I have mail open and and my CPU usage is between 111- 300% int he activity monitor. It is extremely slow, and bogs down the rest of my machine. The fan is on constantly. I have attempted to Force Quit, Reindex, Remove Accounts, etc.
Anybody else seeing this?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro Retina
So I finally figured out the issue.
Mail is sending some data to iCloud. If you notice with your Documents and Desktop folders, Catalina makes it so saving to iCloud is a default. The same goes for Mail settings.
Not only is Mail working as it should, accountsd is using substantially less CPU %.
Anyway, this is what worked for me for now.
So I finally figured out the issue.
Mail is sending some data to iCloud. If you notice with your Documents and Desktop folders, Catalina makes it so saving to iCloud is a default. The same goes for Mail settings.
Not only is Mail working as it should, accountsd is using substantially less CPU %.
Anyway, this is what worked for me for now.
Hi,
I had the same issue. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out what the underlying issue was.
What resolved it for me in the end was to remove the Gmail account I have in my internet accounts.
I then removed any items in the keychain that were related to that account. I then added back the Gmail account in internet accounts, going through the re-authentication process etc, and everything was back to normal.
Hey,
Never replied before, but had this problem too for about a week and seem to have put together a few things that worked for me and it hasn't returned since. Not sure if one, two, or all of them together fixed the problem, but hope this helps!
This started when I upgraded to iOS 13 on my iPhone and upgraded to Catalina so I figured there was something going on between the communication of handoff or accounts. Here are the steps I took to solve it;
I read somewhere in the interwebs that the problem could be with gmail so the second part process was;
So far, the CPU usage has returned to normal and my fans are no longer running at high speed and draining the battery. Hope this works for you!
I took out gmail accounts and did fetch mail every 5 minutes . that helped a little. What helped a lot was the answer from apple :
(It fixed the issue for me)
Have you checked that filvault is off? That could be the issue right there. When filevault is enabled ALL of your files are encrypted so every time email comes through the files are encrypted as they come in and it can eat up a lot of CPU power especially if you have a lot of email accounts. Go to system preferences, security and privacy then FileVault . Once it's turned off, it will take a while for all of the files to decrypt. In about a day.. depending on the amount of data you have.. you will start seeing that usage slow for sure. I would also restart your machine as well.
My account sd went from 144 to 4.5 and my mail is working fine now... I'm going to readd my gmails now and see if that fixed the issues as well...
Is anyone using Microsoft Exchange? Inactivate it and see if that solves it. I deactivated my Exchange account (uncheck all the optinos--mail, calendar, contacts) and everything went back to normal. No more CPU issues. I can actually use my laptop. Now have to figure out how to get this information to Apple so they can fix it.
That cure is worse than the disease.
Backup in real time should be such a drain on CPU, especially in older models.
Feels like planned obsolescence.
More horsepower hides inefficient programming and should not make for lazy coding.
NJFirefighter wrote:
1. So I finally figured out the issue.
Mail is sending some data to iCloud. If you notice with your Documents and Desktop folders, Catalina makes it so saving to iCloud is a default. The same goes for Mail settings.
Settings>Apple ID>iCloud Drive (Options>
2. Uncheck Desktop and Documents folders.
3. Uncheck Mail
Not only is Mail working as it should, accountsd is using substantially less CPU %.
Anyway, this is what worked for me for now.
Hello!
I have had this problem for a significant time and I have tried almost everything that has been discussed in this thread and many others. I am on Catalina 10.15.4 and the problem still persists. So far:
The only solution that I have found is:
Once I have done this, I close Mail, open activity monitor and Force kill accountsd. Then reopen mail and everything has been working smoothly since then. I think this could be a work around until a proper solution is provided by Apple.
Dear all - a new update that I find interesting that I want to share. So as I previously posted, after doing the keychain folder deletion mentioned by @WESTBERLIN everything was performing fine with Mail as I left it out overnight. But what I did notice after deleting that keychain folder is that I lost my TouchID setup plus my ApplePay setup (which would make sense as a keychain - and recall that I have a new 16 inch MacBook Pro). So I re-setup TouchID and AS SOON AS I DID THIS my Mail CPU % skyrocketed and I was re-experiencing everything all over again including the fan going like crazy. Instead of re-doing the deletion of the keychain folder process, etc., I decided first to turn OFF TouchID and delete the fingerprint I just loaded. And then I restarted. And everything has gone back to "normal" where Mail is NOT going crazy and the fan is not going. And it's acting as it should with no issues. So this is definitely a keychain issue and I'm reporting it to my Apple Senior Advisor that I've been working with. So any of you with a similar MacBook with TouchID, I would delete the TouchID or just delete that keychain folder as previously suggested by WESTBERLIN. Then everything should be fine. Anyone NOT on a MacBook Pro with TouchID, definitely try that keychain folder thing and see how it goes.
And though I haven't posted in a while, just also throwing out my solution which is under MAIL --> PREFERENCE --> GENERAL, change CHECK FOR NEW MESSAGES to MANUALLY. This solved the problem for me. Ironically, most mail still comes in automatically anyway but I am a power user (get 500+ emails daily) so just have made GET ALL NEW MAIL a regular part of my routine. I tried MS Outlook but also had similar CPU issues and also the search in Outlook sucks. And I tried Spark but it's an app default to group email by conversation which I don't like. So as frustrated as I am that Mail could get to this point and seemingly not be fixed, checking for new email manually is a compromise I can accept as the search in Mail via Spotlight is superior to Outlook. Thanks.
I read tons of hints regarding this topic, included those in this thread here. But nothing helped.
I fixed my problem with reindexing the Mail file.
To do this, close mail and delete in folder <user>/Library/Mail/V7/MailData every file that starts with "envelope index". A backup of the old files might be recommended. After the deletion start Mail again. It will reread the mails which could take some minutes to build up a new index.
Before I had loads between 120-250%, now I'm between 0,0(!) and 5%.
Cheers!
I went to checking "Manually" -- and for me, the high utilization and unusability has been solved. I thought the checking of mail setting only applied to POP3 accounts?
In my case, I have a bunch of now defunct POP3 accounts in Mail because I want to keep the messages available for archival purposes -- and I didn't really want to have to export/import them. Unchecking the "Enable this account" checkbox in Mail removes the appearance mailbox when I feel it should only make it so it doesn't check against it.
I'm quite certain that having a bunch of defunct POP3 accounts in Mail is triggering this in my case -- and setting the mail checking/polling to "Manually" isn't an issue for me.
POTENTIAL FIX!!! Alright...I've done a ridiculous amount of research (I'm quasi-technical) and tried ALL of the 'suggestions'. This one is worked the best for me... I don't know the "why", I just know it's much more stable. It still pegs out here and there but Mail is as 'manageable' as it's ever been since Catalina:
It would act up here and there, but after a couple opt+cmd+p+r reboots and updated to Catalina v10.15.2, so far so good. Hope this helps.
UPDATE: It's still a bit 'hit or miss'...uuuurg! But better... Worth trying.
Folks, I think I've at least pinpointed the issue. Spoiler Alert: EXCHANGE ACCOUNTS (thought it was a Gmail account)...read on.
I *thought* I had this pinned down to a lone Gmail account (old one...with A LOT of stored emails...>15,000)....even though a few on this thread have said they don't have a Gmail account. I'd turn that Gmail account off and it would behave...then even with it off, it started spiking CPU today.
I've been trying to fix this for awhile now. Nothing seems to work. I've been on screen sharing with Apple Support. It's been sent to Dev at "low priority" because there are other email client options. :(
This one is working so far. I've only given it about 30 minutes (which I know it can take longer to get it to spike CPU after a bandaid fix). But I want to see if anyone has the same scenario as me.
Again, I thought I had it pinned to a Gmail account and then a read a post (of maaaaaaany out there). The poster had a mix of Gmail and Exchange accounts. hmmmmmm...I added 3 Exchange accounts (which I've not had in a decade) towards the end of the year..about when the problems began...and about when I upgraded to Catalina too.
So what the ****...I disabled Mail, Contacts, Calendars, etc. for all of the Exchange Accounts in System Preferences > Internet Accounts...and left the 'suspect Gmail account' active. NO CPU SPIKES!!!! (Even when I close and open Mail, accountsd doesn't spike above 60% CPU!!!!
*** QUESTION: I'd like to know if any of you DO NOT have at least one Exchange Accounts on here. ***
The Problem: I haven't tried the method mentioned in the link below to actually add them back. According to the post, the fixes was to disable Email Archiving in the Exchange Control Panel. I do not have access / permission to this. :(
But at least I can use Mac Mail for my non-Exchange Accounts...the lion's share of my emailing needs. I'm using Outlook for the Exchange Accounts. I know this won't help everyone long-term, but I feel like it might at least be the source of the issue. Maybe someone can try troubleshooting down the Exchange path and find a resolution for non-Exchange-Admins and let us know.
I'll use Outlook until I find the time to do the full instructions to add them back to Mac Mail but if it comes down to the Exchange Control Panel, I'm SOL. Might have to live with Outlook for those accounts :( :( :(
Go to the reply starting with "My 2020 Update" by vip4lyf here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/dja9ne/mac_mail_on_catalina/
P.S. I have one other older iMac that has NOT been upgraded to Catalina and Mac Mail is configured for one of those very same Exchange Accounts. ZERO CPU issues.
Hope this helps.
Alrighty. I THINK THIS FIXES IT!!!! I tried the fix at the link @vip4lyf posted: https://appuals.com/fix-mac-running-slow-due-addressbooksourcesync/
Yes...addressbooksync or whatever the process is in that link is not what we are all seeing, but I agree with vip4lyf. The Exchange Sync with Exchange seems to be the culprit that makes accountsd kill your CPU. It might not mention accountsd in that article, but it seems to be "the fix" for accountsd.
The screenshots the article are old but I basically followed them. The only deviation I had (be sure to follow all the steps from the article; the following is not all the steps; just the exceptions) but the only deviations I took was deleting files in ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book/ EXCEPT the plist file(s). I searched the folder and sub-folders on "plist" and it seemed a bit different than the screenshots, sooooo I deleted EVERYTHING in the "Address Book" folder. Sue me. :P
Turning OFF Contacts in System Preferences > Apple ID > Contacts was slooooow to respond but after about 5 minutes, it finally unchecked. Checking the box back was even sloooooower. Talking like 15+ minutes.
accountsd process was not spiking CPU during this but it was hogging over 3Gb of Memory. I let it do its thing. I could see some files in ../Address Book/Sources/XXXXXXXXXXXX/[file-names] keep updating the timestamp during this time.
Once the checkmark came back. I rebooted. I checked my Address Book. Freaked out a bit because only a few Contacts where there but they started trickling in. All seems right in the Mac Mail world...for now. It's been about 20 minutes with some heavy farting around in Mail. No CPU spikes...and accountsd is not hogging Gigs of memory either.
It HAD to be looping and erring on some corrupt form of syncing the Exchange Address Book(s).
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Hello all - so I too still haven't heard back from my Senior Advisor that I spoke to BUT I have done what the following link suggested (as @SometimesIAmRight mentioned above) and it appears to have worked:
https://buymymonkey.wordpress.com/2019/10/27/osx-catalina-cpu-spike-checking-mail-after-upgrade/
I've followed the steps in the 12/30 END OF YEAR UPDATE at the bottom of the page. I did not follow the keychain suggestion as I couldn't find any of the culprits that aspect listed.
It's been almost a week and after all my Exchange email downloaded again (over 450,000 emails) everything works fine, only Suggestd occasionally spikes but I think that's to be expected. But I regularly have been monitoring Activity Monitor and no Mail issues and been using the app fine now for days with no issues.
FYI on a side note, prior to the above solution, I'd been playing with Spark https://sparkmailapp.com . I don't like that you can't turn email threading/conversations off, but in the interim time I'd been experimenting with it I'd had zero memory issues. If they could turn the threading off, I might bail on Mail entirely. Oh - and other thing is that to save emails in folders you can only create folders in Exchange and save them there. Spark can't right now save emails to the local ON MY MAC locations like Mail can. Another potential drawback. But just throwing out there as a possible option. I get over 500 emails a day so I need something that works in a lot of cases and so far only Mail seems to be the best option but there's my two cents.
I still haven't heard back from the Senior Advisor I spoke to but at this point it seems I don't need any sort of response. Good luck all.
Accountsd CPU usage high in macOS Catalina
