John McDonough

Q: What is com.apple.MediaLibraryService?

I just upgraded to Mavericks and iTunes 11.1.2.  A few other quick notes on my setup:

 

  • I wirelessly sync to my iPhone 4S running iOS7.
  • My iTunes and iPhoto libraries are located on a remote disk that I am connected to wirelessly.  My router is a Time Capsule with a Lacie HD hooked up to it.  The Lacie is where the iTunes and iPhoto LIbraries are located.

 

First, everything seems to work fine.  There is one thing that I noticed though, when I am listening to iTunes internet radio (WXPN or Radio Paradise), I notice that this app (com.apple.MediaLIbraryService) keeps running in the background.  It is a drain on the CPU and battery and I notice that my Lacie HD is always spinning.  Before the upgrade, the drive would sleep, even while I was listening to internet radio on iTunes because I was not accessing any files.

 

The app does disappear when I shut down iTunes.

 

What is the app doing and how can I stop it from being a CPU and battery drain, along with stop spinning up the Lacie HD?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

John Mc

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 2, 2013 7:32 AM

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Q: What is com.apple.MediaLibraryService?

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  • by John McDonough,

    John McDonough John McDonough Nov 8, 2013 6:24 AM in response to John McDonough
    Level 2 (155 points)
    Nov 8, 2013 6:24 AM in response to John McDonough

    Just bumping this back up.  I haven't found any info and hoping someone else has.

     

     

    Again, thanks in advance!

     

    John Mc

  • by njakobsen,Solvedanswer

    njakobsen njakobsen Nov 14, 2013 5:20 PM in response to John McDonough
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 5:20 PM in response to John McDonough

    If you type "sudo fs_usage" into the terminal window, it'll show you what processes are using the file system. It looks like iTunes is using the com.apple.MediaLIbraryService to index photos on my network drive.

  • by Zzelp,

    Zzelp Zzelp Nov 15, 2013 8:17 PM in response to John McDonough
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2013 8:17 PM in response to John McDonough

    I also noticed this process using 90+% cpu.

    I went to activity monitor and shut it down!

    I have yet to find any side-effects this may have or whether it starts up automatically again.

  • by Zzelp,Helpful

    Zzelp Zzelp Nov 15, 2013 9:43 PM in response to Zzelp
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2013 9:43 PM in response to Zzelp

    Yup, it started itself up again, but is not gobbling up cpu it present.

  • by John McDonough,

    John McDonough John McDonough Nov 16, 2013 5:47 AM in response to Zzelp
    Level 2 (155 points)
    Nov 16, 2013 5:47 AM in response to Zzelp

    Thank you njakobsen and Zzelp!

  • by alex.ozr,

    alex.ozr alex.ozr Nov 30, 2013 12:28 PM in response to John McDonough
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2013 12:28 PM in response to John McDonough

    Hello!

    I have same situation - iPhoto library is on the network drive and com.apple.MediaLibraryService drains battery/cpu. If I close iTunes - everything is OK.

    So, what is the solution?

     

    I tried to add iPhoto network folder as exclusion for spotlight, but nothing changed. Also killing the com.apple.MediaLibraryService does not help - it automatically starts..

     

    Thanks in advance!

  • by edzHelp,

    edzHelp edzHelp Dec 6, 2013 5:14 PM in response to John McDonough
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 5:14 PM in response to John McDonough

    I have been working this issue for the past couple of months - since updating to Mavericks. Both my iTunes and iPhoto libraries reside on my NAS (accessed via ethernet). Up until the Mavericks update, my iTunes was left running on my Mac mini server 24/7 with NO issues.

     

    I can confirm that I see two issues:

     

    1. iTunes is using excessive memory (over 2GB); it starts off fine when the mini is rebooted, but then gradually eats through all available RAM until the mini freezes/iTunes crashes.

     

    2. The process "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" appears as 3rd highest memory hog

     

    Stumbled across John's thread here and did some more digging based njakobsen's reply above: I have iTunes Home Sharing enabled in iTunes. Looking at the File | Home Sharing | menu in iTunes, there is an option to "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV...".

     

    When I disable that option, close iTunes, and then relaunch iTunes, "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" does not appear in the process list, and iTunes returns to using only about 130 MB of memory.

     

    Of course, the obvious side-effect is that you will not be access Photos from your Mac on the AppleTV.

     

    Let me know if this worked for you.

  • by oloughlin,

    oloughlin oloughlin Dec 10, 2013 9:15 PM in response to edzHelp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2013 9:15 PM in response to edzHelp

    I found that after migrating my iTunes library, my Photo Sharing location didn't exist any longer due to structure change. 

    When I opened "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV" -- it gave me a pop-up warning that my locaiton "" didn't exist.

    In seeing that, I created a new, empty folder & added that & re-launched iTunes.  99.6% CPU still to that process.  Going back in & unchecking Photo Sharing & restarting iTunes did resolve the issue.

  • by oloughlin,

    oloughlin oloughlin Dec 11, 2013 7:16 PM in response to oloughlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2013 7:16 PM in response to oloughlin

    It came back again.  I had to re-do the steps above (selecting empty folder to share) - etc etc and it's gone for the time being.  iTunes bug, anyone?

  • by Howard Brazee,

    Howard Brazee Howard Brazee Dec 26, 2013 5:49 AM in response to John McDonough
    Level 1 (37 points)
    Applications
    Dec 26, 2013 5:49 AM in response to John McDonough

    It appears in the dock when I have iTunes running - which is almost always.    I've never seen it before the last couple of days.    It seems that my computer isn't slow just when I'm running Firefox, but is very slow when that utility is running.

  • by Johannes Lietz,

    Johannes Lietz Johannes Lietz Dec 28, 2013 6:15 AM in response to Howard Brazee
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Dec 28, 2013 6:15 AM in response to Howard Brazee

    Same problem here: When I start iTunes, a com.apple.MediaLibraryService process is (often) running at almost 100%. When I quit iTunes, it disappears. When I start iTunes again, it reappears. When I force quit that process, it reappears immediately at 100%.

     

    No solutions yet? This is really annoying.

  • by edzHelp,

    edzHelp edzHelp Dec 28, 2013 8:13 AM in response to Johannes Lietz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2013 8:13 AM in response to Johannes Lietz

    @Johannes, did you try what I suggested in my post above:

     

    "I have iTunes Home Sharing enabled in iTunes. Looking at the File | Home Sharing | menu in iTunes, there is an option to "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV...".

     

    When I disable that option, close iTunes, and then relaunch iTunes, "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" does not appear in the process list, and iTunes returns to using only about 130 MB of memory.

     

    Of course, the obvious side-effect is that you will not be access Photos from your Mac on the AppleTV."

  • by Johannes Lietz,

    Johannes Lietz Johannes Lietz Dec 28, 2013 3:11 PM in response to edzHelp
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Dec 28, 2013 3:11 PM in response to edzHelp

    Thanks @edzHelp. I tried that, iTunes home sharing is now disabled, but com.apple.MediaLibraryService is still at 100%. It can sometimes take half an hour after launching iTunes until I can see the process at 100%.

  • by edzHelp,

    edzHelp edzHelp Dec 28, 2013 9:08 PM in response to Johannes Lietz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2013 9:08 PM in response to Johannes Lietz

    @Johannes. Not sure from your response, but did you quit iTunes after disabling the Photo Sharing? Does com.apple.MediaLibraryService only run when you have iTunes running? Are your photos stored locally on your Mac, or on an external drive (e.g. NAS)?

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