I’ve recently noticed that the iCloud bird process has been writing and reading absurd amounts of data to and from the SSD of my M2 MBA. I’m talking in the 100s of GBs daily. I’m worried this could majorly shorten the lifespan of my SSD, and this does not look normal. The cloudd process also writes and reads a lot.
should I be worried, why is this, how can I fix it? Help appreciated
MacBook Air, macOS 13.2
Well as previously mentioned not have issues Running M1 Mac Mini with Ventura 13.2.1 - latest stable Version of Ventura
Added have an M2 MBA also running Ventura 13.2.1 and still not having issues
1 - Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.
2 - Safe Mode will also eliminate Third Party Software, extensions and drivers from loading. It will only load the Minimum amount of Core Apple Processes to allow the the computer to function at a reduced Level of Performance
3 - Does the issue present in this mode ?
4 - Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.
5 - If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.
6 - If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.
7 - Download the Application Etrecheck directly from the Developer.
This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.
It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer
The application is free or paid from added features.
The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.
Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last ) <<<<
Below are images from Activity Monitor >> View >> View ALL Processes
Running M1 Mac Mini with Ventura 13.2.1 - latest stable Version of Ventura
Have been up and running since about 04:00 EST and do not see excessive Disk Reads or Writes for either of the two above mentioned processes
Just how much iCloud Data is involved in this setup.
How recent was the machine last updated to
I’ve got about 15GB on my iCloud, on the 50GB iCloud+ plan.
The Mac has not been powered on for more than a day. I’ve manually quit bird more than once.
I plan on updating to 13.2.1 tonight but not sure that’ll fix this issue.
With this 50GB iCloud+ plan comes the iCloud Private Relay
The information as it pertains to that specific feature in below link.
Worth the user exploring this as it maybe related to this computer issue
About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support (CA)
Between this reply and your previous one I actually logged out my Apple ID on the MBA before logging in again and turning iCloud Drive on - I'm waiting to see if this has any effect. I'll report back on any progress; it doesn't appear bird is going into overdrive (yet).
Thanks for the tips - I may well give them a go if I have no luck on the current boot.
seems to be ok so far, since I reactivated iCloud about 2 hours ago, only 12GB has been written which seems more normal, especially since of course it had to turn on again. I'm periodically continuing to monitor it however.
I have Private Relay turned off
Perhaps the above will solve this issue 🤞
Keep us posted - time permitting 😀
Good News so far and good work on your part 👍
Keep us posted if things change - really mean this 🇨🇦
iCloud bird process R/W extremely high (13.2, MBA M2)
