Why is ATH.exe using 50% of my CPU?

Multiply-confirmed. This still breaks for me regularly under the latest iTunes.

exactly same issue here.. Used to be only applemobiledevicesomething now its ATH.. It can heat up my pc up to a good 20 degrees!!

I am also having this same problem. Initially shutting down iTunes and restarting it was doing the trick but under Windows 8 that also stopped working. Only other soluion I found was to reboot the PC.... 😟 arggghhh

Technically if you kill th service(s) if multiple copies of ATH.EXE it starts to behave correctly for a while. I've noticed I mainly have this problem when my iPhone or iPad are detected, synchronized, and then leave the area (wifi signal) once that happens it looks like ATH.EXE keeps looking for the device intensley - but unfortunately when you come back onto your home wifi - it doesn't stop and say found it - it gets locked in some kind fo loop. It would appear to me.

I'm sure someone knows the technical issue that's actually happening with the tool - hopefully sometime soon Apple will properly address it. I need to leave iTunes on so that I can use my Apple TV's. And this issue seems to not affect them when they are on - just my iPhone/iPad seem to trigger it.

I've been having the same problem for months (if not years!). With every iTunes update I hope it will be fixed... but it isn't. I've taken to terminating core-hogging Apple processes without much thought, but I'm hoping that disabling sync over Wifi with my iPad (as suggested early in this thread) will be a more permanent solution.

I did moan at one point to an Apple-using friend, and he said that iTunes is no better behaved on his MacBook Pro, so it may not be that Apple are simply penalizing us for being crazy enough to want to use Windows.... :-)

Yip, I still have ATH out of nowhere consuming 1 core of my CPU.

This is partly I am getting very disconterted with Apple and iOS. They ain't keepin up with the important things.

The interface is still clunky, and now with iOS 7, I can accurately say that it's falling flat. The software is fantastic on features, poor on actual engineering standards.

Will my iPhone 4 and iPad 3 be the last Apple products I buy? Highly probable as I'm looking into Samsung Galaxy Android phones and tablets. Thanks to craigslist and ebay it won't be hard to switch.

I think the reason it's only consuming 50% of your CPU is because you have two cores and ATH.exe runs as a single thread, so can't use the "other" core. For once, I'm pleased about the relative unsophistication of part of iTunes for Windows, as it does allow one to get on with some other work.

Disabling wireless connectivity to my iPad doesn't workaround the problem until iTunes is stopped. But it's gone when I bring iTunes back in the absence of the iPad. I wonder if the latest version of iTunes expects IOS6 on the iPad, and hasn't been properly tested with IOS5 (I can't be the only person sticking to a version that has Google maps as default).

Apple -- pleasse PLEASE fix this -- it's been a known issue for about 10 months now.

There is one instance per device, iPhone, iPad...

This has been going on for more than 10 months, Apple is not going to fix it, they don't even recognize there is a problem.

I first noticed it after I upgraded to iOS 6. I don't think it's an iOS problem per se, I think it's to do with iTunes itself.

I wonder how much electricity this has wasted, worldwide. CPUs working flat out, fans revving up... Even if you don't believe in global warming you're still paying the bills either way...

I found out through some reading about disabling WiFi sync to reduce CPU usage a few months ago and iTunes was working fine. I figured surely they would have fixed it by now but nope. WiFi sync is going back off which is a shame.

Yep, it would appear from the length of this thread, how long it's been around, the number of views, replies, etc. that when it comes down to it, apple just doesn't give a ****. It's doubtful that they will ever actually bother to fix this problem, which is sad.

But I don't give a **** either, because I stopped buying any music at all from itunes years ago, and already plan on making my next phone a good ol' Android. I couldn't possibly care less about apple at this point, I would recommend you all do the same.

yraegel wrote:

There is one instance per device, iPhone, iPad...

This has been going on for more than 10 months, Apple is not going to fix it, they don't even recognize there is a problem.

Well, in fairness these forums/discussion groups are unofficial and Apple never responds here.

If everyone with an issue here called Apple for assistance they'd be a bunch more aware than if just a handful of us bother to pick the phone up and talk to them about it. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't solved the problem at all but at least if it becomes something Apple has to deal with consistently, then maybe at some point they'll take notice.

To me it isn't so much the issue with the phone/ipad as that's easily worked around to an extent, annoying as it is, but more the fact that this very same problem is replicated by using an Apple TV. I can tell you that after expressing my displeasure to Apple that they agreed to take back my Apple TV and reimbursed me 100% for the cost. Maybe if more people stuck Apple with open box returns it would finally hit home...

What is AppleMobileDevice.exe and ATH.exe and why are they using 25% each of my CPU were fine yesterday.

Just interested to know what they do before i kill them.

Ok itunes annoys me is bulky and annoying.

Is there a way to tether my i phone without the iTunes software?

Or just keep the bit thet does the tethering and not the rest the rubbish i don't really need?

i just use windows media player for music works better.

Well fancy that don't need itunes to tether bye bye stoopid itunes.

I'm all for being fair. I did in fact open a case on this. As always, I was told to go through the standard troubleshooting script for iTunes. Uninstall the app, clean up your hard drive, remove every shred of Apple programs, reboot, reinstall, and experience the problem all over again. Ultimately they could do or offer nothing. I even spoke with a "Genius" to no avail. Apple is not going to fix this.

Case closed

Wifi sync stopped working. AppleMobnileDeviceService.exe*32 and ATH.exe*32 run at 25% CPU each.

Closed: Saturday, October 6, 2012

**For the record I began experiencing the problem in December, 2011**

Message was edited by: yraegel

<Edited by Host>