Image Capture Extension consuming all memory and freezing computer

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Image Capture Extension consuming all memory and freezing computer

An office iMac just suffered from a damaged hard drive; we got a new drive put in, and restored our files from a backup. In the process, we upgraded from 10.5 to 10.6. (It's totally possible the the problem I am about to describe existed before the upgrade, but wasn't obvious due to other problems with the disk.)

We discovered that, once we restored from backup, the computer would hang frequently. Eventually, we would see the "force quit" window and this error: "Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory."

Using Activity Monitor, it became clear that "Image Capture Extension" was consuming all available memory - if we sort processes by "real memory," we can watch it climb to the top, adding memory every second until it hits 3.26 GB or so and the computer grinds to a halt.

If we force quit Image Capture Extension, the computer works normally - until we plug in a scanner, start iPhoto, or anything else that activates Image Capture, at which point the problem begins again.

I have tried deleting any relevant caches in the Preferences folder, and in the process found that some of our preferences files were gibberish. So, I junked the entire preferences folder and restarted everything. Other applications work fine, but anything that triggers Image Capture causes the same problem.

Following a suggestion on a forum, I used the program Pacifist to reinstall Image Capture from the Snow Leopard disk (without reinstalling the entire OS), and restarted. The problem continues.

I'm out of ideas... I've seen other similar threads, none were an exact match, and they all seemed to be resolved with one of the above fixes. I'm reluctant to reinstall from scratch again: since this problem happened immediately after doing that, I suspect we'd end up in the same place, but a day later.

Any suggestions?

iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 4GB ram

Posted on Apr 11, 2011 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

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macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 11, 2011 11:21 AM in response to Dasago

Dasago wrote:
We discovered that, once we restored from backup, the computer would hang frequently. Eventually, we would see the "force quit" window and this error: "Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory."

You were out of space for VM

If we force quit Image Capture Extension, the computer works normally - until we plug in a scanner, start iPhoto, or anything else that activates Image Capture, at which point the problem begins again.

Yes, makes sense. The process isn't running until it's called on.

I have tried deleting any relevant caches in the Preferences folder, and in the process found that some of our preferences files were gibberish. So, I junked the entire preferences folder and restarted everything. Other applications work fine, but anything that triggers Image Capture causes the same problem.

Try this...
Create a new User. Go to System Preferences > Accounts > "+" (make it an admin acct) and test IC in this new account, if it works the problem is isolated to your User and not systemwide.

I'm reluctant to reinstall from scratch again: since this problem happened immediately after doing that, I suspect we'd end up in the same place, but a day later.

I suspect so too.

-mj

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Answer 2

Dasago Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2011 12:12 PM in response to macjack

Thanks, macjack. In fact, the new user account seems to work fine: Image Capture doesn't take over, and it works as advertised.

Is that the only solution? To start a new user account, and import all of our data, photos, preferences, etc?

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 12, 2011 10:12 AM in response to Dasago

Dasago wrote:
Is that the only solution? To start a new user account, and import all of our data, photos, preferences, etc?

No, try these steps...
Log back into your normal user account. Go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items, and remove them. Boot normally and test. If not go to/Users/yourname/Library /Contextual Menu Items and move whatever is there to the desktop. Then do the same with /Library/ Contextual Menu Items. Lastly, try moving/Users/yourname/Library/ Fonts to your desktop and restarting.

Log out/in or restart, if that sorts it start putting items back one at a time until you find the culprit.

-mj

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Answer 4

mr cap

Level 1

0 points

Sep 1, 2011 5:59 PM in response to macjack

I'm having the same problem and have tried all of the above but still can't get the Image Capture Extension to stop using massive cpu. Pretty much grinds my system to a halt.

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Answer 5

jtknyu

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2011 11:58 AM in response to Dasago

I am in the middle of a month long AppleCare session trying to fix this same problem. There was a post 4/8/10 by redrum666 who solved the problem by creating a new User. This does work-AS LONG AS you don't use the same name. However, his Mac was new. Mine is very old and trying to correct libraries and permissions is too daunting. Since Apple engineers are previously aware of this problem I'm disappointed they keep suggesting things that do not work. My Mac is unusable as things stand. iPhoto will launch but quickly grinds to a halt. FileMaker Pro 11 will not even launch as it hangs when the banner appears. Stopping the process in Activity Monitor will restore some functions, but not iPhoto or FileMaker Pro. I have to keep Activity Monitor running and rush to kill the Image Capture Extension every time it appears. If you find a fix please post it here. I have replaced everything about my User-Library, Preferences, and some obscure folders. No help. And creating a new User with the same ID replicates the problem while using another User or Guest does not cause the problem. AppleCare techs have been helpful and patient, but they keep referring the problem back "to the engineers" and weeks have passed waiting for replies that don't help.

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Answer 6

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Oct 2, 2011 10:38 AM in response to jtknyu

You should do a clean install.

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Answer 7

Apr 19, 2015 6:24 PM in response to Dasago

Image Capture Extension is still a memory hog in Yosemite (10.10.2). It hasn't ground my MacBook Pro to a halt, but Activity Monitor tells me it's using more memory that Firefox 37 with 8 tabs open.

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