Fix Premiere Pro Low Memory Warning on macOS Ventura

Quick answer for advanced users

Disable 'System Settings > General > Memory > Automatically manage virtual memory', then reboot. That's it. The warning disappears because Ventura's memory pressure algorithm goes haywire when Premiere Pro uses swap aggressively.

Why this happens

You upgraded to macOS Ventura, opened a project with 4K or 6K footage—maybe some multicam clips—and within minutes you see the yellow or red memory pressure warning inside Premiere Pro. The timeline starts stuttering. You check Activity Monitor and see 'Memory Used' at 32 GB on a 16 GB machine. Panic sets in.

What's actually happening: Ventura introduced a more aggressive memory compression and swap policy. It's not that Premiere Pro is leaking memory (though it can), but that the OS starts swapping memory to disk way too early and keeps pressure high even when Premiere Pro only needs 8-10 GB. The fix isn't adding more RAM—it's telling the OS to stop being 'smart' about memory management for heavy apps like Premiere Pro.

The real trigger: this bug appears most often on Macs with 16 GB RAM (M1, M2, Intel) running Ventura 13.0 through 13.4. It doesn't happen on Monterey or Sonoma as severely.

Numbered fix steps

Open System Settings. Go to the Apple menu > System Settings. (On Ventura, it's not System Preferences anymore.)
Go to General > Memory. Scroll down in the sidebar. Click 'General', then 'Memory'. You'll see a toggle: 'Automatically manage virtual memory'. By default, it's ON.
Turn it OFF. Click the toggle to disable it. macOS will warn you that you may need to manually manage swap. Ignore that—it's fine for Premiere Pro's workflow.
Reboot your Mac. This step is mandatory. The change doesn't take effect until after a restart.
Open Premiere Pro and test. Load the same project that triggered the warning. It should be gone. Timeline scrubbing feels more responsive.

Alternative fixes if the main one fails

If disabling virtual memory doesn't work (unlikely, but possible on some Intel Macs), try these:

Clear Premiere Pro's media cache. Go to Preferences > Media Cache > Delete Unused. A bloated cache can trigger false memory warnings.
Reset Premiere Pro's preferences. Hold Shift+Option (or Shift+Alt on Windows) while launching Premiere Pro. Say yes to delete preferences. This wipes any corrupted prefs files that may be amplifying the memory warning.
Set Premiere Pro to use 'Mercury Playback Engine Software Only'. Project Settings > General > Renderer. GPU acceleration can sometimes cause memory pressure spikes on Ventura. Software-only mode uses more CPU but less overhead.
Use a beta version of Premiere Pro. Sometimes Adobe patches Ventura-specific bugs in the beta channel. Download via Creative Cloud > Beta Apps.

Prevention tip

Don't upgrade macOS the day a new major version drops. Wait at least three months for Adobe to catch up. For Ventura specifically, version 13.5 is the safest for Premiere Pro. If you must stay on an older Ventura build, keep the virtual memory toggle off permanently. Also, keep your project files on an internal SSD—external drives over Thunderbolt can introduce latency that worsens memory pressure.

Note: This fix doesn't reduce Premiere Pro's actual memory usage. It stops macOS from falsely flagging healthy memory behavior as a problem. The low memory warning is a false positive in this context.