kernel_task high memory usage

You have two ways to access the directory:

• In Finder:
  1. Goto: Macintosh HD (if not visible, type: ⇧⌘C)
  2. Then, System → Library → Extensions
• In Terminal:

  Type:

  cd /System/Library/Extensions
  

  Notice: using lower case may work in OSX, but in other BSD kernels library and file names are case sensitive

Thanks malcoad and vol7ron - I was able to find and remove (after backup) all my .kext files 2012 or older. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be doing much for my speed. I guess I'm going to have to get more memory.

Thanks any way!

I found this video on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxC9SUSw00

anybody that can tell if it can work this way?

interesting, I've tried Mp0lo17link and it worked for me on iMac12.1 (21.5'' mid 2011) got kernel_task down from ~5GB to 980MB for 2nd day now

also Fiplab Memory Cleaner now properly shows I have 12GB RAM whereas before it though I have ~7GB of RAM

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.

Same issue here. Since upgrading to Mavericks my machine is very unresponsive. Activity Monitor shows kernel_task at top of CPU and memory tabs.

The suggested solution is to delete older .kext files in System/Library/Extensions and reboot. Keep trying until your system speeds up.

Not a great solution really. I have 243 kext files in that folder. Do I delete them one at a time? If I break something by deleting a kext, is there anyway to revert?

No input from Apple suport team?

Thank you, Pastor Brew Master!

Uninstalling TeamViewer, LibreOffice and removing of kexts for HP printer helped me too. It seems that problem was in HP printer because reinstalling of TeamViewer and LibreOffice didn't affected memory usage. After all of it I decided to use printer with another computer (OS X, but not Mavericks).

I watched that video earlier when i first figured out the problem with kernel_task atking up a lot of my ram, for my case my model is "MacBookPro10,2" and when you go through the tutorial, it isnt in the resource folder. Does anyone know why or a fix to that problem? If so please reply!

Brandon

Hello,

I just thought I'd let everyone know what I did to fix the problem. I just went to my User>Library folder. It is normally hidden, so if you go to the Finder "Go" menu and hold down the Option key it will show up in the menu, then select it. In your Library folder just drag out your Preferences folder to your Desktop. Then restart your Mac.

A new Preferences folder will automatically be created by your system when you log in.

You will have to configure your Apple settings. However, once logged in you can drag the files inside your old Preferences folder into your new one making sure NOT to replace the new Apple preference files. Basically, just replace the preferences for all the apps that have not yet had new preferences created by the system. The replace dialog box will give you the option to not replace the files already in the folder.

After I did this I opened my Activity Monitor and the kernal_task was not even showing up in it anymore. Perhaps it will appear again over time? I don't know, but this fixed the issues (at least for now) for me.

i tried this, but all it does is drag a copy to the desktop - the original folder remains with all it's contents - tried to delete it but it says it cannot because it needs them - to be honest since mavericks came out using my macs has become an absolute misery, but if there is another solution i could try before throwing it out the window i might give it a go - at the moment these problems are costing me hours every day

Yup, that solved the problem for me--but losing all my settings is a pretty harsh price to pay! I've got my doc and X11 and such pretty well-tuned to my liking.

So far I've narrowed it down that it's one of the com.apple files that's the problem, now I get to see if I can keep the preferences I want, but still remove the problem child.

Same problem for me -- kernal_task memory usage consistently >4.7GB leading to maxed out memory and a virtually unusable system.

What I do notice is that this problem only seems to happen when I am running Safari. And I can make the problem go away immediately simply by closing Safari (without rebooting or anything additional). I prefer Safari, but when when I reopen, the problem reoccurs after a few hours.

Thanks. I did the same and went from 5.5Gb of real memory down to 1.15

I've been struggling with what appears to be some sort of a memory leak after upgrading to Mavericks. After restarting, the OS seemed fine, but it would quickly degrade after that, becoming so slow that I got used to pressing buttons in applications and then watching as the button when down a few seconds later and then up again a few seconds after that. So slooooww!. But, based on this post, I deactivated the auto-logout feature when I close my laptop, then restarted. So far since then (which has only been a day, but still...), things have been fine. Fingers crossed. Thanks for the tip!

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.