Memory Leak? - Steam Web Helper using 6GB of RAM

[Nexie]

I left my PC on over night, went out for the day, and came back to my PC to find my RAM sitting at 75% usage while idle. A single steam web helper process had 6GB reserved.

This new UI isn't just a memory hog - it actively has a memory leak. I can deal with new visuals. I can put aside my disgust at web-based design infecting the rest of the steam UI. But this is an actual issue, and should have been caught in testing.

Proof:
https://i.imgur.com/Dn6XR91.png

[Cray]

Steven Seagull님이 먼저 게시:

After the bloated webhelper dies, Steam restarts it automatically. The same thing happens as you would kill it manually from task manager.

Keep an eye out for how it handles this. I did something similar on Linux, killed all webhelper processes to free up the ram, figuring steam would restart what it needed.

And steam just immediately launched 21 new webhelper processes.. and the ram usage went back to near where it was previously. It may do something similar on windows when processes are killed, I'm not sure.

[MonkehMaster]

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

Cray님이 먼저 게시:

Set it to whatever you like. I just recommended 4 as a baseline so it won't sputter and die within the hour. A few gigs is enough to keep it managed, but alive for long enough that you get to do stuff and restart before it crashes.

Try 750mb if you want - I made it crash within a minute when I set it to 500MB yesterday, so you may face some issues. Setting it to eg. 1200 mb and then using steam for a while is probably a decent way to test if you have the memory bleed issue, as it should choke and die pretty quickly from that (but still have enough ram to begin with that "this should have been enough.. you screwed up steam" is a fair statement).

LOL.... thats not even a solution....

i want to set up limitions that will recycle ram.... out with the old in with the new..

and if you do a steam restart... that is what your manually getting...

steam doesnt need the 4GB...

if it did when i did a restart it would start at 4GB...

and i know nothing about programming..

your setting up a crash system.... LOL

well chromium has a garbage collection function, that is supposed to clean up unused ram, not sure if steam uses it? or messed it up? or its working, but cant keep up with the leak?

[Cray]

MonkehMaster님이 먼저 게시:

well chromium has a garbage collection function, that is supposed to clean up unused ram, not sure if steam uses it? or messed it up? or its working, but cant keep up with the leak?

Maybe it's not chromium? Could be the underlying stuff or steam main process.
Even with garbage collection, could just spawn too many webhelpers, and chromium will only collect garbage if it's tagged as not in use. If steam/webhelper doesn't relinquish whatever it's doing, the garbage collector won't kick in.

*shrugs*

[MonkehMaster]

Cray님이 먼저 게시:

MonkehMaster님이 먼저 게시:

well chromium has a garbage collection function, that is supposed to clean up unused ram, not sure if steam uses it? or messed it up? or its working, but cant keep up with the leak?

Maybe it's not chromium? Could be the underlying stuff or steam main process.
Even with garbage collection, could just spawn too many webhelpers, and chromium will only collect garbage if it's tagged as not in use. If steam/webhelper doesn't relinquish whatever it's doing, the garbage collector won't kick in.

*shrugs*

you can have it run only while the program is not in use? so you mean while its idle?

a game i play casually, rust.... has garbage collection, but it runs while the game is being played, you can also disable, enable, set min/max values and a few other thing i think.

i would expect they should be running it, while steam is in use, at a slower intervals and faster intervals during idle time?

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

417mb played a game went to 434mb
read a few post jumps to 461mb...
last check before i click post comment 464.7mb

[Tharon]

Garbage collector only collect and release unreachable data in memory. If the memory is still reachable by the code then the garbage collector can't release it.

Unfortunately some programmer (usually the unexperienced and/or unskilled) believe that the garbage collector works by magic and can release all the memory they think should be released.
So they write bad code with zero optimization and don't care about remove memory references and do properly debug.

[KEEPER]

Cray님이 먼저 게시:

KEEPER님이 먼저 게시:

can anyone help me to get steam to boot please?
i can't access the stupid app because it won't boot, it just loads and loads and loads forevor.

i have already done 5 or 6 things to try and fix it, but nothing i do will make it boot, and i really don't want to uninstall it just to reinstall the app.

Dude, for god's sake, make a separate post about this. Don't ask for help on something entirely unrelated in a thread that has nothing to do with your problem.

I refuse to even think about helping you when you do this, sorry man.

