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Level 1

40 points

Sudden Marked increase in data transfer, kernel task using 3 GB in 3 hrs.

A month ago my data usage, as recorded by Excede, jumped from less than 7 GB/mo to 25 GB/mo. I reach my data cap long before the month is out. Excede has no idea why but says over half my usage is video or audio such as Skype. I use neither. I haven't changed anything in my use patterns. Today I looked at my Activity Monitor and it says a kernel task has used 3.06 GB. I don't know the time frame but I opened the monitor 4 hours ago.

What is a kernel task and can it use that much data over the internet?

What else could cause a sudden and dramatic increase in data use?

Is there a problem with Excede's data recording? The Excede user's forum suggests there is; or at least there are a lot of angry users there.

Is there a program that will tell me specifically how much data I'm using in all possible processes and lead me to the process so I can see what is happening?

Thanks

Geoff

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Jul 24, 2015 11:59 AM

Best reply

BobHarris

Level 9

53,309 points

Posted on Jul 24, 2015 1:08 PM

Please post the EtreCheck output

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

It is possible you have adware on your Mac, which is doing something like clicking on links in the background to get high click counts on their web sites so advertisers will pay them more.

The side effect is that you use a lot of data that you do not know is happening.

You might also monitor your network activity in Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> Network.

You could try running AdwareMedic

<http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php>

written by a long time forum contributer Thomas_r

NOTE: There was a recent report that there are a iOS and Android apps that do the same thing in the background. So if you have smart phones, it is possible they are contributing to your data usage as well.

The kernel_task "Is" the heart of OS X. Plus any 3rd party kernel extensions become part of the kernel_task, so 3rd parties frequently affect how much memory the kernel_task uses. The kernel_task typically uses memory proportional to how much RAM you have installed. 4GB under 500MB. 8GB 6-800GB. 16GB hovering around 1GB.

EtreCheck output will show the 3rd party additions, including kernel extensions.

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24 replies

BobHarris

Level 9

53,309 points

Jul 26, 2015 5:35 PM in response to Geoff K

I got these links from a post by Eric Root

SIMBL Uninstall

SIMBL Uninstall (2) See solution posted by Linc Davis .

BobHarris

Level 9

53,309 points

Jul 26, 2015 5:40 PM in response to Geoff K

BTW, So far today Excede tells me I've used ¼ GB. That's back to normal and I haven't initiated any of the advice from this thread yet. So how will I know if it's working???

Network debugging is Sooooo Muuuuuch Fuuuuun! 😁

BookMacster

I was just looking for anything that might use the network. I have no clue if BookMacster is using excessive bandwidth, but I thought it was worth pointing it out and then hopefully you can monitor it via Activity Monitor.

Also keep in mind that it could be ANY computing device in your home using your network.

And I guess I should mention that if someone managed to get into your WiFi network, they could sit on the street and download tons of data. Hopefully your WiFi network is WPA or WPA2 encrypted and has a very good password.

Geoff K Author

Level 1

40 points

Jul 26, 2015 7:00 PM in response to BobHarris

Bob, Drew, and Eric, Thank you 1000 times over. Or as my Norwegian ancestors would say, Toosand tuck. (or something like that)

I'm sorry I missed the obvious reference to SIMBL uninstall. I've followed that and your other suggestions. I suppose I won't know for a while if it solves the problem.

Interestingly, I emailed the author of SIMBL and get a no address response. That was on an email address he/she gave me via the web site.

Regarding someone getting into my network it seems unlikely. I'm in rural Wisconsin, my house is 180 ft. from the road, in a valley where cell phone reception is zip, and I can not get my wifi at my barn, 80 ft from the house. Nearest neighbor across the road is another 200 feet on the other side of the road and there's a hill between us. Yup, a northern redneck.

There is an interesting story, though, the kind of thing an old fellow likes to ramble about. A year ago the FBI stopped at our house. They asked if we had any "suspicious activity" on our computer. They never did clarify the suspicious activity but asked a bunch of questions about our computer use and who had recently visited. From some of their questions it was obvious they knew a lot about us and our computer use. After about an hour of talk (all pleasant and non-threatening) they left with the recommendation that we put a password on our wifi. We hadn't done so previously because, as noted above, someone would have to sit in our driveway to pirate our digital world... or so we thought. It is password protected now. Nothing more came of that but it got lots of laughs (and a few accusations) at the next family gathering. Hmmmm. perhaps I should tell the FBI fellows about my sudden change in data usage??

