kernel_task high memory usage

If my experience is anything to go by, a good first troubleshooting step for this might be to go to your System/Library/Extensions folder and remove any .kext files created or modified before Mavericks was released, and certainly from 2012 backwards, then restart your Mac. This solved the problem for me.

After updating my iMac to Mavericks from Mountain Lion, kernel_task started hogging over 3 GB of RAM, though it had no noticeable effect on CPU usage. I did the above and found a set of extensions going back to 2012. They were all ATTO .kexts (ATTOCelerity, ATTOExpress), which I believe are to do with external hard disk drivers. After removing these and restarting, everything was smooth as silk, with kernel-task usage dropping to a little over 700 MB, which is a good bit less than it was using with Mountain Lion. Since then, it's crept up to about 1 GB, but this is still less than I saw in Mountain Lion.

The Mavericks installer found some others and put them in the Incompatible Software folder, but some may slip through, as in this case.

For me, the solution was also an incompatibility.

I have an Apogee DUET firewire, on my Mac Pro workstation.

I had to update the software for it after there was no sound after installing Mavericks

On my Macbook Pro, I had the kernal_task overload. And though I don't use the Apogee DUET on it, I did once hook it up for a remote recording session.

I updated the Apogee DUET software for 10.9.2 and problem solved.

Even though there is no DUET plugged into this Macbook Pro, the old software was causing the problem because it was installed once a long time ago.

Wiping the hard drive would have solved this, too.

And that is why.

I'll tell you what solved the problem for me, and I didn't have to do anything thing with the system files at all. Turns out my computer was running `hot. I found out using the program istat pro that my fan was at 0rpms, meaning it wasn't running at all. My CPU temp was running in the 80's-high 90's and my HD temp was elevated as well. I ended up taking the bottom cover off my mac and found out my fan was stuck. I manually manipulated it until it unstuck and put the case back on. When I booted up my computer, I put my ear close to the vent and could hear the fan running. I checked the istat program again, and my fan was running at about 1900rpms and my HD and CPU temp were much lower. I even used a spare UBS powered cooling pad I had laying around to bring the temp even lower, and now my mac runs smooth as butter. When I was googling I found out that high temps cause activity on mac activity to slow down as a protective measure to keep it from overheating. I hope this works for you all.

Yes, kernel_task is the kernel.

It's unlikely that the kernel itself is the problem. It is highly likely there is a kernel extension (or extensions) that is incompatible with Mavericks, or is leaking memory in kernel space.

Nobody here has posted what kernel extensions they have loaded, but in general I'd suggest that people look into this (etrecheck can help find out what's going on) and try removing them. Or boot in safe mode for a while and seeing if things are better.

Yes, it could be.

Remove the BRESINK driver for sure. It doesn't need to be monitoring anything (activity monitor does a perfectly good job). Are you still syncing with a BlackBerry? If not, then remove it. And if you are, be sure it's actually working, as Sync Services has been removed from Mavericks so pretty much no USB sync solutions work anymore.

I spotted logmein on pastor brew master's post... After experiencing kernel arks memory usage well over 1 GB. I uninstalled logmein, and the problem has gone away. Now the task runs at about 650MB. THANK YOU!

I had this same problem after upgrading to Mavericks, and I followed all of the advice here, and nothing helped. I did notice that a lot of the solutions seemed to center around migrated or old system components. I bought a new iMac recently, and migrated all of my information from one iMac to the other. I should have done a clean install of all of my software (I know -- I've been using Macs since the 80s, and I should know better), but I was in the middle of a work deadline when my old iMac was having some serious problems and was heading for the light, and I just needed to get up and running quickly. Then I upgraded to Mavericks, and that's when the problem started.

The user account from my old iMac was still present on my new iMac, even though I wasn't using it. I deleted the account, and made certain to delete the user file in my system folder at the same time. I restarted, and the memory problem seems to have gone away. kern_task is still running high in my activity monitor, but my overall RAM usage is way down, and I'm not getting system error messages anymore that my Mac is running close to capacity. I did have some system files in my old user profile, and I think I may have had some dueling system extensions that were causing the kern-task memory issues.

I had already ordered a 2 tb hard drive for my new Mac when this problem started (I've already maxed out the RAM), and I think it's a good idea to install a higher-capacity hard drive, but deleting the old user profile did solve the problem for me even with my old hard drive.

FIXED!

Okay - after months of struggling with this I think I may have fixed it on my iMac. I completely removed from /system/library/extensions all of the kernal extensions for ALL printers (suspecting it was my HP pritner that was causing the issue), all kernal extensions for VM-Ware and Parallels (which I no longer use), as well as uninstalled LogMeIn and Libre Office. Since I did all of this at one time, I'm not sure which one of these is the solution. However, it has now been three days and my iMac has run perfectly!!!

If I were to do it again, I go one at a time starting with VM-Ware and Parallels, then the extensions for printers.

Let me know if this works for any of you.

I've been have exactly the same problem with sluggish performance and crazy kernel_task behavior. Taking a clue from Beatoven about the Apogee issue, I removed my Apogee Maestro 2 and rebooted. My MacBook Pro is happy once again. Thanks Beatoven!

Hi,

my kernel_task on a MBP2010 (8GB) was high, too. About 3 GB.

kextstat -kl | awk '{printf "%i %i %s %s\n", $4 / 1024, $5 / 1024, $6, $7}' | sort -n

showed no weird memory suckups .

So I restarted Finder and kernel_task deflated from 3GB to 1.4GB.

I suspect, that Finder had problems with different network shares.

So, before you're doing a reboot, try restarting "Finder"

cheers

Andy

The kernel task is generally only affected by 3rd party kernel extensions, such as unneeded anti-malware products and other hacks that try to hook directly into the kernel.

You should really start you own "New" post, and describe your problem so answers are not mixed, as it is rare that a similar symptom has the same cause.

Also a "New" post is more likely to get more people looking at it, than one that is 6+ pages long and annoying to find the last post, and annoying to figure out which replies go with which conversation happening the the same room.

If you decide to create a new post, I suggest you include the EtreCheck output

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

My kernal_task is up to 9GB (I have 16GB total).

If your kernel_task is using 9GB, then you have a 3rd party kernel extension that is consuming RAM.

For a 16GB Mac, the kernel_task should use on the order of 800MB to 1GB more or less. 9GB indicates you have 3rd party kernel extensions.

You can use EtreCheck to see what 3rd party additions you have installed. Look closely at the kernel extensions.

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

Thank you!

After many months of struggling with the kernel_task growing in memory, leading to severe swapping and slowdowns, it seems like this finally did the trick!

I unchecked some of my log file heavy directories from Spotlight indexing, and suddenly it's holding stable. Very excited - I feel like I got my computer back!

i was having the same issue and noticed i had the below kernel extension in common with one of the previous posters.

com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt

suspected it might be the culprit. deleted it and it seems to have cleared up the problem!