Photos app causing very high cpu usage

"I am also having the same issue with the CPU causing my MAC Book Pro to run very hot. This is after upgrading to the new Photo App this morning. It's something wrong with the update."

Upgrading your library to the Photo app is only the first step. After the conversion is done, silently, the Photo app performs 'face' recognition on all of your photos - that's what causes your MBP to run very hot. If you have a large photo library it can take several hours to process all the photos. Photos does not tell you its doing this so its appears to be a bug.

The easiest way to test this is by creating a iPhoto library with 10 photos in it. Then convert it with Photos app. Wait 15 minutes or so, then you'll notice that the 'faces' icons will appear and the CPU goes back to normal. Like I said, my library with 5000 (20 mp) photos took several hours. I'm not syncing to iCloud yet, but I imagine that will only extend the time required.

The Photos app is designed to tap all of your CPU and the main GPU. So it will take all the processing power you have to perform the conversion.

EDIT: Like I said, my library with 5000 (20 mp) photos took several hours --> on a 2013 MBP 15" (4-core i7) with 16GB RAM and 1GB GPU.

"I'm quite sure the Photos app is supposed to work that way....using all cores, but it shouldn't heat up and shutdown my MacBook Pro."

Its normal for the computer to "heat up" is its being fully utilized. Its not normal for it to shutdown since the CPU should throttle itself to stay within safety limits.

"I have other Pro apps that also consumes lots of CPU when rendering or doing other heavy lifting"

Not all Pro apps utilized multiple cores and the GPU in the same way. Comparing one to the other doesn't really prove anything either way.

You should have a crash report of a kernel panic if your Mac restarted. Normally on crash or restart your Mac will alert you to the problem. You can look up the crash report by opening the Console app in the utilities folder.

Open Console and go to the left panel. There you'll find "Files" > "~Library/Logs" > "CrashReporter".

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/mac_os_x_using_console_to_troubleshoot_pr oblems

Then look up the date and time of the crash. It may give an app's name or a general error report.

I will try again this morning and my MacBook Pro rebooted itself last night. I have the mid 2010 MacBook I7 with 8 gigs of Ram and SDD Hard drive. Once the laptop rebooted, the CPU appears stop peaking and process was no longer running high. I have not started the Photo App yet this morning I will thou.

All I see is the com.apple.photo.videoconversionservice causing the CPU to spike up. Just crushing the CPU and the heat sink..

@James Saldana thanks for the info.

The "faces" detection is quite honestly dumb, and I consider it a bug. First of all, I don't want it to detect faces - I have no use for that feature. And secondly, it should follow good UX design practices - show that it's doing this, and have a way to stop it.

It did not take all that long on my MBP15" i7 - but it is both unusual and annoying when the fans come on at full speed so they should have taken that into consideration. 23,000 Photos, about 10 minutes.

Nikolaus Heger wrote:

@James Saldana thanks for the info.

The "faces" detection is quite honestly dumb, and I consider it a bug. First of all, I don't want it to detect faces - I have no use for that feature. And secondly, it should follow good UX design practices - show that it's doing this, and have a way to stop it.

The «detect faces» feature will also, as a bonus bug so to speak, make your photos library balloon in size, as it creates a cropped copy of each and every photo where it detects a face. In fact, it may make your Mac nearly unusable in the process if you don't have enough disk space.

Well done, Apple. Very well done.

Nikolaus Heger wrote:

@James Saldana thanks for the info.

The "faces" detection is quite honestly dumb, and I consider it a bug. First of all, I don't want it to detect faces - I have no use for that feature. And secondly, it should follow good UX design practices - show that it's doing this, and have a way to stop it.

It did not take all that long on my MBP15" i7 - but it is both unusual and annoying when the fans come on at full speed so they should have taken that into consideration. 23,000 Photos, about 10 minutes.

I agree with your comment regarding UX design practices. Apple should have given some indication that post-processing is required after the library has been converted. But that does not make it a bug, rather an unwanted feature. I'm also not sure that 'face' dedication is the only function Photos is performing during post-processing of library. I suspect some kind of optimization is also occurring.

The fans running at full speed is also not a bug. Many professional apps will run the fans at full speed if maximum CPU/GPU output is required for an extended period of time. That's the point of having fans.

Philbee wrote:

Nikolaus Heger wrote:

@James Saldana thanks for the info.

The "faces" detection is quite honestly dumb, and I consider it a bug. First of all, I don't want it to detect faces - I have no use for that feature. And secondly, it should follow good UX design practices - show that it's doing this, and have a way to stop it.

The «detect faces» feature will also, as a bonus bug so to speak, make your photos library balloon in size, as it creates a cropped copy of each and every photo where it detects a face. In fact, it may make your Mac nearly unusable in the process if you don't have enough disk space.

Well done, Apple. Very well done.

I agree. Face detection processing should be an option in Photos but was it an option in iPhoto?

It doesn't appear to have much affect on disks space. My largest library actually dropped by 10GB and a smaller library only gained 300MB. As I said in a previous comment, I suspect some kind of optimization is also being performed along with the 'face' detection during post processing. Possibly the thumbnails? That can take quite a while.

Do yo have a library that increased significantly in size?

Faces is optional in iPhoto. It can be activated, or not.

MRYFLYGUY wrote:

Faces is optional in iPhoto. It can be activated, or not.

Where is that option in iPhoto?

Technically, its also an option in Photos but Photos pre-processes your photos wether you choose to activate the feature or not. I think iPhoto also handled it this way but when you moved your photos from iPhoto to Photos, it reprocessed them all over again because Apple improved 'face' dedication method in Photos.

In iPhoto, OPEN A PHOTO with a face, select VIEW>INFO from the File menu. Note the "Faces" drop down window in the info screen. By toggling the "Faces" window open, you'll notice it displays an "Unnamed" bubble over the folks in the picture. If you toggle the "Faces" window closed, you'll notice the "Unnamed" bubble goes away. Just close the "Faces" window and you won't be bothered again.

Not to worry, after couple of days it settles down to less than zero.

MRYFLYGUY wrote:

In iPhoto, OPEN A PHOTO with a face, select VIEW>INFO from the File menu. Note the "Faces" drop down window in the info screen. By toggling the "Faces" window open, you'll notice it displays an "Unnamed" bubble over the folks in the picture. If you toggle the "Faces" window closed, you'll notice the "Unnamed" bubble goes away. Just close the "Faces" window and you won't be bothered again.

Yes, but does that disable the processing of 'faces' for iPhotos? I don't think it does. In Photos the pre-processing seems to be automatic wether you opt to use the feature or not. If you choose to use the feature in Photos under 'Faces' you'll notice that the 'faces' have already been processed.

How to turn off Faces in iPhoto

http://alvinology.com/2014/11/04/how-to-turn-off-faces-in-iphoto/

snappir wrote:

Not to worry, after couple of days it settles down to less than zero.

Yep, that's true.

Unfortunately, the silent nature of the processing after conversion of the library is processor intensive and takes a long while, which leads people to believe it's a bug. This is true even with very powerful machines since Photos is now having to re-process photo collections built up over years, unlike iPhoto which only needed to process photos as they were added over time.

Apple should either provide an option to turn 'faces' processing off or at least show some kind of process bar to indicate what it is doing.