What is com.apple.MediaLibraryService?

If you type "sudo fs_usage" into the terminal window, it'll show you what processes are using the file system. It looks like iTunes is using the com.apple.MediaLIbraryService to index photos on my network drive.

I also noticed this process using 90+% cpu.

I went to activity monitor and shut it down!

I have yet to find any side-effects this may have or whether it starts up automatically again.

Yup, it started itself up again, but is not gobbling up cpu it present.

Hello!

I have same situation - iPhoto library is on the network drive and com.apple.MediaLibraryService drains battery/cpu. If I close iTunes - everything is OK.

So, what is the solution?

I tried to add iPhoto network folder as exclusion for spotlight, but nothing changed. Also killing the com.apple.MediaLibraryService does not help - it automatically starts..

Thanks in advance!

I have been working this issue for the past couple of months - since updating to Mavericks. Both my iTunes and iPhoto libraries reside on my NAS (accessed via ethernet). Up until the Mavericks update, my iTunes was left running on my Mac mini server 24/7 with NO issues.

I can confirm that I see two issues:

1. iTunes is using excessive memory (over 2GB); it starts off fine when the mini is rebooted, but then gradually eats through all available RAM until the mini freezes/iTunes crashes.

2. The process "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" appears as 3rd highest memory hog

Stumbled across John's thread here and did some more digging based njakobsen's reply above: I have iTunes Home Sharing enabled in iTunes. Looking at the File | Home Sharing | menu in iTunes, there is an option to "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV...".

When I disable that option, close iTunes, and then relaunch iTunes, "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" does not appear in the process list, and iTunes returns to using only about 130 MB of memory.

Of course, the obvious side-effect is that you will not be access Photos from your Mac on the AppleTV.

Let me know if this worked for you.

I found that after migrating my iTunes library, my Photo Sharing location didn't exist any longer due to structure change.

When I opened "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV" -- it gave me a pop-up warning that my locaiton "" didn't exist.

In seeing that, I created a new, empty folder & added that & re-launched iTunes. 99.6% CPU still to that process. Going back in & unchecking Photo Sharing & restarting iTunes did resolve the issue.

It came back again. I had to re-do the steps above (selecting empty folder to share) - etc etc and it's gone for the time being. iTunes bug, anyone?

It appears in the dock when I have iTunes running - which is almost always. I've never seen it before the last couple of days. It seems that my computer isn't slow just when I'm running Firefox, but is very slow when that utility is running.

Same problem here: When I start iTunes, a com.apple.MediaLibraryService process is (often) running at almost 100%. When I quit iTunes, it disappears. When I start iTunes again, it reappears. When I force quit that process, it reappears immediately at 100%.

No solutions yet? This is really annoying.

@Johannes, did you try what I suggested in my post above:

"I have iTunes Home Sharing enabled in iTunes. Looking at the File | Home Sharing | menu in iTunes, there is an option to "Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV...".

When I disable that option, close iTunes, and then relaunch iTunes, "com.apple.MediaLibraryService" does not appear in the process list, and iTunes returns to using only about 130 MB of memory.

Of course, the obvious side-effect is that you will not be access Photos from your Mac on the AppleTV."

Thanks @edzHelp. I tried that, iTunes home sharing is now disabled, but com.apple.MediaLibraryService is still at 100%. It can sometimes take half an hour after launching iTunes until I can see the process at 100%.

@Johannes. Not sure from your response, but did you quit iTunes after disabling the Photo Sharing? Does com.apple.MediaLibraryService only run when you have iTunes running? Are your photos stored locally on your Mac, or on an external drive (e.g. NAS)?

@edzHelp: Yes, I restarted iTunes after disabling photo sharing, and I also rebooted my Mac. Today, after the reboot, it took a few hours until com.apple.MediaLibraryService appeared at 100%. It does not run automatically when iTunes is running, but runs only if iTunes is running and it always quits when I quit iTunes.

I do not use iPhoto, but I use Aperture, which is the same library format. The Aperture.aplibrary itself is on my local system drive inside my home folder. But a lot of my RAW files are stored outside of the library as referenced image: some on my second HDD inside my MacBook Pro, some on external drives (that are currently disconnected). Aperture allowes you to relocate your RAW files through a menu command.