_fpsd user?

Thanks for the info AndreiD (BR). The use of Activity Monitor was a great idea. I repeated your process and I found exactly the same thing. My iMac is configured with OS 10.12.6 and iTunes 12.7. After restarting my computer, I looked for the "_fpsd" while no applications were running. I could not find it. As soon as I started up iTunes (12.7), the "_fpsd" user appeared. It is associated with the "fpsd" process.

I did a second experiment. I have a MacBook Air which is configured with OS 10.12.3 and iTunes 12.6.0.100. Using Activity Monitor, I looked for the "_fpsd" user and the "fpsd" process. They were not present. I then started iTunes (12.6) and I still could not find the "_fpsd" user or "fpsd" process. I upgraded iTunes to 12.7 (leaving the OS at 10.12.3). When I start up iTunes, the "_fpsd" user and the "fpsd" process appeared. Also when I get info on a folder (⌘I) and I go to change the user privileges on the folder I can now see the "_fpsd" user in the list of users I can assign to the folder - which is the original problem I was concerned about. All of this tells me that the "_fpsd" user and the fpsd process are associated with iTunes 12.7 (in some fashion) and that they are part of the normal Apple eco system. I would not recommend that you delete the "_fpsd" user. I tried this and it makes iTunes (12.7) inoperable. I had to install iTunes to recover. I would surmise that this is a minor bug introduced with the iTunes update to 12.7. My original concern was that I had some malware on my system. For me, that concern has has been alleviated.

Hi,

Sorry, I've been away in the last couple of days...

So here's my take upon further investigation: The _fpsd daemon is directly linked to iTunes, in the part of Core framework. I also have the 'user' along other hidden ones that are part of MacOS.

I fired Console and Activity Monitor and searched for _fpsd with no other apps running. No results. With those two apps running I opened iTunes and bam, _fpsd appeard in activity monitor. Sampled it and here it is:

Being that it's not really a user with no real access to the Mac (ie: not a login user) I wouldn't tamper with it. Let's see what happens after MacOS 10.13 update.

BR

This virtual user _fpsd is used by SONOS to get access to the iTunes library. I have seen this earlier as the user 'fetching', with latest updates it changed into _fpsd. In order to give the SONOS app opportunity to update and play from this library this user must be able to read-write otherwise you get the error message that SONOS is not able to access the library.

This is not a shipped macOS account name. There are a lot of these underscore prefixed names on macOS, and AndreiD's "

dscacheutil -q user

A user name ending in 'd' is often associated with a background daemon, so removing that, we have fps, as in Frames Per Second. Did you install any video processing apps that maybe have a background daemon which deal with regulating or encoding or anything that might deal with frames per second?

I'm just trying to make a guess based on very little information.

I am experiencing this issue as well. I am running OS 10.12.6 and iTunes 12.7. I have two iMac's running this configuration and they both have the _fpsd user. I used the terminal mode and ran dscacheutil -q user and found the _fpsd user in the list. On one of these computers I used the following terminal command to delete this user: sudo dscl . delete /Users/_fpsd. It did not like the password I entered, but after rebooting the computer, I found the _fpsd user was gone. I also found that iTunes would not run. I reinstalled iTunes 12.7. It now works and the _fpsd user is back. Based on this, I feel this user is associated with the iTunes 12.7 software package. As an aside, I have an Airbook mac running OS 10.12.3 and iTunes 12.6.0.100. The _fpsd user does not appear on this system.

If you do the command

dscacheutil -q user

as BobHarris said, you get a long list.

And many on that list are part of the OS, but there can be some that refer to an old software even if you have uninstalled that:

for example I have a "user" called _Glimmerblocker,

and it gives the location as /Library/PreferencePanes/Glimmerblocker.prefpane/....

that software is long gone, but this "user" is still there.

The given location (Homefolder Library) is empty (even when hidden files are shown).

I can not make it visible as you did in your screen shot.

So probably the software that has "your" _fpsd user is somewhere on your mac.

Hi!

I had exactly the same problem than described here.

A new, invisible user suddenly appeared in the list of accounts

that pop up when you want to change the permissions for a file.

I searched for a system folder at location /var/db/fpsd

but it was not there.

Booting in Recovery Mode to reinstall the OS seemed really overkill to me,

so i searched for a more friendly solution and found the following.

Deleting this particular invisible user,

using a Command Line in Terminal.

WARNING:

the sudo command is always dangerous to use,

so be careful of what you're doing!

• To Search for a User, use this command:

/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Users name [USERNAME]

in our case:

/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Users name _fpsd

• To Delete a User, use this command:

sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Users/[USERNAME]"

in our case:

sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Users/_fpsd"

Hope this helps!

~ Kendalph ~

cyborgjeff wrote:

Well strange similar problem... I've just have lot crash on my new macbook... and I've now a user that have appeared on the start called "_fpsd" ... virus ?

No, despite the above, fpsd is part of the OS.

I'm not sure what it does, but it is part of the OS. FairPlay Streaming, perhaps.

I have no user _fpsd (and never had). I am at Sierra 10.12.6 now.

Read this thread again. When you use

dscacheutil -q user

in Terminal you get all "users" on your mac, and where they are.

Find the software where it belongs to (video processing?), if it is not there you could consider removing the _fpsd "user".

Make backups first !

No, it would have nothing to do with that.

Why do you suspect it is linked to the fps daemon?

There are close to a hundred users that are part of the OS which are configured to run various processes.

linked to iTunes... it would have sens. The log user _fpsd came when my OS crashed during a update of iTunes.

Indeed you have a _fpsd user.

it looks as if it belonged to a particular software of which (a remnant??) is in /var/db/fpsd.

I don't know what it is. I would not throw away all. Just delete this one, you will notice it when you need the software...

Lexiepex wrote:

Find the software where it belongs to (video processing?), if it is not there you could consider removing the _fpsd "user".

Make backups first !

But then you would break the CoreFP private framework. But, it may not be necessary for most users.

Mixed results from "dscacheutil -q user|grep _fpsd" and "ps ax | grep _fpsd"

My El Capitan system has _fpsd (both as an account, and as a running process)

My Sierra DOES NOT have _fpsd (with or without running iTunes and playing music)

Now my Sierra is a clean install on a new (less than a year old) Late 2016 15" Macbook Pro w/Touch Bar and Finger print reader.

Is it possible that users with _fpsd on Sierra are upgrades from older versions of OS X ???

thx !!! it works!!!...after reinstall the os via recovery mode...