What is backgroundshortcutrunner (macOS Tahoe 26.0.1)

Question

Lucas1948 Author

Level 1

116 points

What is backgroundshortcutrunner (macOS Tahoe 26.0.1)

I see backgroundshortcutrunner in Activity Monitor. It's using 96.7% of my CPU resources. I don't see any of the sluggish performance issues that some other users have complained about in this community, but I'm curious about this app (it is an app, right?) and why it seems to be very hungry for my CPU.

After I'd written the above, I went back to Activity Monitor and saw that this process had not only stopped hogging CPU resources, but had appeared to vanish from the process list. Huh-h-h ... ?

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Oct 14, 2025 12:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

bgard2

Level 1

12 points

Nov 13, 2025 9:53 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Tried that. Just continues to do the sane thing. Every time I restart or shutdown and start up. Shortcuts and backgroundshortcutrunner uses 100% CPU then eventually goes away. I do not use Shortcuts and never have. I can't imagine what taking up 100% of my CPU is all about. I am running Tahoe 26.1 on a M4 PMacBook Pro 14 inch.

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 14, 2025 3:40 PM in response to Lucas1948

Glad it was an easy fix. The thing is, when new versions of macOS come out, Apple has tested it but the cannot possibly test with all the combinations of apps and extensions that the entire user base has installed. So things happen, processes get launched and go rogue. A reboot fixes it because it kills all the active processes. Maybe some combination of actions triggered it and that gets repeated.

Earlier today, I had an Adobe Camera RAW update on two Macs, and after that update completed the Creative Cloud app got stuck on syncing (I don't store anything on Adobe cloud, there was nothing to sync) and it spawned a process that was driving the Macs' processors hard. In that case, quitting and reopening the Creative Cloud app fixed it. It wasn't Tahoe since one of the two Macs is still on Sequoia.

I use iStat Menus to see a live view of processor activity in the menu bar, so I can spot that sort of thing when it happens.

Reply

Answer 3

Lucas1948 Author

Level 1

116 points

Oct 14, 2025 2:54 PM in response to neuroanatomist

Many thanks! Funny, but reboot seems to be the cure for lots of ailments. That's fine with me.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 14, 2025 12:22 PM in response to Lucas1948

Reboot your Mac. If that doesn't correct the issue (or if it returns), see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Reportedly, the process WorkflowKit.BackgroundShortcutRunner is related to the Shortcuts app (makes sense given the name).

Reply