UberJac

Q: Spotlight's CPU usage is out of control for no reason

I'm finding more and more Macs running 10.11.4 where Spotlight is just out of control for no reason that I can discern. 

If no one is logged in, Spotlight is using no CPU. 


As soon as someone logs in, Spotlight takes over as the number one CPU usage process.  It's currently at 166.4% (of multiple cores). 

It doesn't matter if I disable mdutil and kill Spotlight... Spotlight comes back and eats CPU. 

Reboots don't matter. 

10.11.4 Combo reinstall didn't help. 

Clearing out Caches didn't help. /System, /Library, and /Users.

Create a brand new user and login, Spotlight jumps to the top spot. 

Safe boot, Spotlight jumps to the top. 

Network cable out, no difference.

First-Aid was clean when booted from the Recovery Partition.


What the heck is going on here?

OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 5, 2016 7:51 AM

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Q: Spotlight's CPU usage is out of control for no reason

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  • by UberJac,

    UberJac UberJac May 5, 2016 11:37 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 5, 2016 11:37 AM in response to Linc Davis

    So, correction, the previous output request you asked for was tried on the test Mac with no Casper client.  I reinstalled the Casper client on the test device and tried a logout & login instead and that caused the Spotlight process to jump to 167% CPU usage.  So, now the first output request on the test device that exhibits the problem:  Unable to resolve path

     

    So same output.  Now for the next command:

     

    total 45

    drwxr-xr-x  28 0  0   -                 1020 May  5 10:54 .

    drwxr-xr-x  28 0  0   -                 1020 May  5 10:54 ..

    -rw-rw-r--   1 0  80  -                    0 Feb 11 18:12 .DS_Store

    drwx------   5 0  80  -                  170 May  5 10:05 .Spotlight-V100

    d-wx-wx-wt   2 0  20  hidden              68 May  5 10:06 .Trashes

    ----------   1 0  80  -                    0 Feb 11 18:12 .file

    drwx------   8 0  80  -                  272 May  5 11:05 .fseventsd

    drwxr-xr-x@  2 0  0   hidden              68 May  5 10:42 .vol

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    drwxrwxr-x+ 37 0  80  sunlnk            1258 May  5 11:20 Applications

    0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny delete

    drwxr-xr-x+ 61 0  0   sunlnk            2074 May  5 11:01 Library

    0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny delete

    drwxr-xr-x@  2 0  0   hidden              68 May  5 10:42 Network

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    drwxr-xr-x@  4 0  0   restricted         136 May  5 10:39 System

      com.apple.rootless   0

    0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny delete

    drwxr-xr-x   5 0  80  -                  170 May  5 10:42 Users

    drwxrwxrwt@  3 0  80  hidden             102 May  5 11:20 Volumes

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    0: ABCDEFAB-CDEF-ABCD-EFAB-CDEF0000000C deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit

    drwxr-xr-x@ 39 0  0   restricted,hidden 1326 Mar 12 00:08 bin

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

    drwxrwxr-t@  2 0  80  hidden              68 May  5 10:42 cores

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    dr-xr-xr-x   3 0  0   hidden            4267 May  5 11:05 dev

    lrwxr-xr-x@  1 0  0   restricted,hidden   11 May  5 10:41 etc -> private/etc

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

    dr-xr-xr-x   2 0  0   hidden               1 May  5 11:05 home

    -rw-r--r--@  1 0  0   hidden             313 Aug  2  2015 installer.failurerequests

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    dr-xr-xr-x   2 0  0   hidden               1 May  5 11:05 net

    drwxr-xr-x@  6 0  0   sunlnk,hidden      204 May  5 10:42 private

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

    drwxr-xr-x@ 59 0  0   restricted,hidden 2006 May  5 10:41 sbin

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

    lrwxr-xr-x@  1 0  0   restricted,hidden   11 May  5 10:41 tmp -> private/tmp

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

    drwxr-xr-x@ 12 0  0   restricted,hidden  408 May  5 11:01 usr

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

    lrwxr-xr-x@  1 0  0   restricted,hidden   11 May  5 10:41 var -> private/var

      com.apple.FinderInfo   32

      com.apple.rootless   0

     

    Sadly I don't see anything out of the ordinary there.

     

    So, clearly it's related to the Casper client.  But since I have a ton of devices that have the same client but don't have the issue, is it related to a fresh install of the current client we're using on a new/imaged device versus a device that had an older client and was upgraded to the current client via Casper?  Is it something in MDM?  Seems unlikely since again, existing devices have the same MDM but not the problem... though... the Mac I've referencing as my "control", I've not restarted it or logged out/in for about a week.  So must do that before I continue... And the control Mac is still cool.  No Spotlight madness.  Guess I'm going to have to dig in a bit deeper here.

     

    Thanks to both of you for all your help and suggestions thus far!

  • by UberJac,Solvedanswer

    UberJac UberJac May 5, 2016 12:40 PM in response to UberJac
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 5, 2016 12:40 PM in response to UberJac

    CONFIRMED

     

    This is a bug in the 9.9+ Casper client.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 5, 2016 12:41 PM in response to UberJac
    Level 10 (207,990 points)
    Applications
    May 5, 2016 12:41 PM in response to UberJac

    I may be losing track of your responses. Is one Mac affected by this problem, or more than one? Have you been posting results from more than one?

  • by UberJac,

    UberJac UberJac May 5, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 5, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Linc Davis

    This issue was brought to my attention on Tuesday and I thought it was a one-off until I could get my hands on the Mac.  Then yesterday I discovered another one with the same issue.  The more I poked around, the more I found.  Frustratingly (or happily) it's not ALL devices.  But now I have devices running 10.11, 10.10, and 10.9 all with the same issue.

     

    The results are all from 1 device that exhibited the problem.

     

    Again, I now know the problem to be related to the Casper 9.9+ client.

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