After installing Sierra 10.12 the fan on one of my MacBook pro's is running excessively. Activity monitor shows a process "secd" as using 93%of the CPU. Tried to use the force quit and it comes right back. On my other MacBook the activity monitor shows the "secd" as 0% CPU and it has no fan issue.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.1.x)
That process is related to the keychain. Do you have the keychain set to be synced thru iCloud in the System/iCloud preference pane? If so uncheck it, reboot and check the secd process again in the Activity Monitor.
If the activity has gone back to zero, the activate it again (if you want to sync it across devices) and check the Activity Monitor again.
The keychain is not checked in the iCloud preference pane.
Hi, I just downloaded 10.12 and reinstalled. Fan is still running and no change in the "secd" process.
Had the same thing happen on a 2011 MacBook Air running 10.10.5. The problem appears to be with syncing the iCloud Keychain. Found the solution on Reddit:
Go to System Preferences/iCloud, click Keychain "on", then click "Cancel". Process "secd" stopped immediately, and fans ramped down.
I personally never use iCloud Keychain, so it was not turned on by default. I would guess that if yours was already turned on, toggling it off and then back on would have the same effect.
Thanks, that put "secd" to zero and the fans are back to normal.
Forgot to clearly state I had just upgraded from 10.10.5 to 10.12 when the fan issue happened.
That saved my problem too - thanks!
This looks a workaround. IMHO opinion I would have performed an SMC reset, first.
Simon
Sierra causing excessive fan operation
