photoanalysisd crashes on AddressBook-v22.abcddb - multiple failures every day

For visual reference, I am including some screenshots. These may give an idea of what I am looking at several times a day.

The process will crash and allows me to see the report.

The report tells me that photoanalysisd crashed on trying to access my address book database file (AddressBook-v22.abcddb). It will restart the process automatically....

... Only to crash just minutes later with the exact same problem.

A few minutes later, the process is active again and starts to eat up CPU. At some point, the system becomes less responsive and making a screenshot of the percentage at a higher rate isn't even possible.

After the suggestion to repair the Photos library, I checked whether the constant running of photoanalysisd does actually amount to anything...

... It does not seem to have accomplished anything.

Hello MartinR,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Will try the Photos library repair procedure to see if that resolves anything.

I'd also suggest that while photoanalysisd is running, leave it to itself - don't run any other programs.

That's hardly possible. Besides the fact that I am using this computer as my main system, photoanalysisd is running every day since my upgrade to Catalina. My library is quite big and spans many years and includes quite some video's. I have kept my system running over night just to let the process end, but it seems it never stops. And with constant crashes, running in a loop, it makes sense that it never ends.

AddressBook-v22.abcddb is your Address Book database file; as such it has no relationship to the photoanalysisd process. I would find it hard to believe that it's the cause of photoanalysisd crashes.

I know. My best guess was that the address book includes photo's that come from the Photos app and act as contact images. And maybe something is corrupted in the address book or it is looking for a link/resource in that file but is not allowed to access it. photoanalysisd is constantly crashing on the .abcddb file.

Thanks for the feedback. Will keep this thread updates.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, I have worked with Bridge, Lightroom and other apps such as Aperture and even Picasa before. But in the Apple ecosystem with different devices, Photos (and iPhoto before that) has proven the easiest solution that is generally also quite stable. Over the years, I have used so many systems alongside each other and imported photos from different cameras and phones. Using one system/app to at least get one similar experience seems a best practice. I have gone through possibly all types of challenges with the various apps. But I will check out Cinematica.

Point to make is that today I am faced with high CPU use and high temperatures as a result of invisible background processes that I cannot control myself.

photoanalysisd is eating up a lot of power and it crashes a lot.

amfid is even worse, as it makes the system unresponsive.

Both are processes that you can't stop and are (re-)started by the system itself, without any possibility (it seems) to pause or kill or even control to the point that it has less impact on the overall operation of the computer. Unless of course you would not mind using unfamiliar scripts and codes in Terminal.

Quick update - Prelim finding:

After reading the umpteenth online reference to photoanalysisd being a memory hog, I stumbled upon a comment that indicated Exchange Contacts could be the reason for some background processes to not finish. I changed some pref's and made some changes here and there as to try limit the process to run and subsequently crash.

The only way to stop photoanalysisd to run without tinkering in the system, is to have Photos active. While Photos is running as an active foreground app, it prevents the service from running. If it doesn't run, it can't crash and it won't eat up CPU. Most horrible workaround, if you ask me.

In Photos:

1 - Photos pref's

Disable/uncheck all iCloud related options

Disable/uncheck all general options, except "copy items to library

2 - Photos options

Hide face names -> View menu

In System Pref's:

3 - iCloud options for Photos

Disable/uncheck Photos to use iCloud

Disable/uncheck Desktop & Documents Folders in iCloud Drive Options

4 - Internet Accounts

Disable/uncheck Contacts for inactive or unused accounts

Disable/uncheck Contacts for Exchange accounts

This, for me, now seems to get rid of the automated background process to run and cause problems.

Although not a great fan of apps that nest themselves into the system to control or run services or processes that influence the standard macOS, I downloaded AppTamer to see if that would be a possible solution. It will obviously not solve the crashing of photoanalysisd (nor the underlying issue that causes it to crash), but it does allow to limit CPU usage.

Switching off convenient stuff such as the synchronization of contacts, or using iCloud to store data so it can be used across devices, is not a real solution, but a workaround to circumvent the problems photoanalysisd is causing me.

Will possibly add comments later on for those bumping into a similar issue/challenge/problem.