iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) Felled by Small Audio Files!?

Question

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) Felled by Small Audio Files!?

See bottom for specs. So, I've been using the last Intel iMac build with every feature maxed out – 128 GB RAM, graphics, CPU, ethernet, etc. I bought it to continue editing 4k video and such, but have switched to using it mostly for pro audio (Adobe Audition, Ableton Live, etc.). It's way over-qualified to handle these spec-wise. But, last year it slowly started dragging its heels. And last month it ground to a halt on all sorts of things.

Indexing Spotlight is definitely involved, since when it's on--and it's been turning on like all the time--it'll eat upwards of >1300% of the CPU. No, not 130%. I had a number of projects on iCloud. Most of the media files don't really change much there. Or so I've thought.

First, I upgraded from Catalina to Sonoma. Total nightmare. Realized Adobe doesn't work well with the OS on Intel. Downgrading was harrowing at best. Took 4 days. Erased and reinstalled from backup (nightmare situation where every attempt failed). Finally, using Migration Assistant on a clean volume of Catalina I got my data back. Though applications couldn't be installed, so I've had to reinstall and re-do all licenses for dozens of plugins. Total time: 9 days.

Please talk me off the ledge. Convince me this is some minor easy solvable bug and not planned obsolescence, lol.

All disks are healthy and passed utility checks. I moved all relevant files, projects, media, or otherwise related to audio work (or any Adobe app) off iCloud and onto an M2 external thunderbolt/usb-c drive. Took iCloud local from 280GB to 17GB. Seems to be much better... Though why am I paying for iCloud now?

However, I still need to shut off Spotlight for now because it goes haywire. That sets the fans blowing like crazy. Simple audio files and sequences stutter in playback and grind to a halt. Forget about recording. I know, Adobe. But it also happens with Ableton Live. And I don't think the audio is causing it, since it obviously the md_stores, mdworker and md-related processes trigger the high CPU.

Note: I've done everything in this article about 'mds_stores' and high CPU issues except the program they shill at the end combo colonic or whateves. Ran malwarebytes. Found nothing. Have had bitdefender for years. No apparent malware.

Thoughts?

Sincerely,

K

SPECS:

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac20,2

Processor Name: 10-Core Intel Core i9

Processor Speed: 3.6 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 10

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 20 MB

Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled

Memory: 128 GB

System Firmware Version: 2020.61.1.0.0 (iBridge: 21.16.2057.0.0,0)

iMac 27″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jan 31, 2024 3:10 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

212,157 points

Feb 2, 2024 10:58 AM in response to Screaming Panda

Even though you didn't migrate the apps the supporting files that would be in the user library might have been migrated. You can determine if any have been by downloading and running the free version of Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

212,157 points

Feb 1, 2024 8:20 AM in response to Screaming Panda

That's good. Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following;

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

212,157 points

Feb 2, 2024 12:17 PM in response to Screaming Panda

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.

There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs. There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.

Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear. They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware. Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.

There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it. The free version is more than adequate for most users.

Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they provide false security from a privacy standpoint.

Just some food for thought.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

212,157 points

Jan 31, 2024 3:57 PM in response to Screaming Panda

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Feb 2, 2024 11:18 AM in response to Screaming Panda

disabling ≠ uninstalling.

Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

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Answer 6

tbirdvet

Level 6

15,629 points

Feb 1, 2024 1:21 PM in response to Screaming Panda

Look at this article. You can turn Spotlight off and test your system to see if that is an issue. Even with what you are doing with your setup I would think you should not have an issue.

https://setapp.com/how-to/turn-off-spotlight

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Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Feb 1, 2024 2:29 PM in response to Screaming Panda

Old Toad wrote:

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

To which you replied,

No.

But

Screaming Panda wrote:

Have had bitdefender for years.

Would you like to revise that statement?

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Answer 8

Feb 2, 2024 10:49 AM in response to John Galt

Fair, lol. Though I would disable it if certain programs seemed to slow.

It was completely wiped a few weeks ago when I formatted my hard drive and restored from a time machine back up that would not allow apps to be restored.

And this problem persisted.

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Answer 9

Feb 2, 2024 10:56 AM in response to tbirdvet

OK, thank you for this. I had no idea they were third-party alternatives to spotlight, and this is beautiful. i'm going to look into them.

Also, I've won an apparently major victory noted above. Though i need to see how spotlight and indexing continue to interact with the program (audition) and others.

And I'm afraid that for now I don't trust iCloud to host media files that have to be available for these projects. that really sucks because it did give me that sense of security and portability so I could really easily travel and keep working on a laptop.

for now I'm thinking I might drag just my current working project and media onto iCloud before I travel as a test; as long as i can drag it off if the old problems it's worth the safety and cloud backup.

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Answer 10

Feb 2, 2024 11:23 AM in response to Screaming Panda

TL;DR: A major fix occurred yesterday, though I still need to see if it persists and whether I can keep spotlight on.

ADMIN'S LOG:

2024-02-01 – I accidentally moved my working projects (and all docs) to iCloud yesterday to recover a few accidentally deleted Ableton project files, which failed. Then today I moved Docs back off iCloud as the timeline was getting very clunky and taking >12 s of spinning beach ball to play after I hit space bar. It triggered md_stores and Spotlight re-indexing, massive CPU, etc. But then I did this in the below article:

Restart the Spotlight Service

If you refresh mds_stores, it can fix the abnormally high CPU usage.

From: https://www.technewstoday.com/mds-stores-on-mac-high-cpu-usage/

It chilled out. Play latency time dropped to 8-10 s. Still, mad slow.

TBC, that is not how this computer worked before and it's ALL wrong.

Baseline. It's still like I bought a Ferrari and all of a sudden it can't go over 15 MPH unless I remove all the seats and sit on a cardboard box. And even then it's barely hitting 35 MPH—it used to go 200!

Then, I thought to copy and paste all clips into a new 24-bit project. No FX yet, but play is near-instant.

Made a new blank 32-bit project. Same responsiveness!?

Also, project size dipped from 2.7 GB to circa 800 MB... I've made templates, since starting new projects with 'Save As' of the old has hurt before. Maybe there's some baggage or files associated with even the templates. I'm at the end of a project... I'll have to see how this works from the start. It seems to consolidate and eliminate all files not in the timeline, which is great.

P.S. Would this one fix have saved me from burning 9 days (probably way more in added hours since) to troubleshoot a bunch of nervewracking stuff? I *think* not.

Huge headaches included: multi-day breakdown doomloop of the time machine backup restore process utterly failing like a dozen times (b/c I upgraded 'too much' and Adobe apps on Intel don't work w/ Sonoma; then, couldn't go from Sonoma back to Catalina even w/ multiple time machine backups... so, we're talkin' a jalopy of a 'time machine').

Plus, i've had to disable & tweak indexing, upgrade the operating system, completely delete and reinstall everything, and remove all media and project files from iCloud (a huge hassle! I accidentally deleted several music projects. Luckily, it's work I can replicate for the most part. but it caused anxiety and lost hours.) Also, re-linking thousands of media files has been crummy at times it can't 'auto-link' based on the pattern.

I have working project files and active recent recordings on the internal SSD (reads 50% faster than M2), but not iCloud. All other media files are on a thunderbolt M2 raid, which writes a bit faster.

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Answer 11

Feb 2, 2024 11:29 AM in response to Old Toad

OK. Good points. i'm going to check this out. I did cull a number dubious daemons, startup processes, and background items that were from the before times, too. But I'm not satisfied all the potentially offending stuff has been fully cleared out. Thanks!