Is it normal for latest Intel iMac with all specs maxed out to use >1300% CPU for Spotlight? (See my EtreCheck Report!)

Tiny, faint light at the end of the tunnel...

I couldn't view previous backups of the Monterey version of my system from a clean install of Catalina. So, in order to look at what's salvageable before I reset the machine to factory settings, I installed Monterey on a new volume.

The difference with this install is that unlike the previous time, I ditched all user and system data from my time machine backups of a buggy OS.

Lo and behold, the wild CPU action I was seeing from before appears to have vanished on this 'mini' clean install. Hooray!

Just as an experiment, I tried to open the Audition app from the SSD - Data drive, which shouldn't even be possible since I hadn't even installed Adobe Creative Cloud yet. But, after getting the permissions straightened out, it opened anyway and ran as fast as if it was installed on a new machine! No funky 100% CPU loads coming from WindowServe, mds_stores, and co.

This tells me that, yes, the primary issue was something corrupted on the system volume, just as some (all?) of you have insinuated.

I won't consider this resolved until I complete a full clean reinstall of the OS. I'll have to reset the entire SSD to factory settings, upgrade to Monterey, and get my creative apps back in order. But, this gives me hope. Thanks for your help thus far. If you don't hear from me, it worked.

Hi. So it appears I'm in the clear hardware-wise. No issues found in the diagnostics test. The Reference C

ode points to software as the source of the problem.

Ofc, something happened in recovery mode where I or the computer scrambled the "SSD" System volume I had been using with Monterey, making it so I couldn't restart in Monterey, only my 'safety' partition (really just a container) of Catalina.

After I clean installed Catalina, then upgraded (cleanly!) to Monterey, I was able to open my DAW on the old orphaned SSD - Data volume without lags (or proper installation lol!), and now the CPU impact of Finder, WindowServer, mds_, et. al is back to what I would call normal for that machine – a few percent. It's was a glorious end to a nightmarish day.

However, now that I've cloned my needed files from the dead "SSD - Data" volume to an external, I'm wondering if I should Revive or better yet Restore the T2 iMac like this: Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator - Apple Support in order to make extra certain the whole system has been wiped and the firmware is 100% solid.

Or is that overkill?

I want to make this a clean of an installation of the OS as possible.

welp. I got impatient and did the Apple Configurator approach, lol. oops. it seems to have worked except for when it rebooted in internet recovery mode it prompted me to install Sonoma, which kind of defeats my whole purpose of wanting to have a clean install of Monterey. Any pointers for initializing the SSD based on the following?

Is Restoring an Intel-based T2 Mac using … - Apple Community

EDIT: Ignore. I've erased the drive below and that initialized it so I could reinstall Catalina. Think I'm good...

Just to be 100% clear. I'm looking at the iMac in Recovery Mode. In disk utility/view all devices. And I see in the side bar two items.

1. internal: APPLE SSD AP1024N Media (no volumes)
2. Apple disk image/macOS Base System (OS 10.15.7)

haha. OK. Dang. yeah, it boots fine.

my point about "pairing" was that for whatever reason i now only see the "SSD - Data" Volume in what used to be an OS Volume Group with 2 Volumes — "SSD" & "SSD - Data".

*Maybe* I accidentally deleted the SSD System volume? Very dumb, I know. I deleted a generically-named drive. disk2s or Something. It was grayed out. Way smaller than the SSD system drive had been. And it wasn't named "SSD". Just... impatient move I suppose.

Seems I may be able to clone the existing SSD - Data Volume and migrate it (though I know y'all will recommend I wipe the SSD and clean reinstall everything... I did that last month! Dang dang dang.

only externals i work from are the seagate USB 2 and an M2 thunderbolt drive.

a wdmycloud drive that i back up time machine to is probably the weak link which you refer? data is backed up there. I'm not too afraid of retrieving it. Or from the internal SSD. don't expect a full restore of all apps.

i back up selectively, not constantly. every few days or a couple times before doing major updates or installs. i have dozens if backups from the past couple months. did it last night in anticipation of running diagnostics

other peripherals have never presented problems. the M2 raid was introduced a couple weeks ago and solved all major issues related to hosting any kind of 'working' pro audio/video media on iCloud. this is a common fix.

