Memory Leak

[Richard Kimberly Heck]

We've had other reports of this, too. But we're not sure what's causing it.

Riki


On 8/31/26 11:39 AM, Sergio Celani via lyx-users wrote:
> Hello
>
> I've had a problem with LyX for a while now. I didn't mention it 
> before because I thought it would be fixed with an update.
> I am experiencing a major performance issue in LyX characterized by a 
> continuous and increase in memory consumption  over time. This memory 
> bloat inevitably leads to extreme sluggishness, especially when 
> entering text or mathematical formulas. This issue did not occur in 
> the v2.4 series.
>
> - LyX Version: 2.5.2, Windows 11,  RAM  32 GB,  Google Drive and 
> Dropbox are running in the background, syncing local folders.
>
>  Steps to Reproduce
> 1. Launch LyX and open a standard lyx document (the specific file does 
> not seem to matter).
> 2. Open the system monitor (task Manager ) to track memory usage.
> 3. Begin working normally (typing text, inserting math equations).
> 4. Observe memory metrics over time.
>
>
> - Upon startup, the  /virtual memory  usage for LyX is approximately  
> ~100–120 GB (which is significantly higher than the available 32 GB of 
> physical RAM, indicating heavy reliance on the pagefile/swap).
> - Within  30 minutes  of use, memory consumption climbs to 160–170 GB.
> - After approximately  1 hour, memory usage reaches nearly  300 GB.
> - As the memory footprint grows, the UI response degrades drastically. 
> Text input and equation editing become incredibly slow and laggy, 
> making the application almost unusable.
>
> Additional Tests Performed (to rule out external factors):
> - Rebooted the system entirely.
> - Launched LyX with only a browser and a PDF reader open alongside it 
> (no other heavy applications).
> - Tried this with various different `.lyx` files.
> - Result: The issue occurs consistently and regardless of the workload 
> or other running processes.
>  I do not recall experiencing this issue with LyX versions 2.4.x.
> I have experienced this problem regardless of how large or small the 
> file may be.
>
> If you need any other information I can provide, please let me know.
> Thank you very much.
>
> Sergio
>
>
>
>