Q: cloudd and bird processes hogging the processor?

I've got this problem too. cloudd is killing process! Fresh version of Yosemite, macbook air mid 2011. I turned off icloud drive in icloud settings - processor load was normal.

Having the same situation. I let it run and it went for almost 23 hours the first time before it finished. I have about 22 GB on iCloud Drive.

I made a change today in my network and my computers IP address needed to change from .99 to .103 and the cloudd and bird process started again.

I just cranked my fans and let it run the first time but if this is going to happen avery time a change is made it seems more like a bug.

Fortunately it is sending almost 0 data to iCloud Drive, just consuming processor power.

I'm having this problem also.

I've submitted bug reports to https://bugreport.apple.com/

This is in my console log

11/8/14 5:43:18.000 AM kernel[0]: process cloudd[277] thread 25714 caught burning CPU! It used more than 50% CPU (Actual recent usage: 72%) over 180 seconds. thread lifetime cpu usage 90.137208 seconds, (87.951190 user, 2.186018 system) ledger info: balance: 90134434306 credit: 90134434306 debit: 0 limit: 90000000000 (50%) period: 180000000000 time since last refill (ns): 124711307902

11/8/14 5:43:22.333 AM spindump[408]: Saved cpu_resource.diag report for cloudd version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/cloudd_2014-11-08-054322_usernmae_cpu_resource. diag

Having this issue too on a MBP mid 2009. 'bird' is taking up 80-90 % CPU all the time. It took 30 mins to get to a stable startup state. I couldnt do anything for 30 mins while the startup process caught up.

I think this computer is not meant to handle an OS with so much overhead and increased requirements.

Icloud might have bugs too.

Anyone know if there are ways to troubleshoot ICloud drive? Can we see what it is doing at any one time?

I also posted a bug report to

https://bugreport.apple.com/ (you have to be a registered developer, which is free)

It is under big report # 19168445 if anyone wants to reference it. I also linked to this and other forums mentioning bird problems.

I have also submitted a bug report on this.  Not only does the runaway bird process effectively make iCloud drive a non-option it also seriously degrades performance so I characterized it as a serious bug.

Had the same problem.

I ran "brctl log --wait --shorten" it showed there was one file stuck for upload to the cloud.

Disabling iCloud drive it gave me the waring about this, ignored the warning and CPU returned to normal levels.

When I enabled iCloud drive again after that, files got synced and CPU remained low.

Thanks Sorki, that fixed my problem too. It was clearly one file stuck for upload. cloudd and bird were both churning away. A little scary to accept that all iCloud files are deleted from local hard drive, but they were later restored automatically.

Hi folks,

Here's how I solved the iCloud CPU hogging issue. 

Like most I quickly found that the bird and cloudd processes lookup 

1. Unplugged from network/internet.

2. Killed both cloudd and bird, (you can do this via command line by using TOP to find the process id {PID} and then KILL -9 {PID} or the Activity Monitor and force quit)

3. Undo any setting that forces your disk to securely delete file or securely empty trash.  In my case I had this on by default and had recently trashed files from the iCloud folder.  I'm not sure if this was the root cause but it's something I did in the process of eliminating anything that could have restrictions on the iCloud files and folders.

4.  Empty the trash.  Make sure that non of the iCloud files were open or locked by other application/network/etc.

5.  Restarted iCloud service.  Thanks to Sorki, ran "brctl log --wait --shorten"

6.  Wait for all files to sync.  Gotta be patient.  If it's the first time you put large files or large quantity of files, you gotta give it time to sync.

7.  Been running fine for days. 

I have 3 computers that are all tied to iCloud.  All are now working great.  Only my iMac 2010 had the slowdown.  Judging by the fact that only one had the issue I knew that it must be a local settings issue, a large file, or some sort of file system restriction. 

Hope this helps.  

I am seeing the problem too with Cloudd consuming 100% of the CPU, draining the battery very quickly.

I have seen two specific causes for this.  First where my MBP is not connected to any network.  Second is where I am connected to work network which does not permit connectivity  to iCloud.

To stop it, I usually must uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preferences panel, and then restart system.

This of course means when I am back on a normal network, everything must be re-enabled and re-synch. 

Not preferred at all.

Any feedback from Apple on addressing what is a very problematic issue?

This happened to me also on 10.10.2 after a cleaning session with Onyx. It took a couple of restarts to fix it.

Quit the both processes in Activity monitor, reboot and check again. 

What iCloud features do you have enabled?

I have unchecked the iCloud drive box, and the cloudd process utilization went away.

Quitting or killing the process in Activity monitor does not work, as it respawns and continues the CPU utilization.

the iCloud  drive portion is not tolerant to loss of network, or lack of network access due to firewall or corp. policies.

-Robert

Thanks, worked for me.