Continued corespotlightd process CPU overload issues

I just bought a MacBook Air 2022 M2 with 16GB, after the immediate update it runs now Tahoe 26.1. I face the same problem, with the corespotlightd slowing down my processor, consuming energy, and stopping Pages from working every minute or so for a few seconds. I transferred the two Pages documents I was working on on my SSD, and miracle. My CPU load is below 10%, the machine is fast with corespotlightd at 0.1% ! I have Key, Numbers, Safari (a full load of tags open), Preview, Mail… open, and no troubles.

SO : it's not the system, it's just Pages.

Why is this not fixed ? please "Apple Guys" if you can't read that, ask an İ.A. to read the complaints and search the codes, or do your job, that shouldn't be so complicated !!!

New information about Spotlight slowing down and glitching your computer.  I don't recommend it for anyone who regularly uses Spotlight Search but I don't - and am giving it a try to solve an ongoing issue for me and a lot of other folks.

I read a piece by Michael Simon in MacWorld that addressed the problem many of us have been having with glitches caused by Spotlight.  He claimed that he solved his same problems by toggling off items under System Settings/Spotlight.  He disabled 'Show related content' and 'Help Apple improve search'.

I have been regularly deleting large folders in ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/ and this insight from Michael Simon seems to follow that same reasoning.  Again, if you regularly use Spotlight Search, you obviously want to leave at least the first item enabled.

Simon also suggested disabling System Settings/ Spotlight /results from apps for Pages.

After making these changes, my problems stopped. I am no longer regularly deleting huge folders in ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/ .

Just to add to the debate, in my experience it is also a problem on Tahoe 26.1, although I had not noticed it until recently. Accordingly I'm not sure if my issue, on an M3 14" MBP, arose after or before the latest update.

I'm currently sat in front of my laptop with no real activity ongoing and "corespotlightd" is consuming well in excess of 125% of CPU time.

My experience tells me that it's associated with Pages files regardless of whether they are stored in the cloud or locally.

I hope this helps.

Stephen

Edit: While in hibernation, the MacBook reinstalled the CoreSpotlight metadata folder, but this time, it seems to have stabilized at around 50MB. So, still hopeful the solution works.

Hi all,

Just recently converted from Windows and also had this issue, which is obviously unacceptable.

Working on an Air M4, sequoia 15.7, mostly with web browsers and pages.

It seems as the issue arises when Pages documents are stored in iCloud.

Tried to block spotlight entirely by a terminal command found in a forum, but that didn't do the trick.

Tried to uncheck Pages from syncing to iCloud, but didn't do the trick.

Then:

Tried to store all documents locally (in Library folder, not User folder as I suspect it to route back into iCloud(?)) - and it seems to do the trick.

Deleted the metadata folder, which before instantly reoccurred and started to grow, and now it hasn't reoccurred for a few hours, at least. And no corespotlightd process running.

Having several Pages docs open, problem seems to be solved for the moment, but will update if it doesn't last.

Just have to remember to backup my files "manually".

Same problem here.

Pages file on in iCloud Drive/Documents. Pages file is open. CoreSpotlight folder has grown to 60GB. Mac hangs every 10 seconds, pausing the mouse pointer and audio glitches. In Activity Monitor, Pages and corespotlightd both unusually high CPU usage, over 50%.

Quit Pages, move file to local disk. Open document. Issue doesn't happen.

macOS 26.1 (25B78)

Pages version 14.4 (7043.0.93)

I’m sick of Apple not fixing this. I’ve started using MS Word instead of Pages and I have no problem, BUT I prefer Pages over Word. I sent my MacBook Pro back and forth 4 times to them and on the 5th time, they sent me a new MacBook Pro, but within weeks it started have the Corespotlightd problem using 200-300% CPU. It is clear this multi-billion dollar company plans to do nothing. I have been telling people to buy Dell instead. This will probably be my last MacBook Pro.

This is what annoys me about Apple. What remaining updates to sequoia has left. They mainly focus on securities. We has users need to hammer them on fixing these high CPU issues. These macOSes are turning into Windows. I have problem with Backgroundshortcutrunner process. BTW you guys know about Onyx utility that cleans up Spotlight? It safely deletes indexes safely. You rebuild or delete the index.

I am using an M4 iMac. I've been posting about these problems for some time in this and other threads. I wanted to update what I've already posted.

