Starting and Quitting Activity Monitor Speeds Up My Shutdown Time A LOT!

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Level 1

9 points

Starting and Quitting Activity Monitor Speeds Up My Shutdown Time A LOT!

I know this doesn't make any sense, but I have confirmed it over a dozen times.

I have a 15-inch MBP (2011) 2.3 GHz, Core i7 with 8 GB of memory and a Vertex 3 MAX IOPS SSD. I'm running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4.

As you can imagine, this is one quick system. When I first installed Lion (I did a clean install on a brand new SSD when Lion came out), my shutdown time was literally under half a second. Then a few days later, as I installed my usual apps, I noticed that the shutdown time suddenly went to 20 seconds with the usual grey screen and spinning wheel. I figured that one of my programs must be causing this, but could never figure out which.

After living with this for months, I decided today to use Activity Monitor to try to quit some processes to see if my shutdown time would go down. After a few tries, I noticed that just starting and quitting Activity Monitor brings my shutdown time back to half a second!

I repeated this over a dozen times. I start my system and immediately shut it down: it takes 20 seconds to shutdown. Then I start it, run Activity Monitor and then immediately quit it, then shutdown: it takes half a second to shutdown.

Does anyone have a clue as to what could be happening here?

I can obviously live with a 20-second shutdown time. I don't shutdown often anyway and the system is super fast otherwise. But it's still nice to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4), 8 GB, 240 GB Vertex 3 MAX IOPS SSD

Posted on May 28, 2012 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

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RyeRyeRye Author

Level 1

9 points

May 29, 2012 10:54 AM in response to RyeRyeRye

Ok. I did a bit more digging and discovered that when my shutdown takes 20 seconds (that is, when I don't start and immediately quit Activity Monitor), there is the following message:

com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication[97]): Exit timeout elapsed (20 seconds). Killing

There's my 20 seconds shutdown time right there!

But for some reason, if I open Activity Monitor and then close it and shutdown, I never get the above message and shutdown is instant.

Can someone please help?

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Answer 2

Aug 2, 2012 10:55 PM in response to RyeRyeRye

Hi RyeRyeRye,

Just wondering have you ever solved your issue? I am on the same page as you, always get the same error om.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication[111]): Exit timeout elapsed (20 seconds). Killing

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Answer 3

RyeRyeRye Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 3, 2012 10:53 AM in response to Thi Thach

Hi Thi Thach,

You're having the same problem as me. You'll be happy to know that I solved my problem. 🙂

(Albeit at the expense of keeping my Mac user profile linked to my Apple ID)

The shutdown delay is due to a file called:

"com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist"

It is located in the folder:

"/System/Library/LaunchAgents/"

You have to trash that file (the OS will ask you for the admin password) and then restart the system. After that, all shutdowns will become very fast as there will be no 20-second delay.

This file is responsible for linking your user profile on the Mac with your Apple ID. Apple gives you the option of linking them so that if you forget your login password on the Mac, you can reset it by using your Apple ID.

Once you trash that file and restart the system, if you go to "Users & Groups" under "System Preferences" and look at your user page, you will find that the system forgot your Apple ID that you associated with your user profile. Instead, next to where it says "Apple ID" on your user page, you'll find a button called "Set". If you set it again to your Apple ID, the shutdown delay will come back.

If it's important for you to keep your Mac user profile and your Apple ID linked, then don't trash the file and just live with the shutdown delay.

Of course, this process is fully reversible: You can always return the file where it belongs and restart and you'll be right back where you started.

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Answer 4

Aug 4, 2012 1:54 AM in response to RyeRyeRye

Hi RyeRyeRye,

Thanks for the reply and i have tried what you said, it works for a couple restart / shutdown then it backs again. With that file gone the 20 seconds have disappeared from the console log but it is odd that something else slow the shutdown. I even tried to remove all the installed apps - even with just the default apps it still slow.

I am back in the corner again!

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Answer 5

Aug 5, 2012 12:49 AM in response to RyeRyeRye

Hi,

I think i found the issue to the problem, so far the shutting down time gone from 20 seconds+ to about 2 seconds. I have tested many shutdowns and restart it seems to be consistance.

Here what i did:

1. Follow RyeRyeRye instructions

The shutdown delay is due to a file called:

"com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist"

It is located in the folder

"/System/Library/LaunchAgents/"

and delete it.

2. Open Energy Saver Preferences....uncheck "Enable Power Nap while on battery power"

3. Restart or shutdown works

Hope this help those who having the same issue.

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Answer 6

Aug 5, 2012 2:20 PM in response to RyeRyeRye

Hi,

I take it all back, something still wrong. Shutting down time now back to 20 seconds or more.....:(

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Answer 7

Oct 11, 2012 4:10 PM in response to RyeRyeRye

Go into verbose mode by hitting Command-V at boot up. When you shut down, take note of the messages on the screen. That way I found out that HWNetCfg and HWPortCfg were the problems in my case, files that had been installed as part of UMTS stick software by Huawei. Running the uninstaller took care of the problem, shutdown only takes a couple of seconds again.

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Answer 8

Jan 2, 2013 2:21 PM in response to RyeRyeRye

Hi RyeRyeRye,

I'd posted about slow shutdown in another thread and was never able to solve it. Your solution worked great so I just wanted to say thanks! 😀

Cheers,

Pete.

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