Yosemite high CPU usage by "launchd"

Wow, I almost bought a new Hard Drive thinking the drive was failing, followed OmarWomars guide and discovered it was Google Chrome listed with errors. Deleted Google Chrome and my MacBook is like new again!! 🙂😍

THANKYOU VERY MUCH!!!

oh and Google...... sort your software out! 😮

Hey Omar,

Thanks for this post, I am having exactly the same issue, but I cant figure out the application causing the problem, I get the following in the system.log..

May 22 08:47:02 Zacharys-MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/betulinic/betulinic[45396]): Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.

Thank you for this recommendation. I had the same issue and it the launchd process was always around of 60-70% of CPU time and was killing the overall performance. I tried the download recommended for the malware but that did not work. I did as you suggested. Moved all my files in /library/LaunchAgents and /library/LaunchDaemons to a sub directory in those folders. Rebooted and all was fine. launchd was below 2%. One by one (including the Adobe files) added them back. All but one was the culprit, left it out, rebooted and we good to go. Thanks again for the recommendation.

Please determine if the same activity occurs in "Safe Mode":

• Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
• You must disable FileVault before you can start your Mac in Safe Mode.
• Starting your Mac in Safe Mode will take longer than usual, graphics will not render smoothly, audio is disabled on some Macs, and some programs (iTunes for example) may not work at all.
• Merely starting your Mac in Safe Mode is not intended to resolve the problem, it's to observe its performance without certain additional components.
• To end Safe Mode restart your Mac normally. Shutdown will take longer as well.

I have the same problem.

MBA - 13in Mid 2013 - 1.7Ghz i7 - 8G

I have boot into safe mode. I am replying while in safe mode.

Idle is now up around 95% and launchd is down to 0%.

The fans are quite and it feels like my old machine.

So, we have proven the point... now... how do I figure out what part of 'regular' mode is screwing my machine???

And thanks for the insights. I would have sworn this was a fairly plain system.

In an attempt to answer the next question and while I am still in safe mode, here is the directory listing from /Applications.

App Store.app

AppCleaner.app

Aqua

Automator.app

Battery Health.app

Boom.app

Calculator.app

Calendar.app

Camtasia 2.app

Chess.app

Chromecast.app

Cinemagraph Pro.app

Cisco

CoRD.app

Colloquy.app

Contacts.app

Cyberduck.app

DVD Player.app

Dashboard.app

Dev Desktop

Dictionary.app

Divvy.app

Evernote.app

FaceTime.app

Firefox.app

Font Book.app

GPG Keychain Access.app

Game Center.app

GarageBand.app

GitHub.app

GoToMeeting (1694).app

Google Chrome.app

Image Capture.app

Juicer

Keyboard Maestro.app

Keynote.app

KisMAC.app

LaunchControl.app

Launchpad.app

LibreOffice.app

Lingon 3.app

MacVim.app

Mahjong Solitaire Epic.app

Mail.app

Maps.app

Memory Clean.app

Messages.app

Microsoft Messenger.app

Microsoft Office 2011

Microsoft Remote Desktop.app

Microsoft Silverlight

Mission Control.app

NetSpot.app

Notes.app

Numbers.app

Pages.app

Photo Booth.app

Photo Transfer App.app

Plex Media Server.app

Preview.app

QuickTime Player.app

RSS Notifier.app

Reminders.app

Remote Desktop Connection.app

RemoterServer.app

Safari.app

ScanSnap

Sequel Pro.app

Server.app

Skitch.app

Skype.app

Splashtop Personal.app

Spotify.app

Stickies.app

StreamToMe.app

SwordSoft Layout.app

System Preferences.app

TeamViewer.app

TextEdit.app

Textual Trial.app

Thunderbird.app

Time Machine.app

Transmission.app

TweetAdder4.app

Utilities

VLC.app

VMware Fusion 6.0.1.app

Vagrant

VirtualBox.app

Viscosity.app

Workbench

Xcode.app

ZoiperCommunicator.app

iBooks.app

iMovie.app

iPhoto.app

iTunes.app

I will restart now and see if there is a way to start without any user apps auto starting...

OK.... so now I am running in Normal mode...Idle around 12-15% with NOTHING running.

I have remove all login agents and that was no help.

I have terminated startup for Boom & MemoryCleanup, rebooted and still bad.

A Colleague mentioned LaunchAgents.

I 'moved' ALL /Library/LaunchAgents -AND- /Library/LaunchDaemons to a holding folder as root.

Rebooted and now the machine is acting normal...