We're discussing a likely memory leak here, not your specific problem.

i did make a seperate post and nobody's answered since i posted it last night on the same discussion board, the reason why i posted it here is because it was active and people seemed to know what they were talking about so possibly they could help me.

but i do agree the memory leak issue needs to be resolved as that very well might be related to my issue with the app not booting, especailly based on everyon's responses of how the app is behaving right now and what possible issues could arise from it happening.

so i apoligise for asking for help on an allegedly unrelated topic, i just want to play my games, i'm locked out, not even steam support ticket people are helping me currently, idk how many other people have this issue but according to youtube this has been going on for years, well it didn't effect me till now.

[Zefar]

Tharon님이 먼저 게시:

Garbage collector only collect and release unreachable data in memory. If the memory is still reachable by the code then the garbage collector can't release it.

Unfortunately some programmer (usually the unexperienced and/or unskilled) believe that the garbage collector works by magic and can release all the memory they think should be released.
So they write bad code with zero optimization and don't care about remove memory references and properly debug their code.

Well the thing with that is that, Steam for me takes currently 326 MB.
It's been open for quite some time too. I certainly do not have some special version. Other than that I'm in the beta program.

If the code was as bad as you claim this issue would appear on everyone.
But it might just be something else that is causing the issue.

You have people who use something like Shutup10 and then start disabling a lot of things not knowing what they do but it's running in the background so it's useless in their eyes.

Maybe they have used Reg cleaner tools that even Microsoft warns about.

They might have done stuff to their OS to cause this to happen.

Can take Starfield as an example of bad coding. It runs bad even for 4090 users. Well they can run it on above 80 FPS but that is just not okay.
That is bad coding that actually affects everyone.


In another case for me it was in Wild Hearts and I kept crashing quite often. It was linked to a RealTek Audio driver service running. When I turned that off I was able to play the game for a lot longer without any crashes.
This normal motherboard service program that look completely harmless caused crashes in Wild Hearts.

[Euphytose]

The most it used for me is around 3gb, but it's definitely not ok.

Windows 11, BIOS, Windows, drivers updated, not running anything special.

So yes, something's wrong with Steam.

[Tharon]

Open Big Picture, then close Big Picture, then open it again and close it again. Do it enough time and enjoy your unfixed memory leaks from months ago.

Also there are A LOT of similar leaks, but they can vary in intensity depending of user's hardware and settings. But they exists.
If you don't have maybe is because your are not affected or not using some of Steam functions.

Anyway, your logic is wrong. A bad writed software CAN work well for some user and have bugs for some other. A good writed software works the same for everyone.
If some user suffer for performance issues and memory leaks in Steam, then Steam is bad writed. Users who doesn't have issues does not matter.

[Iron Knights]

More to Spy on You with MY PRECIOUS ! Especially when away from your PC.
Easy to detect, mouse, KB, & input, plus network inactivity > 5min.. Your entire file directory recorded and sold.

[Cray]

Zefar님이 먼저 게시:

If the code was as bad as you claim this issue would appear on everyone.
But it might just be something else that is causing the issue.

Doesn't have to be an issue for everyone to be a real problem. Bugs rarely affect every user and every system, that's precisely why they go undiscovered during development.

He could be right in the general description of it, or it could be something similar.

And when you say "it might just be something else" that's quite possibly true also.

What if it's a real issue that only affects some systems? I already know conclusively steam doesn't work the same on all systems, because I've seen it and tested it. On some it's sluggish and eats ram, on others it works like a charm. Some people have black screen bugs, others don't - because their systems are different. etc.

So, in summary, I don't think you're really wrong, and I don't think the other guy is either. And we don't really know what's causing this.

The hitch is, reporting problems on forums all too often ends up like this:

User 1 : I have a problem.

User 2: I don't have this problem, therefore you are mistaken.

User 1: No, it's a real problem, I've checked.

User 2: Then it's your fault, otherwise we would have this problem too. You're the problem.

I'm not accusing you of this, I hope that's clear. Just pointing out that it'd be nice if we don't go there and repeat that tired mistake, because it seems to happen every week, and it derails the discussion when others are trying to figure things out.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

maybe Zefar has the problem....
and their computer settings are blocking the way steam wants to waste ram.....

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

417mb played a game went to 434mb
read a few post jumps to 461mb...
last check before i click post comment 464.7mb

so while i was asleep... steam wanted about 80mb... bumping me to 544.9mb

some places actually ask if you want to donate your stuff... not on steam..

your welcome steam....

[Fearagen]

So far, Microsoft hasn't made a reply yet on what they think of this. https://aka.ms/AAmwx16 (This opens the feedback hub).