Markus Leder

Q: ionodecache: CPU >100% on Sierra

Hi!

 

I tried to find out, what the process "ionodecache", executed by root is good for, since it uses constantly about 150% of my CPUs since I upgraded to Sierra this morning. I was so brave and killed it via Activity App and it just disappeared, leaving my CPU alone - but it seems to return after a while.

 

Since the word "cache" is in process name I expect it to cache something like inodes - but which ones? I use HFS+ which does not know inodes like *nix-filesystem ext3 or ext4...

 

Has anybody an idea what this process is for and what I can do to stop it from heating up my MacBook Pro 15" Retina Late 2013 over and over again?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 7:46 AM

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Q: ionodecache: CPU >100% on Sierra

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Ruben Pedro,

    Ruben Pedro Ruben Pedro Sep 21, 2016 11:18 AM in response to Markus Leder
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2016 11:18 AM in response to Markus Leder

    I have this issue too. I upgrade from El Capitan to Sierra yesterday, and I thought it was indexing/caching something. But after 24h it continue very high on CPU usage and the fans are boosting non-stop. Googling doesn't help. I even rebooted the Mac twice but the process still persistent.

    I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

  • by EcoGreg,

    EcoGreg EcoGreg Sep 21, 2016 12:38 PM in response to Markus Leder
    Level 3 (554 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2016 12:38 PM in response to Markus Leder

    Hi Markus

    This should be a normal part of the overall indexing that Sierra is doing. It will be going through various processing setting up in the background while this goes on. Leave it be.

    100% only means 1 core is being used. 4 cores computers could show 400% (more with hyper threading). This is background, leave your computer plugged in while this is going on. It will pause if batteries get low. Resume later, so interrupting it will only make the process longer.

    Try to keep your computer cool by making sure air can circulate all around and under the case. Add a fan if needed.

    Got a big Photos library? Be prepared to be really worried.

    Might take a couple of days to finish everything. Chill, don't worry be

     

    Hope this helps, Greg

  • by Ruben Pedro,

    Ruben Pedro Ruben Pedro Sep 21, 2016 1:17 PM in response to EcoGreg
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2016 1:17 PM in response to EcoGreg

    Oddly the Activity Monitor shows no disk usage for this process.

  • by Ruben Pedro,Helpful

    Ruben Pedro Ruben Pedro Sep 25, 2016 11:14 PM in response to Markus Leder
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 11:14 PM in response to Markus Leder

    Ok, I found the root cause: I had a running process called flexihubd. This process belongs to a solution which allows one to share USB devices with remote computers (http://www.flexihub.com/).

     

    That process is supported by 3 kexts:

    • com.eltima.kext.vusb
    • com.eltima.kext.elogger
    • com.eltima.kext.vic

     

    Those kexts have dependencies with I/O Kit registry, with the following class entries:

    • EltimaVirtualUSBRoot
    • EltimaPCIBridgeDevice
    • EltimaPCIBridge
    • EltimaVirtualInterruptController

     

    So, I found that ionodecache is not related with inodes, but instead with IO devices (PCI, ...). It outputs (caches) a device tree to a json file at /var/db/ionodecache.json.

     

    That being said, I managed to try update the software, when I noticed that the latest version is only compatible with OS X 10.9-10.11. Well... trashing the app didn't uninstall the daemon nor the kernel extensions, so I disabled it from launchd.

     

    Now, I ionodecache only took 52 seconds of CPU Time in 7 hours of uptime fans are sleeping... shhh!

     

    Hope it helps!

    Ruben P.

  • by EcoGreg,

    EcoGreg EcoGreg Sep 23, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Ruben Pedro
    Level 3 (554 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Ruben Pedro

    Hey Ruben

    Good catch, thanks for updating your find.

    Appreciate the in depth technical report. Helps all

    Sorry if I led you astray

     

    Happy Computing, Greg

  • by i0n1ca,

    i0n1ca i0n1ca Sep 23, 2016 10:26 PM in response to Ruben Pedro
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 10:26 PM in response to Ruben Pedro

    Hi Ruben,

     

    When I can look for those files? I had some like that called USB Gate from Eltima, same remote, but I have uninstalled it.

    I've searched my Mac for any file named "Eltima" but no success.

     

    How I can disable a daemon from preventing it to start up?

     

    Thanks

  • by Elysio Pires,Solvedanswer

    Elysio Pires Elysio Pires Sep 25, 2016 6:02 PM in response to Ruben Pedro
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 25, 2016 6:02 PM in response to Ruben Pedro

    Thanks Ruben!

     

    Here was the same problem... I removed out USB Network Gate and my MAC is normal now...

     

    You can follow these steps to uninstall USB Network Gate...

    http://wiki.eltima.com/user-guides/usb-mac/oem.html

     

    Sincerely,

    Elysio

  • by Markus Leder,

    Markus Leder Markus Leder Sep 25, 2016 11:14 PM in response to Elysio Pires
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 11:14 PM in response to Elysio Pires

    I can confirm. It's same for me! Many thanks to all!

  • by i0n1ca,

    i0n1ca i0n1ca Sep 26, 2016 8:42 AM in response to Elysio Pires
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 26, 2016 8:42 AM in response to Elysio Pires

    Works like a charm to me too.

     

    Thumbs up!

     

    Thanks.

  • by hoangtrunghuy,

    hoangtrunghuy hoangtrunghuy Sep 27, 2016 12:20 AM in response to Ruben Pedro
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 12:20 AM in response to Ruben Pedro

    Hi Ruben,

     

    You save me !!! Thank you very much!

    By the way, as a embedded software engineer, I'm curious about the root cause of this bugs.

     

    Once again, thank you very much.

    Best regards,

    Luck Hoang

  • by Ruben Pedro,

    Ruben Pedro Ruben Pedro Oct 6, 2016 5:42 PM in response to Markus Leder
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 5:42 PM in response to Markus Leder

    Apologize for my absence, I've been offline for the past two weeks. I'm glad I've been able to help you all.

     

    From the Eltima's support team: "To completely uninstall Flexihub from your Mac, you should open the GUI and select 'Uninstall Flexihub...'". Maybe it works the same way with USB Network Gate.

     

    Anyhow, i0n1ca, if you just want to stop the daemon from running without uninstalling the product, you can use launchctl command to do so, or use a great app called LaunchControl. In my case I found a Global Daemon called com.eltima.flexihub.daemon.

     

    In the meantime, Eltima updated the products to add preliminary support for macOS 10.12 Sierra and is now aware of this issue http://blog.eltima.com/2016/09/flexihub-and-usb-network-gate-vs-macos-sierra.htm l

     

    Regards,

    Ruben P.

  • by i0n1ca,

    i0n1ca i0n1ca Oct 6, 2016 10:18 PM in response to Ruben Pedro
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 10:18 PM in response to Ruben Pedro

    Thank you Ruben. Found here http://www.isay.ro/how-to-fix-ionodecache-hogging-cpu-and-memory-on-macos-sierra / how to delete those files and uninstall UNG

     

    Cheers.