Unknown file size download increases memory usage indefinitely

TiberiuIancu

When downloading a folder from my Nextcloud server (served as a .zip), Orion’s memory usage increases linearly with the download size. For example, downloading a 6 GB zip causes the main Orion process to consume ₆ GB of RAM.
I suspect this happens because Nextcloud does not provide a Content-Length header, so Orion may be buffering the entire file in memory instead of streaming it to disk (or streams it to disk but doesn't remove the cache).
Interestingly, memory usage sometimes briefly drops (e.g. down to ₃₀₀ MB), but then quickly climbs back to match the full file size again.

My mac becomes increasingly more sluggish, until eventually the memory pressure is too high and I have to cancel the download, otherwise I can't use it.

Steps to reproduce:
Download a large file through Orion with no content length header (e.g. from nextcloud)
Observe memory usage of the main Orion process jump up and down, but trend upward.

The memory consumption increases linearly with download size
Sometimes the memory consumption drops
Eventually it's too high for my 8GB RAM machine

I can confirm that the same doesn't happen in Safari.

The memory usage should remain constant in the main orion process, as I'd expect orion to simply write data to disk, then remove it from memory.

Version 0.99.136-beta (WebKit 622.1.15.19.2) Build date September 03, 2025 MacBook Air (macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 build 24G90)

Sequoia (15)

RoxyRoxyRoxy

Hi, would you happen to have a file we could use to test this?

TiberiuIancu

Hi, have you tried creating a file full of random bytes, something like:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=garbage.bin bs=1M count=6000

I don't want to send that particular file as it contains personal data from my drive.

bookerdewitt

I can confirm I have a similar issue as @TiberiuIancu , where downloading a file of an unknown size will result in Orion eating up all of my memory, resulting in my memory pressure substantially increasing, and the system using a bunch of swap memory, causing it to slow down and hang a lot. I am on an M2 Pro, 14-inch MacBook Pro, 2023, with 16 GB of RAM, running macOS Tahoe 26.1. I am using Orion Version 0.99.137-beta (WebKit 623.1.8.0.0)

This happened multiple times when I was downloading a ZIP file for an album I purchased off of 7digital, but seeing as it's protected content that has to be purchased, I can't exactly share the download link. @TiberiuIancu mentioned that the amount of memory Orion uses when this issue occurs, is equal to the size of the ZIP file itself, but that was not the case for me at all. The ZIP file I downloaded was 986 MB, but Orion ended up using way more than 2x that.

I will try to see if I can provide a test file that everyone can use, as soon as I find one.

LexFradski

I also can confirm this behavoiur:
When downloading large files that are delivered as a streamed/unknown-length response (for example, downloading a folder as a ZIP from OneDrive, where the server does not send a fixed Content-Length), Orion’s memory usage grows extremely large and appears to scale with the total size of the download.

On my system, downloading a ≈1 GB ZIP file results in Orion using about 30 GB of RAM. Before starting the download, Orion was using roughly 500 MB of RAM; after the download finishes, memory usage drops back to around the same baseline.

Steps to reproduce (from a clean profile, no extensions):
1. Launch Orion Version 1.0.0 (139) on macOS 26.1.
2. Create/use a clean Orion profile (no extensions, default settings).
3. Open a cloud storage service that streams ZIP downloads, for example:
• Sign in to OneDrive on the web.
• Select a folder containing enough files so that the resulting ZIP will be around 1 GB in size.
4. Click “Download” so that OneDrive starts generating and streaming the ZIP file (this is typically a response whose final size is not known up front).
5. Open Activity Monitor and observe Orion’s memory usage during the download.

Observed behavior:
• As the download progresses, Orion’s memory usage grows continuously and can reach tens of gigabytes for a ≈1 GB download.
• Once the download completes, Orion’s memory usage drops back down close to its original value (in my case ≈500 MB).

Safari (stable) on the same system does not show this behavior: downloading the same ZIP from OneDrive keeps memory usage roughly stable. I have not tested Safari Technology Preview.