Memory Debugging

Overview

Memory issues manifest as crashes after prolonged use. Core principle 90% of memory leaks follow 3 patterns (retain cycles, timer/observer leaks, collection growth). Diagnose systematically with Instruments, never guess.

Example Prompts

• "My app crashes after 10-15 minutes with no error messages"
• "Memory jumps from 50MB to 200MB+ on a specific action — leak or cache?"
• "View controllers don't deallocate after dismiss"
• "Timers/observers causing memory leaks — how to verify?"
• "App uses 200MB and I don't know if that's normal"

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Red Flags — Memory Leak Likely

• Progressive memory growth: 50MB → 100MB → 200MB (not plateauing)
• App crashes after 10-15 minutes with no error in Xcode console
• Memory warnings appear repeatedly in device logs
• View controllers don't deallocate after dismiss (visible in Memory Graph Debugger)
• Same operation run multiple times causes linear memory growth

Leak vs normal: Normal = stays at 100MB. Leak = 50MB → 100MB → 150MB → 200MB → CRASH.

Mandatory First Steps

ALWAYS diagnose FIRST (before reading code):

1. Check device logs for "Memory pressure critical", "Jetsam killed", "Low Memory"
2. Use Memory Graph Debugger (below) — shows object count growth
3. Xcode → Product → Profile → Memory. Perform action 5 times, note if memory keeps growing

What this tells you: Flat = not a leak. Linear growth = classic leak. Spike then flat = normal cache. Spikes stacking = compound leak.

Why diagnostics first: Finding leak with Instruments: 5-15 min. Guessing: 45+ min.

Detecting Leaks — Step by Step

Step 1: Memory Graph Debugger (Fastest)

1. Open app in simulator
2. Debug → Memory Graph Debugger (or toolbar icon)
3. Look for PURPLE/RED circles with "⚠" badge
4. Click them → Xcode shows retain cycle chain

Step 2: Instruments (Detailed Analysis)

1. Product → Profile (Cmd+I) → "Memory" template
2. Perform action 5-10 times
3. Memory line goes UP for each action? = Leak confirmed

Key instruments: Heap Allocations (object count), Leaked Objects (direct detection), VM Tracker (by type).

Step 3: Deallocation Check

// Add deinit logging to suspect classes
class MyViewController: UIViewController {
    deinit { print("✅ MyViewController deallocated") }
}

@MainActor
class ViewModel: ObservableObject {
    deinit { print("✅ ViewModel deallocated") }
}

Navigate to view, navigate away. See "✅ deallocated"? Yes = no leak. No = retained somewhere.

Jetsam (Memory Pressure Termination)

Jetsam is not a bug — iOS terminates background apps to free memory. Not a crash (no crash log), but frequent kills hurt UX.

Termination	Cause	Solution
Memory Limit Exceeded	Your app used too much memory	Reduce peak footprint
Jetsam	System needed memory for other apps	Reduce background memory to <50MB

Reducing Jetsam Rate

Clear caches on backgrounding:

// SwiftUI
.onChange(of: scenePhase) { _, newPhase in
    if newPhase == .background {
        imageCache.clearAll()
        URLCache.shared.removeAllCachedResponses()
    }
}

State Restoration

Users shouldn't notice jetsam. Use @SceneStorage (SwiftUI) or stateRestorationActivity (UIKit) to restore navigation position, drafts, and scroll position.

Monitoring with MetricKit

class JetsamMonitor: NSObject, MXMetricManagerSubscriber {
    func didReceive(_ payloads: [MXMetricPayload]) {
        for payload in payloads {
            guard let exitData = payload.applicationExitMetrics else { continue }
            let bgData = exitData.backgroundExitData
            if bgData.cumulativeMemoryPressureExitCount > 0 {
                // Send to analytics
            }
        }
    }
}

App memory grows while in USE? → Memory leak (fix retention)
App killed in BACKGROUND? → Jetsam (reduce bg memory)

Common Memory Leak Patterns (With Fixes)

Pattern 1: Timer Leaks (Most Common — 50% of leaks)

Why [weak self] alone doesn't fix timer leaks: The RunLoop retains scheduled timers. [weak self] only prevents the closure from retaining self — the Timer object itself continues to exist and fire. You must explicitly invalidate() to break the RunLoop's retention.

❌ Leak — Timer never invalidated

progressTimer = Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 1.0, repeats: true) { [weak self] _ in
    self?.updateProgress()
}
// Timer never stopped → RunLoop keeps it alive and firing forever

✅ Best fix: Combine (auto-cleanup)

cancellable = Timer.publish(every: 1.0, tolerance: 0.1, on: .main, in: .default)
    .autoconnect()
    .sink { [weak self] _ in self?.updateProgress() }
// No deinit needed — cancellable auto-cleans when released

Alternative: Call timer?.invalidate(); timer = nil in both the appropriate teardown method (viewWillDisappear, stop method, etc.) AND deinit.

For timer crash patterns (EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION) and RunLoop mode issues, see axiom-timer-patterns.

Pattern 2: Observer/Notification Leaks (25% of leaks)

❌ Leak — No removeObserver

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(handle),
    name: AVAudioSession.routeChangeNotification, object: nil)
// No matching removeObserver → accumulates listeners

✅ Best fix: Combine publisher

NotificationCenter.default.publisher(for: AVAudioSession.routeChangeNotification)
    .sink { [weak self] _ in self?.handleChange() }
    .store(in: &cancellables)  // Auto-cleanup with viewModel

Alternative: NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self) in deinit.

