With upgrade to Monterey 12.3 - process "triald" shows high CPU

Those who have noticed excessive CPU usage from triald that doesn't seem to go away on macOS 12.3, do you have Siri disabled? Poking around ~/Library/Trial it seems largely Siri-related, and I've only seen this behavior on Macs that have Siri disabled.

I enabled Siri on an affected Mac, and the behavior seems to have gone away, but it's probably too soon to tell.

Removing ~/Library/Trial/ in its entirety might resolve this, if only for a few days. I too noticed this on upgrade to macOS 12.3, the behavior was not present before this version. Curiously I've only noticed it on a 2014 Mac Mini, no other Macs. I am curious if you too have a Mac of the same vintage.

This particular Mac also has a long-standing issue introduced in Monterey with mediaanalysisd hitting the GPU at regular intervals, causing thermal throttling, and never completing its work. Again I've noticed it on no other Macs, but at least mediaanalysisd only runs when the machine is idle, not all the time as in the case of triald when its gone insane.

triald is to the best of my knowledge used for A/B trial stuff, possibly analytics and Siri related things, by Apple. Unfortunately it was not possible to persistently unload the LaunchAgents for either triald or mediaanalysisd via any method I've tried. The hack of removing ~/Library/Trial/ is the only thing I've found to address the triald issue. For the mediaanalysisd issue, you could remove your Photos Library completely from the Mac, but I don't want to do that for obvious reasons. Likewise you could possibly disable the LaunchAgents for both by disabling SIP, but I don't want to do that either.

So give the hack of removing ~/Library/Trial/ a try if you like. Note that there is a lot stuff in that directory, it will take a while to empty the trash after you've trashed it. Make sure you have a backup of the Mac first. You could also just move the directory aside to Triald.bak or similar if you're more comfortable with that, in fact that's what I would advise trying at least initially. I don't like to advise mucking about with things in ~/Library, but it's the only thing I've found that addresses this issue, at least for some time.

Hello StanFord2,

Have you been able to try force quitting the process in Activity Monitor? Try selecting the process in the list, and then click on the 'X' button to the left of the CPU/Memory/etc. tabs at the top of the window. Then, try restarting the Mac as normal, and see if it still has a high CPU usage.

A step that can help to prevent certain items from loading at startup, and isolate it a bit further, would be safe mode. This page helps to detail how to use it: How to use safe mode on your Mac

If you're using an Intel-based Mac, you'll follow these steps (separate steps for M1/Apple silicon on the page):

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.

2. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac. 

3. You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see ”Safe Boot” in the upper-right corner of the window.

Cheers.

StanFord2 wrote:

Hoping someone in development takes a look.

This is a user-to-user support forum.

You can send feedback to Apple via: Product Feedback - Apple

If you really want someone in development to take a look, you will have create an official bug report: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

System processes usually don't cause a problem. Trying to delete their data files will only make the problem worse. Unfortunately, there is an endless supply of bad advice constantly being posted on the internet. It is likely that you have followed some of that in the past and inadvertently caused this problem. If could have been something you did years ago. There's no way to tell.

There are factors:

1 - Like poor Wifi connection

2 - Slow wifi connection

3 - Too many other people downloading at the same time and Apple Severs are overloaded

4 - Software on the computer interfering with the download process including AntiVirus Software

Notation: Disabling the AV Software may or may not solve the issue. Removal of the AV Software may increase the chances of the download to perform as expected.

5 - Running behind a VPN which may increase Packet losses or corruption of the download 

6 - If via wifi too many Other devices using the wifi at the same time reducing the Bandwidth to your computer. 

7 - Best Results are via Ethernet Cable to Router

Use the Terminal Application and below command which will only list the available Full Version of macOS this computer Qualifies to run

 softwareupdate --list-full-installers

What is the output ?

Still in Terminal and use the below command. Depending on the List Appearing from previous command

 softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.X.X

Substitute the 12.X.X with the last two numbers appearing for the first command " List "

It will download the Full Version and place a new application called Install Monterey in the Applications folder. It will Not Automatically Launch. The user will need to launch the " Install Monterey" to commence the installation process.

Unable to update to macOS Monterey Version 12.3. Continues to advise checking internet connection with each try. Downloads, but does not complete. After reading some of these questions and replies, maybe I don't want to.

Mac mini 2018 purchased fall of 2021. 3 GHz 6-Core IntelCore i5; 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Tried several times with same result. Downloads the entire file, pauses a bit and then advised to try again. Internet connection 80 Mbps download. I think I will wait a while longer, but am not happy.

Good advice. Followed instructions, but basically had done so before.

The download goes smoothly, the install does not. Get to 5 min remaining and shortly thereafter, back to the failure notice. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is a sign of insanity.

The first time today I believe the provider throttled back speed. I complained and speed tested twice before trying again. Same result, twice. There may be a problem with the provider as they are installing all new fiber optic cables in the town south of here.

I will put it off trying again indefinitely. Very disappointing and annoying.

pfromwi wrote:

Unable to update to macOS Monterey Version 12.3. Continues to advise checking internet connection with each try. Downloads, but does not complete. After reading some of these questions and replies, maybe I don't want to.

Mac mini 2018 purchased fall of 2021. 3 GHz 6-Core IntelCore i5; 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Tried several times with same result. Downloads the entire file, pauses a bit and then advised to try again. Internet connection 80 Mbps download. I think I will wait a while longer, but am not happy.

I recommend that you start a new thread with your own question. This thread is specifically about the "triald" process. People who might have suggestions on how to fix your update problem aren't ever going to see your question here.

And to make matters worse, this thread already has several replies. That makes people even less likely to look. You aren't the person who started the thread, so you can't award any points even if someone did give you the perfect answer, so they are still more unlikely to bother.

In short, you should ask your own question.

what does process TRIALD do — and why so many files in Users/user/library?

And look for reply from Contributor @leroydouglas

+1 :-)