot of the active monitor when the memory had not changed much from closing Zotero. Zotero is not in the list of process names
  • dstillman
    So just to be clear, traditionally, Mac apps won't close if you just click the X and don't use Quit, and that's the case for Zotero. You can tell they're still running if you have "Show indicators for open applications" enabled in the Dock preferences.

    Some apps — e.g., Photos — will close if you just click the X. I don't know off-hand what InDesign does.

    (macOS has blurred this line a bit in recent years with some power-saving features for certain apps with no visible windows, but that's mostly not relevant.)
  • kzssc
    edited December 2, 2023
    following - my zotero memory usage can reach 9GB with plugins (bbt, night, obsidian note, and wandering file). I have a dozen PDF opening but none is fancy, they don't contain any graphs, chances are everyone is less than 1mb. Now disabled all to verify memory usage after a restart. So far 1+gb, fits with what dstillman says.
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