Developer uncovers 47GB hidden memory bug that silently killed social media automation
A software developer discovered that their Mac-based social media automation system stopped posting entirely for 24 hours due to a severe memory issue on August 9, 2026. The macOS background scheduler process 'dasd' appeared normal at 264MB in Activity Monitor, but a deeper diagnostic command revealed it was holding 46GB of compressed memory, with swap ballooned to 37GB. Because macOS compresses rarely used memory pages without reflecting them in standard RSS readings, both Activity Monitor and common monitoring tools failed to flag the problem. The hidden memory pressure prevented Playwright from launching Chrome, causing it to time out after 180 seconds with no memory-related error messages logged. The developer also identified a second leaking process, 'iii' (agentmemory), growing at roughly 4GB per hour, and built an automated launchd job to detect and resolve both issues overnight.
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