High memory usage with v8; what could be wrong?

DustyOldMan

I upgraded to v8 and now I'm seeing extremely high memory usage. On my M1 iMac, V7 used about 150MB but now with V8 I'm seeing memory usage of almost 500MB. A 3x increase in memory usage after upgrading doesn't seem normal. Could my installation be botched, is there a way I can check for any issues that cause this abnormal memory use?

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1Password Version: 8.7.0
Extension Version: 2.3.3
OS Version: 12.3.1

W4rl0ck

That‘s a new feature of the new version called electron. Basically 1password now contains a Node Server and is Rendering the UI in an included webbrowser.
I bought 1password in 2010 and I‘m a long time subscriber. I don‘t like electron apps and for legal reasons I have to store work related passwords locally so I will never update to version 8. I‘ll probably cancel my subscription in the next days and look for alternatives. I‘m really sad about it.

awn

I agree that this "works as designed" and an other major downside of using Electron... - it's 600MB for me.
Welcome to the new world - it's depressing.

DustyOldMan

I know electron is known for its memory use, but I understood from the discussions and statements of AgileBits employees that they had done special things to make electron work without using a lot of memory. So I assume it wouldn’t this much.

Can someone from the 1Password team weigh in on what level of memory use should be expected from v8; what would be considered normal in this case?

PeterG_1P

Hi @Dustyoldman, thanks for bringing this up. I'm going to reach out to some of our specialists here to make sure we can answer this question with the best possible accuracy and also provide any assistance that might be needed. Thanks for sharing the issue - we should have more for you soon!

Oh, a quick follow-up question while I loop in the relevant team members: is this level of memory usage sustained over time? Or was it just when you first opened the app? I'll look forward to learning more about this. 👋

DustyOldMan

Thanks PeterG for your reply and for diving into this. This memory use is sustained at this level or higher. It's currently hovering between 500MB and 650MB, depending on which 1P windows are open. Hope the specialists can help solve this issue.

1ofMany

Hello @PeterG_1P

500MB, I wouldn't mind.
However, 25GB additional memory usage, just by activating the 1Password extension in Safari, seems somewhat excessive,

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)
Chip Apple M1 Max
Memory 64 GB
32 Core GPU
10 Core CPU
2 TB SSD

Please advice.

Thanks,

DustyOldMan

@PeterG_1P Any respons yet from the specialists?

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PeterG_1P

@1ofMany this is definitely not something I'd expect. Can you contact our support team at support@1Password.com, with a brief email linking to your post on this thread? We'd love to get that resolved for you. 👍

PeterG_1P

Hi @dustyoldman, back with more. 👋

The short answer is: memory usage is complex and variable, but there are some general parameters that it might be helpful to know about. Long story short, we don't see the memory usage you've screen-grabbed here as being too out of the ordinary. (1ofMany's, on the other hand, is clearly an issue that needs looking-into).

To explain a bit more:

1. 1Password's memory usage depends (among other factors) on how many accounts and items you have in the app.
2. As a general point of reference, 1Password usually runs at about as much memory as a typical browser tab.
3. From an engineering perspective, whenever we were faced with a choice between speed or reduced memory, we always chose speed. The responsiveness of the app (which we've heard a lot of positive feedback about) suggests that we are likely striking that balance in a way that works for many people.

We of course recognize that there may be divergences of opinion on how much memory usage is acceptable, but given that 1Password allows instantaneous filling of passwords into native apps and the browser at any time, this seems like a reasonable path to take.

1ofMany

Hi @PeterG_1P,

Will do, contact support.
Please check the settings for your outgoing email notification(s),
I found your reply, thanks btw, in my spam folder.

Best,

1ofMany

@PeterG_1P

Could you please provide the proper support email-address?
This since I would like to use your public PGP key.

Appreciated in advance,

DustyOldMan

@PeterG_1P Thanks for circling back. It's disappointing to hear that this is the normal memory use for v8. It means it's significantly more memory intensive than previous versions. On an 8GB machine, that's not something I wanted to hear. I'll have to live with this until a better alternative comes along. At least we have clarity on this now, thanks for getting that sorted out.

dspiewak

@PeterG_1P Fwiw, 1Password 7 uses about 250-300 MB of RAM and is dramatically more responsive than the new Electron application. I realize it's a bit in vogue to hate on Electron, but it's hard to make the claim that responsiveness is the priority when the new version is less responsive despite requiring a much larger memory footprint.

Ben

@1ofMany

Information on sending us PGP encrypted email can be found here:

Send an encrypted email to 1Password Support

Ben

Ben

@dspiewak

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing less responsiveness with v8 than with v7. Could you please outline for us:

• What environment this is occuring in (hardware, version of macOS)
• What tasks are less responsive

It would be especially helpful if you could provide any step-by-step examples, e.g.

1. Open and unlock 1Password
2. Create a new item
3. When clicking the save button there is a delay of X while using 1Password 7 and Y while using 1Password 8

We'd love to get to the bottom of this experience.

