Image Capture Extension

I've no explanation but I'd like to add that I've seen this extension monopolizing up to 16.5 GB of memory. That means that it's taking all my RAM or else requiring a very large amount of information to be swapped to disk. Either explanation is bad, as either one will slow the machine. I thought that I could quit this process without causing a problem, but after I did that a scan took about two minutes for a single page of text. When I looked, Image Capture Extension was running again, but it was taking up 3.3 GB of memory. The next scan went smoothly, but the Extension never relinquished any of that memory. Neither, however, did I see it increase its memory hogging further after another scan. I'm perplexed. I don't think this extension's excessive memory use is harmless.

It uses the same icon as many OS X system processes (SymLinker, SystemUIServer, SIMBL Agent, etc., etc.), so I think it's developed and distributed by Apple, itself. Seems as though someone from Apple could jump in here to explain what it is and what to do about the memory hogging.

I ran into this too, in my case with Mavericks. My Macbook Pro would go all sluggish and I'd look in Activity Monitor and find that the Image Capture Extension was using up most of my RAM. That was regardless of whether Aperture was open or closed. Once started, it didn't seem to quit. I could quit the process and things would return to normal, but after importing photos from my camera or iPhone, it would be back again, gradually eating up my computer until I manuall quit the process.

I found a suggestion elsewhere in this forum (sorry, I forgot to bookmark it) which suggested deleting the Image Capture files in the Preferences and Cache folders of both in my home Library and the system Library. I did that, restarted my machine, and everything's been back to normal. Phew.

Drat. I was too optimistic. My Macbook Pro ground to a near-hault today and, after some patience, I managed to get into Activity Monitor to find that the Image Capture Extension was consuming almost 14GB of RAM. I quit the process and my computer sprang back to life.

Back to the drawing board.