iconservicesagent OS Mojave issue

So I've been going to the movie folders and clicking on the View Options on the folders, and unchecking "Show icon preview" box. It takes a few minutes to clear ISA with force quits after it starts to go bonkers, but using only generic icons for all movies is what seems to work when ISA dies down to a normal footprint. If you check the "Show icon preview" box and then look at the "Get Info" window on each icon, you will notice that the SIZE of the icon is consistent with the dimensions of the actual film. So if you have a film that's 720p or 1080p, then those are the dimensions of the preview icon. Previously, I didn't realize that using the oversized preview icons was, in essence, using a "custom icon" that so many posters have referenced. I suspect that, with hundreds of oversized icons to manage, ISA gets overworked and takes over RAM. If all of this is accurate and I'm on to something that's valid (?), I'd venture a guess that an Apple programmer should be able to reduce the size of the preview icon to the size of the generic icon within the OS and alleviate the problem. That doesn't seem like a major task to me, but hey, I'm not a programmer.

Continued:

It's still not a perfect solution, as I still get ISA problems, but there is a level of responsiveness when I uncheck the preview box. There appears to be some residual effect. For instance, if I open a movie folder with all generic icons, ISA will respond with increased RAM usage, but will retreat after a handful of force quits. I also notice that, within the movie folders, if the Finder draws a BLANK icon, and I highlight it, ISA's footprint goes way up until I can force quit a number of times, use the get info box, and designate a generic icon. Then ISA goes back to normal. Weird. But I think I'm heading in the right direction for a solution, even though this appears to be a PROGRAMMING ISSUE.

Well, my posts got deleted for mentioning beta software. I really want to save everyone time troubleshooting this, so let's just say that I really don't think this will be an issue later this year.

Also, my deletions are proof that you're better off discussing important troubleshooting issues on a site other than Apple's. MacRumors has a great discussion forum.

I've bought 4 new Mac mini - same problem from the first day.

Iconseverviceagent (ISA) takes >100% CPU (all other processes are very, very slow) and - at all- more than 120GB RAM (100GB Swap and more than 20GB RAM).

Had have a consultation with my local Mac dealer and we fixed the problem:

No more images created by disk utility! No new one and also not older one (from my Power Mac with 10.6.8).t

Before I had have 2 big images - one with 1TB and one with 3TB. Both encrypted.

Now I'm keeping my datas in a normal folder - no more problems with ISA, but now my critical datas are not sure. I don't like to use "FileVault" for the whole hard disk, encrypted images were the better solution for many years. I've mounted the images only if I need the datas. All other datas need not such a security.

Don't ask me why Mac OS offer this capabilities if this don't work or - even much worse - makes it impossible to do other work with my brand-new Macs. I've created a new encrypted image and ISA started his stampede.

I hope, Apple will have a better solution next time.

It's been an education trying to solve this problem with ISA. I can give you all an update. I had Mojave on two machines: a MBP and an iMac 27". ISA acted up on both of them. I moved all of my external HDs (except an MBP backup drive) to the iMac, so my problem on the MBP diminished to the point where the machine can function reasonably well, until I insert a thumb drive with media files. So with the iMac, I decided that all of the research and troubleshooting was getting me nowhere, so I decided to become a beta user for 10.15. So far, it's a good OS, IMO, but I can understand why it's called "beta." At least there are no ISA problems, from the short time I was using it. The reason that I got off beta is that 10.15 is pure 64 bit. I've got good old Aperture for my extensive photo collection, and won't go to Lightroom for a replacement, so I tried two other photo editing/cataloguing apps. Now it's time to write, "Ooops", because what I didn't know is that the app software developers for these photo apps haven't engineered anything for 10.15, so I was caught in no-man's land and can't work on the photos when in 10.15. (No, Photos isn't the panacea.) Well, I wasn't about to downgrade to Mojave again and go batshit with ISA, so I downgraded further to High Sierra. Of course, there are continuing problems with moving between 3 OSs (music files got mislabeled and misplaced, for instance. And my backup drive on the iMac only went back to about a week before the 10.15 beta upgrade, so I had to hurry with Time Machine, but I'm slowly straightening them out. High Sierra doesn't show the ISA problems I had with Mojave, so in the short term, that's my fix.

