SecurityAgent using 70-100% of CPU

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Level 1

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SecurityAgent using 70-100% of CPU

A process called 'SecurityAgent' is using up a ton of CPU since I upgraded to Catalina. I also upgraded all the apps I use from Adobe Suite, and Microsoft Office.

As a result, my MacBook Pro is constantly running hot and I've had issues with shutting down too. It has frozen a couple of times.

It does this whilst running no apps or Time Machine backup so I don't know what it's trying to do.

Does anybody have any recommendations?

(Other than buying a new mac).

Thanks

Will

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 2, 2020 9:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Apr 2, 2020 9:44 AM in response to MrMonoboy

Does this occur for a different user, e.g., Guest? How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.

Does this occur after starting up in Safe Mode?

Consider the possibility of a third party software conflict. EtreCheck can be used to investigate what is installed.

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Answer 2

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

May 12, 2020 8:56 AM in response to MrMonoboy

Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode and seeing if your problem persists? This disables a lot of third-party stuff so you can localize the cause that way.

You might consider uninstalling Dropbox and see if that makes any difference. From what I've read here, from time to time that software has been incompatible with the current OS and caused problems.

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Answer 3

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

May 12, 2020 5:37 AM in response to MrMonoboy

Have you tried running EtreCheck? Give it full disk access when it runs. Post the results here.

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SecurityAgent using 70-100% of CPU

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