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I am a web developer, and sometimes I encounter software bugs that has runaway threads or used up available memory in a browser process. Terminating the offending Chrome process will free up the memory usage, but kernel_task still use up a huge chunk of memory

kernel_task memory usage

Running sudo /usr/sbin/purge does not make any impact on the used memory.

How can I get kernel_task to free those unneeded memory?

hanxue
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  • Please edit your question to indicate the version of macOS you are running, and on which particular flavor of Macintosh. – IconDaemon Apr 05 '18 at 13:55
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    If you change your view to All Processes, Hierarchally, you should be able to see more information. Please post a screenshot. It looks like you have several Firefox Nightly Web Content that could be contributing. – Unassuming Guy Apr 05 '18 at 17:29
  • Also check out this question https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/178281/how-to-investigate-high-kernel-task-memory-usage and see if the answer can help you investigate the source. – Unassuming Guy Apr 05 '18 at 17:31

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try: sync && sudo purge

Kushagra Verma
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  • Since spotlight runs a sync every 30 seconds, It's highly unlikely this can get any extra effect than the OP already trying purge and reporting it's ineffective. Can you add why you think this might help in case we're missing something? – bmike Dec 28 '23 at 15:13