Fixing Issues with Suggestd

Something was brought over from the older system that seems to be incompatible.

This could become a big troubleshooting detective hunt.

There is a fix, it requires that you have good backups (test them on random files and folders). You would boot into Recovery, and erase/install a fresh MacOS. It might make sense to follow this:

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

This restores your Mac to its state when new. Then on first boot with this "new" Mac, use Migration or Setup Assistant to migrate over only user accounts and files from your backup. Do not migrate any settings or applications, just user files.

Then reinstall your software. Reinstall a few at a time, even one at a time, and reboot and test after each install to see if the Suggestd problem returns. If it does, you will have identified to item installed that causes it.

I had the same problem on a MacBook Air M1 running Ventura. "suggestd" alway consumed around 100 % of CPU, even in safe mode. I also trashed the "Suggestions" folder to no avail. I finally did a clean install of Ventura and this seems to have done the trick. "suggestd" now stays at 0 % CPU when it's not needed.

MBER wrote:

Problem solved as recommended above. I am disappointed the Time Machine backups Ive made for 9 years were really useless except for backing up documents.

Actually, it is best to start over with just user accounts and the associated documents. If you were to restore settings, applications, etc. you would likely have restored the problem again!

With the newer version of MacOS, one cannot restore the operating system anyway from the backup. It has to be reinstalled directly from the MacOS servers securely. If Apple allowed write access to the System by users, it would make it possible for a virus to get installed and propagate.