Q: Any one else have the com.apple.IconServicesAgent going nuts-problem?

I have the same problem since I upgraded to Mavericks.

Not only do I have the "com.apple.IconServicesAgent" making the fan go wild (I'm on a 2009 Macbook pro), but my local Dropbox folders don't show up anymore. When I force quit the "com.apple.IconServicesAgent" the fans stop and my Dropbox folders appear again. Very strange!!

The com.apple.IconServicesAgent appears each time I reactivate the computer. .

mine using 344MB RAM

only lose usage to  kernel_task process...

Mine used up to 800MB of RAM (before i killed it ), report it to make sure Apple solves this issue in 10.9.1.

I discovered it's some app start on login related...

probably all of us had upgraded OS X Maverick, not a clean installed one.

Can you confirm us?

The IconServicesAgent is now using only 21.4MB of memory after I disabled some apps from "Login Itens"

- KeyRemap4MacBook

- Moon

I opened both apps now and the resources is the same 21.4MB, without changes.

Yes, it works for me.

Go to Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Itens

Note and disable some apps: select with cursor and click on "-"

Reboot and look at Activity Monitor if the procedure was successful.

Open the app you disabled from startup and look if it changes the memory/cpu usage.

Hello to All!

I have the exact same issue since upgrading to Mavericks. Without any apparent reason the com.apple.IconServicesAgent process starts using 100% CPU and the FINDER starts to (a) become slow; (b) gradually stops showing folder contects/files; (c) some folder icons become invisible/transparent, with only the name /text/ visible; (d) FINDER hangs.

Relaunching the FINDER makes matters even wors as the whole system becomes unstable and that's when I'm forced to reboot. That's why I prefer to go to Activity Monior and force-quit the com.apple.IconServicesAgent process and that brings things back to normal for a while - some times for some hours, some times for 30 minutes or less...

This has been extremely frustrating, time consuming and nerve-racking! I have searched the Internet for solutions for days, but it seems to be a rare case and very few people complain, beside you guys here.

I'm subscribing to updates from this post in hope that a solution will pop-up soon.

If I figure this out, I will post here again. I hope that a fresh install is not the only option - this would be ridiculous and Windows-ish.

Kind regards,
Kostadin

Same problem, help!
The file from external hd, finder and folder are invisible, the cpu is crazy over 180% for com.apple.iconservicesagent and in general everything is slow!!!!

up

Also happened to me, force quitting the process helped

I was chasing down another issue (slow "Save As") and thought these two issues may have been related (with QuickLook being the common broken link). Unfortunately, my "Save As" dialog is still miserably slow on the initial load; but IconServicesAgent hasn't gone above 30MB and he rarely makes an appearance in the Console!

Some of these steps may not be necessary, but here are all of the steps I took that inadverdently put IconServicesAgent back in its place. Note: all commands are a single-line, if they appear to be multiple that's just the forum formatting.

1. Check for any QuickLooks related .plist files. In a terminal:
   mdfind com.apple.quicklook. -name .plist
2. I only had files at the system level (specifically within /System/Library/LaunchAgents/). If you have others, modify the directions below to take that into account (re-introducing plist files from the system level back up to the user).
3. Make some temporary directories to store these plist files, just in case:
   mkdir ~/tmp-quicklook
4. Kill the IconServicesAgent:
   killall -KILL com.apple.IconServicesAgent
5. Move the plist files to temporary directories:
   sudo mv /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.quicklook.* ~/tmp-quicklook/
6. Reset QuickLook generators and disk cache:
   qlmanage -r && qlmanage -r cache
7. Reboot
8. Move plist files back:
   sudo mv ~/tmp-quicklook/com.apple.quicklook.* /System/Library/LaunchAgents
9. Reboot

From this point on you shouldn't see IconServiceAgent ever go above 30MB on the memory tab; Twitter is actually consuming more memory than IconServiceAgent is right now! You will continue to see entries in your logs but they should only occur once per file type, roughly. I found just scrolling through "All My Files" in Finder really quick took care of most everything and after another reboot and repeating this process - I saw very few, if any, new entries.

If this doesn't work, my only suggestion would be to remove all entries from the user's Login Items and then go through the instructions above (I did this but I don't beleive it was relevant, therefore the ommission).

This didn't work for me, still pretty high IconServiceAgent.  It always seems to be the 2 or 3rd highest memory usage process behind kernal_task

I had the same problem. Seems in my case the problem was related to open .php Files by default with an old version of TextMate. I changed this to another editor (Sublime Text 2) and since then everything feels smooth again.

So my recommendation would be to check on what type of files Finder seem to hang and check for default program alternatives.

HTH

I am having the same issue and am on a fresh install.  I always rebuild after a major upgrade so the upgrade path is not the issue.  Tried resetting permissions - that did not help.  Will try walesmd solution and report back.

I had the same problem after delivery of a new iMac and installing Maverck.  We finally figured out it was a program that was not compatable with Maverick.  Mine turned out to be Snagit, but you might want to try this:

Go to System Preferences

Users and Groups, click on the padlock icon on the lower left and unlock using your administrator password.

Login Items

Then check all of the boxes for the applications.  (This doesn't delete them just doesn't open them at login) After they are check click on the [ - ]  button on the lower left.  Then relock the padlock icon.

Restart your computer.

If that works, you can try to go through the process again adding one program at a time to find out what program was giving you the problem.

Good Luck