Accountsd process - heavy use of CPU

Hi Linc,

it was very helpful for me! I have had the same problem. Please, can you explain solution? What I did when I deleted (moved) Accounts...sqlite file? It concerns security and therefore I would like to know what happened.

Thanks

Tom

Back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Accounts/Accounts3.sqlite

Right-click or control-click the line and select

Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Log out or restart the computer and test. If there's no change, put the item you moved back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Otherwise, delete the item you moved. If possible, restore it from a backup that predates the problem.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

I had the same problem.

I noticed that it was only the accountsd process owned by one of my logged-in accounts and remember that I have had numerous notifications to reenter the password for a Google mail account connected to the mail app on this account.

So I removed that Google mail account from the Mail account list and the accountsd process stopped running up the CPU.

It was a none essential email account so I have not added it back to see what happens.

I'm adding this to the possible resolutions since messing with the accounts database may be overkill and more risky.

Cheers!

I have the same problem, but with a iMac Retina...

the problem happens only during the night for me.

I'll try to explain myself : during the day, Mail is going fine and doesn't use that much CPU.

I put the computer to sleep in the evening and wake it up the next morning.

The problem happens, high CPU usage for accountsd and securityd, I have to close the app 'mail' to get back to a normal situation....

it's very annoying I didn't change any parameter....

Moving (and deleting) the Accounts3.sqlite, as Linc instructed, solved the problem for me. I also recall having trouble signing into gmail a day ago: I had created a gmail account (using 2-factor authentication) and in the process of adding the account to my Mac I received an "Unknown error" - that is literally what the error message was. The new account did not show up in Mail, but when I went back into the Accounts part of System Preferences it was there. I noticed that the account did not have email selected so I selected that and it now appears in Mail and works. But that experience might have corrupted my Accounts3.sqlite file (?)

Thanks! It solved my issues with this process in OS Sierra.

Could you explain the root cause, please? I wonder.

Thanks,

Gerard.