Pattern 3: Closure Capture Leaks (15% of leaks)

❌ Leak — Closure in array captures self

updateCallbacks.append { [self] track in
    self.refreshUI(with: track)  // Strong capture → cycle
}

✅ Fix: Use [weak self]

updateCallbacks.append { [weak self] track in
    self?.refreshUI(with: track)
}

Clear callback arrays in deinit. Use [unowned self] only when certain self outlives the closure.

Pattern 4: Strong Reference Cycles

❌ Leak — Mutual strong references

player?.onPlaybackEnd = { [self] in self.playNextTrack() }
// self → player → closure → self (cycle)

✅ Fix: [weak self] in closure

player?.onPlaybackEnd = { [weak self] in self?.playNextTrack() }

Pattern 5: View/Layout Callback Leaks

Use the delegation pattern with AnyObject protocol (enables weak references) instead of closures that capture view controllers.

Pattern 6: PhotoKit Image Request Leaks

PHImageManager.requestImage() returns a PHImageRequestID that must be cancelled. Without cancellation, pending requests queue up and hold memory when scrolling.

class PhotoCell: UICollectionViewCell {
    private var imageRequestID: PHImageRequestID = PHInvalidImageRequestID

    func configure(with asset: PHAsset, imageManager: PHImageManager) {
        if imageRequestID != PHInvalidImageRequestID {
            imageManager.cancelImageRequest(imageRequestID)
        }
        imageRequestID = imageManager.requestImage(for: asset, targetSize: PHImageManagerMaximumSize,
            contentMode: .aspectFill, options: nil) { [weak self] image, _ in
            self?.imageView.image = image
        }
    }

    override func prepareForReuse() {
        super.prepareForReuse()
        if imageRequestID != PHInvalidImageRequestID {
            PHImageManager.default().cancelImageRequest(imageRequestID)
            imageRequestID = PHInvalidImageRequestID
        }
        imageView.image = nil
    }
}

Similar patterns: AVAssetImageGenerator → cancelAllCGImageGeneration(), URLSession.dataTask() → cancel().

Systematic Debugging Workflow

Phase 1: Confirm Leak (5 min)

Profile with Memory template, repeat action 10 times. Flat = not a leak (stop). Steady climb = leak (continue).

Phase 2: Locate Leak (10-15 min)

Memory Graph Debugger → purple/red circles → click → read retain cycle chain.

Common locations: Timers (50%), Notifications/KVO (25%), Closures in collections (15%), Delegate cycles (10%).

Phase 3: Fix and Verify (5 min)

Apply fix from patterns above. Add deinit { print("✅ deallocated") }. Run Instruments again — memory should stay flat.

Compound Leaks

Real apps often have 2-3 leaks stacking. Fix the largest first, re-run Instruments, repeat until flat.

Non-Reproducible / Intermittent Leaks

When Instruments prevents reproduction (Heisenbug) or leaks only happen with specific user data:

Lightweight diagnostics (when Instruments can't be attached):

1. deinit logging as primary diagnostic — Add deinit { print("✅ ClassName deallocated") } to all suspect classes. Run 20+ sessions. When the leak occurs (e.g., 1 in 5 runs), missing deinit messages reveal which objects are retained.
2. Isolate the trigger — Test each navigation path independently. Rapidly toggle background/foreground if timing-dependent. Narrow to the specific path that leaks.
3. MetricKit for field diagnostics — Monitor peak memory in production via MXMetricPayload.memoryMetrics.peakMemoryUsage. Alert when exceeding threshold (e.g., 400MB). This catches leaks that only manifest with real user data volumes.

Common cause of intermittent leaks: Notification observers added on lifecycle events (viewWillAppear, applicationDidBecomeActive) without removing duplicates first. Each re-registration accumulates a listener — timing determines whether the duplicate fires.

TestFlight verification: Ship diagnostic build to affected users. Add os_log memory milestones. Monitor MetricKit for 24-48 hours after fix deployment.

Common Mistakes

• [weak self] without invalidate() — Timer keeps running, consuming CPU. ALWAYS call invalidate() or cancel()
• Invalidate without nil — timer?.invalidate() stops firing but reference remains. Always follow with timer = nil
• Local AnyCancellable — Goes out of scope immediately, subscription dies. Store in Set<AnyCancellable> property
• deinit with only logging — Add actual cleanup (invalidate timers, remove observers), not just print statements
• Wrong Instruments template — Memory shows usage. Leaks detects actual leaks. Use both

Instruments Quick Reference

Scenario	Tool	What to Look For
Progressive memory growth	Memory	Line steadily climbing = leak
Specific object leaking	Memory Graph	Purple/red circles = leak objects
Direct leak detection	Leaks	Red "! Leak" badge = confirmed leak
Memory by type	VM Tracker	Objects consuming most memory
Cache behavior	Allocations	Objects allocated but not freed

Command Line Tools

xcrun xctrace record --template "Memory" --output memory.trace
xcrun xctrace dump memory.trace
leaks -atExit -excludeNoise YourApp

Real-World Impact

Before: 50+ PlayerViewModel instances with uncleared timers → 50MB → 200MB → Crash (13min) After: Timer properly invalidated → 50MB stable for hours

Key insight 90% of leaks come from forgetting to stop timers, observers, or subscriptions. Always clean up in deinit or use reactive patterns that auto-cleanup.

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Resources

WWDC: 2021-10180, 2020-10078, 2018-416

Docs: /xcode/gathering-information-about-memory-use, /metrickit/mxbackgroundexitdata

Skills: axiom-performance-profiling, axiom-objc-block-retain-cycles, axiom-metrickit-ref, axiom-lldb (inspect retain cycles interactively)