I am still seeing all the documented issues with corespotlight folder sizes increasing and regularly delete folders in ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/ when they exceed 4 GB in Tahoe. This solves the issues.

Curiously, I left for a long appointment this morning with these folders as large as 14 GB but didn't have time to delete them as usual. When I returned several hours later, the folder sizes had dropped back to around 1 GB.

I primarily use Pages and first saw the issues in Pages. Lately I have been viewing large mp4 movie files with QuickTime from a webcam I leave on at night for security. I record with OBS Studio on an Intel 21.5 iMac I upgraded to an SSD from the Fusion Drive. I saw the corespotlight folders increase on the M4 iMac after watching the movies for just over an hour for night time movement, at a speed of 10X and occasionally stopping to make screenshot movie captures of nighttime activity.

I sometimes notice Safari running slowly and large folders are always the culprit. Again the issue is resolved by deleting large folders.

My M1 MBA is using Tahoe and has no problems.

I am hoping to add to the information already known about this problem.

fronesis47 wrote:

The big question for me is what is the situation with Tahoe, 26.1?

Multiple posters here have asked about Tahoe, but I get the sense that most of us on this thread with the problem have not updated to Tahoe. I have yet to see multiple reports from users running Tahoe that the problem persists. And that's the only thing that gives me a glimmer of hope...

I've been running Tahoe on the systems that support it (my iMac Pro does not) since a few weeks after it came out. So far I have not observed any discernible difference in this particular problem, or bug, or whatever it is.

In my year-plus of dealing with this issue, I've reached the following conclusions (which may not be generalizable to other users, but they seem to at least be consistent for my particular use case):

• The problem is significantly more severe on Intel systems than on Apple Silicon systems.
• The problem, at least in my case, is strongly linked to editing large Pages files. On my two Intel systems (a 27-inch iMac and an iMac Pro), I only regularly edit large Pages files on the former. CoreSpotlight metadata accumulates rapidly, getting to 40 GB or more every few days to maybe a week at most. On the latter system where I rarely edit large Pages files, CoreSpotlight metadata has only accumulated to about 25 GB since August.
• Deleting metadata when it approaches or exceeds 40 GB (on systems with 32 GB or more RAM and 2 TB of SSD storage) seems to prevent the various Spotlight processes from consuming large amounts of CPU time and interfering with system stability/responsiveness. Since this fix works for me, I've been able to continue to edit large Pages files which are synced via iCloud without killing system responsiveness.
• On Apple Silicon systems, the amount of CoreSpotlight metadata appears to wax and wane, presumably as macOS deletes out-of-date metadata.
• On Intel systems, metadata only seems to accumulate, unless the system is restarted (after say a software update). Frequently after a restart, I have seen CoreSpotlight metadata decline from say 25 GB to <10 GB.

While this clearly doesn't work for everyone, I have found that I can maintain system stability and responsiveness by a) closing large Pages documents (and quitting Pages entirely) when not actively editing them; and b) keeping an eye on the CoreSpotlight folder in ~/Library/Metadata, and deleting the contents of the folder when it approaches or exceeds ~40 GB (a value that may be different if your system has more, or less, RAM and/or storage.

As this thread approaches its one-year anniversary, there's still no definitive identification of the specific bug, nor any clear admission from Apple that it's a bug. But I do think we've managed to synthesize a lot of information:

• The problem starts with Pages. It's not clear whether the core problem here is the way Pages saves its unlimited revisions, the way it allows for unlimited undos, or the way it builds the index for spotlight, but it starts here.
• Spotlight is clearly involved, as it's building a searchable index, and whatever is wrong with the Pages file gets made worse with spotlight. There is clear evidence for this when the metadata folder balloons to 30, 50, or 150Gb in no time at all.
• Users often only realize there is a problem when the corespotlightd process starts to work overtime, but that's clear a knock-on effect from the size of the metadata folder.
• Cloud activity exacerbates the problem: so moving files out of iCloud and not sharing files may help.
• Deleting the metadata folder is also a very practical workaround.

The big question for me is what is the situation with Tahoe, 26.1?

Multiple posters here have asked about Tahoe, but I get the sense that most of us on this thread with the problem have not updated to Tahoe. I have yet to see multiple reports from users running Tahoe that the problem persists. And that's the only thing that gives me a glimmer of hope...

This fixed it for me. The problem was something to do with Pages files being indexed, especially ones stored in iCloud.