Level 2

378 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

42 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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493 replies

Retic

Level 1

49 points

Feb 5, 2026 12:31 PM in response to sugarskyline

My Issue didn’t start until I upgraded to Tahoe.

PolyRod

Level 2

158 points

Feb 5, 2026 12:51 PM in response to Retic

I have no idea why that would be the case. I assume you are on Pages 15.1? I was certainly getting issues on Tahoe 26.2 and earlier versions of Pages.

Feb 5, 2026 1:14 PM in response to PolyRod

If you’re talking about Pages, it’s 15.1 you need, with Tahoe 26.2

PolyRod

Level 2

158 points

Feb 5, 2026 1:42 PM in response to antoine2008

That is what I said I am using! Without problems.

PolyRod

Level 2

158 points

Feb 22, 2026 12:03 AM in response to fronesis47

fronesis47

Out of interest, what are you now using?

(I continue to be running OK on Tahoe 26.3 and Pages 15.1.1)

Mar 12, 2026 10:59 AM in response to Mitch Stone

Unusable computer. Removed all spotlight files, disabled indexing. My wife now wants a Windows computer because her MacBook Air 2025 keeps stopping for seconds every few minutes.

KTripson

Level 1

9 points

Mar 14, 2026 4:24 PM in response to fronesis47

I'm writing a book, 100,000 words. Is iA Writer a decent choice for that?

SBML

Level 1

54 points

Mar 14, 2026 5:14 PM in response to KTripson

I recommend Scrivener (and Dropbox).

KTripson

Level 1

9 points

Mar 16, 2026 1:26 PM in response to fronesis47

Powerful links you have there. I put them all on my reading list. That's super helpful.

Jun 2, 2026 7:13 AM in response to Mitch Stone

In the past few days the spotlight rr-indexing has driven me nuts and overheated and locked up my Air.

this should be a background process, yielding to keyboard events.

malhal

Level 1

116 points

Jun 4, 2026 4:13 AM in response to PolyRod

Got it, you're the first to report the new version of Pages hasn't fixed it. Do you have any other apps that have open iCloud Drive documents when the issue occurs?

gab146

Level 1

8 points

Jun 10, 2026 6:10 AM in response to mphollis

Thank you so much!! You just saved me a trip to the computer repair shop!!

Jul 2, 2026 2:15 PM in response to John Reinhold

I would also be interested to see if anyone has seen it happen with MacOS 25.5.2 or 25.6, and/or the updated Pages 15.3 (7050.0.24)

I may not notice since I moved all my files around. :)

Continued corespotlightd process CPU overload issues