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User profile for user: Lau4
Lau4 Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

What is "pkd" in the Activity Monitor?

I asked this question in a previous post, but it was not Resolved, but it was marked Resolved. The "pkd" process, a lot of the time is at the top of the list on the Activity Monitor. When I'm using Safari, whether it's typing an email or filling out a form or researching something, the page freezes or I got the spinning beach ball. I look at the Activity Monitor and "pkd" is usually over 100% CPU usage practically every time.


I've trashed all but one extension and the apps that goes with them, but it didn't fix this. I unchecked the extension I'm keeping and I still have the problem. The extension is RoboForm, and I've been using it since 2011 without a problem. Last week I installed the latest version of RoboForm, but I still have the problem, so I can rule out RoboForm and it's extension.


Since I've had this "pkd" process problem... after closing the lid of my MacBook Pro and putting it to sleep at night, in the morning and opening the lid, I get a white screen with the Apple logo and a progress bar under it and it loads less than half way. and freezes This has happened a number of times. Twice I couldn't get my MacBook Pro to start successfully. After the first time it happened I called Apple support and we worked on it for over an hour and I finally had to do a clean reinstall of El Capitan. My Mac worked well for a week. I still have the "pkd" problem. When my Mac has been put in the sleep mode for hours, upon opening the lid of my Mac, I sometimes get that white screen with the Apple logo and the progress bar that loads less than 50% and freezes. I usually have to do a SMCR or a Reset SMC, to be able to boot successfully. last night I had this problem, but nothing worked, so I went into Recovery mode to the Disk Utility and left it there while trying to contact Apple Support, but after waiting a long time, they closed and my Mac went to sleep and I couldn't wake it up, so I did a force quit. This morning I turned on my Mac and it booted successfully. I called Apple Support and I sent them log files to find out about the startup problem. Now I'm trying to find out about the "pkd" process.


I'd appreciate any help with this.


16GB DDR3 RAM

1T SSD

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on May 14, 2016 3:32 PM

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User profile for user: dianeoforegon
dianeoforegon
User level: Level 5
7,287 points

Posted on May 14, 2016 3:53 PM

pkd -- management and supervision daemon for plug-in services


You can view this link that explains using the terminal to help with this issue.


http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/220918/pkd-process-on-el-capitan


BTW, have you tried a different browser to see if the extensions works without the same issues it has in Safari.

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User profile for user: dianeoforegon
dianeoforegon
User level: Level 5
7,287 points

May 14, 2016 3:53 PM in response to Lau4

pkd -- management and supervision daemon for plug-in services


You can view this link that explains using the terminal to help with this issue.


http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/220918/pkd-process-on-el-capitan


BTW, have you tried a different browser to see if the extensions works without the same issues it has in Safari.

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,559 points

May 14, 2016 4:57 PM in response to Lau4

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any one of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES â–¹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View â–¹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

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User profile for user: Lau4
Lau4 Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

May 15, 2016 2:02 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis, I pressed the key combination shift-command-U and LaunchPad wasn’t in the Utilities folder. If LaunchPad was in the Utility folder and I opened it, what would name would I type in?


Then I closed Finder and then I opened Finder > selected Go > Utilities > (I didn’t know what name to click on) What do I need to select?


I don't know what to enter into Spotlight.


Can you explain the directions in more detail so I can understand the steps to take?


Thanks!


( dianeoforegon, Thanks for your post. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that and I don't see how it would keep the problem from happening again. )

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User profile for user: Lau4
Lau4 Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

May 15, 2016 6:16 PM in response to Linc Davis

It was right there in your post as plain as day, that you wanted me to launch the Console and after I read past that, I forgot that part. My bad! So what I was trying to say, earlier today at 12:59pm, the "pkd" Process was over 100% for about 20-30 minutes and some things were frozen, including the Activity Monitor and I had the spinning beach ball. If I had understood what to do before that, I would have been able to get what was needed to probably find out the problem. Your instructions were perfectly clear. I have a short term memory problem and I should have reread the first 3 lines you wrote. I reread the rest of your post at least 5 times. smh That's OK, whatever is causing the pkd process to go over 100% and get stuck there will happen again and I'll know what to do and will post what I find.


Thanks! I appreciate your help. 🙂

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User profile for user: Lau4
Lau4 Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

May 15, 2016 10:53 PM in response to Lau4

Linc Davis,

It was right there in your post as plain as day, that you wanted me to launch the Console and after I read past that, I forgot that part. My bad! So what I was trying to say, earlier today at 12:59pm, the "pkd" Process was over 100% for about 20-30 minutes and some things were frozen, including the Activity Monitor and I had the spinning beach ball. If I had understood what to do before that, I would have been able to get what was needed to probably find out the problem. Your instructions were perfectly clear. I have a short term memory problem and I should have reread the first 3 lines you wrote. I reread the rest of your post at least 5 times. smh That's OK, whatever is causing the pkd process to go over 100% and get stuck there will happen again and I'll know what to do and will post what I find.


Thanks! I appreciate your help.


5/15/16 9:52:02.391 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:02.421 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:03.530 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:04.341 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:04.349 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:04.355 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:04.393 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:04.421 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:05.344 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:05.523 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:06.345 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:06.351 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:06.358 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:06.396 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:06.424 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:07.345 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:07.550 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:08.345 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:08.397 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:08.425 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:09.531 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:10.392 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:10.420 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:11.537 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:12.339 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:12.347 PM rf-safari-companion[341]: assertion failed: 15E65: libxpc.dylib + 23315 [2CC7CF36-66D4-301B-A6D8-EBAE7405B008]: 0x13

5/15/16 9:52:12.354 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:12.392 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:13.532 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:13.549 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1

5/15/16 9:52:14.340 PM pkd[302]: client 286 plug-in com.SiberSystems.RoboFormIcon.safari-companion election := 1


RoboForm is the only extension I've used since 2011, except for a couple I've trashed about a week or two ago. Is this my problem?

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,559 points

May 16, 2016 5:50 AM in response to Lau4

Every one of those log messages refers to "Roboform." I suggest that you remove it completely according to the developer's instructions, then restart the computer and test. If the problem is resolved and you still want to use the software, refer to the developer for support. Back up all data before making any changes.

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What is "pkd" in the Activity Monitor?

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