High CPU usage by photoanalysisd and CalNCService

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Level 1

8 points

High CPU usage by photoanalysisd and CalNCService

Hi All,

For the last couple of days, the fans on my mid-2012 - MacbookPro (non-Retina) have been constantly running, and the culprits seem to be the two processes mentioned above, both using about 100% CPU, restarting quickly whenever I force quit them.

I suspect it started when I committed the sin of trying to pair my Android tablet with my Mac, via several different methods - Android File Transfer, Airdroid, and SyncMate - all of which I since deleted, with no change to the problem.

I have not made any changes to the Photos app, my Calendars, or my macOS (Sierra).

What can I do to save my trusted old Macbook from heatstroke?

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.4), CPU

Posted on Jul 15, 2018 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

155,246 points

Jul 15, 2018 11:55 AM in response to philippnic

It may be possible that when you paired your Android with your Mac and transferred over any photos or calendar items that this got both of these processes launched.

The photoanalysisd process is used by the Photos app on your Mac to search for faces and objects in the Photos Library and was a "new" facial recognition feature added with macOS Sierra. As such to you happen to have a lot of photos in your Photos Library? Depending on the number of photos, this could take minutes to days to complete ... and the resultant high CPU usage would be typical. I understand that it takes approximately 1 hour per 1000 photos to process. Having an older Mac, it may take longer.

The CalNCService process is related to the Calendar app and is used to sync reminders & notifications. Like the previous process, do you use numerous reminders or notifications that you are syncing, via iCloud?

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Answer 2

philippnic Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2018 2:33 PM in response to Tesserax

I transfered 3 photos from my tablet, but did not import them to "Photos" yet. My library is about 6.000 photos, and it seems to be stuck on scanning the last 188 photos - no progress since I started checking.

I also synced my calendar and contacts. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Also, I removed all the sync - software to see if they were responsible, but the processes remained active...

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

155,246 points

Jul 15, 2018 2:47 PM in response to philippnic

Well, if you do an Internet search for "photoanalysisd" you will come across a number of articles for you to consider trying any of their "solutions." ... same with CalNCService. In the latter, you can try logging out of, and then, back into your iCloud account to see if that can help. The syncing process should stop, and then, restart doing so. If it does not, you could either use the Activity Monitor or Terminal apps to stop it.

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Answer 4

philippnic Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2018 3:34 PM in response to Tesserax

Thank you for responding!

I already went through some of the threads on this forum and tried the solutions, with no success. I’ll go through them again.

I now logged out of my iCloud account and rebooted the computer, but both processes are still going strong…

Also, after terminating them via Activity Monitor, they start right back up again.

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Answer 5

Tesserax

Level 10

155,246 points

Jul 16, 2018 12:05 PM in response to philippnic

Logging out, and back into iCloud should have slowed or stopped the CalNSService process ... but it will start right back up when logged back in. This is normally how it works.

If you don't need to sync between devices, you should disable syncing on each device that you don't want to use it. The only other way do stop this, or any other process, is via a Terminal command.

The only reason I can see why these both are taking up so much processing power is directly related to the number of photos (for photoanalysisd) and calendar reminders/meetings/etc., that you have.

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Answer 6

philippnic Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2018 1:16 AM in response to Tesserax

This is so weird.

- CalNCService kept running at about 100% even while I was logged out of iCloud, no change at all.

- As I mentioned, I have about 6000 photos, and I did not significantly add or change anything lately.

- Also, I didn’t have any reminders set up, and its not like my calendar is extremely full… 🙂

- I also removed all notifications from Notification Center a mentioned in another thread, with no change.

Anyway, I seemingly managed to stop photoanalysisd now by using this command:

launchctl kill -STOP gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd

from this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/5887s9/photoanalysisd_macos_sierras_most _contentious_new/

and after that I terminated both processes via activity monitor again, and so far, they did not start back up.

I know this is not an ideal or permanent solution, but at least my fans get a little rest…

So if anyone has any other ideas on this, please let me know!

Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 7

philippnic Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2018 1:58 PM in response to philippnic

So, I believe I figured out the issue with "CalNCService", if anybody is struggling with the same problem.

When I synced my device, Samsung added a custom "My Calendar" to the Mac - Calendar app. I guess it was constantly trying to sync with that. Now that I removed it from Calendar, as well as the Samsung device, it all returned to peace and quiet.

I think the photoanalysisd is caused by a similar problem, but I haven’t yet discovered out what exactly it is.

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