MRT is peaking my cpu

It downloads in the background automatically within 24 hours, as long as your computer is awake at the random time it uses to install such things.

If you can't wait that long, you can speed things up by copying and pasting the following command into a Terminal window. The Terminal app is in /Applications/Utilities/

sudo softwareupdate --background

You will be asked for your admin password. When you enter it nothing will be seen. Just hit enter after typing it.

The only feedback you get will be "Triggering background check with normal scan ..." and it may take up to five minutes before the background process completes. You can follow it's progress, if you want, by viewing your install.log in the Console application.

Glad that took care of that issue.

Both EtreCheck and Malwarebytes might give you some insight into your remaining problems. I'll add one more recommendation for DetectX. All three of these were developed by fellow troubleshooters here in the Forum that I converse with on a daily basis and know to be focused on helping users without contributing to their problems. All are fully functional in trial mode and easily removed if you no longer have need for them. If they are useful, then I would encourage you to support their efforts and in some cases, their livelihood.

If you have additional questions, be sure and start a new discussion in order to draw maximum interest. Only a couple of us are likely to spot any additional you post here.

Apple posted an update to MRT v1.21 yesterday which caused this issue for a few users. Apple is aware of the problem, has pulled this update and substituted MRT v1.20, but I don't believe it will automatically replace the one you have because yours is newer. I'm confident that Apple will fix the problem when they return to work on it, but it's anybody's guess when that might be.

Some users have run Malwarebytes for Mac to remove the adware/malware that MRT seems to be struggling with, so I recommend you give that a try first.

Any other solution will be complicated and time consuming.

Are you referring to Malwarebytes for Mac? It's definitely not a scam. It was developed by one of the foremost security contributors here in the Forum and a colleague of mine, Mr. Thomas Reed. What gives you the impression it's a scam?

Not everywhere. Search for "Malwarebytes" and you will find hundreds of recommendations from dozens of us. You will find only two anti-malware brands recommended here, ClamXAV and Malwarebytes.

The newest version of Malwarebytes includes a new optional premium feature (RealTime scanning) that will cost after the 30 day trial, but it's scanning function remains free forever and is fully functional as a manual scan with frequent updates.

No, I'm confident that this was an MRT problem caused by some adware/malware on you computer that MRT was unable to properly deal with. At least a dozen others were reporting the same situation here in the Forum since Friday.

Apple updated MRT automatically for you in the background over the weekend, which fixed their problem and hopefully allowed it to remove that adware/malware for you. Rest assured that this specific issue is gone.

How can you download the fix for the MRT CPU consuming problem?