# A notification when an app misbehaves.

Canonical page: https://vitalsmac.com/features/alerts

Vitals tells you when an app has kept the CPU busy, kept growing in memory, or hammered the disk or the network, with the app named and what it has been doing, so you find out before the fans tell you.

## Patterns: It watches for patterns, not spikes.

Chrome at 100% for a second is normal. Chrome at 70% for ten minutes is a tab you should find. Vitals waits for the patterns that actually mean something, then names the app and what it has been doing, so you are not nagged every time a build runs.

- An app keeping the CPU busy for ten minutes
- An app whose memory keeps growing for an hour
- A burst of disk or network far above its usual
- The Mac running hot for minutes at a time

## Worth a Look: Everything it noticed, and how things stand now.

Every notice lands in Worth a Look, beside the Overview, grouped by day. Something noticed three times is one row with a count, not three rows, and every row tells you how things stand right now, so you can see what resolved itself.

- Grouped by day
- Noticed several times is one row, with a count
- Narrow by type, pin what you want to keep
- Quiet an app until tomorrow, or for good

## Thresholds: Every limit is yours to set.

Settings → Insights holds every threshold: how much, and for how long. Tell Me When… adds a memory or CPU limit for one app, for the minutes you choose, so the one app you worry about gets its own watch.

- The CPU percent, and how many minutes
- How much memory growth, how large a burst
- How hot, for how long
- Your own limit for one app

## Red first: The menu bar goes red before anything else.

Before any notification, the reading under strain turns red in the menu bar, and the dropdown tells you which limit was crossed and for how long. Once an app has been named it is left alone for an hour, so a known problem does not keep ringing.

- Red while a reading is under strain
- The dropdown says which limit, and for how long
- An app named once is left alone for an hour
- One switch for all notifications

## Why it matters: alerts on a Mac

A Mac tells you something is wrong by getting hot, slow or loud, and by then it has been wrong for a while. Activity Monitor has no notifications: it shows the number if you happen to be looking, and the number that matters is usually one that has been climbing for an hour, not one that spiked.

The useful alert is about a pattern. Chrome at 100% for a second is normal; Chrome at 70% for ten minutes is a tab you should find. Slack at 3 GB is a lot; Slack growing by 1.4 GB in an hour is a leak.

Vitals watches for the patterns: an app keeping the CPU busy, an app whose memory keeps growing, a burst of disk or network far above usual, the Mac running hot for minutes, and any limit you set yourself for one app. Each is a notification naming the app and what it has been doing, and a row in Worth a Look that says how things stand now. Once an app has been named it is left alone for an hour, and you can quiet an app until tomorrow or for good.

## How to use it

1. **See what Vitals noticed.** Worth a Look opens beside the Overview, grouped by day. Something noticed several times is one row with a count, every row says how things stand now, and you can narrow the list by type and pin what you want to keep.
2. **Set the thresholds.** Settings → Insights: the CPU percent and how many minutes, how much memory growth, how large a disk or network burst, and how hot for how long. Notifications have one switch there.
3. **Set a limit of your own.** Settings → Insights → Tell Me When…, or right-click an app and choose Alert When…: a memory or CPU limit for that one app, for the minutes you set.
4. **Quiet what you do not want to hear about.** Right-click an app, or a notice about it, to hear no more until tomorrow or for good. The apps you quieted are listed in Settings → Insights. The menu bar reading goes red first, and the dropdown says which reading crossed which limit and for how long.

## Compared with Activity Monitor

| | Activity Monitor | Vitals |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Notifications | None | Five patterns, and limits you set |
| A pattern, not a spike | You watch the graph | Ten busy minutes for CPU, an hour of growth for memory |
| A hot Mac | Nothing | Hot for minutes, with the app behind it and the fan speeds |
| Your own limit | None | Memory or CPU for one app, for the minutes you set |
| Quiet an app | No | Until tomorrow, or for good |

## The words behind it

- [Memory pressure](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/memory-pressure): Memory pressure is Activity Monitor's graph of how well the Mac's RAM is meeting current demand.
- [Thermal throttling](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/thermal-throttling): Thermal throttling is when a computer lowers its processor speed to keep temperatures in a safe range.
- [% CPU](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/cpu-percent): % CPU is the share of processor capacity a process is using, measured per CPU core.
- [Spinning wait cursor](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/spinning-wait-cursor): The spinning wait cursor, often called the spinning beach ball, is the rainbow pointer macOS shows when an app has not responded to input for a few seconds.
- [Not Responding](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/not-responding): Not Responding is the label macOS gives an app that has stopped handling input.

## Questions

### What does Vitals alert me about?

An app that keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network, the Mac running hot, and any limit you set for one app. Each is a notification with the app named and what it has been doing.

### Will I get an alert every time something is busy?

No. The CPU alert needs ten busy minutes and the memory alert an hour of growth, and once an app has been named it is left alone for an hour. A quick export does not set one off.

### Can I turn alerts off?

Yes, with one switch in Settings. Or raise a threshold instead, so a busy machine stops nagging without going quiet altogether.

### Does Activity Monitor have alerts?

No. Activity Monitor shows what is happening this second and never notifies you of anything.

### Can I get an alert for one app?

Yes. Settings → Insights → Tell Me When…, or right-click the app and choose Alert When…, then set a memory or CPU limit and how many minutes it has to hold.

### What if an app is meant to be busy?

Right-click it, or the notice about it, and quiet it until tomorrow or for good. The quieted apps are listed in Settings → Insights.

### Does Vitals tell me when the Mac runs hot?

Yes: when it has been hot for a few minutes, which app is behind the heat, and how fast the fans are running. Set the temperature and the minutes in Settings → Insights.

### Where do past alerts go?

Into Worth a Look, beside the Overview, grouped by day, with a count for anything noticed several times and how things stand now.

## Read on

- [Why is my Mac so slow? How to find the cause, and fix it](https://vitalsmac.com/why-is-my-mac-so-slow)
- [Chrome using too much memory on a Mac? How to find the tab behind it](https://vitalsmac.com/chrome-using-too-much-memory-mac)
- [Why are my Mac’s fans so loud? How to find what is heating it](https://vitalsmac.com/mac-fan-loud)
- [Vitals vs Activity Monitor](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/activity-monitor)
- [Vitals vs iStat Menus](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/istat-menus)

## More of Vitals

Every feature is at [vitalsmac.com/features](https://vitalsmac.com/features). Vitals is one payment, with every update for life: [pricing](https://vitalsmac.com/pricing).