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Level 1

4 points

Spotlight's CPU usage is out of control for no reason

I'm finding more and more Macs running 10.11.4 where Spotlight is just out of control for no reason that I can discern.

If no one is logged in, Spotlight is using no CPU.

As soon as someone logs in, Spotlight takes over as the number one CPU usage process. It's currently at 166.4% (of multiple cores).

It doesn't matter if I disable mdutil and kill Spotlight... Spotlight comes back and eats CPU.

Reboots don't matter.

10.11.4 Combo reinstall didn't help.

Clearing out Caches didn't help. /System, /Library, and /Users.

Create a brand new user and login, Spotlight jumps to the top spot.

Safe boot, Spotlight jumps to the top.

Network cable out, no difference.

First-Aid was clean when booted from the Recovery Partition.

What the heck is going on here?

OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 5, 2016 7:51 AM

Best reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

64,676 points

Posted on May 5, 2016 8:22 AM

Two things come to mind:

1) Reboot in Safe Mode, then normally again

2) Force Spotlight to reindex

View in context

18 replies

UberJac Author

Level 1

4 points

May 5, 2016 12:40 PM in response to UberJac

CONFIRMED

This is a bug in the 9.9+ Casper client.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 5, 2016 12:41 PM in response to UberJac

I may be losing track of your responses. Is one Mac affected by this problem, or more than one? Have you been posting results from more than one?

UberJac Author

Level 1

4 points

May 5, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Linc Davis

This issue was brought to my attention on Tuesday and I thought it was a one-off until I could get my hands on the Mac. Then yesterday I discovered another one with the same issue. The more I poked around, the more I found. Frustratingly (or happily) it's not ALL devices. But now I have devices running 10.11, 10.10, and 10.9 all with the same issue.

The results are all from 1 device that exhibited the problem.

Again, I now know the problem to be related to the Casper 9.9+ client.

Spotlight's CPU usage is out of control for no reason