High CPU for itunes and windowserver

Question

High CPU for itunes and windowserver

I was away for a bit and when I returned I noticed a strange sound from my iMac. For some reason the hard drive was ticking furiously. Since I didn't use the computer I checked Activity Monitor. For some reason iTunes had 40-50% CPU and WindowServer used around 30%. Sure iTunes was running, but no song was playing.

Checking Hard Drive Activity I could see HDD was constantly reading approx 2,3 MB/s. Reading/second in was steadily at 400, and data read was 3,11 GB and climbing rapidly.

Has anyone else this problem? Has this something to do with the new iTunes 10.6.1 or Mac OS X 10.7.4 or a combination? What is wrong, and what can I do about it??

This has continued for a couple of days and restarts. No change.

Thanks! Joachim

Posted on May 22, 2012 11:13 AM

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Answer 1

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b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

May 22, 2012 1:16 PM in response to Joachim Oijwall

For some reason iTunes had 40-50% CPU and WindowServer used around 30%. Sure iTunes was running, but no song was playing.

Is the Mini Player active at the time when iTunes is running at the high CPU rate (even though no song is playing)?

If so, it seems to happen when the main itunes player is set to Cover Flow rather than List view.

If you set iTunes to List view prior to switching to the Mini Player, does that stop the excessive CPU use while in Mini Player?

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Answer 2

May 22, 2012 2:07 PM in response to b noir

It was Cover Flow!

I didn't have Mini Player active (unless it is active if I can switch to Mini Player under the Window Menu), but I had the main window in Cover Flow. Just changing to list view made iTunes and WindowServer go from 40%/20% to less than 1% each!

I can't see why iTunes needs to read the disk constantly just becaouse of cover flow. Do you think this is a bug? I have never noticed this heavy load before, and iTunes almost always is in cover flow.

Thanks!

Joachim

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Answer 3

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

May 22, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Joachim Oijwall

I can't see why iTunes needs to read the disk constantly just becaouse of cover flow. Do you think this is a bug? I have never noticed this heavy load before, and iTunes almost always is in cover flow.

That's interesting ... I'm not sure if your one is a bug or not. (The Mini Player one seems to be: it showed up for folks with 10.6.0.x and has persisted through 10.6.1.7, as far as I can tell.)

If you've got the time, it would do no harm to report your issue to Apple. Here's a link to the iTunes product feedback form:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

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Answer 4

May 23, 2012 12:24 AM in response to b noir

I will report the issue to Apple.

Thanks! Joachim

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