newsd process on Big Sur downloading MASSIVE amounts of traffic

I tried Little Snitch and it worked to stop the download.

I'm going to see if this will work as well. I went to System Preferences firewall and added News to block incoming connections. I also unchecked the box for allow built-in software to receive incoming connections.

Totally not a long-term solution, and I’m not even sure it works for everyone, but for me, on both computers that were affected, Leaving the news app opened eventually stopped the traffic.

Beyond that, you can use little snitch, but the free license only keeps the block active for I think one hour.

So I was forced to buy Little Snitch. I have blocked both News app and newsd there. I want to USE Apple News, so am I safe just to block newsd only? I wish Apple would acknowledge and fix this bug.

I too saw this in Activity Monitor. on my 2017 iMac. I "force quit" the process and will see if it comes back. I haven't even opened News on my iMac and it was uploading and downloading an incredible amount of data.

Apple needs to address this issue.

BTW, mid-JAN is when this first started to occur for me. Somewhat coinciding with my subscription to Apple One.

MacBook Air I purchased this last summer is experiencing this issue as well. I’ve actually just moved overseas and, while awaiting broadband installation, I’ve been using rental “pocket WiFi” units that offer 5GB of data per day. They ran out of data every morning shortly before starting work. Couldn’t figure out what I’m earth was going on until I saw the newsd process in Activity Monitor.

I both force quit the process AND turned off News syncing in iCloud and this has not worked (though it seemed to keep things at bay for a day or so). I can actually watch the process pop back up uninvited via the Activity Monitor a few seconds after force quitting. This is absolutely INSANE.

Haven’t tried a full OS reinstall just yet (mainly because I can’t afford the bandwidth at the moment), but it looks like some folks are reporting that even that drastic step didn’t work.

At my wit’s end here...

Funny coincidence I have similar devices, a 2020 iMac and late 2013 MacBook Pro. I have reinstalled system on MacBook Pro and turned off iCloud syncing for News app on both devices. I'm still seeing newsd using more data than I expect in Little Snitch (but no longer seeing newsd in Activity Monitor, not sure why). I'm going to reinstall system on iMac as well and hope for the best.

I just noticed it today when my computer said all 250 gig was full, and my computer has been running hot for a while. Same issue: Newsd folder

I turned off the sync and now I'm going to delete the blasted thing if I can!

Thanks to the suggestions here, I was able to stop the massive amount of data usage, but I’m still stuck with my internet company salivating at the opportunity to bill us overage amounts.... and it’s not even the end of the month.

Apple customer service reps on the phone we’re very nice and recognized the troubling situation but couldn’t figure out a way to credit me for something that wasn’t purchased from them.

There couldn’t be better grounds for a class action lawsuit than this.

This is such a major issue and Apple needs to get on this.

I completely agree! I have a $50.00 overage fee from Xfinitity for this month. Exceeded the 1.2TB limit by 250GBs before I caught the problem. Prior to this month, I never exceeded 500GBs.

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I had the same problem and turning off the iCloud sync for News did NOT solve it.

Apple really need to take this as an urgent issue to be escalated and updated ASAP. I am getting 200GB a DAY coming from newsd process!

Same problem here. Always used about 400-450 Gb / month with Xfinity. I haven't changed my daily data usage. Now I got a notice on the 20th last month that I was at 90% of my data cap. Crazy! I turned off iCloud syncing with News and force-quit the News app. Yet here I sit with Activity Monitor open and I'm watching the "data received" for newsd process slowly climbing. It was 6.89 Gb 10 minutes ago and now it's at 7.07 Gb. Then I simply opened without using the News app and watched it jump to 7.16 Gb. I've force-quit News app and Gb received is still increasing. What is going on and how do I stop it? And the irony is, I love the News app and pay for it.

Already disabled news syncing on my 2020 iMac but makes zero difference. Suddenly see my whole home internet going to a crawl, and see the newsd process is swallowing Gigabytes without any purpose. Really sucks because I'm on super expensive ($70/month) 1990s AT&T DSL - 6mbit/s with 150GB cap per month.

this bug has already cost me a few hundred $ in overages as AT&T gleefully rapes me for $10 every 50GB overage. Frickin pathetic excuse for a business.

You’re implying that the deaf blind and dumb psychopathic behemoth of corporate Apple is giving a **** about our trivial little issues buddy. Hahahah.

im still dutifully “force quitting” the process every time I log in. No other way.

next well all have to go back to terminal server to reprogram their ****** work.

GOOD LORD. I'm glad you mentioned that. We're on high speed cable, also bought the best modem there is. and yet recently I started noticing I was freezing up on online classes. My students got a kick out of it because my faces were apparently hysterical but it sucks to have to move to an iPhone when your expensive wifi won't work!

I bet it will tomorrow, though. THANK YOU for mentioning the internet crawl! I had not put two and two together!

I'm having the same problem, on both my iMac and MacBook, both running 11.1. had to pay to upgrade my data cap on xfinity over this! eesh