Just updated to El Capitan - now running process "suggestd" all the time

Back up all data before proceeding.

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

~/Library/Suggestions

Right-click or control-click the highlighted 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 Trash. Log out or restart the computer and empty the Trash.

*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 may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Hi Linc,

I'm experiencing the same issue with 'suggestd' taking up 99% of CPU every few seconds.

I found the ~Library/Suggestions folder and it has a bunch of stuff listed there - I am unable to do the whole 'triple click' thing to get to the next step. Surely I'm missing something super obvious here. Help with next steps will be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

Running Early 2011 Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM and El Capitan 10.11.1

Non technical user so not following the suggested answer clearly.

I have repeating error that starts with text below.

Can someone help with a step by step fix to sort out this problem please?

I can navigate to the systems folder etc but I need help with exact steps as I don't seem to get the same options when I locate the systems folder that is in my error message . i.e. PrivateFrameworks/Coresuggestions and I don't want to trash wrong files.

Any help appreciated.

Chris.

Process: suggestd [3669]

Path: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSuggestions.framework/Versions/A/Support/ suggestd

Identifier: suggestd

Version: 1.0 (354.10)

Code Type: X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process: ??? [1]

Responsible: suggestd [3669]

User ID: 502

Date/Time: 2015-11-24 09:41:43.662 +0100

OS Version: Mac OS X 10.11.1 (15B42)

Report Version: 11

Anonymous UUID: FE35A18B-A665-AED9-C8DA-5234BA93433C

Sleep/Wake UUID: BCE8AF58-3D68-4E4D-A457-0D28C6E415A8

Time Awake Since Boot: 18000 seconds

Time Since Wake: 860 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 1 Dispatch queue: com.apple.suggestions.sqlentitystore.cacheprecomputationqueue

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Should only get 1 merged contact since that's how we selected the profiles but got 2'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Okay, I tried a couple of things and everything appears to be back to normal.

Here is what I tried:

- Removed all the files from the 'Suggestions' folder into a temporary folder

- Logged out

- Rebooted

- Computer was beyond sluggish at this point, straight up crawl - I was kicking myself for going rogue

- Checked the 'Suggestions' folder and all the files except priavacyAwareLogging.ser were automatically re-created

- Restored priavacyAwareLogging.ser from the temporary folder

- Rebooted

- Did a PRAM reset (Command + Option + P + R)

- Activity log no longer shows the 'suggestd' process getting launched

- iMac back to normal

- not sure what happened

I used the abbreviated version of your steps, as follows:

(I had recently rebooted, so I ...)

- Did a PRAM reset (Command + Option + P + R)

- Rebooted

- Activity log no longer shows the 'suggestd' process getting launched

- iMac back to normal, except that...

"mds_stores" is still grinding away at my disk. Not much CPU usage, so I am assuming it's related to Spotlight (I just upgraded the OS to 10.11.1). Off to see what I can do about that. Thanks for your post.

One cool command is running this in the console:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

It turns Spotlight indexing off.
And "suggestd" stops running also.

This can have a dramatic effect of silencing the fans on an old Macbook.

A downside is that searching for stuff in Finder can be slow or not having any effect.

Once you decide you want indexing after all you can turn it on again with

sudo mdutil -a -i on

I sometimes turn it off on my 2010 Macbook (Core 2 Duo) when silence (and battery life) is more interesting than quick searches.

Hello Linc Davis,

I just wanted to say thank you very much for your help with this. Not only did you solve my problem, but you did it in a very clear, simple and concise manner.

I really appreciate it!

Fishpapa

Mr Davis: I did not have this problem until I upgraded to 10.11.6. I have done the following three things:

1) Turned off "Show Contacts Found In Mail” feature: Contacts/Preferences/General/Show Contacts Found In Mail.

2) Turned off Spotlight Suggestions in System Preferences/Spotlight/Search Results.

3) Gone to my user Library folder, and dragged the Suggestions folder to the Trash.

Rebooted, holding down the Shift key til the progress bar appeared. Rebooted, emptied the Trash. And . . .

The annoying crash report reappears on-screen every 3 to 15 seconds. Additionally, I have reset PRAM, severely limited what Spotlight searches will find—and the messages just keep on coming.

My Mac Mini doesn't have this issue, and so far, neither does my MacBook Pro (both also running 10.11.6). Only the 2008 Mac Pro, which has pretty much all the same software as the other two. Can't upgrade to Sierra on any but the MBP due to "advanced age".

So am I simply destined to live with this pestilence till the Mac Pro has to be decommissioned? Sigh . . .

StopTB: thanks for the suggestion, but -- alas! -- it didn't work on my Mac. The crash messages just keep coming. I can't upgrade to 10.12 because of the age of my Mac, so I guess it may be time to just grit my teeth and buy a new machine. It's a pain, though, bc this ol' Mac Pro has been chopped, channeled, and fully loaded, and has been a serious workhorse ever since it came through my door.

Thanks again,

Don S

2008 Mac Pro on 10.11.6, et al

Heres an update that fixes the issue on my old Mac Pro running 10.11.6 - just doing the unload would cause the issue to re-appear every time you logged in/our or rebooted the machine; it seems related to upgraded accounts as it happens on all of them that came from Mavericks, its essentially the same as Linc's but you need to stop and restart the service prior to moving the ~/Library/Suggestions folder to the trash and this does assume your home folder is on the machine affected (and not network mounted), as thats a different issue:

As the user affected, open up Terminal.app

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.suggestd.plist

Remove the ~/Library/Suggestions folder using Finder or ( rm -fr ~/Library/Suggestions )

Start the service back up

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.suggestd.plist

Make sure that the ~/Library/Suggestions folder is recreated and contains the various (correct) sqlite3 databases and no more crash reports (at least of suggestd) in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

ls -l ~/Library/Suggestions/*

ls ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

J P Garforth: Thank you for the suggestion. I followed every step carefully . . . to no avail. Still seeing the crash reports every few seconds. The only thing that works—for a short while, anyway—is to ignore the crash report and continue working. It pops up at nearly any occasion, even during shut-down. And I never had this problem before 10.11.5. Truly frustrating.

Cheers!

Drumbo

if you look in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports - do these all have a prefix of suggestd_2016- ?

In the beginning with this issue, just after the upgrade, I just deleted a number of folders (and already had some fixes from Mavericks) which cascaded out to other daemons; telephonyutilities and CallHistoryPlugin... all crashing, all writing logs, consuming cpu :-)

As an interim, to stop most of it heres what I used (as the user) to get a "quiet" machine, so I could work on the problem:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.suggestd.plist

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.telephonyutilities.callservicesd.plist

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist

Mr Garforth: why, yes! Nearly everything in the DiagnosticReports folder begin with "suggestd_2016_ . . .".

I am going to unload the four items you named, and watch what happens. (I have been interrupted five - no, six - times while typing this. Simply unbelievable. And crazy-makin'!)

Watch this space!

Drumbo

Gee -- it's been five whole minutes and I haven't gotten a single crash report. I almost feel like an old friend is missing . . . naaah.

So now, I reckon the smart thing to do would be to slowly reload the four "helpers" one at a time, to find out which one to keep turned off permanently. (I'm technically declined, but willing to learn.) I think I'll wait a day or so between reloads, to see what happens when my spouse uses "the Hog".

Thanks a heap for your counsel!

Cheers,

Drumbo

Mr JPG: well, the messages are still appearing, and I am severely bummed. Didn't even turn on any of the four "helper" applications. It does appear slightly less often, but still shows up.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Drumbo