LaunchAgent List

-----------------------

LocationChanger.plist

com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist

com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist

org.gpgtools.Libmacgpg.xpc.plist

org.gpgtools.gpgmail.enable-bundles.plist

org.gpgtools.gpgmail.patch-uuid-user.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.fix.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.shutdown-gpg-agent.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.updater.plist

org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist

LaunchDaemon List

---------------------------

com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

com.soma-zone.LaunchControl.Helper.plist

com.sparklabs.ViscosityHelper.plist

com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist

org.gpgtools.gpgmail.patch-uuid.plist

org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist

org.virtualbox.startup.plist

So... off to add them back in, one at a time... :/

Launch Agents

LocationChanger.plist

com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist

com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist

org.gpgtools.Libmacgpg.xpc.plist

org.gpgtools.gpgmail.enable-bundles.plist

org.gpgtools.gpgmail.patch-uuid-user.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.fix.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.shutdown-gpg-agent.plist

org.gpgtools.macgpg2.updater.plist

org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist

Adding Back in:

LaunchAgent: LocationChanger.plist

Added this back in first. I wrote this to handle a strange routing issue in our network. So, wanted to eliminate my code first. It does not cause any problem at all.

Or, so I thought…. I have launched MacVim and Pages, to document this… And as I am writing… the launchd has gone nuts again.

Moving LocationChanger.plist back to holding storage and rebooting.

So I have rebooted and have all the apps restarting with each reboot. LocationChanger.plist is not running at this point…

A quick check on my colleagues laptop of removing LocationChanger.plist from /Library/LaunchAgents and he is now running fine.

I put back all my LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons… without…. LocationChanger.plist and all is working fine.

So the LocationChanger.plist looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Label</key>

<string>tech.inhelsinki.nl.locationchanger</string>

<key>Program</key>

<string>/var/root/bin/locationchanger</string>

<key>WatchPaths</key>

<array>

<string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>

<string>/dev/tap0</string>

</array>

</dict>

</plist>

I checked and /dev/ta* was missing until I started Viscosity (OpenVPN tool). It apparently stopped ‘autostarting’ with the upgrade to Yosemite. I reset the autostart, moved LocationChanger.plist back into /Library/LaunchAgents and rebooted.

Nope! Still sucking launchd dry.

Checking some logs, I see that /var/root/bin/locationchanger is triggering an error. And I mean LOTS of errors.

I removed both strings fromt he WatchPaths array and restarted. All working fine.

Began using:

launchctl load

launchctl unload

of the /Library/LaunchAgents/LocationChanger.plist to add/delete the strings in the WatchPaths array.

During this testing I got NO runaway on launchd.

So, I restarted with /Library/LaunchAgents/LocationChanger.plist in place, and yup, launchd is in runaway mode again.

Got to thinking about the /var/root/bin/locationchanger log errors. If memory serves (not alway) that is a pseudo location of some kind. So, maybe it is loading later in Yosemite than in Mavericks. Based on this, I move the executable (locationchanger) from /var/root/bin into /usr/bin. I updated the plist to reflect this and rebooted.

My machine is now behaving correctly and there is no runaway launchd process anymore.

Of course, now mds and md_worker are sucking up resources, but that should not be part of this problem. launchd is sitting at 0.2%. So, I believe I am significantly happier.

Thanks to the OP and John Galt for starting this thread towards a working solution.

I am using Thunderbird version 31.2. I updated to 31.3 and it dint work very well so I reverted to 31.2

Now I am getting high CPU 100% all the time using Thunderbird. According to Activity Monitor its Launchd1 causing the issues

I apologise but I don't follow the below threads as to what I can do about it. I have apple support but they probably will not help me as they don't support third party software. Any easy fixes anyone can suggest are welcome.

Thanks and Regards

Mike

run etrecheck list.

Sorry for the delay in responding - have been travelling. Still have same issue - High CPU using Thunderbird. Launchchd1. Thanks for suggestion to run etrecheck list.

I now attach the result,

Problem description:

I am using Thunderbird version 31.2. I updated to 31.3 and it dint work very well so I reverted to 31.2

Now I am getting high CPU 100% all the time using Thunderbird. According to Activity Monitor its Launchd1 causing the issues

I apologise but I don't follow the below threads as to what I can do about it. I have apple support but they probably will not help me as they don't support third party software. Any easy fixes anyone can suggest are welcome.

Thanks and Regards

Mike

EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)

Report generated 3 January 2015 20:13:58 GMT

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)

MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir4,2

1 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 15 days 5:57:55

Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE SSD SM256C disk0 : (251 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 249.78 GB (72.65 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. FaceTime Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Adware: ℹ️

Geneio [Remove]

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt (2.2.7 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryVirtualPrivateNetwork (1.0.18 - SDK 10.8) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.BlackBerry.driver.USBCDCNCM (1.0.10 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.3 - SDK 10.6) [Support]

[not loaded] com.ZTE.driver.ZTEUSBCDCACMData (1.2.19) [Support]

[not loaded] com.ZTE.driver.ZTEUSBMassStorageFilter (1.2.19) [Support]

[not loaded] com.moschip.driver.moschipUsbEthernet (1.0.5) [Support]

[not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP (0.0.97) [Support]

Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️

[killed] com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist

[killed] com.apple.cmfsyncagent.plist

[killed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist

[killed] com.apple.printtool.agent.plist

[killed] com.apple.printuitool.agent.plist

[killed] com.apple.rcd.plist

[killed] com.apple.SafariNotificationAgent.plist

[killed] com.apple.scopedbookmarkagent.xpc.plist

[killed] com.apple.spindump_agent.plist

9 processes killed due to memory pressure

Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[killed] com.apple.AssetCacheLocatorService.plist

