My local AI was crawling with 1.3 GB free. The cause was an app renting my graphics card to run other people's AI, holding 45.6 GB. Here's how to find something like that.
1. Activity Monitor, Memory tab
Memory Pressure graph: red means you're out.
Wired Memory: memory that can't be freed. Graphics card work shows up here. Mine was 44.8 GB.
Sort by Memory to see the biggest apps.
2. Look for background services
In Terminal, launchctl list shows background services. Look for names you don't recognize, and search anything unfamiliar before removing it.
3. Check device management
System Settings, General, Device Management. Any profile listed there can control parts of your Mac. Make sure you know every one.
Before you uninstall anything like this
Read what the uninstall deletes. Mine deleted a wallet key, so claim any earnings first.
Some parts need removing by hand, like a device management profile.
After removing it
Free memory went from 1.3 GB to 51.9 GB.