process "bird" taking up to 140% of CPU and running constantly

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Level 1

60 points

process "bird" taking up to 140% of CPU and running constantly

Mac OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite/iMac mid-2011

My iMac is really slow to start-up, to run, and to have applications run. I have 32 GB memory, 113 GB hard disk capacity and it has never been slower in its life. There is a process called "bird" that is running almost constantly whenever I run Activity Monitor and it is taking up to 140% of CPU time. What is "bird"? Why is it running constantly and eating up so much CPU time? Why is my iMac so slow running Mac OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite?

Other issues on my iMac include: Software Update is supposed to be updating and installing updates automatically and it is not. When I log in, I see a blank white screen with an apple logo and a progress bar below. It takes forever for the progress bar to get 1/4 of the way across, then the screen flashes and the progress bar finishes the remaining 3/4 really fast. And then once logged in, it takes forever for my dock icons to appear, and my iMac hard drive is chattering like crazy even though nothing is running yet. Whenever I launch Safari I get a progress bar in the address field that goes 1/3 of the way across and frequently hangs. And then just nothing. All of these issues never happened before Mac OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite. Is anyone else experiencing issues like this? How did you solve them?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10), Safari 8.0

Posted on Dec 9, 2014 10:07 PM

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Answer 1

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Dr.Mac.

Level 3

650 points

Dec 9, 2014 10:23 PM in response to alp1116

The process is linked with the iCloud sync.

Select System Preferences > iCloud and uncheck the iCloud Drive option.

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Answer 2

alp1116 Author

Level 1

60 points

Dec 9, 2014 10:45 PM in response to Dr.Mac.

Ummm. So does this mean that iCloud drive does not work or that it works but at the cost of slowing your iMac down to a crawl?

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Answer 3

Dr.Mac.

Level 3

650 points

Dec 9, 2014 11:14 PM in response to alp1116

Once it’s enabled iCloud Drive starts working automatically, syncing data between your devices in the background (slowing your iMac down). Unlike the first version of iCloud, iCloud Drive can be be accessed in the Finder like other folders. You can store any type of file in iCloud Drive provided it is less than 15 gigabytes in size. When it’s enabled, it will show up in the side column of a Finder window. iCloud Drive is not as advanced and widely accessible and supported as Dropbox, but it’s useful if you work and share documents between your iOS and Mac devices. The service should improve further.

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Answer 4

alp1116 Author

Level 1

60 points

Dec 9, 2014 11:37 PM in response to Dr.Mac.

Thanks for the info. I had stored some files on iCloud Drive but I really do not have to have them there. I'll try disconnecting iCloud Drive and see if performance improves. I hope you are correct and Apple gets this working better because it would be great to use it if it did not impede performance so much.

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Answer 5

Dec 14, 2014 6:11 PM in response to Dr.Mac.

turning off the icloud drive seems to be a bit drastic.

Is there any reason the bird process should be consuming so many cycles? I

can live with it fora while but not for long periods of time. The drain on my battery is high enough.

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Answer 6

Jan 28, 2015 1:28 AM in response to Dr.Mac.

Thx for the tip Doc. Saved my old non-unibody MBP from going into the dustbin 🙂

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