com.apple.mediaanalysisd files filling drive in macOS 15.1

I am observing a similar anomalous problem with the mediaanalysisd process. I have an empty library of photos, but when I have a closed mac (I use aldente so it doesn't go to sleep) this process starts to load 1 core of the CPU completely for almost the whole period of the closed lid, in previous versions of OC this problem didn't happen at all, but support just said to erase SSD and reinstall macos =) (I don't think it will help)

I just want to know what process or event is causing this behavior, but support also couldn't tell me how to see it.

The problem spreads even in safe mode if you specify

sudo pmset -disablesleep 1

Below I attach a log file that was kept with a bash script (just recording the 5 most used processes every 10 seconds) all night long (only fit half)

Same here. Mine's at 47GB today. It was 45GB yesterday.

If this continues, the Mac SSD will run out of space very soon. Need a solution for this ASAP.

I too have been having a similar problem. However, I am using M1 2020 Air.

Since I updated my software to Sequoia 15.2, the system data on my drive suddenly bloated to 110GB (previously, it did not exceed 25GB).

I tried cleaning my device using CleanMyMac, however, it temporarily reduced the space (to ~60GB). I hadn't used my laptop in more than 24 hours and when I picked it up - it was warm. As soon I logged in, it told me it was running out of space again. I checked CleanMyMac and could see that com.apple.mediaanalysisd is eating up 22.2GB and increasing.

What is this process? Is it a temporary indexing of my images? If so, does deleting it keep resetting the indexing and it would keep trying to run? My photos aren't even on my laptop so what on earth is it doing?

Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data/Library/Caches

This is almost 80GB and I have no disk space free to run applications.

rm -rf com.apple.mediaanalysisd/ resolved this for me

I have the same problem. The process com.apple.mediaanalysisd (in

systemdata) is filling up my entire Mac mini SSD (140gb so far). Does

anyone know how i can stop this? I downloaded the CCleaner to clean up

some system data (including the com.apple.mediaanalysisd file) but a

week later the **** process starts filling out my entire SSD again.

I have around 20gb free space on my SSD and the ****

com.apple.mediaanalysisd taking up 140gb, and im getting warnings from

macos that my internal SSD is getting low on space.

I do have around 80.000 photos stored on a external 4TB SSD (with 2TB

free space). Is it possible to make the "com.apple.mediaanalysisd" to

use that SSD instead? or is there a way to turn is this process or make

is stop filling out my entire internal SSD?

im on the latest version of MacOS!

mohysfb wrote:

I tried cleaning my device using CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac is infamous for corrupting macOS. 3rd party virus apps do the same.

"I have tested the trial version s of the earlier CleamMyMac versions twice, and every time it damaged my Photos Library, when I let it clean a simple test library. It removed original image files of edited versions as unnecessary working copies, and it linked quite a few edited versions to the wrong originals. The damaged library could not be repaired and needed to be restored from a backup."

How to prompt Photos in MacOS Sequoia to … - Apple Community

mediaanalysisd and photoslibraryd are background processes which go through and analyze a new or updated Photos library when the Mac is otherwise idling. With large 500 GB libraries with 50 000 images and thousands of movies that might take a week or more. Set the Mac to never sleep (allow the screen to turn off, setting the library as system library might also help) and let the Mac be on day and night until those processes are done. Or move the library to an external APFS or MacOS extended disk.

Does mediaanalysisd cause that issue if you create a dummy new user and login to that account? If, that helps, you might try if moving the following preference file to the Desktop, and then rebooting helps (backup first, just in case):

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mediaanalysisd.plist

...there is another preference but handling it is more involved and I would not lightly fiddle that:

/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.mediaanalysisd.plist

looks to have been tidied up in 15.2, my 18GB is now 344MB

and the total System Data has reduced from 130GB to 27GB so other things must have been done

however still got an issue with the size of utmapp as 28GB

Here's what I did:

Using an M1 Air 2020 running Sequoia 15.2, I was getting "out of space" messages about my 256GB SSD internal.

I connected a 1TB external SSD and offloaded as much as I could, copying apps and things to the external SSD and replacing them with aliases. I tested each app for rudimentary functionality. Everything seemed to be working for a while.

I was still running out of space. I was down to 5GB.

Then I found com.apple.mediaanalysisd was occupying 74GB! I Googled the name and, after reading this thread, I copied com.apple.mediaanalysisd to my external, replaced it with an alias, and emptied the Trash. One folder containing subfolders to five levels would not go away, but I saw no data, so I rebooted and emptied the Trash again.

My internal SSD now has 88 GB available. I have noticed no abnormalities.

Is there any way to test for a possible loss in function?

--Gil

Hopefully that will happen. I noticed today I have only 88 MB of free space on my M1 MacMini. It turned out com.apple.mediaanalysisd is about 23 GB as of now.

I have exactly the same problem. Everytime I start to use my macbook, I feel it is warm because of the CPU cost of mediaanalysisd.