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

I have updated both iTunes and iCloud earlier this week and was also waiting and hoping for the best.

Just now the fan on my laptop started up. Unfortunately I now know that when my fan starts its because some crappy Apple process has decided to rear its ugly head. Of course, I open up task manager, and ATH is chewing up 50-75% of my CPU. Same story, same thing that has been happening for a year now.

My cell phone company just called and offered me a free Galaxy S3. After owning an Iphone 3g, 4 and now 4s as well as ipad and ipad2 I'm seriously considering switching. Apple just doesn't care.

To answer a previous poster who asked "how do you like them apples?" Simple answer. Apple doesn't care. I've called Apple, posted several 'feedback' reports, and filled out an online form on the Apple site. Zero response, zero care, zero help.

Can you imagine if a microsoft product was causing these problems on OSX. All **** would break out from the fanboys.

#itunessucks

#donewithapple

I updated iCloud manager and the problem persists. I now also get intermittent crashes on MDCrashReport.exe, as an added bonus with iTunes 11.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that under iTunes 11, ATH.exe and AppleMobileDeviceService.exe seem to self-regenerate. Under the old version of iTunes, I could manually kill them and they wouldn't reappear unless I rebooted my computer. Now, I'll kill them once they get out of control and a few hours later they're back and hogging CPU again.

PLEASE FIX THIS PROBLEM APPLE

Please should start tweeting or posting in Facebook links to this thread. I've heard companies perk up when they start to get some negative publicity. Clearly the only ones reading this thread are us sucker customers.

Please should start tweeting or posting in Facebook links to this thread. I've heard companies perk up when they start to get some negative publicity. Clearly the only ones reading this thread are us sucker customers.

This is not a winsock incompatibility

this is not an antivirus incompatibility

IiCloud control panel has no effect

This is simply Wi-Fi sync failing in a windows environment from day one

If you are a windows user, the only solutions a availiable are:

Disable wifi sync

Or

Run a scheduled task batch file repeating every 15 mins :

Create a text file with the following entry:

taskkill /im ath.exe /f

Rename file to whateveryouwant.bat (make sure this file doesn't get moved anywhere after u create the task)

open task scheduler

create new task with a time trigger that repeats every 15 minutes, or however aggressively u want

set the action to the batch file you created

make sure you set the task to run if user is not logged on and to run with highest priveledges and to repeat daily

There "fixed"

I seriously doubt apple intends to fix this it has been a year, they want us all running osx just to run iTunes.

IF it was gonna happen it woulda happened with iTunes 11

Apple is apparently on a disastrous path with their iTunes "development".

Since iTunes 10.7 the gang of Apple processes on my PC gives me crap with CPU consumption - see post and responses. I tried iTunes 11 but switched back after I found that - among others - Apple has removed in v11 usefull features (cover-browsing) and experiencing that typing anything in the searchbox freezes iTunes. This already made me decide to not upgrade any more of my Apple products; trust lost ...

Complaining/leaving messages at "apple support" is a pointless effort.

In spite of currenlty having an iPhone as well as an iPad, I will sooner or later (rather soon, in fact) - phase out my current stuff and switch to an alternative without this kind of surprises.

i have the same problem... laptop going up to 91°C with fans on full speed.

and from this thread it seems that no solution is on its way -.-

edit: after enabling all processes on my laptop (i was wondering why the temperature was decreasing only to some 70°C after stopping the ath.exe process) also the applemobiledevice.exe (smthg like that) showed another 25 % of CPU usage.

It's interesting hearing the thoughts of everyone in this thread. I had much the same thoughts a few weeks ago when I started to lose faith in Apple as a company after being dedicated to their products for close to a decade. I decided to ditch my iPhone & iPads for a Note 2, wow best decision ever. No more iTunes crap, no more useless maps, no changed dock connector. The MacBook pro is the only Apple product I will continue to buy now...

25,000 views on this thread now and not a glimpse that the problem has even been recognised by Apple, let alone promise of a solution!

I know some here have commented that it's part of an Apple conspiracy to move us all to Mac's, but even Apple can't be foolish enough to think that Windows users are going to trade in their PCs just for a different experience of the hideous iTunes (even it it means the WiFi Sync will work).

Moreover given the disasterous implemention of iOS6, Apple Maps, ongoing hiccups with iOS6 and the messy discontinution of the iPad 3 because they hadn't properly thought through the impact of the lightning connector on their product lines, the outcome we are experiencing in this thread says far more about Apple's intransigence and incompetence under it's new management than it does about anything else.

Afterall a conspiracy actually requires intelligent forethought, planning and smart execution. None of which Apple post-Jobs appears to be able to deliver.

Indeed even Apple must be aware that platform-agnostic iOS users (as Windows iTunes users are by definition) are more likely to simply switch to Android and Windows tablet and phone devices that *do* actually do what they claim to do and 'just work', than we are likely to switch to Macs simply to get a better iTunes experience for our iOS devices.

And just in case any of us were still wondering....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqb-1aUaPk8

OK, if anyone's interested I have started a Facebook campaign page on the disaster that iTunes has become. Please feel free to join, comment and spread the word.

https://www.facebook.com/GetAppleITunesFixed

I just updated to iTunes 11.0.1 I believe it was and was curious if this stopped happening or not. So I looked through my apps on my iPhone through iTunes and I watched my task manager...iTunes used 50-51% of my dual core processor at 2.5GHz.

Keep in mind this is the iTunes.exe*32 process not the ATH.exe*32 process.

So now, whenever the iTunes decides that it wants to **** you off, it would appear that you would have to end the iTunes.exe*32 process instead of the ATH.exe*32. So not only do you have to go in and end a process if it becomes unstable and unresponsive, you now have to restart iTunes where you didn't have to before.

It may not go unresponsive but for a few seconds (I haven't had to end it yet because the CPU usage went down) but it is still unacceptable.

I've been trying a few different alternatives to iTunes this week. I tried mediamonkey and WinAmp. So now I have 3 media players to disappoint me. While I want the iTunes program to work better, it's still the best.

The trick that worked for me was to turn the wireless syncing OFF. So far so good (actually, so far so ok). The wireless syncing only works when it wanted to anyway.

Great News!! (Maybe)

Just updated my iTunes to 11.01.12 with WiFi Synch "On".

My Windows CPU is running at 5% while idle with iTunes open.While the Synch is Synching, CPU is running at 16% low & 30% high and only 2,800 memory!

Seems like it's running like a charm!

Could Apple really be on the ball and fixed this finally?

Please check your systems after you update iTunes and post your results!