Accountsd CPU usage high in macOS Catalina

Bear in mind I don't have the high CPU problem, I recently bought 365, mainly because they broke docs-to-go for iOS on the mobiles with an update.

I found that Outlook 365 for Mac refused to take iCloud contacts, it required its own contacts to be imported indirectly from icloud. They populated MS contacts unreliably. It would not completely sync IMAP folders, particularly when dragging across accounts.

The contacts transferred across to iOS Outlook but were unusable for phoning etc. .

By comparison Mail is perfect.

Now how to stop that high CPU have you tried dumping the gmail accounts?

Hello,

I'm having the same problem with my Mac Pro 15" (2018).

Even worse than anyone here because my machine went so hot that it destroyed the Touch Bar and the display.

What happened : I was downloading big files and I left it run overnight.

Next morning, I just closed the lid and went to work.

When I arrived to the office, the laptop was very hot and when I opened it the Touch Bar was not working any more and the complete screen jammed with color line.

No Apple store in Paris had spare parts, I had to wait 3 weeks to get it back, all new.

---> and the same problem again of accountsd pumping all the power with heating and mail crashing.

I think the best analysis of this issue is here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/accountsd-mail-process-and-cpu-usage.2212236/

Apple needs to do something ...

Please.

JLM

I just tried it. There is little improvement in my case.

It seems that the accountsd threads are being released after checking the emails. In the past I remember those threads were never released when Exchange accounts were always active. This is different.

When I open Mail, Mail and Accountsd still have huge spikes in microprocessor usage. In my case, Mail is still going between 260-400% and Accountsd about 150-260%. That's still too much for an email client, but it happens in a shorter amount of time so this is not long enough to activate fans (In the past, the MacBook seemed like it was going to take off).

Still, this is not near as efficient as MailMate, for example. MailMate, when starts up uses 25% or microprocessor and opens about 60 threads. Then quickly goes to about 1 % microprocessor while checking all of them. Then it uses 0% and keep all threads opened.

Outlook, goes about 100% when opens, but then quickly goes to 16% and then 0%. It has about 45 thread always opened.

I still do not understand why Mail needs to consume so much processor time when checking emails. It seems there are unsolved issues.

I have done this twice.

Mail itself uses too much CPU in comparison to other email programs. Even Outlook; but when I add any Exchange accounts the amount of processor used is absurdly high.

This is very frustrating because Apple Mail used to be extremely efficient in resources.

@peter_watt I had deleted all my 23 email accounts, logged off, restarted in safe mode, restarted in PR-mode, , restarted in Recovery-mode then ran First Aid, restarting again, signing into my Apple account, and then re-added them (mail accounts) all one by one. And again accountsd up to 400% cpu.

and, contrary what i read here most, I have ZERO exchange accounts, just traditional pop/smtp

I have tried everything and also am suffering from the same issue. I did figure out how to trigger the issue every time. If you remove internet access from your Mac by either turning off WiFi or unplugging Ethernet if you don’t use WiFi, Accountsd and Mail will peg the CPU every time. Maybe that will Galo someone smart here understand the mechanism better.

Since I upgraded with Catalina, it starts to go wrong when :

• the wifi is low, or when I loose a shared mobile connection
• Mail app is active (6 accounts including one Exchange)

--> The accountsd CPU usage can go up to 600%

I explained before that my 2018 MacBook Pro has been destroyed (screen + Touch Bar) by overheating due to this issue.

The last Update did not improve the situation...

Any magic trick mentioned before didn't work for me.

It is a serious Catalina issue.

My Mac was working acceptably with Mojave. Apple insisted on the upgrade every single day and I waited until version .2 of Catalina. I should have not updated.

The problem is that going back to Mojave in a T2 MacBook is a massive pain since Apple also upgraded the firmware of the machine (Twice) and partitioned the hard drive. I tried using a TimeMachine backup and I ended up with two hard drives and lost the System Recovery partition, so I had to go back to Catalina again. But Mail behave fine during my experiment.

I do not buy the argument that everyone is not having this issue and it is only us in this thread. Maybe people who have one account in Mail do not realise the problem, or maybe they do not use Apple Mail. I know many people who prefer to use Outlook, for example, or people who use Gmail via Web.

This is a serious issue that affects users of Apple Mail in Catalina. Basically, sloppy code, or no interest from Apple. Searching in Google gives you lots of complain about the same issue. Many people just switch to another email program. Maybe that is what Apple wants.

After upgrading to Catalina from Mojave I had a lot of issues. Mail being the primary one which I could live with by using outlook. Then I found that my perlbrew no longer functioned correctly as well as a lot of other stuff which as a developer I have been using.

So I decided to do a clean install of Catalina. Things got worse and the mail issue remained.

I finally bit the bullet and watched my screen tick over for 4 hours while I restored my Mojave.

Now I have a mac which functions as it should. Maybe a little dirty but I can live with that.S

I also had the 2 drives but just deleted the Data drive and all is good. Everything came back to life. Thankfully not the fans :)

Catalina is like the Windows 8 debacle. In my experiment Microsoft were the only beneficiaries as I had to upgrade my office 2013 to office 365 and pay the subscription as 2013 is only 32 bit.

I'm just going to wait for 10.16 or 11 to be released. Maybe Apple will pay more attention to their users, many of whom use macs as a business/development platform and not just a tool for browsing the web.

See you all in 12 months time.......

Stuff you don't need is junk by definition.

If I had an app that ran rogue in my mac that cannot be resolved I would use another app rather than throttle the processing.

I hate automobile analogies but it is like putting sawdust in a noisy transmission. It works but it isnt a fix.

I think it has to do w Apple Mail. I have 4 exchange - 4 gmail. 1 Yahoo. I’ve tried every config. The problem is always there. Accountsd just balloons and eventually brings my computer to it’s knees. From the size and length of this thread it’s pretty obvious that we are at the mercy of Apple. We have all tried multiple “solutions” but the problem persists. Strange as Mojave and high Sierra on my lesser used machines run smoothly with the same mail accounts.

"...We have all tried multiple “solutions” but the problem persists..."

Huge generalisation.

Concentrate on trying all the solutions yourself and as you dont use iCloud mail ensure Mail (or any other unused iCloud resources) is not checked in Internet Accounts.

MS Exchange accounts are usually provided by organisations or schools and are really designed to use with MS Office Outlook app.

SimebOutlook.com accounts have been rebuilt at the MS end to look and act like Exchange accounts so they may well start to show problems too.

That would put you in an embarrassing position!

Yes I have followed the thread right through. There is no consistency in what causes it. Some blame Exchange, some blame IMAP, some blame icloud connections, in that removing the particular factor fixes it for them.

I didn't have any problems at all but moved to 365 suite to get word and excel coverage across devices

I am asking Apple to solve this issue using this link:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

Does anybody know what else can we do?

We are now on 10.15.5 and still is not solved. Please reopen the thread. Do not mark it as solved!