newsd process on Big Sur downloading MASSIVE amounts of traffic

Just noticed this issue yesterday and I also have an ISP with a bandwidth limit. Doing some digging into my firewall, it looks like this has been an issue for at least a few weeks:

• 29 Dec: 79 GB
• 30 Dec: 124.2 GB
• 4 Jan: 29.67 GB
• 5 Jan: 39.44 GB
• 7 Jan: 31.4 GB
• 8 Jan: 114.49 GB
• 9 Jan: 89.82 GB
• 13 Jan: 88.51 GB
• 14 Jan: 29.08 GB

I’m hoping Apple is tracking this issue as that’s an excessive amount of data being used for exactly what, I have no idea. I’ll try turning off Apple News iCloud syncing and see if that fixes it. I’m really hoping I won’t have to reinstall macOS...

Looks like the story is getting traction... 9to5 Mac broke the story yesterday.

“macOS Apple News bug causing huge background downloads, here’s how to fix it”

I am up to $70.00 in overage fees for the month.

I've turned off iCloud syncing for News and I quit the News app when I'm finished reading it. My iMac has been up for two days now and Activity Monitor reports 45 Kb received by newsd. I don't know what to make of that. On the other hand, total data received in the last two days is 12.05 Gb. Seems very hard to believe. I don't do much other than read websites, send and receive emails, listen to some music (an hour a day), no video streaming, and so that seems like a lot. (I'm on macOS 11.2.1.)

I'm seeing the exact same problem. Got my first ever "getting close to data limit" from my ISP. Installed TripCheck and it is showing that the newsd process has downloaded around 70GB in a day. I'm also on a 2017 5k iMac for what it's worth.

I don't use News much on the Mac either, but I do 'follow' a ton of sources. Didn't see any settings that would prevent any pre-caching or any other network related settings that might help. Going to have to block newsd for now...

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.

This has become an issue for me, too. On a 2018 Mac mini. So far today, this process has used 50.71GB in received data. I just finished reinstalling this machine with a fresh copy of Big Sur and manually reinstalled everything, so a clean installation does not seem to remedy the problem. This is really frustrating since my IP has a 1TB data limit. I've been forced to upgrade to unlimited data to avoid massive overages. I suppose I could shut off the computer, but then I'm constantly restarting when I want to use it. Really frustrating, Apple. Also, I've tried quitting the News app (didn't help). I tried forcing the process to end, which did help, but it seems to start up again at some point. Any help would be appreciated.

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!

@paulfromminnetonka Same issue as you. How did you end up blocking it at the firewall? I run pfsense so keen to block my iMac until this issue is resolved (hopefully in 11.2 as suggested in this thread).

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.

[Edited by Moderator]