photoanalysisd taking large amounts of cpu

While I do appreciate this is what it's doing -- Why in the world is Apple processing photos in the background WHILE I'm using my machine?! This seems just absolutely insane to me, this going on while I'm TRYING to work with editing a 4k video... Sure, even if the process is set to a low priority, it's still using up cpu cycles that could be more helpful toward WHAT I'm doing. Why not do this when my computer is locked?!? Even then, it should tell me it's doing something like that, what if I've got a render going?! /sigh.

Exactly! This is ridiculous. Just updated to Sierra yesterday. My mac was perfectly silent on Yosemite... now my mac is almost burning flames out of it's CPU... It'd take too much to notify the user what's going to happen so that I don't have to spend my time googling this problem... Apple common you can do it better. I hope this process won't take forever. Apparently, it's not a coincidence that multiple people are trying to get an answer to this....

The system is processing your photos - when completed you'll be able to query your library in clever ways.

You can force the photoanalysis daemon to pause by opening the Photos app - it suspends

activity while the app is open. (If you minimise the app photoanalysisd will spring back to life, however.)

If you click on "people" in the left hand sidebar of the Photos app, it tells you how many photos it has processed, and how many are remaining.

I have about 50,000 photos and videos in a library that is "under repair" after I moved it between two external hard drives. This process is one of three or four that I see executing something related to photos, but I am unable to see any progress. When I open the Photos application, it shows me 90% for hours at a time and I never actually see the "people" option to see how many actual photos have been processed.

I also opened a call with Apple support and they never suggested looking for this process. I'd think their procedures would benefit from some guidance on this common situation (even if you give callers an estimate of 1,000 pictures every hour, that's useful guidance).

I tried using renice on the processes, but it doesn't seem to change their level of CPU consumption. Unlike others in this thread, my CPU is largely idle as this process is running, but memory consumption is very high. I actually upgraded to Sierra today and did the library copy right after, so I'm sure that they both have an impact on this.

So when the Photos app is open, it hogs the CPU and now when it's closed...it hogs the CPU! I've got nearly 40,000 pix to scan and it's managed just over 1,000 in the 5 hours I've been using my Mac post-upgrade so I've got 8 more Mac-operating days to go.

I've been procrastinating on a switch to Adobe Lightroom for the past year and it looks like this will be the perfect motivation. Probably not intended but well done Apple OS Team :-)

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/import-iphoto.html

After 10 hours...

Scanning all the photos might make sense for relatively small collections or entirely unorganized collections. I've got photos going back to 2007 that are well organized (previously into iPhoto "events"). Most of these are now archival "albums" but used only for reference or to find a particular photo if needed. I don't need "people" or "faces" for that. They are already labeled, grouped, and classified. In all there are 233 of these archival albums. There are only 53 albums that I actively share or view, including 28 albums from this year that we are actively using and organizing.

Perhaps Apple could allow us to flag albums or collections of photos as archival, then give the option to scan or not. Or as in iTunes, where we get to choose events and albums to sync with our other devices, provide a list of albums with checkboxes for different levels of automated photo analysis. At least for those of us who need them.

I'm new to this forum but having been an Apple user since January 1980. Since installing the latest OS my IMac has slowed to a crawl while this photoanalysisd hogs the CPU and there seems to be no way to stop it or determine when it will stop on its own. The arrogance of the Apple team to just shove a PacMan process down our throats is breathtaking and leads me to wonder whether Apple has lost sight of what made long-term Apple users like me so loyal for all these years. The bungled job on Maps was bad but this one takes the cake.

Yes, I must agree with most here -- both the final decision "managers" at Apple, and the Photos dev team were much too arrogant in assuming that they know what is best for their Apple Mac customers.

So, Apple management and employees: please learn the simple definition of Arrogance:

"An insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people" (from the Merriam-Webster dictionary).

In other words, when you develop and implement any software, please think about the effect on your average customer, who by the way, is paying your salary. Thank you.

This command in Terminal should quite photoanalysisd task and prevent it from appearing in future:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.photoanalysisd.plist

To re-enable photoanalysisd:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.photoanalysisd.plist

I followed this response from another person in this discussion and it seems to have worked. My MacBook Pro

no longer heats and it do not find photoanalysisd listed on my computer. Judy Lundberg

Just did another test with only Photos and Activity monitor open. When I click on Photos to bring it to the front, the process drops to 0.5% within 10 seconds. When I click on the Finder, the process ramps back up to 150% within 20-30 seconds.

So it's not enough to keep Photos open. You have to keep it in the foreground too. In other words, Photos is in control of your computer whether it's on or now.

Voice your opinion at http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

Your recollection is flawed. Excerpted from Faces overview:

"When you open iPhoto ’11, iPhoto automatically scans your photo library and groups likely matches."

Nevertheless, if you don't like Photos, then don't use it. There are many other photo-organizing apps from which to choose.

I understand. All you or anyone else can do is to make your displeasure known to Apple, here: Feedback - macOS - Apple. I have reason to believe they lend serious consideration to thoughtful suggestions. Your Feedback won't be the only one, so make it stand out.

I've had the same issue. I tried force quitting and it came right back. It's a new process for organizing photos via Sierra. Because it's taking so long I think it's a bug. Just my humble opinion.

Curious -- Where do you guys see how far it's gone through its processing? Clicking people in the lefthand sidebar just shows me pictures, not sure what I'm missing, but it's probably something simple.

Dave