The Minecraft memory leak issue can cause the game to crash and even the computer and other programs to crash. If you’re experiencing this annoying issue, don’t worry. To fix the issue, you can try the methods below:
Method 1: Restart your computer
Method 2: Reinstall Java
Method 3: Change the priority level for Minecraft launcher
Method 4: Specify the maximum RAM usage through Minecraft JVM Arguments
Method 5: Reinstall Minecraft
Method 1: Restart your computer
A simple restart can fix many memory issues of Minecraft. If you haven’t restarted your computer, it’s recommended you restart your computer first.
If you’ve restarted your computer and it doesn’t fix the issue, continue to try other methods.
Method 2: Reinstall Java
To fix the Minecraft memory leak issue, you can try to reinstall Java. Besides, make sure you’ve installed the latest version of Java.
Firstly, you need to uninstall Java from your computer.
1) Right-click on the Start menu button and select Apps and Features.
2) Scroll down and locate Java. Click on it and select Uninstall.
Secondly, install the latest version of Java.
Once the uninstallation is done, go to Java’s official website to download the latest version of Java and install it on your computer again.
Lastly, restart your computer and check to see if the error is fixed.
Method 3: Change the priority level for Minecraft launcher
Changing the priority level for Minecraft launcher to High may help fix the memory leak issue. Here’s how:
1) Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
2) Go to the Details tab, right-click on MinecraftLauncher.exe, and then select Set priority -> High.
Once done, restart your computer and check to see if the error is fixed.
Method 4: Specify the maximum RAM usage through Minecraft JVM Arguments
To fix the memory leak issue, you can allocate more memory to Minecraft. Minecraft allows you to edit some arguments to improve game performance. So you can allocate more memory to Minecraft by editing the related arguments. Here’s how:
1) Open Minecraft launcher.
2) Once the Minecraft launcher opens, go to the “Installations” tab.
3) Find and select the version that has the memory leak issue. If you’re using the latest version, select the Latest release option.
4) Click on the three horizontal dots next to the Play button, and then select Edit from the drop-down menu.
5) In the next window, click on More Options.
6) In the “JVM Arguments” text box, look for the code that says “-Xmx[number]G”. This is the amount of memory allocated to Minecraft. If the number is 2, it means you have 2 GB of memory allocated to Minecraft.
The argument "Xmx" is used to specify the maximum memory usage by Minecraft on your system.
7) Change the number in “-Xmx[number]G” to the memory you’d like to allocate and click the Save button.
For example, if you’d like to allocate 8 GB to Minecraft, change the number to 8. After that, the full argument should be “-Xmx8G”.
The memory you can allocate to Minecraft should depend on how much memory is installed on your PC. If you have no idea how much memory you have, you can follow these steps to find it out:
a) Open Settings.
b) Click on System.
c) Click About on the left panel, and then you can see the Installed RAM on the right panel. In the screenshot below, the Installed RAM is 16.0 GB. It means this PC has 16.0 GB RAM available.
After you allocate more memory to Minecraft, launch Minecraft and check to see if the memory leak issue is fixed.
Method 5: Reinstall Minecraft
If none of the above methods works, the last resort you can try is to reinstall Minecraft. Here’s how:
1) Press Win+R to open the Run box.
2) Type “%appdata%” into the Run box and then press Enter to open the Roaming folder.
3) From the Roaming folder, open the .minecraft folder. Then, find and store the saves folder to any safe location on your PC.
4) Delete the .minecraft folder. This will uninstall Minecraft from your PC.
5) Launch Minecraft launcher, then Minecraft will install again.
6) Once Minecraft is installed, a new .minecraft folder will be created automatically. Copy and paste the saves folder you stored in Step 3) to the new .minecraft folder.
Once done, reboot your computer and check to see if the Minecraft memory leak issue is fixed.
Hopefully you find this post helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below. I’ll get back to you ASAP.