127
votes
What is "photoanalysisd" and why is it using 77% of my CPU?
Update for 2019, 16" MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.2:
start Photos, let it continue past the first dialogue box;
now Preferences… in the main app menu under Photos just right after Apple ...
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112
votes
mds and mds_stores constantly consuming cpu
It's best to find high-volume directories and omit them from indexing using Spotlight->Privacy settings.
In terminal call fs_usage to list files being indexed by mds_stores
~ sudo fs_usage -w -f ...
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96
votes
Accepted
How to monitor and control thermal CPU throttling in OS X?
Apple Silicon Macs
From this answer:
sudo powermetrics -s thermal
which under normal conditions prints the following after a while:
Current pressure level: Nominal
Not quite sure whether this ...
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72
votes
Accepted
What is "photoanalysisd" and why is it using 77% of my CPU?
Your iMac is currently processing the photos in your Photos library, presumably because you’ve just imported/converted an existing Photos library from an earlier version of macOS.
If you suspect this ...
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70
votes
Suddenly the "diagnosticd" daemon rise up to over 200% CPU usage
As a software developer:
Quitting the iOS Simulator resolved the issue.
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65
votes
Does macOS have a command to retrieve detailed CPU information like /proc/cpuinfo on Linux?
The Terminal command sysctl might be what you're looking for, in particular sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu:
[my_mac:~] admin% sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu
machdep.cpu.max_basic: 22
machdep.cpu.max_ext: ...
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64
votes
The process com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext hogs Mac CPU but cannot be killed or stopped from launching
I think I’ve found a fix.
Go into the Applications folder and open the Cisco folder.
Delete the Cisco Socket Filter application but NOT the Anyconnect client.
I’ve not had the issue since and the ...
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61
votes
Accepted
How to make Google Chrome Helper not use as much CPU
Invoke ⋮ Chrome Menu → Window → Task Manager to see what exactly consumes CPU. Because the helper is a black box from the OS' side of view. I personally found a mining extension that way.
Also watch ...
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60
votes
Accepted
Which Intel "generation" is my Mac's CPU?
You can get the processor generation by running the following command in Terminal:
sysctl machdep.cpu.brand_string
If the output contains a dash and a number after your "iX"-Core model, the first ...
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48
votes
Accepted
The process com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext hogs Mac CPU but cannot be killed or stopped from launching
Press Don't allow When Cisco asks Cisco AnyConnect Socket Filter” Would Like to Filter Network Content.
If you do so it creates Network Settings that automatically launches this CPU-consuming com....
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43
votes
How do I identify which CPU a MacBook uses?
First off, you are not going to get the processor microarchitecture name (Broadwell, Sandy Lake, Ivy Bridge, etc.) because it's not a prominent branding scheme for the Intel processors. Contrast that ...
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42
votes
Accepted
Suddenly the "diagnosticd" daemon rise up to over 200% CPU usage
I had the same issue and realized that some process (in my case osascript) was flooding the system log with error messages (AEGetDescData of non-desc type 'reco' not a good idea). This apparently led ...
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37
votes
macOS - ntpd uses more than 100% of CPU
Go to System Preferences > Date and Time and uncheck Set date and time automatically. Close System Preferences, then reopen and re-check Set date and time automatically
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36
votes
VS Code - Code Helper process using more than 100% CPU on macOS
This is most likely an issue with a plugin in VS Code. For me, it was Pyright.
How to check?
Open Activity Monitor
Within the list of prcesses, find the one that has the highest CPU usage (it should ...
- 461
35
votes
Accepted
Why is kernel_task using so much CPU?
You have classic symptoms that thermal issues are causing kernel task to preemptively use up CPU to prevent overheating. If you haven't reset the SMC, try that one time. If the System Management ...
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30
votes
VTDecoderXPCService taking CPU
I did a spindump via the activity monitor and so i found the resposible app.
In my case it was Firefox (HTML5 Vids)
- 401
28
votes
How to monitor and control thermal CPU throttling in OS X?
The official Intel Power Gadget has a Mac version.
- 548
28
votes
High CPU time of Finder in El Capitan
Looking at this Apple forum thread, the first solution was this:
A first guess is: bad com.apple.finder.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/. Delete the file.
Here was another that seemed to help:
...
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27
votes
What is the ApplicationsStorageExtension process on macOS?
Did you leave About This Mac open with Storage selected?
I think ApplicationsStorageExtension calculates how much storage your Mac is using.
To stop it:
Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu (...
- 569
26
votes
"powerd" process uses a lot of CPU
sudo pmset schedule cancelall fixed it for me.
After updating from macOS Ventura beta 3 to beta 4, powerd was using 100% CPU even after restarting it.
pmset -g log repeatedly printed
2022-07-28 23:54:...
grg♦
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26
votes
Accepted
What replaces x86 intrinsics for C when Apple ditches Intel CPUs for their own chips?
Intel Intrinsics are really just a library that provides easier access to a number of Intel instructions sets - such as SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions), AVX, etc. - for C programmers. The goal is to ...
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24
votes
mds and mds_stores constantly consuming cpu
If you have trouble it when mount external hard. check this article
Prevent Spotlight from indexing external drive
In my case, I solved it by creating .metadata_never_index file on the root path of ...
- 341
23
votes
Why is the accountsd process eating so much CPU?
This issue appeared with macOS Catalina for me, and only if I have the Mail app open without an internet connection.
Going to Mail->Window->Connection Doctor->ShowDetail, it looks like there'...
- 413
23
votes
How to monitor and control thermal CPU throttling in OS X?
There is an open-source menu bar app for monitoring CPU throttling (and temperature) called Hot: https://github.com/macmade/Hot/
brew install hot
It shows the information at the menu bar directly, ...
- 353
19
votes
mds and mds_stores constantly consuming cpu
Just to add a small tip on top of @Buscar웃 's correct answer:
In my case, I realized that spotlight was actually indexing Time Machine backups (which is really a stupid thing to do in the first place)....
- 301
19
votes
Accepted
How to stress a MacBook Pro Retina?
Consuming All the CPU Cores
The command below runs a yes instance for each CPU core and consumes a near maximum of the computer's processing capability:
CPU=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
seq $CPU | xargs -I{}...
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18
votes
Why is the accountsd process eating so much CPU?
The fix for this on Mojave is to install the 10.14.6 Supplemental Update - build 18G6032
The fix for this on Catalina is to install the macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update - build 19H2
After the reboot - ...
- 361
17
votes
What is "usernoted" and why is it eating my CPU?
Usernoted is a process that is responsible for notifications on OS X.
The instructions from this post solved usernoted sitting at 100% CPU on my Mac, even though they were intended to only fix stuck ...
- 528
16
votes
"powerd" process uses a lot of CPU
On my computer, it was Activity Monitor which caused the powerd process to use a lot of cpu (20-30%, sometimes 50%, resetting the SMC didn't help). Quitting Activity Monitor "solved" the problem. ...
- 321
16
votes
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible