Accountsd Mac cpu is high

Just got this issue on my new macbook pro 16" (bought it yesterday). accountsd clogs up the whole CPU and makes computer basically unusable. My first point of contact at apple - The dispatcher army - said this is usual as I have a new macbook. I followed this statement by saying I am an engineer and nothing is usual about this problem. After being transferred to the I presume tier 2 support. They tried to validate the issue by running the computer in the safe mode. But as accountsd is a system task, problem continued. They are now making me reinstall macOS Catalina.

Will follow up.

On my case, it worked by forcing shut down and resetting the SMC, for that I had to force shut down my Mac by pressing the power button for 10 seconds while it was on.

Now I can use my Mac again thankfully!

I have contacted two times about this problem to Apple Customer Support today.

They told me that this issue is normal and accountsd can consume high % of CPU for couple of weeks.

And they suggested that im always welcomed to return my MacBook.

They are not aware of this issue at the moment

It seems that renaming the sqlite file helps

rename /Users/xxx/Library/Accounts/Accounts4.sqlite to /Users/XXX/Library/Accounts/Accounts4.sqlite.bak

a new file is created the mac starts to work again

rename /Users/xxx/Library/Accounts/Accounts4.sqlite.bak to /Users/xxx/Library/Accounts/Accounts4.sqlite

(try in command line with mv command)

Everything seems back to normal

I just solved the problem for my case.

1.) log off and remove any Internet account (icloud, gamecenter, mail, etc.)

2.) sing out from apple account

3.) restart

4.) sing in again everywhere

problem disappears ...

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.

1. 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.

I did this:

`sudo -v ; killall -9 accountsd http://com.apple.iCloudHelper ; defaults delete MobileMeAccounts ; mkdir ~/Library/Accounts/Backup ; mv ~/Library/Accounts/*.sqlite* ~/Library/Accounts/Backup/ ; killall -9 accountsd http://com.apple.iCloudHelper ; sudo reboot`

once is resterted, you have to log in your apple ID and problem solved.

Good luck!

The same has happened to me.

I don't have MS Exchange accounts, and the only way to stop it has been by logging out of my AppleID account.

Update with the update combo has not helped either.

None of the other solutions provided has been effective.

It seems obvious that this is a bug in Apple update 10.15.7

Same problem at my MacPro 2019.

ComboUpdate doesn’t help.

I was waiting for 3 hours with more than 500% cpu usage and the normal status returns.

So wait a couple of hours and let the prozess find his normal ending.

I hope that helps for the people too.

Problem solved for me.

I installed the macOS catalina combo update 10.15.7 that I downloaded here and it worked for me:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2052?locale=en_GB

After the installation, my icloud email was not syncing anymore with the cloud, so I signed out and signed back in and everything worked again.

best.

I'm having the same problem:

Macbook Pro 13 inch early 2015

Had 2 exchange accounts and 2 Gmail, using Mail and Calendar.

I deleted both accounts and their Library files to reset the Mail and Calendar app, but accountsd CPU usage is still very high, close to 300% and making my Macbook unusable.

just because of a minor update, really?

Lamento mucho no hablar ingles, la solución que traigo es para los que no usen la aplicación de MAIL.

Para entrar en ~ / Library en el Finder entrar a la barra de menús en la parte superior, buscar el menú “Ir”  y sostener la tecla “alt” luego entrar en ”Biblioteca”.

1. Ir a ~ /  Library y borrar la carpeta Mail
2. Ir a ~ /  Library / Containers / y borrar com.apple.mail
3. Reiniciar el Mac
4. Listo.

Este procedimiento no afecta en nada el funcionamiento del mac, pero no sé que pueda pasarle a los usuarios que utilicen la aplicación de MAIL.

Espero haber sido de ayuda y dar una solución provisional hasta que Apple lo solucione de manera permanente. Gracias.

Hello all,

I ran into the same issue as all of you.

I found an easier way than reinstall the update via the combo or some of the other manipulations that I have seen.

There is a tool that I've been using for years, and that I actually always recommend and use after an update or even a major upgrade.

It's called ONYX. It helps perform some maintenance tasks such as clearing caches, rebuilding indexes, etc. The only "catch" is that you have to download the proper version of ONYX, depending on your version of MacOS. In this case, we are all having the issue with Catalina so that's a no brainer:

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/index.html

As I had hoped, after running it and the reboot, everything came back into place. The issue is clearly due to some cache or whatever not being cleaned/reset after the 10.15.7 update.

EDIT: before running it, to help MacOS be a little more at ease CPU-wise, I did follow what some of you did by killing the "Commerce" process, accountsd went from 300% CPU usage to 50%, which is still too high; but at least it gave some CPU time for ONYX --> the scripts and maintenances it launches do require quite a bit of CPU available. Under normal circumstances, the "cleaning" can take up to 10 minutes, so don't freak out.

Here are the settings I used on my side: (in french, but you'll get the english version with the link I provided)

(I don't know if those are default settings or not nowadays, ONYX remembers your past choices and I have been using it since 2008; and since 2013 on this Macbook Air)

It seems like the smoother way to fix our issue.

That being said, *** Apple?

Have a great day,

Jean-Philippe.

I had the same issue after upgrading to Catalina 10.15.7 . High CPU usage, fan noise... I removed all the internet accounts except iCloud (in system preferences), then restart the Mac and log in again. The problem was solved.

I hope this helps.