Maxed out CPU usage with nothing running

MPuggy wrote:

I have a 2020 intel macbook pro. It has been overheating to the point where touching the bottom of the MacBook triggers my reflex to pull back. I have nothing running on the MacBook but seems like it is all system programs? Please help. the PC is slow, battery is draining, fan is spinning at max speed with nothing running.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/9616cef8-dcb7-4edc-a5e3-ed28cab4648b

I would suspect third party—Your fileproviderd process on Mac is the daemon that manages cloud-based file providers, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, iCloud, Office 365, and Adobe InDesign.

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most* extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Uninstall any and all third party Antivirus, Cleaners, Optimizers, VPN, speeder uppers....

and third-party sync software like: OneDrive, GoogleDrive, BackBlaze or DropBox and compare your results.

if the issue persist sign out of iCloud and test

The first six processes in your screenshot are all related to Spotlight indexing. By default, it indexes darned near everything.

You can reduce the resource demands of Spotllight and its minions by reducing the types and locations of files it tracks. Examples:

• Emails take a long time to index but can be searched from within most Mail apps.
• Backup drives do not need to be indexed. They are typical slower than internal storage and can take a long time.
• There is no need to index apps. They are all in one folder.
• Same with fonts

This is all done through Settings (or System Preferences) > Spotlight. You can see how many things I deselected in mine:

consider downloading and running this little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck. it changes NOTHING.

it contains little tests for speeds of devices, CPU utilization, memory usage, energy usage and a digest of recent problems, in one easy to use package. it does not even need to be Installed.

if you follow the directions faithfully, its report (pre-laundered of all personally-identifiable information) can be "Shared" to the system ClipBoard, the Pasted into an Additional text window in a reply on the forums.

Use Etrecheck Pro for free

MPuggy wrote:

I do not have any of those cloud providers on my laptop. only iCloud(I checked through some command I found on the internet that iCloud was the service it was working on). How ridiculous for just iCloud to slow down the whole laptop and drain so much battery just to sync

sign out of iCloud and sign back in — this is well known to sort issue. Basic.

Sign out of iCloud on your ...Mac

Maybe check at least one thing so Spotlight does not run continuously looking (?)

To be honest—I have everything check in Spotlight settings (except Siri Suggestion) never had an issue.