"studentd" keeps relaunching, I want it to stop-even tried sudo kill -9 and sudo killall -KILL, no luck!

Nicholascronan wrote:

So this process on my Mac called 'studentd' keeps showing up as unresponsive in Activity Monitor, but whenever I try to force quit, regular quit, or even sudo kill -9 and sudo killall -KILL, this process, it just changes it's PID. Not even the harshest signals such as SIGKILL (or -9) and SIGHUP (or -1) don't work. I looked up what it is, and it's part of Apple Classroom. I DO NOT use Apple Classroom, so I know it's safe to quit. Plus it's using resources and becoming unresponsive. I've blocked it in the Firewall and scanned it for viruses with AVG Antivirus (none were found). How do I quit this process if it just changes it's PID when I try?! Below are screenshots:

Not responding:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/b9709a0a-68ff-4385-80e8-674102ba40b1

First this:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/5c0c7d46-352a-43c3-b845-85b12118af6e

Then this:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/a7e914c6-652d-4d9b-807a-e8c1aec4772b

Then this:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/bf4bd8d0-3b94-4312-aeae-e6f86f037df5

associated Process ID are not fixed

What is your bigger issue here...independent of trying to kill it (?)

Are you still bound to a MDM?

Is this your own personal machine & new from the get go, or you bought a used machine?

https://support.apple.com/guide/classroom/classroom-requirements-clac1b9b4dx8/mac

studentd manages the Apple Classroom experience for students and teachers that use MDM and the Apple School Manager service.

ref:

https://support.apple.com/guide/classroom/mac-settings-for-students-apdd330bbd46/2.3/mac/11.0

I will say typically third party Anti-Virus does nothing but add issues and compete directly with Apples own built in Security: Uninstall any and all third party Antivirus, Cleaners, Optimizers, speeder uppers....

macOS - Security - Apple https://www.apple.com/macos/security/

Apple Platform Security - Apple https://support.apple.com/guide/security/welcome/web

Nicholascronan wrote:

I am not using any MDM, I do NOT use Apple classroom, and I got this computer new & unused from Apple.

Apple says it's designed to run even without this stuff enabled; but It's wasting resources and becoming unresponsive, and without Apple Classroom it's practically useless. How do I kill it?

Here is what the leaks Terminal command says about studentd:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/93df3d47-2b76-4de5-af2e-1d835b56288a

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/9f769625-684c-4f24-aefa-3f1398c797d4

P.S.: What is it with Apple Support Community and CleanMyMac/AntiViruses?

It was just a question in an effort to drill down in an effort get some clarity on your issue with studentd.

This process is present on the macOS independent of utilizing MDM.

I fully suspect the third party Anti-Virus has corrupted your macOS..

I would advise looking for the official uninstaller to remove the third-party Anti-virus, if in doubt look in-app or visit the developers website.

It may be necessary to reinstall the macOS on top of your existing macOS after the " AVG "

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

It is part of the operating system. You do not need to remove it or stop it, or should you attempt to do so. You should also unblock it in the firewall. That is probably what is making it unresponsive.

Your Mac has literally hundreds of such processes running all the time. This is perfectly normally. They are not a burden on your computing resources. Your CPU is idle at least 90% of the time.

Nicholascronan wrote:

P.S.: What is it with Apple Support Community and CleanMyMac/AntiViruses?

...unresponsive before the antivirus was installed

...unresponsive BEFORE I blocked it in the firewall.

So any other ideas on how to kill it?

?

If you have CleanMyMac installed I would uninstall this as well, use the official uninstaller.

Killing the process is not the answer to your issue, you have no control of the macOS re-launching this background process.

You may well have to reinstall the macOS.

Nicholascronan wrote:

"You should also unblock it in the firewall. That is probably what is making it unresponsive."

It was unresponsive BEFORE I blocked it in the firewall.

That is a separate question. You would have to undo all your attempts at disabling this software, as well as restoring default settings (turning off the firewall), and uninstalling any 3rd party system modifications.

Nicholascronan wrote:

P.S.: What is it with Apple Support Community and CleanMyMac/AntiViruses?

It's probably the hundreds if not thousands of posts where they damaged a macOS install to the point of needing to reinstall. Plus antivirus apps slow performance, do nothing, etc.

Nicholascronan Said:

"I am not using any MDM, I do NOT use Apple classroom, and I got this computer new & unused from Apple[...]"

-------

Whom to Contact:

So, you're no student or faulty member of a school, correct? If you are, however, then speak with the network administrator (the person who manages your school network).

I don't think the people responding here care whether you run anti virus or Clean My Mac etc., they were just trying to answer your questions. I have seen countless problems described in these forums that were eventually traced to anti virus programs, Clean My Mac, and similar "system enhancements."

The studentd files will probably be recreated next time you do an OS update.

etresoft wrote:

I don't understand the interest in reverse-engineering and removing this particular task. There are 692 such tasks on Big Sur. What's the big deal about this one?

I think the original poster's concern was that this process was showing as "unresponsive" in Activity Monitor, perhaps using significant resources, so the original poster wanted to stop or kill or restart the process, but it returned as "unresponsive"

regardless.

On my Macs I also do see this studentd process but it does not say "unresponsive" and on my Macs it uses 0.0% of the cpu resources, like most folks, I've never been concerned about it (I was never even aware of it until reading these posts).

steve626 wrote:

I think the original poster's concern was that this process was showing as "unresponsive" in Activity Monitor, perhaps using significant resources, so the original poster wanted to stop or kill or restart the process, but it returned as "unresponsive" regardless.

The OP also commented about trying to block it with a firewall. I'm confident that any problems with studentd were caused by the OP.