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macOS' task manager utility application. It is used to perform different tasks on computer processes, as well as monitor system resource usage.

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Is there a way to “throttle” MacPorts?

I have an unusual request. I'd like to slow down MacPorts. It sometimes uses a ton of CPU resources, and rather than having it run at full speed, I'd like it to run slowly and in the background. ...
1
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1answer
166 views

High memory usage on MacOS Catalina

I noticed that most of the time, Activity Monitor tells me that memory used is above 10 Gb (out of 16). But the processes listed doesn't seem to consume as much memory. Here are screenshots : I also ...
0
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1answer
26 views

Unknown Binary in Application Samples

I recently started sampling applications that freeze on my machine. I have an iMac with 8 cores and 32GB of RAM running Catalina 10.15.1 fully patched. It's far from resource constrained yet certain ...
2
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1answer
19 views

Activity Monitor data, in recent history?

Lately my MacBook Pro has a lot of moments where it slows down for a few seconds, stops responding to keys and touchpad, displays a rainbow wheel of doom, and then comes back. If I go to the Activity ...
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2answers
49 views

sysmond using 100% CPU usage, but only while on the Memory tab

I used to have no issues with this, but all of a sudden sysmond is using 100% CPU while I have Activity Monitor set to the Memory tab. sysmond runs normally while in any other tab (CPU, Energy, Disk, ...
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2answers
691 views

“cron” processes spawning and piling up, but no crontab

EDIT: I solved this, so see below for my own answer. While the bounty asks for a fix to the problem, I'd like to award it to someone who can explain why a cron process that ran for 6 years over ...
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0answers
36 views

Over 550 processes shown in Activity Monitor

I'm running High Sierra on my older iMac. I opened Activity Monitor and clicked on the Memory tab to temporarily monitor the Memory Pressure. The memory pressure was fine but I noticed Activity ...
5
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3answers
679 views

“cron” processes piling up

I have cronjobs doing various cleanup tasks: $ crontab -l 0 * * * * find ${HOME}/Downloads -depth 1 -d -mtime +12h -exec /usr/local/bin/trash {} \; * * * * * /usr/bin/defaults delete com.apple....
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0answers
81 views

Activity Monitor doesn't show all CPU usage

This seems to be new behavior in macOS Catalina. While compiling a large C project with make -j8, the CPU is obviously pegged at 100%, but Activity Monitor doesn't show all the busy processes. I ...
3
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2answers
174 views

What is the name of the Automator application process?

I want to kill the process of the Automator application, but i can't find the name of it in the activity monitor.
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0answers
55 views

Mysterious process 'phonetism' eats CPU and vanishes

My 2015 MacBook running Mojave has been acting strange lately, especially whilst browsing. Sometimes Safari will freeze up, or reload a page out of the blue. I can feel my computer struggling, so I'm ...
2
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1answer
49 views

Activity Monitor - How to view multiple panels at the same time

I'm currently trying to view multiple metrics at the same time using Activity Monitor app (yes I have tried top, htop, etc but I was wondering if this is possible with Activity Monitor). Fx. looking ...
2
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1answer
26 views

getting some information from activity monitor in mac pro

I am running a code in Ampl I want to make sure my code is running still ,( I can not see it from software). in activity monitor the %cpu for this software is 99.6 . Is this mean the code is running?...
1
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1answer
47 views

How to know how much CPU and RAM I need for new computer?

I got a pimped up macbook pro (i7 3.3GHz i7) from late 2016 atm, but I feel like I could use a less powerful machine. I would like to find out what's my current/peak average CPU and RAM usage to see ...
4
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3answers
664 views

Why is my external HDD active when I'm not using it?

