Why are "bird" and "fileproviderd" taking up so much CPU?

PuppyArms wrote:

<EtreCheck Report For Little Snitch.log>

I uninstalled it:

Not quite. You still need to restart. But you did make more progress than I had expected. How did you do that?

Normally, once you delete the app that contains a system extension, you can't ever remove the system extension. In your case, the Little Snitch system extension was blocked. So this wasn't too big of a problem as the extension wasn't running anyway.

But I'm genuine curious about how you did it. Did you use the super-secret method of disabling SIP and using systemextensionsctl? That's the only way I know of. But it is too dangerous to mention here in the forums. The moderators will delete any most that mentions it. Plus, if I tell someone about it, then it becomes my responsibility to hold their hand the through the whole process, which I don't want to do.

how could i fix this:

Any time you upgrade the operating system, you risk some significant indexing tasks for iCloud, Photos, etc. If you decide you want to be one of those people who updates the OS every couple of weeks, then you're just going to have to live with pretty much constant reindexing of the hard drive.

That's more of a general recommendation for the future. You're already running a beta version, you won't be able to get off that until Sonoma becomes stable. And to be honest, that might not ever happen.

But, in general, if you have a certain version of the operating system installed and running well, why do you need to upgrade it at all? If you stay one or two major revisions behind, life is much easier and less stressful.

I also think I uninstalled Little Snitch at.obdev.littlesnitch.networkextension, also why does it have to be all reindexed?

As I said, you have several different issues. You seem fixed on the one issue that might not even be causing any problems. That's why I recommended that you ignore it. I can't say for sure, of course. These system modifications typically include multiple components. I don't know the impact of running only one component and not the primary system extension.

I can't tell you why everything has to be reindexed. You would have to ask Apple and Apple won't tell you, even if they know, which they probably don't.

Also, what are the file provider apps? i couldn't find them

Look in your EtreCheck report for "provider". Also, I wasn't very accurate. There is a general category of new Finder extensions that are generally poorly behaved. Here they are from your EtreCheck report:

File providers:

Google Drive - /Applications/Google Drive.app

Finder sync extensions:

FinderSyncExtension - /Applications/Google Drive.app/Contents/Applications/FinderHelper.app

FilemailFinderSync - /Applications/Filemail.app

Unless these system modifications are written exactly right, they can slow down your entire system. And they won't show up as using lots of CPU or anything. It's very difficult to track down. But since you were complaining about cloud sync software, there is a good chance that any interference would come from other brands of cloud sync software.

Ok, what can I do to fix this as best as I can?

It's tricky. Once an indexing task starts, there is no option. You must let it complete. That means keeping the computer turned on, with good, very high speed network connected, and plugged in (for notebook computers). If you have a handy anti-sleep app like Jiggler, I highly recommend it.

But it's hard to say. You said, "Ever since I updated my M2 Max MacBook Pro 16", my CPU usage has been sky-high". Well, you just updated yesterday. You have a 1 TB hard drive that isn't full yet, but has a healthy 700 GB in use. You've got antivirus apps, social media influencer apps, Homebrew, and many others. All that comes with a cost. Your computer appears to be running fine, hardware-wise. This really looks like a slow-down created completely in software.

I'm afraid there's no easy answer. You could erase the hard drive and start fresh, not installing all those 3rd party system modifications. But then you'd have to do yet another round of indexing after you copied all your files back.

A few things...

You are running a large number of 3rd party system modification apps. Some of the ones you are running directly interfere with system networking.

You have used the new anti-feature in macOS 13+ to disable parts of those system modification apps. Nobody knows how they are going to work now - not even the people who wrote them. Note that you have incorrectly uninstalled Little Snitch. Don't bother trying to get rid of it. It is now a permanent part of your system. At least you never enabled it, so it isn't (completely) running.

You have a couple of 3rd party "file provider" apps. These are known to cause significant file system performance problems.

You also have a number of 3rd party audio plugins. For some reason, very large numbers of 3rd party audio plugins can degrade performance. Yes, yes, yes. I know all about it. I don't care. That's just the way it is. But at least I can tell you, in comparison to most people who have audio plug in problems, yours are relatively minor. I've seen some EtreCheck report with many, many more plugins - literally hundreds.

Any time you upgrade the operating system, you risk some significant indexing tasks for iCloud, Photos, etc. If you decide you want to be one of those people who updates the OS every couple of weeks, then you're just going to have to live with pretty much constant reindexing of the hard drive. Anything to keep the North Korean hackers at bay, eh? While your computer is busy doing all this reindexing, I recommend using your backup computer. You do have a backup computer, right?

Last and certainly not least, on top of all the above, you're running a beta version of the operating system. Your options are limited to: 1) file a bug report and 2) live with it.

FileProvider is part of macOS. There is no way to get rid of it.

File Provider | Apple Developer Documentation

If it is still running away, did you uninstall Google Drive following their directions?

bird is iCloud synching.

fileProvider may be related to iCloud, but it is for other cloud-based storage like Dropbox.

You have Avast installed. It does nothing but cause problems.

I don’t know what Iceburg is, but it is using StartupItems. That was deprecated a decade ago. I can’t imagine anything using it is still compatible with macOS. If it still works, that’s impressive.

PuppyArms wrote:

Well how can i make it so it's not using 150% of my cpu?

Did you restart?

Well, I got a virus before

No, you didn't. There is not a single known virus that can infect macOS.

and avast got rid of it, but MacOS couldn't find it

You probably installed adware. It's not considered malware, but it pretty much is. And, you installed it.

PuppyArms wrote:

Hey, trust me, I love MacOS and have full faith in it, but I'm just telling you what I know: the malware would keep sending stuff to an external IP and took a lot of CPU

And, you installed it. Nothing can install itself. Stop installing malware.

That description matches most Adware. Nothing will stop you from installing Adware.

True, but if I install adware/malware, what software could I use to eliminate it?

EtreCheck does a good job. If it can't find it, you can use MalwareBytes (but uninstall that after using).

Both are free but offer paid versions. You don't need the Etrecheck paid version and you don't want to install the paid MalwareBytes version.

What's a good free/cheap-one-time-payment antivirus/malware app, then?

macOS.