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             Custom Mouse Pointers Blamed for Monterey Memory Leak

   Josh Centers

   Many users of macOS 12 Monterey are reporting massive memory leaks, as
   high as 70 GB or more, which causes Macs to run out of memory entirely
   and require a restart. At his Eclectic Light Company blog, [1]Howard
   Oakley writes that [2]Mozilla has traced the issueto the custom pointer
   options in Monterey. Mozilla recommends using a standard pointer size
   and colors until Apple resolves the bug.

   Wait, you didn't know that Monterey offered options for customizing the
   pointer size and colors? You're excused'it's a little feature hidden
   away in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Pointer that we
   just heard about recently too. Once it's working properly, though, it
   might be a boon for anyone who has trouble finding the tiny black
   cursor on a large screen Mac.

   If you have customized the pointer and are suffering from memory leaks,
   set the pointer size to Normal and click the Reset button to change the
   pointer outline and fill colors back to the default.

   On 9to5Mac, [3]Ben Lovejoy argues that the custom pointers aren't the
   sole cause of memory leaks, although he says resetting the pointer is
   worth trying. However, Howard Oakley points out that this leak is
   associated with any pointer change'such as from the arrow to the text
   insertion bar'so any app with frequent pointer changes, like a Web
   browser, will suffer from this issue.

   For right now, resetting your pointer is the only possible fix apart
   from frequent restarts. If you haven't played with this feature yet, we
   strongly recommend waiting until Apple releases a fix.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://eclecticlight.co/2021/11/15/montereys-memory-leak-and-how-to-avoid-it/
   2. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1735345
   3. https://9to5mac.com/2021/11/15/monterey-app-memory-leak-solution-suggestion/#more-769106

   Hidden links:
   4. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/11/Monterey-pointer-customization.png

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