I have a partitioned external HDD (orange LaCie), with one partition for Time Machine. All partitions are Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). The HDD is GUID Partition Map. I'm not (consciously) ...
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3answers
587 views

MacBook without battery kernel_task 100% CPU utilization

After removing the battery from a MacBook late 2009 following a battery fault, the computer always runs kernel_task at 100% CPU utilization. I assume the process ends up in some kind of spin lock when ...
-1
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1answer
34 views

Activity Monitor Always Open Without Me Opening It

Why is Activity Monitor randomly open all the time on my work laptop even though I never open it?? I'm using a Macbook Pro on Mojave.
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1answer
39 views

Show “Activity Monitor” in every “Desktop”

I find much joy in monitoring my Apple computer's fan roll through monitoring CPU use. However, I don't know how to make multiple "Activity Monitor" windows, each for one of my "Desktop"s. I ...
3
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1answer
274 views

Activity Monitor, my system always runs in the red for CPU load - how to fix?

According to Activity Monitor my system is always running too high for CPU load. It’s always in the red in the CPU load graph and nothing I do corrects this. I’ve tried resetting NVRAM, SMC and ...
1
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1answer
117 views

What is the difference between Memory, Real Mem, and Compressed Mem?

I've already seen this question: What's the difference between Real, Virtual, Shared, and Private Memory? but I think it might be outdated. Specifically, there is a Memory column, as well as ...
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3answers
266 views

How can I monitor an employee's activity on a remote Mac?

I have a remote worker for my project and I am letting him use the Mac with the source code on it. I want to monitor his every activity, if that is possible.
2
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0answers
501 views

What is DataclassOwnersManager?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8563977 A strange process is running on an un-logged-in user and taking up tons of resources. It's called "DataclassOwnersManager." I was able to force quit the ...
0
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1answer
858 views

What is this process, “usagetrackingagent”, and why is it showing under activity monitor on MacBook

What is this process, “usagetrackingagent”, and why is it showing under activity monitor on MacBook? Does anyone with Mojave or a MacBook in general have this process under activity monitor. I quit ...
5
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6answers
4k views

Why does my Macbook overheat and use so much CPU and energy when on YouTube?

For a long time now, my Macbook has been overheating and hogging my CPU. According to Activity Monitor, Google Chrome Helper is the culprit. Whenever I am browsing the web, there are usually ten ...
2
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1answer
52 views

Is there any command line alternative to Activity Monitor that would yield the same results?

I know there's top and htop commands, but they lack a lot of information. For example there is no way to list processes from Energy tab. Or is there at least some kind of API for Activity Monitor ...
2
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1answer
197 views

Launchd process behavior

just wanted to ask a quick question I can't seem to find a straight answer to. What is normal "launchd" process behavior I should be seeing in Activity Monitor? Right now it is writing GB's of data ...
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1answer
2k views

Missing CoreAudio process in Activity Monitor

I have always had the buzzing audio issue that comes with the 2018 MacBook Pro Models (I'm still convinced its an audio buffer size mismatch error). Up until now, I have always used the Kill CoreAudio ...
9
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3answers
10k views

Process “warmd” keep busy mac after upgrading to macOS 10.14.4

After upgrading my Mac mini to macOS Mojave 10.14.4, every time I restart the computer the process "warmd" keep busy CPU and hard disk for 10-15 minutes, with great "spooling" noise and slowing down ...
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1answer
4k views

My activity lists a lot of processes. Is it normal?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) macOS Mojave 10.14.3 (18D109) Profiling a little bit my system I found that the activity Monitor is showing a huge amount of processes what I am not even ...
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1answer
71 views

Activity Monitor - Dock Icon - dual core is displayed with 4 columns

View > Dock Icon has two CPU choices: Show CPU Activity Show CPU History I am on a dual core (MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014). In both views, I see 4 items. Using High Sierra.
6
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1answer
5k views

VS Code - Code Helper process using more than 100% CPU on macOS

I noticed that my MacBook gets hot and noisy (fans) when using VS Code (v1.31). The Activity Monitor shows the process Code Helper using more than 100% of CPU. It started happening with one repository ...
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0answers
62 views

How to get time-dependent CPU usage logs?

Sometimes my MacBook pro 2017 starts rotating the fan very fast. It's hard to see if there is anything abnormal in the Activity monitor because it looks pretty much as always but the total CPU load. ...
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1answer
263 views

How do I kill pboard from command line?

