Level 2

336 points

Continued corespotlightd process CPU overload issues

I am wondering if anyone has discovered any new ideas for stopping the corespotlightd process from hogging the CPU. According to Activity Monitor, the corespotlightd process often occupies more than 100% of the CPU load, sometimes spiking as high as 400% on my M2 Ultra Mac Studio. This problem has become so severe that it often pinwheels under normally non-intensive tasks. It can cause the video to flicker on my Studio Display. In one case it caused my Mac to kernel panic (crash).

I encountered this bug only after installing Sequoia 15.2, but having researched this issue extensively, I find that Mac users have identified it since at least macOS Ventura. So here are some solutions we don't need to hear again:

Reindexing Spotlight by adding and removing volumes in Spotlight Privacy. This provides relief only temporarily. Within hours the process is again grinding the Mac to a halt.

Killing the corespotlightd in Activity Monitor. Again, this is at best only a temporary solution as the process will reinstate itself.

A "clean" install of macOS. First of all, no such process really exists. The OS recovery process simply reinstalls a new copy of the System files. Nobody reports this as a fix. An internal drive wipe and reformat, and restore from Time Machine is also unlikely to help, as it simply returns your Mac to its previous state. If the corespotlightd problem results from a corrupted file, the problem will likely simply be recreated in your reinstall. "Nuke and pave" might solve the problem if it caused by a format or directory issue on your startup volume. This does not seem to be the case, but if anyone has permanently cured the problem by this method, please report it.

What we do need to hear is from anyone who has spent time with Apple Support on this issue and been provided with solutions that actually work, or has new ideas about what causes it. Feels like we're on our own here, since Apple seems to be stumped.

Posted on Dec 19, 2024 11:21 AM

Top-ranking reply

mphollis

Level 1

26 points

Posted on Jan 29, 2026 6:33 PM

I had this, in a major way. Activity Monitor showed greater that 100% CPU at ALL TIMES. My 2022 M2 became unusable, freezing, pinwheeling etc. Just like all these descriptions. I searched here and in other forums online, and I tried the many suggestions (short of reinstalling the system software). None of the resolutions fixed the issue. Eventually, I read one post that eluded to large Pages docs with many edits, especially those stored on iCloud Drive potentially contributing to the issue. I've been working on a 100+ page town report in Pages. It coincided with the worsening corespotlightd CPU issues, and it has had a truly enormous number of edits. While the doc isn't exactly huge (like 32 mb's?) the number of edits stored in it practically rival the number of atoms in the known universe.

So here's what I did: I created and saved a copy of this file, and also emailed a copy to myself out of caution. Then I moved the copy file (and it's associated files in it's folder) to my desktop, and I checked the "keep downloaded" option... I triple checked that my backup copy was current and working, and then I (terrifyingly) deleted the original file which was the result of hundreds of hours of work. I then restarted my Mac. I opened activity monitor and the issue is completely gone. corespotlightd is now using POINT one percent of my CPU.

My theory is that it was attempting to not just index the file itself, but also every single tiny edit I had done... perhaps as part of the "revert to" feature? Each nudge of a line or copy/paste of a section or tiny movement of an image... it was saving and indexing them all. When I made a copy, all that data was left behind. The new file has no undo's available. And voila, my Mac is working like it should again. What a relief!

Hope this helps somebody out there, because what a terrible experience it was for a while there.

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405 replies

PolyRod

Level 1

92 points

Jan 30, 2026 9:26 AM in response to Mitch Stone

Mitch Stone

Because of the way I saw the update to 14.5, then the "won't be maintained" and reference to 15, and talk of 15.1 being the "new" version, I mistakenly thought I was only getting the 14.5 update - then nothing.

Thanks - I think Apple's timing of info, was poor. But on my other machine, it went through and the messages made sense.

Now on 15.1 on both machines.

Feb 3, 2026 7:19 AM in response to Mitch Stone

I have the same freeze problem with my iMac 2021, 24", M1. And too I have big Page files with a lot of edits as I'm working on a novel. Two questions:

— has anyone had the same trouble with MS Word (for Mac)? Why is this solution not recommended?

— why has Apple not done anything about it?

fcoteb

Level 1

24 points

Feb 4, 2026 5:43 AM in response to Mitch Stone

Anyone noticed any difference with the latest Pages version (15.1, the parallel version which can power Creator Studio features)? CPU usage and battery drain?

I am not sure on my end. Or at least, it seems to be not as bad, but not as smooth as it was a couple of years ago.

But I am wondering whether this is one of the reasons Apple programmers were not in a rush to fix this bug: perhaps they were working on a new version. I read this one is a Universal app, so it is the same base architecture across all Apple operation systems (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, etc.).

malhal

Level 1

76 points

Feb 4, 2026 6:12 AM in response to fcoteb

Yes as I said below (if you change sort from rank to newest) with Pages 15.1 I have not experienced the problem…yet.

No it’s not a universal app, whoever wrote that is taking nonsense. It’s now just the same App Store listing for which the Mac had to change its bundle ID to match the iOS version which is the reason we weren’t able to upgrade automatically. A single App Store listing can have different apps for each platform as long as all use the same bundle ID.

fyi the Mac bundle IDchanged from com.apple.iWork.Pages to com.apple.Pages which is what it’s always been on iOS.

Retic

Level 1

25 points

Feb 4, 2026 12:09 PM in response to ericmurphysf

I've done this twice in two weeks. Just did it again. Lost my most recent edits. Since I am writing a book, this is not a good situation.

I'm going to buy an older version of Microsoft Office for Mac. Hopefully Word won't do the same thing.

I'm still an Apple fan, but this kind of stuff can break a company if they don't handle it.

Two year old Mac mini on Tahoe 26.2

PolyRod

Level 1

92 points

Feb 5, 2026 12:00 PM in response to antoine2008

antoine2008 fcoteb Retic goodoljohn

No problems since upgrading to 15.1.

The other day, I switched off Spotlight on various things - these are now back on. Still no problems.

Using it on two machines with same documents sometimes open and being updated on both. (I move between the two - not literally typing on both at the same time - that would be silly.)