Thanks everyone for your help. I appreciate the time you've taken. If I continue to have problems I'll come back and ask for more advice.

Geoff

Eric Root

Level 10

684,057 points

Jul 27, 2015 10:28 AM in response to Geoff K

Did you click the blue SIMBL Uninstall in my last post? It is a link to instructions.

Geoff K Author

Level 1

40 points

Jul 27, 2015 11:34 AM in response to Eric Root

I did. It's gone. But now I'll need to look over my MBA and see if that has any of this stuff.

Again, thanks mulch for your help.

Geoff

Aug 19, 2016 8:31 PM in response to Geoff K

Not that is is addressing the OP' issue, but just to comment in case others are having the high data usage related to kernel_task.

as Geoff noted above, the data consumed by the kernel_task shows both intra-network data as well as external data. I noticed a high data consumption by kernel_task and another website pointed out that my time machine backups are what's showing this high usage. That makes sense because I archived my old backups, formatted the Time Capsule, and am doing a new "first" backup.

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/2aomwn/kernel_task_using_massive_amo unts_of_upload/

I will also point out that I use the app Bandwith+ to monitor my daily consumption and current speed and it has saved me several times when I am on the road. You can view the current upload and download speeds on the menu bar and can click on the speed to see your total daily usage. It's pretty neat, and BTW, I am not associated with them.

Sep 5, 2016 1:22 PM in response to Geoff K

Hello,

I have simmilar question. Within the time between 17:03 and 22:05 today my Mac consumed about 3,5 GB on kernel tasks (!!!) of my internet data. Within this time I worked only about two hours, mailing and reading on safari, no audio, no video played, the rest of the time the Mac was in the sleeping mode.

I cannot use my Mac with celular data (internet via 4G) as my months data plan will be used within one or two days max.

Please let me know if the data consumption is normal? And how do I have to work on 4G when there is a standard data plan between 10-40 GB in my country. Bigger data plan is very expensive.

When using an Ipad I consum max. 1 GB/day.

pavlas_petr@icloud.com

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Sep 5, 2016 2:53 PM in response to pavlas_petr

pavlas_petr,

As you can see from this issue controlling the data that a Mac uses can be difficult, if not impossible. They are just not designed to be used online with connections that have a high cost per MB of internet data - there are no real controls to turn off traffic from many processes on the system.

I'd strongly suggest you setup alerts on the 4G service to indicate when you are using lots of data. I'd also suggest you turn of all auto updates or just take the Mac off the internet. Services like software update can download lots of data with no warning if you have it set to automatically download updates (iTunes can also download iOS and app updates automatically).

OS X also updates other parts of the OS (like malware lists, certificate data without warning). iCloud & other services can also transfer lots of data.

Some websites also transfer many MB's of data, so you cannot assume Safari was not part of the issue. Use an ad blocker to stop some of the transfer & consider preventing scripts and Flash (if enabled) from running in the browser. Eventually you end up disabling most of the reasons you want to use the Mac on the internet.

Kernel Task is a low level part of the OS - you cannot just kill it or stop it sending & receiving data otherwise parts of the OS will stop working correctly.

If you really want you can run little snitch or another traffic blocker but that rarely helps, your Mac will still request sending & receiving data, eventually you can allow the wrong process to connect & all your data can get used up again. You could slow the process a little by using 3G instead of 4G or use even slower protocols, your service provider may help with setting that up.

I'm afraid the answer is to connect via a service that is cheaper if you can do so or suffer with less internet access on the Mac. If you cannot do that then adding a local proxy/ caching server may reduce traffic a little, but probably not enough to save many GB's of transfer.

Sep 5, 2016 9:46 PM in response to Drew Reece

When use my cellular data to connect to my Mac, I do have to do some pre-planning. Before I leave the house, I fire up my MacBook Pro and I make sure that my iCloud is fully in sync, my photos in particular. If the photos app on your mac is out of sync with iCloud, you're going to consume a lot of data so make sure you do that on a home or unlimited network. Also make sure that all of your other cloud service (dropbox, google drive) are up to date. As Drew stated, make sure you have automatic updates turned off. It won't kill you to not have the latest software for a few days, or even a few weeks.

I might also recommend a data monitor app so you can see how much data you have consumed. I use Bandwith+ and I can see my current speed live and can click on it to see how much I've consumed each calendar day from each network.

Sudden Marked increase in data transfer, kernel task using 3 GB in 3 hrs.