SystemUIServer problem?

Skype and Dropbox are my only 3rd party apps.

Not to complicate this issue, but I also had the "Mail problem," where Mac Mail consumes over 100% CPU, especially when using an Exchange account; unfixable other than temporarily, so I am using MS Outlook as my mail client.

Net-Net...very annoying Apple and disappointing; and with the slight hope that Mr. Cooke can be reached via these discussions, there is a reason why the stock has gone down from $700 to $500: the company is rapidly losing the support of fan-boys like me and others with your avoidance of taking responsibility for problems.

Alright then. It appears that Dropbox is the only thing that we all have in common and I'm fairly sure that it is not the app causing the problem. Lately I haven't had any issues with SystemUIServer. Although, I have tried to cut back on the number of third party apps I am using. Anyway, thanks for your input. I will keep trying to get it fixed.

Jaydon

Well, I haven't had an issue with it for about a 2 weeks even when I'm running all my third party apps. The only variables are 1. I completely redid my home network or 2. They third party apps must be set as login items.

It's kind of difficult to troubleshoot a problem that doesn't happen, but I will keep trying to recreate scenerios until I get SystemUIServer to act up again. Thanks for all your input,

Jaydon

Really appreciate people taking time to try to fix this. I posted in this discussion some months ago and have also called Apple about it but have only seen discussions go around in circles, from work arounds to third party apps and back again.

I no longer suffer from this problem - but only because I removed anything that provides updates from the menu bar - this includes wifi. It is quite inconvenient not having wifi on the menu bar but at least without it i can use spot light when i like without killing SystemUIServer.

I have tried reinstalling the operating system (but keeping all my apps/settings) by starting in Recovery Mode but that didn't help. As soon as i put wifi back on the menu bar I got the beachball again.

I am pretty disappointed that Apple hasn't done anything to solve this issue but don't want to divert this discussion with my gripes 🙂 Good luck guys in trying to find a fix.

Alright, after performing some steps as directed by a Senior Advisor from Apple, I seem to have solved my problem. This shouldn't affect how your computer functions, and it should allow you to have all your menubar items fully functioning. Here's what you do:

Clear Computer Launch Daemons, Launch Agents, and Startup Items

1. Open up a Finder window

2. Click on Go in the menu (it's next to view and window)

3. Click on Computer

4. Go into Macintosh HD

5. Go into Library

6. Find the folder LaunchAgents

7. Delete everything inside that isn't a com.apple.xxxxxx file (you may need administrative privileges)

8. Find the folder LaunchDaemons

9. Delete everything inside that isn't a com.apple.xxxxxx file (you may need administrative privileges)

10. Find the folder Startupitems

11. Delete everything inside that doesn't have apple in its name

12. Empty Trash and Reboot machine

Clear User Launch Agents

1. Open up a Finder window

2. Click on Go in the menu

3. Click on Home

4. Click on Go in the menu

5. While holding down the option key, click on Library

6. Find the folder LaunchAgents

7. Delete everything inside that doesn't start with com.apple.xxxxxxx

8. Empty Trash and Reboot machine

After you have completed these steps, you shouldn't have any issues with SystemUIServer. If you begin to have issues, check in the above mentioned folders for the most recently modified or created file to determine what app is causing the problem.

Thanks for all the input guys and gals. Let me know if this works for you. If it doesn't see if you can find the app that causes the issue.

Jaydon

This looks promising. Wondering if anyone else found Java (or the very recent version of it, I should clarify) in their LaunchAgents folder. I was forced to update Java almost immediately after updating to Mountain Lion.

Jaydon134,

Thanks so much for the above solution- it is the first time this MBP has been right since I upgraded to Lion. Java was not in my folders, but there was Adobe, HP, and a banking security program. I applied your fix this morning and SystemUIServer has not gone nuts since. I put the system to sleep several times to test it, and it continues run oh so cool and quietly. I was thinking I might have to trash the computer and get a new one-- but now it is good as new.

Can't well express how thankful I am to have found your post. Finally peace of mind.

