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

Same problem on my pc W500 64v bit win 7 ATH.exe used 70 % of CPU... 😠

Same thing here. Just to be sure; I have downloaded a fresh package of iTunes (10.7.021) installed on a virtual machine in my dedicated HP proliant server (ESXi vcenter 5.1) Made a clean install on a new deployed Windows 2008 R2. Have iPad2, iPhone4S, iOS 6. All patched as far as u can go. Perfect setup for me since all device can wifi to the main iTunes and get what it need. But mostly it doesn’t work. After one sync I think, I takes all CPU in can take, it seems that ATH.exe take the Apple Mobile Device service as accomplice and eats all the CPU it finds, no matter what I give it. Same on a physical PC. So doesn’t matter how and where it is installed, it just gets like that after a while. Network issue? Net works fine in other aspects what I have seen.

Is there any official way to report this to Apple? Just discussing it here is obviously not going to solve the problem. There's a form here, but it seems more like something the marketing department is going to be looking at...

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

Just want to chime in here, I see the same issue, ATH.exe is using up a lot of CPU while iTunes is running. I do use wireless sync so there's no way I'm turning that off.

If you don't turn off the wireless sync, the problem will continue. I don't like it myself, but as I normally do all my media purchases on my iphone, and usually at home over wifi, I don't find it much of an inconvenience. That the wireless sync was a great part of the phone itself, that it isn't working any longer, and Apple doesn't seem to be doing anything about it - that's a big concern.

And I have tried deleting and reinstalling iTunes - no difference.

In two days Apple is holding an event at which some are expecting the announcement of a completely reworked iTunes 11. Let's see if it fixes the problem before deciding that Apple isn't doing anything.

I had the same issue, sometimes with 2 ATH.exe processes, both with 50% usage and Wifi sync did not start. A temp. workaround on my side was to remove the NTFS execution permission for "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\ATH.exe" for the system account. For sure, the system is not longer able to start the process, but since then the Wifi sync is working again.

If you use this workaround do not forget to change the permissions back if Apple publish a new iTunes version.

I had this issue on my Win7 64-bit machine. ATH.exe was using 100% of one of my cores and WiFi sync would almost never work, maybe once after a reboot. I got it to work again by turning off IPv6 in the properties of my network adapter.

1. In the Start Menu, search for "View network connections"

2. Right-click and select Properties on the adapter that you're using; mine was "Local Area Connection 7"

3. Uncheck "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)" in the selection box and hit OK.

4. Then reboot your computer for good measure.

My WiFi sync has returned to working great after this.

I got this info from another semi-related thread.

The ipV6 fix does not resolve the issue with these two services hogging CPU time, but it did fix Remote (AirPlay) and WiFi sync for me a while back.

Hmmmm. I'll report back tonight, but after this change (granted, only a couple hours ago) I haven't had ATH.exe or the MobileDeviceService use any significant CPU time. And I've set off several WiFi syncs. I wasn't able to do that before - and I was always forced to kill those processes hogging the CPU.

You're right. After a few hours ATH.exe and MobileDeviceService were back to 100% CPU. After removing IPv6, it somehow got to work again for a while after rebooting, but then the problem comes back.

The same here. Running iTunes 10.7 on a Windows 7 64bit machine supporting an iPhone5 and iPad2 both running iOS6. 2 ATH.exe processes consuming around 90% of CPU combined slowing everything else down to a crawl. iOS6 and iTunes10.7 is a mess.

WiFi Sync works when it wants to and now hese problems with both ATH.exe and the Apple Mobile Device Service running at absurd CPU.

Frankly it's a dog's breakfast. A completely unacceptable situation for Windows7 users who own Apple iOS devices and provides further proof - if we needed any after the iOS6 Apple Maps debacle & more recently the complete discontinuation of the 'new' iPad after only 6 months - that Apple post-Jobs is losing its way.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57542633-37/itunes-11-delayed-into-end-of-nove mber/

Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer.

Add me to the list of peveed users since this has been going on for a month now!

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I get three or four ATH crashes every day, and it more and more frequently eats up my CPU time. This is getting more and more annoying because I really do like iTunes / Home Sharing / Apple TV, but I can't help thinking that I might just as well give up on Apple products now. They never were appreciably better than the competition, but the unique selling point used to be a customer service ethic that Apple now seem to be actively abandoning.