I had switched to icloud while traveling with a newer laptop and it was fine for a while. perhaps moving projects between versions of audition on icloud across and different OSs triggered something?

anyway, i've been on monterey since last month b/c Adobe advises against sonoma for Intel macs. i learned that the hard way, which set off this helltrip.

due to stuff like this, i like to use the oldest recommended compatible OS. Would have stayed with Catalina but it's phased out for Adobe and apparently Apple, too.

hey, I appreciate your input. gonna have to wipe the whole ssd and start from scratch with zero data restored from backup. reinstall all apps, dozens of audio plugins and licenses - at least I just did this so it's not like last week when I was trying to remember everything for first time in ages. just a huge, huge, time-sucking hassle. Sisyphean!

real quick to clarify – I've been doing professional video and audio editing on Macs for about 20 years and have some practices that are typical of that kind of user, but perhaps not the average user. M2 drive is a 4xM2 raid, but I think it's just striped as raid 0. it's designed for speed. all the files are archived in a second, slower place (Seagate or SD cards).

the main thing is because a new OS upgrade often breaks the DAW app I need to earn a living (like Adobe Audition), I literally can't afford a premature upgrade. not worth it. so, for users like me, it's commonly advised to always make a new separate volume in addition to the one I'm working on, install the new OS on it, and test the software there before upgrading. so I have volume groups named Catalina, Monterey, and one I call SSD, which is the one I'm actually using that gets upgraded very cautiously.

all of this mess came to head as my computer was getting increasingly and inexplicably slow last fall/winter, which came to a head in December with the 1300% CPU mds_stores stuff. I wanted to know –– is this me? I got the newest maxed out MacBook Pro, downloaded my apps and plugins, opened the same project there... and it ran about as fast as my iMac did before the slowdown. this was on Sonoma.

so, being impatient, rather than look up the recommended OS for an Intel iMac,I just bit the bullet and installed Sonoma on the iMac. All my critical apps broke completely. And that's when I hit the wall. Because, as you may know, Apple makes it very hard to downgrade. Hence the **** I'm in.

I'm now going to have to repeat a multi-day hellshow which I just finished a week or so ago. At least I've been through it before, so less surprises. I'm testing a new laptop, too, for travel next month. So maybe I'll set that up at the same time... I just want to do my work is all. Wish me luck!

(If a second clean reinstall doesn't fix the wild CPU usage I'll be back. ;p)

My bad, I meant for this reply to ask you if I should do a restore like this or if it's being too vigilant?

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator - Apple Support

OK. I deleted those launch agents. Rebooted and ran diagnostics. It says,

"No issues found. Reference Code: ADP000"

However when it rebooted in recovery mode, I couldn't find the root volume, which I had named "SSD". I see the "SSD - Data" drive, which has the lion's share of my files. All that's left are 2 recovery drives and an instance of Catalina (& ofc Catalina – Data), which I keep to troubleshoot. That 10.15 OS is updated to the latest security, but with nothing else installed and no iCloud or Apple ID login. Anyway, I can't start up in Monterey. Nor does it recognize backups made in Monterey. Is there a tried and true way to reinstall Monterey and ensure it's linked back up to my SSD - Data drive?

So, my machine has been working much better than in January. I was just double-checking to ensure there's not some fix for WindowServer and mds eating up >100% CPU on occasion — due diligence.

Mind you, it says 135% CPU on the task line above in Activity Monitor, but in the Total Load at the bottom for System and User, it's like 5% System, 10% User. So, maybe I'm overreacting?

Anyway, a couple hours ago I ran Apple hardware diagnostics (no problems) and as I had to reboot a few times to get it to launch diagnostics, I wonder if I interrupted some process that might have made the Monterey System disk disappear... FML.

I'm going to reinstall a volume with Monterey and hopefully that can recognize Monterey backups and such, maybe even the system drive that vanished from the volume group.

I just want to get back to work using the "SSD - Data" volume that remains. I fear it won't easily let me pair that to a new Monterey system installation...

Having to redo all my app installations and audio plugin licenses, would be a huge time-suck.

What are my options?

Done. Everything appears to be back on track. Will see how it goes as I wrap up a big project. Suppose I now just need to be cognizant of when support for Monterey drops.

I may just shift to software with owned licenses rather than subscriptions for these tools, which alter the playing field and delete functional and compatible versions.

There's a real need for persistent and more stable operating environments with less bells and whistles. They should be insulated from the bugs and breakage of rapid OS upgrading. Like I should be able to tick some boxes for commonly used programs and have the computer make any and all updates as long as it preserves peak functionality of those tools.

That's the dream...