Need to get this post out there cause I see a lot of people suffering this same issue.

I had some problems with SystemUIserver used a lot of CPU on my MBP from 2008 with OSX10.8.2. Especially when trying to change Wifi network from the menubar.

You have to excuse me for the translations here, I have a swedish installation.

I reduced the problem with the SystemUIserver by just turning off Menu bar transparancy under System settings - Desktop and Screensaver.

After struggling with this issue for a long time without ever having the time to deal with it properly, I got at bit excited reading this solution and deleted all the files, even the files with com.apple... in the name, in folders LaunchAgents and LaunchDeamons... everything seems to work just fine but still I wonder if I have done some damage.

Thanks for finally solving this issue Jaydon134, my iMac is now a as new! 🙂

just don't install os x server if you don't know what that is. it is not simply a plugin, it is another concept of operating system with a lot of services to eat most of your system resources most of the time, in my opinion totally useless product of apple from ver. 10.7 on, as server is supposed to eat less resources, less so called "user friendly" graphical interface, apple provides the best graphical interface in the world and is making good money with it, what's the reason of hiding potential server on every iphone of yours into the sandbox i simply don't get it, but it is actually offtopic, if you wanna ruin your wonderful os x , buy server package and end up messing up with config files, i ended up reinstalling os x and it feels like heaven, want server, use macports.

p.s. my dear apple, id love so much also using ports on the ios basis, as i am sure as much as you hate ubuntu like apt broken dependencies ***** which caused me moving to slackware then to bsd and endlessly to osx. i understand you don't want software to be pirated neither do i, but it is like forbid a kid to do dregs and forcing one self to use unclean stuff from the street criminal gangs. (and forcing jailbreak to stay mainstream) just telling my opinion. leave me my terminal and root access to filesystem and you will almost kill the piracy , no kid which is jailbreaking his device would use pirated software as the apps don't cost much anyway. it is just about freedom to take advantage of your hardware at your skill level niaveau, what makes the best of apple all the way, the bsd core, without it it would simply turn to the visual basic dows exorcista blue screen paradise ...

I did an upgrade from 10.7 to 10.8. Have been having the same problem with SystemUIServer. I tried disabling the Wi-Fi and Time Machine menubar icons - sure enough this solved my problem. Kind of dissappointing, because I rely heavily on those, but perhaps it is a conflict with another menubar item.

After a very long time (over a year) struggling with SystemUIServer often going up over 100% CPU (often while my 17" MBP was sealed in its air-tight case), I finally had the sense to check my system log in Console to see what it was exactly that was causing the problem. Turns out that nearly half of my 4000 system log queries for the day came from HippoVNC. Hippo Remote is an application that allows your iOS device to act as a remote for your computer. It requires a VNC server to work. I removed the software a couple years ago (with AppZapper), but apparently HippoVNC lived on in Hard Drive\Library\Application Support. Every 10 seconds it would load the main bundle plus bundles for Jaguar and Tiger, throw and error and then try again. I moved the files to the trash and haven't had a problem since!

I could not find HippoVNC or any associated files in my application support folder. But I was intrigued by your use of Console and system log to uncover the problem. I'm inexperienced at reading the log but found the following error, repeated every two seconds, for a number of hours on the given date.

I tracked this error down in another forum and found a user who had isolated his Garmin ANT stick and/or software as the culprit. I have this usb and software myself. Intuitivey, these time outs every two seconds would put a burden on CPU usage but I'm asking the question, anyway, if it makes sense this could be behind my version of the SystemUIServer problem.

Of course, I'll find out one way or another by ditching the USB and software when I get home this evening.

Good luck. I wish I knew a little more about it, but I'm with you, I kind of intuitively knew that having a vnc server for a program I deleted years ago trying to load files every ten seconds for a couple years was probably a bad thing. Google confirmed it.

you only know as much as you wish, another way you wouldn't have googled it, well i would be actually pretty optimistic about it as long as it is not dumb windows registry nobody could ever understand... bsd - power in simplicity