But going to 10.15 will bring on more software issues because of the complete conversion to 64 bit. It will cost money to get third party photo software, but I suppose it's better than staying with an OS that will become obsolete in the near future.

OT: I called Apple support yesterday and was on the phone with them for nearly 4 hours. I was under the weather so I could afford the time. My issue was that, once I downgraded to High Sierra, I couldn't get my Mail app to add my long time third party email account. I went through 4 tech support folks, two of whom were "senior tech" people, and the only solution was that I had to use the email service provider's webmail. No one could guide me through to a solution using the Mail app on High Sierra. The last person efficiently guided me through using another user account so I could get email, but it's another hassle to switch user accounts to retrieve email. The first tech support person was nearly insisting that I upgrade to Mojave, even after I told him about the ISA problems. I'll stop there. I don't want to upset the moderator. It was a long day.

BTW, thank you all for your replies and your posts.

I am having the same issue. A bunch of Handmade custom icons killing my finder functionality with an ungodly amount of iconserviceagent ram usage.

I tried the terminal command mentioned to try to wipe all of the icons. This didn't work for me (though I'm glad it has worked for some of you!)

Here is how I figured out how to solve it for me (and this is a very specific set of circumstances so this may not work for many of you.)

I also have my entire movie library on a Windows formatted drive that I keep plugged into my TV to watch movies from. I have Tuxera installed on my Mac which allows me to read/write to a windows drive. If I plug the drive in with Tuxera enabled I get the same issue. iconserviceagent going wild. however, if I disable Tuxera and plug in the drive (I then only have read capabilities) it functions normally, no ram usage spike, iconserviceagent doesn't even show up in the activity monitor. I then copied my library from my windows drive to my other Mac formatted drive and this process seems to have stripped the icons off. they no longer have icons and the folder no longer seizes the computer.

It's ridiculous that this is still an issue. hopefully Apple fixes it soon but this may help at least one person out in the meantime.

Today I did a little experiment: Testing ISA with a new, clean image.

I created a new image on a USB connected HDD with old Mac Pro 2012, Mac OS X 10.6.8. and disk utility.

Empty image:

• 500GB

• encrypted with 128-Bit-AES

• case sensitiv

• journaled

After disk utility has finished and I have plugged the hdd into USB-Port of my new Mac mini. Only plugged in the harddisk, didn't mount the images.

Only 5 seconds later ISA has detected the images and was going wild:

• CPU-Load > 100%

• toked all my RAM

• created a big swap-file

• overpowered all other processes.

No chance to eject the usb-hdd. No reaction.

So I had to use "force eject", but I takes more than a minute the finder will follow the command.

One second later ISA has become peaceful.

The current system macOS 10.14.5 Mojave still contains disk utility with the command "new image" and also the option "encryptions" and so on.

May be I'll do an other experiment next week...

I gave up on Mojave. For my purposes, it's a waste of time. You can't make a pony out of a pig. ISA won't stop messing with my time and my files. My iMac hums along just fine with High Sierra.

Your experience with ISA is similar to mine. Thanks for your post.

My whole ordeal did have a positive ending, however. Because I did try the Catalina beta, I found how much I use 32 bit apps and what I'd have to do when I eventually upgrade to Catalina. It means that I'll have to spend money moving away from 32 bit Aperture, which is an app that I love, and will have to deal with, IMO, an inferior and expensive substitute that likely will demand that I make monthly rental payments. I hate that stuff. But that's a few months from now.

You obviously can’t keep using Aperture, but I use Photos for organizing my >50K photographs (and soon to be >100K after scanning my film photos) and use Photos Extensions to connect with non-subscription photo editors like Luminar.

As for Mojave ISA problems, it’s absolutely no use looking for solutions to an unsolvable problem. I unfortunately have my movie files with custom icons on an external drive connected to a new Mac mini, so cannot go back to High Sierra. But I’m hoping that Catalina finally fixes this.

From the reviews of other users, I keep reading that Photos is interesting visually but is shallow on the editing. AND, if I recall correctly, the metadata doesn't transfer well going from Aperture to Photos. I could be wrong. I could try Mylio if I can stay under 25k photos, but that's a maybe. Doing the cataloguing and editing with Aperture got me spoiled. I guess I might have to use a separate editor if I convert fully to Photos.