I'm sick of manually killing the pboard process in Activity Monitor to recover my copy & paste. Is there a Terminal Command I can run instead?
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0answers
1k views

UserEventAgent Not Responding (MacBook Pro 2018 Mojave)

I opened activityMonitor and covered that UserEventAgent lighted red color. How can I fix this?
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1answer
2k views

iCloud Sync activity log

Trying to figure out how to see activity happening while iCloud Files is syncing. The macOS Console application shows messages from cloudd, but nothing very useful: The Activity Monitor does not show ...
6
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2answers
477 views

How can I distinguish a service form a process in Activity Monitor?

Is there a way to determine if an entry listed in Activity Monitor is a service (daemon) or a process (application)? Examples: Firefox (application) com.apple.audio.SandboxHelper (daemon?) Is there ...
5
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1answer
1k views

What is this mystery process: “-i”?

I have a mystery process visible in Activity Monitor, simply called "-i" - don't remember ever seeing this before. Its parent process is launchd, and belongs to root. Persists between reboots; ...
8
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2answers
5k views

com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice results in frequent hangs and freezes in my mac

Update (2019): The issue still persits even in macOS Mojave, tried everything I could find, nothing seems to solve the issue as of yet! Problem: com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice hangs repeatedly ever ...
1
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1answer
297 views

What do Memory and Compressed Memory columns mean exactly in Activity Monitor

I'm aware what compressed memory is from answers like this and Apple support but what I can't find is what exactly the usage means. Take my system right now: Is it telling me the top process is ...
11
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2answers
3k views

Wi-Fi taking up lot of memory

Since the last major upgrade to macOS Mojave, I have the Wi-Fi process taking up a lot of memory and in an exponentially way. Time to time I need to force quit it in Activity Monitor because it takes ...
1
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1answer
44 views

What is the process „Tornit“? It wants to access Safari documents & passwords

I was using Safari a couple of days ago, when I got a pop-up window: Tornit wants to control Safari and access your documents and passwords. Do you allow it? I clicked No. Tornit is a process I ...
0
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1answer
31 views

Activity monitor stops updating or intermittently updates

Since I upgraded to High Sierra, the Activity Monitor has been relatively unusable for me. When I launch it, it updates for a while, but after a while (especially after a time of high CPU load), it ...
0
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1answer
76 views

How can a process have 970% CPU usage on a dual-core computer?

My MacBook has a dual-core processor with hyperthreading, so 4 software cores. Seems like the maximum CPU usage would be 400%? I missed the screenshot, but today kernel_task shot up to 970% CPU for a ...
3
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0answers
3k views

Macbook performance issues with browsers

I have a MacBook Pro from 2013, and I'm having issues in both Chrome and Firefox - both are slowing down to a crawl, and when I check Activity Monitor I have multiple processes (in all the 'tabs' at ...
1
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1answer
1k views

Why is Adobe Acrobat using only one core for a heavy task, and how can I make it perform faster?

Adobe Acrobat is performing Optical Character Recognition on a document with thousands of pages. This is a heavy task which will take hours. Activity Monitor tells me that Acrobat is only using one ...
2
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1answer
41 views

Tracing real-time filesystem calls by process?

I suspect my backupd is performing a full filesystem scan. I can't tell because I don't know how to use Activity Monitor (or something else) to see what directories and files backupd is reading or ...
2
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1answer
970 views

How process hierarchy works in macOS

I'm wondering how Activity Monitor relates these two process if the child (Safari Web Content) doesn't have the ppid of the main one (Safari). pstree, which uses the ppid to organize the tree, shows ...
1
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1answer
92 views

How can I display Activity Monitor's “Memory” columns through Terminal?

Activity Monitor has a number of columns that show different measurements of memory usage for each process. Including: Memory Real Memory (various) Compressed Memory How can I display these for a ...
8
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2answers
852 views

Why is Illustrator throttled to 2% speed when it's in the background?

I regularly run a .jsx script in Adobe Illustrator that saves a bunch of files in a particular format. while Illustrator is the active app, running the script on 5 files takes 23 seconds. When ...
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4answers
1k views

Activity Monitor dock icon CPU history aggregate

On my old Mac I have a CPU history icon showing single aggregate graph. On the new Mac running the same OS version and having the same number of cores I can't seem to find this option. History only ...

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