Ben

1ofMany

Hi @Ben

Thanks for the link how to encrypt to support.
I already used "plain" email, with whatever I could think of, to make it as secure as possible.
Currently in dialogue with one of your colleagues.

I understand @DustyOldMan disappointment re: memory usage on 2022-05-15

Reading your reply above to @dspiewak
It makes all the sense it does to ask for step by step examples.

Having written that, whilst thumbs up for your colleague who is assisting me via email, given this:
"We'd love to get to the bottom of this experience."
If you (1Password) could provide an "all that needs outlining" document, thanks in advance.
This will save so much time. In my "support case", I receive (again, great support) screen shots and looking at these, I say:
We are not comparing "Apples to Apples".

Support is testing/ trying to reproduce what I encounter, on a machine with 8GB Unified Ram and around 500MB is in "swap".
I enjoy 64GB Ram, haven't experienced any swap whatsoever, at all, on this machine.
Even if I were to switch on the 1Password Safari extension, which I do not (due to RAM usage), even with 400 open Safari tabs, still no swap...
However, yes, around 30GB RAM is being used, this by enabling the 1Password Safari extension (while Safari is open).
So, there's that.

To this question I received:
= =
"Let me know if the memory consumption of each tab is different on your end with and without 1Password"
= =

I replied:
= =
"Any advice on how I can accomplish this and provide you with what you request?"
= =

I mean well, and I don't know how to "assist".
The example screen shot I received from support shows maybe 20 "Safari tabs" at most.
I can't fit 400 some "Safari tabs" in a screen shot.

Hence me asking;
Is there is an alternative way to "measure" the 1Password Safari extension's RAM usage?
I can only "see it happen", which isn't that helpful working towards a better experience.

Thanks, Ben.
Stay healthy,

FredericC

Sadly 1password8 is heavier than 1Password7, around the double or RAM usage. Users alerted 1Password team during the Beta version but sadly nothing was really significantly done from user point of view.

At this state 1Password8 use as much memory as VSCode with a bunch of plugins loaded, and half of Photoshop which is not known for is light memory usage…
Perhaps this version is better for 1Password dev team / sales team, but from a user point of view, there is no clear benefit sadly.

Fred

MattCostello

Ditto - running 80700098, on PRODUCTION channel on MacOS 12.3.1 on M1 Max - memory for just the 1Password process alone is 1.4GB?

Ben

1.48 GB of memory usage is definitely not normal. Is that what you're typically seeing, or was this a one-off, @MattCostello?

Ben

Ben

@Frederic.C

When given the choice between having the app be more responsive or having the app use less memory, we opted for the app to be more responsive in every case. That said, some of the memory usage numbers called out here are atypical. I posted about what might be considered more typical memory usage in various circumstances here.

Ben

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Ben

Even when editing Pride and Prejudice as a Secure Note I wasn't seeing 1GB of memory usage across all of the 1Password related processes combined. Yes, it is going to use more memory than 1Password 7 in many cases. That's intentional. But I would agree 1.4GB is abnormal and something we'd like to investigate. I suspect something isn't happening as it should, an item is malformed, etc.

Ben

MattCostello

I'll keep an eye on it - first time I'm noticing... Haven't killed it yet, can take a sample or spindump if its helpful.

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PeterG_1P

Even when editing Pride and Prejudice as a Secure Note

😱😱😱

PeterG_1P

@MattCostello - we'd welcome any (non-sensitive) information you'd like to share. If you're open to it, it'd be great for us to check out a diagnostic report from your 1Password app too. Here's how you can get that to us:

1. Open the 1Password 8 for Mac app as you usually do.
2. Select All Accounts > Preferences > Advanced and then Send Diagnostics.
3. Select Reveal (the resulting file typically goes to your Downloads folder).
4. Attach that in an email to us at support@1Password.com.

If you can provide some brief context in that email - just that this is about memory usage, and a link to this discussion - that should give us a great basis to dig in and figure out what might be going on here. Thanks, and best regards from all of us here!

dspiewak

@Ben In terms of responsiveness, literally everything is less responsive. It's less about specific use-cases and workflows and more about "literally everything". This is absolutely felt the worst during auto-fill in the browser, but even the application itself is much less responsive. To be more specific:

• Unlock is noticeably slower, and the animations involve frame drops
• Search is slower
• Scrolling is slower
• Clicking into an item and rendering its contents are slower
• Switching into edit mode is much slower
• Scrolling is slower and often involves frame drops
• Copying the contents of a field is slower

So like I said: it really is accurate to say the entire experience is much less responsive. This is particularly dramatically noticeable if you uninstall 1P 8 and reinstall 1P 7. It very much feels like supercharging the whole experience.

PeterG_1P

Hi @dspiewak, thanks for sharing these details with us. This isn't the kind of behavior we'd expect from the app. Could you send us a brief email at support@1Password.com, with a link to your post, so we can investigate further? We'll be happy to help out. 👍

ref: dev/core/core#15508