[killed] com.apple.ctkd.plist

[killed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist

[killed] com.apple.nehelper.plist

[killed] com.apple.nsurlsessiond.plist

[killed] com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist

[killed] com.apple.sandboxd.plist

[killed] com.apple.spindump.plist

[killed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

9 processes killed due to memory pressure

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.rogueamoeba.instanton-agent.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.sonos.smbbump.plist [Support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

AdobeResourceSynchronizer Application (/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional/Adobe Acrobat Professional.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 [Support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 [Support]

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 [Support]

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.13 [Support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Silverlight: Version: 4.1.10329.0 [Support]

Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 [Support]

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.13 [Support]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.7 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 67 Check version

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

WebEx: Version: 1.0 [Support]

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 [Support]

Picasa: Version: 1.0 [Support]

RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Translate [Installed]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Support]

Flip4Mac WMV [Support]

Google Desktop [Support]

Trusteer Endpoint Protection [Support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 249.78 GB Disk used: 177.13 GB

Destinations:

Seagate [Local]

Total size: 2.00 TB

Total number of backups: 48

Oldest backup: 2014-02-02 23:15:45 +0000

Last backup: 2014-12-22 18:46:22 +0000

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk size 249.78 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

69% thunderbird

37% WindowServer

17% mds

1% loginwindow

1% distnoted

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

601 MB thunderbird

193 MB Skype

168 MB Finder

62 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

60 MB Safari

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

66 MB Free RAM

1.32 GB Active RAM

1.24 GB Inactive RAM

1.24 GB Wired RAM

159.43 GB Page-ins

3.42 GB Page-outs

Mike, there is software that is not compatible. There is a very serous infection Genieo.

1. download AdwareMedic from thesfaemac.com and run it: that should remove the infections.

2. Uninstall Thunderbird (see later), don't delete the mailfolders.

3. The Rim Blackberry software is also not compatible, uninstall.

4. Trusteer Rapport (Endpoint Protection) is crap software that cripples your security, uninstall.

5. In SystemPreferences->Users&Groups->LoginItems, remove the Adobe software, with the minus sign underneath : this is crippling software, should not run!

-- Now restart: it should be much better already.

But this is not all, there is still some that better is removed.

But also according to Roaringapps.com Thunderbird (latest) is compatible with Yosemite. If you are not 'married' to thunderbird, start using Mail. But if you are, and did the uninstall of Thunderbird correctly: download the latest version and install it again.

We do the rest later.

Lex

This process is also chewing up disk space. In one day, with nothing going on, it's written over 8 GB to disk. I've already had to backup the disk using SuperDuper to an external drive, replace the internal with that bootable drive, get back all my disk space, then wait a while and disk space continues to disappear. No doubt it will end up in that "Running low on disk space" issue, when nothing is being done with the MacBook.

This looks like a BUG in OSX latest issue. I've also run a few virus checkers, Avast and Avira, neither shows any problems.

I've already spoken to the geniuses at Apple, and they have no clue. This "Disk Usage" bug has been reported by MANY users. Do a Google Search for the words "MaBook hard drive filling up for no reason" -- you'll find a lot of reports about this problem.

Until they run into this themselves, it's doubtful it will get fixed.

I've been experimenting with three 1 TB drives. Notice the two external drives are not affected by this BUG, but the internal drive used to look the same as the two external drives, and now it's missing about 10 GB.

Free space was 539 GB a few hours ago on the internal drive, the computer has been on all day, now we're down to 528 GB free.

Sorry for the mis-spelling of "Toshiba" but the internal drive (top one) was created from the last drive using SuperDuper by booting to a third drive. I've gotten pretty good at salvaging a "Disk Full" MacBook, but this is bordering on the ridiculous. I never have these problems on a WIndows machine.

Yes, I've gone through EVERY directory and used the typical programs for disk space usage, and they all report FILE usage, and NONE report the same thing that the Storage report does when I get "Disk is almost full" report. No need to offer the usual "Go through every directory looking for large files" -- been there, done that. This problem involves disk space usage that is not reported by any program except the OS when it runs out of space and this STORAGE map when it shows a smaller and smaller amount of FREE space.

launchd is the "mother of all processes" on OS X. It is an essential part of the system that launches pretty much every other process on the machine.

As such, it can (over times) use lots of CPU, and it will write lots of information to disk. However, just because it writes to disk, doesn't mean it's saving a bunch of stuff to disk permanently that's taking up space.

It is unlikely there is a problem with launchd. There can be problems with other things that _look_ like they're problems with launchd, but they're not.

This is not an OS X bug. What you are seeing is entirely normal. Disk space fluctuates normally on modern systems... we are no longer in the days when we could identify exactly how much free space there is on our system drives, due to virtual memory paging, caches, search indexing, local backups and other such things. Unless you have a problem, such as seeing your system inexplicably go from 500 GB free to almost full, you should ignore minor fluctuations in the free space.

The numbers you're seeing in Activity Monitor are well within normal ranges. Here's what my entirely normal, fully-functioning Mac shows: