fan noise after upgrade to Big Sur

I had the same issue. I went to Finder -> applications - > Activity Monitor -> CPU and found that an instance of "Google Chrome Helper" was dominating the CPU usage. I quit the helper from within Activity monitor and the fan slowed back down in the next ~minute. Google chrome is still working for now, so I'm not sure what that helper was doing.

Nothing to do with Google Chrome Helper (each helper represents a Tab). The more tabs, the more memory in the helper.

Google Chrome has always been like this, since past 3-4 yrs.

So what’s the issue?

After every upgrade, MacOS tries to re-index everything on your machine. Spotlight takes a lot of time since it spawns many threads to read and build every directory and file (even within files). You can either turn off indexing completely by going to Spotlight settings → Search results, uncheck everything (under System Preferences) or exclude certain files or folders in the Privacy tab.

OR, give it a day or two to completely re-index. This may be different for everyone based on how many files they have on their system.

Macbook Pro Late 2013 (Mac OS Big Sur)

Chrome v89.XX

The fan noise completely stopped after I removed the older Google Chrome Helper service. Figured out that additional google chrome helper service was running of an older version of Chrome (60.XX) even for the latest version running was (89.XX).

Steps to remove:

1. Open activity monitor --> Energy --> Look for Google Chrome Helper --> Stop (using button X) the service
2. Close Chrome application if running
3. Open Finder --> Applications --> Google Chrome --> Right click --> Show package contents
4. In Contents --> Versions --> Here look for older version folders and trash them

After this point, the Mac seems to be behaving better and does not keep the fan running even during charging mac.

• Malwarebytes

Thanks, that appears to have solved the issue, I uninstalled Malwarebytes and the fans slowed down to normal!!

Great stuff and many thanks for your assistance

B

2 apps are known to cause kernelmanagerd to spike

• Malwarebytes
• Karabiner-Elements

If you have these two installed, uninstall them, then reboot.

If you don't - check what other apps you have installed that might have a kernel extension (kext) component to them. That would be apps like virus apps, or system extensions, that hook into the system and do something.

So I also upgraded to Big Sur and noticed the same symptoms. If you read my previous comments, you'll see that I tried everything recommended in the discussion forums, in fact, after installing a new battery I finally broke down, wiped my computer and installed Catalina in the hope that my problem would go away, yet no such luck. I ended up going to the nearby Apple store and having one of their geniuses look at it, and I believe he may have identified the issue. Apparently, there is a sensor that is no longer sensing... the system goes into a protection mode to prevent overheating by running the fans and slowing down the CPU. In my case (late 2013 15" MBP), the sensor is supposedly embedded in the battery, but since I tried to replace the battery, it's anyone's guess if there's a sensor in my new battery. The technician further informed me that these batteries really weren't meant to be replaced, but rather, for $199, they replace the entire top plate which consists of the battery, keyboard, touch pad, and top plate. I also noticed that they run a different diagnostic (AHT) which is no longer available, so all I could see from my diagnostic was that there was a problem with the battery, the power management system, and the SMC. The offending sensor is part of the SMC... The part is on order, and it should take up to 48 hours turnaround, so I'll be updating this comment once I get the new battery from Apple. Hopefully this will help those of you who are struggling with this issue... You may want to check your battery's condition (Apple -> About This Mac -> System Report -> Power -> Cycle Count). If it's over 1000, you may be ready for a new battery -> save yourself the aggravation and have Apple replace it for you, or buy a new Mac. To run the diagnostic, Shut down, and hold the D button while powering back up, wait for the spinning globe to appear, then wait for the diagnostic messages to appear. Good luck!

Following up to my earlier comment, I took my computer in to Apple and had them replace the battery. Turns out there is a sensor in the battery that failed which caused the system to turn on the fans and slow the processor in Eder to prevent overheating. Using aftermarket batteries most likely won’t solve the problem. They not only replaced the battery, but they replaced the entire top plate including the keyboard and touchpad. My MacBook now runs like new again.

I had this problem - with an 2017 MacBook air 500 GB SSD and 4GB memory....

There was a process "secd" which was running constantly....and the fan was running even when I was simply opening and browsing websites.........what I did to stop the fan was

1. Reset the SMC - you can find instructions for your mac model at this link....

HT201295

2.

Then signed out of iCloud. Instructions are here :- HT208242

3.

Then rebooted the machine and the fan hasn't run since and everything else is operating as one would expect.

Bizarre but that's what worked for me....

i fixes this by clearly the Mac and then logging out of of iCloud re boot then logged in again.

Check to see if you have a process called secd eating up your cpu. I had this and this actions fixed the issue for me. Hope this helps

i had this same issue. i checked CPU and Symantec was attempting to update an extension that is no longer compatible with Big Sur update. Was able to force quit and the fan slowed down.

Go to top left Apple menu --> About this Mac ---> Software Update. Download and install any updates.

I used taylor_needs_help suggestion to quit Google Chrome Helper directly from Activity monitor and it fixed the issue immediately. Good luck!

That and reinstall that happened with me with mountain duck. I thought something was a hardware issue it fixed the problem now my computer is quite again. I force quit mountain duck and then deleted and re download it. Now it’s working.

I don't have Chrome Helper but Adobe Core Sync seemed to be the culprit - was using 99% CPU.

It's really strange but I went into the CPU and force quit Cyberduck and that significantly went down by half but for some reason it's starting up again but I will try to log out of iCloud and re-signing in again