coreaudiod Chugs CPU at 50-100% after Updating to Ventura

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Level 1

5 points

coreaudiod Chugs CPU at 50-100% after Updating to Ventura

I just updated to Ventura (from Catalina) and my MacBook Pro (intel) now heats my home.

Looking at the Activity Monitor, coreaudiod is likely the culprit. This process is chugging CPU at >50% when idle, >100% when playing audio.

There is a hack published online to create a folder in your home directory to support Audio settings files at ~/Library/Preferences/Audio and adjust the ownership. I've tried this and it does not make an impact.

I have also tried deleting the /Library/Preferences/Audio folder. I can delete the .plist files, but there is a /Data folder which is protected by SIP. Trying to avoid a re-format if possible.

Thanks for taking a look.

Phil

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 23, 2023 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

bruno75

Community Specialist

Jan 25, 2023 7:51 AM in response to ph1111p

Hey there ph1111p,

While we're unable to speak to a 'hack' you found related to troubleshooting what's happening on your Mac, we'd like to help rule out what we can from the Apple side of things, along with confirming more details to better understand what's happening:

You mentioned that checking Activity Monitor shows coreaudiod using 100% CPU when playing audio, but which app are you using to play audio?
Sometimes unexpected behavior can be resolved with a restart. Check out the section ‘Restart your Mac' here: Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac
You also mentioned updating to macOS Ventura recently, but the latest version would be macOS Ventura 13.2. Is this the exact version currently installed? You can verify this by clicking on the Apple logo at the top left corner of the screen, then on ‘About This Mac’. In case you needed it, this link shows how to first back up, then Update macOS on Mac.
We also recommend making sure that all apps are up to date: How to manually update apps on your Apple device

Cheers!

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Answer 2

Jan 26, 2023 1:03 PM in response to ph1111p

I can share a screen recording. This has been an issue before the latest update and still not fixed. Mainly an issue on M1 Mac Mini using bluetooth headphones. Not as bad but still an issue when using no bluetooth headphones.

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Answer 3

ph1111p Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 26, 2023 6:09 PM in response to bruno75

Thanks for your response Bruno 1. When idle core audios runs at about 5-60% cpu. Any app playing audio bumps it up to 100% (or over somehow, in some cases 2 I agree and this is usually my first step in troubleshooting. Unfortunately no help this time.

3 I updated to 13.2 today. No help

4 most of my apps are on auto update.

Thanks again for your time! Let me know if there is some other way i can help

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