Thanks for your post. You're correct about the ISA problems, IMO. We can't make a pony from a pig.

I give you all TWO good news! The first news is that I have installed the Catalina Public Beta and finally the incoservicesagent problem has been solved!

But ... now, before opening any window, Finder waits to load all the items. So! If a folder have many items (with or without customized icons) the items appear after few seconds.

At this point ... the second good news is that the latest version 7.41 of TinkerTool (free) has the option for the Finder: << Collect all data first before beginning to display folder contents >> and I disabled the box because I prefer to see the items as the Finder loads them.

Enjoy

@Jim McDonald

Thank you for your response, informations about your situation and also for your "condolence".

I can't understand APPLE to do this ISA-drama! What should I do as an user with encrypted images? Nothing? Waiting for the next incarnation of macOS? A few years ago Steve would have killed the software developers for such a thing.

I'm completely confused about the fact, that this will be happen with my old images (created with 10.6.8), but also with the new images (created with 10.14.6). Did nobody tried it in Cupertino? Or I'm wrong and make rookie errors.

BTW: 

Since many years I did change my APPLE computers and also the operating systems only "with big jumps". Bought all my hard- and software all at once, spent time to bring all this little things to work and hope it'll work for a long period. I do not feel like spending my time with the computer itself (even this thing is a Mac), but do my work.

My first Mac - a Macintosh LC II in 1992 - survived more then 10 years. In times without internet - no problem. Later not less then 5 years, may be 5 to 7 years. So I did stand with my PowerMac 2012 until last month. For me: Best Mac ever. Very little problems, nice user interface and "the good old Mac-feeling". Does anyone think of the old clientele, but only of the new, young costumers? Yes, we are getting older too, but we are loyal!

In this year in June I bought 4 brand new Mac mini and I looked hopeful in the future. The bigger the surprise about the trouble with so many thing:

• old Time Machine Backups didn't work and I've to use "do it yourself style"

• have to migrate my "Mail" by hand

• Photos is an overloaded chimera of iPhotos and Aperture

• Finder forgot icons that I had changed (aliases)

• colors are very important in human nature ---> grey is trendy, but not so good distinguishable

• Finder is not so responsive, but maybe I'm to stoopid  to set all this little flags correct ---> but so the Mac is never the smart thing from earlier times

• and - last but not least - the "Iconserviceagent drama"

Yes, I'm not a deserter to "the dark site of the force", but APPLE makes my life harder for me than it has to be!

I'm interested in your adaptations using Photos and Luminar. Does a Luminar extension support all or most of the editing that you would previously do in Aperture? I never tried Photos Extensions. Hmm.. Does a Luminar extension support RAW editing? Does Photos work with RAW photos?

I think I can get some answers through web searches, but I'd like your anecdotal comments as well.

I never used Aperture so can’t compare. But Luminar is a full photo editor whether used standalone or as a Photos Extension. There’s an article I read by one of the Apple Photos developers that describes the way extensions interact with Photos to decide which edit timeline to preserve so Photos can always restore the original. I’ve run into various situations where I can’t go back in the edit timeline because I overwrote it with Photos or Luminar. Try to find that article, it was very helpful.

i have thousands of RAW photos I haven’t edited yet, but there’s even more hoops to jump through to insure a RAW photo isn’t converted to JPEG then TIFF, thus ruining the quality. Again, try to find that article.

I'm not a professional, not even a semiprofessional. But have to do photo works for friends, for our club and so on.

I never used Aperture so can’t compare. But used iPhoto "with closed eyes" - it means I know many shortcuts and workflows. However, iPhoto quite literally makes light work of such a picture application.

War should the app able to do:

• store all my pics, may be in albums

• use different libraries (I'm using "PowerPhotos" to merge pics with metadatas)

• sort it, use keywords, faces, locations and so on

• do little improvements (may be a bit more if necessary)

The app has to be:

• easy to handle and clear

• fast(!!)

• safe

• usable system-wide

• maclike ;-)

I didn't understand why APPLE decided to create this awful "flying information window" and also the changes in "batch processing" (get out of the context menu into the information window) and do all this other unuseful/senseless things in the menu.

I must confess - I'm an old style user.....but I read hundreds of posts with topic "I want back my 'Save as...' " and not the "duplicate ****".

So I think, I'm not soooooo alone....