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Level 1

0 points

com.apple.inputmethodkit.userdictionary hijacking cpu usage and freezing my macbook

After updating to Mavericks my mac began first going hot with very high cpu-usage for the process called com.apple.inputmethodkit.userdictionary. The problem ended temprariy if I force quitted the process, but after a while it came back and eventually the macbook freezes and requires a hard boot.

I had been running and updating the same stuff for years and thought that a clean install would end the problem. So I backed up everything and began with a fresh install of Mavericks and did not import anything from the backup. To my disappointment the problem did not go away and for the past days I've been trying to find help from the internet, but in vain. The only posting of similar problem with nobody answering to it I found here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks-desktop-support/130559-help-cpu-usage.html

Thank's in advance!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on May 31, 2014 11:32 AM

Best reply

dianeoforegon

Level 5

7,287 points

Posted on May 31, 2014 12:33 PM

Did you see the suggestions on this post?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5512840?tstart=0

It's possible your drive is dying. Considering it's a 2009 MBP, this would not be unexpected for a laptop this age.

Backup immediately! I suggest a clone backup.

Both of these applications can be used to create a clone.

SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/

CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

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19 replies

Jul 13, 2014 3:20 AM in response to matthew.korporaal

Great! I think you only need to turn of the syncing of Documents and Data, not all of iCloud. It probably doesn't matter if you don't have any shortcuts, it will still adjust the dictionary based on the words you use. For instance on the iPhone, it will add words that you use to the dictionary if they are not in the dictionary to begin with. I think that it's this syncing of this user adjusted dictionary that causes the high CPU usage.

oli.sc

Level 1

0 points

Sep 18, 2014 4:27 AM in response to genjic

Hi,

I submitted a bug report to Apple about this issue (I have the same one), and I received a response a few days ago: this is a big caused by something called "Ubiquity", which seems to be a process or a library responsible of syncing iCloud between device, and iOS 8 and Yosemite will solve it through CloudKit/iCloud Drive. Updating all devices should solve the problem, then.

vrom

Level 1

8 points

Sep 30, 2014 12:17 PM in response to oli.sc

Did iOS8 upgrade with iCloud "Documents & Data" turned on solve the problem for you?

May 26, 2015 12:21 AM in response to genjic

I now fixed the issue for me. I at first deleted my whole shortcut list (it wasn't too big, about 10 entries max), the problem persisted and Apple didn't reply to my bug report which is kinda disappointing so I checked the console for any output.

There I found tons of errors mentioning a certain file which I located in the finder and renamed so the process couldn't find it any longer. This finally solved it, no more process spiking up the CPU and my battery life improved by like 30 minutes. The process is still throwing errors once a day but still, that's a huge improvement compared to having errors every 20 seconds lol

Unfortunately I can't be bothered to search for the location of the file again, but if anyone shares his console output for this process here I'll be able to tell you what file it was and how to fix that. If you are trying to do that on your own, make sure to rename the file instead of deleting it so you can roll back just in case it messes up something with your system.

com.apple.inputmethodkit.userdictionary hijacking cpu usage and freezing my macbook