MBP M1 - unresponsive, Spotlight issues, strange CPU spikes

[Woyzeck]

Hi,

since a few days my M1 MBP shows several symptoms of performance reduction. In general the UI is laggy, the mouse cursor shows intermittent stops, scrolling in Safari stops for about half a second and continues afterwards.
Furthermore the Spotlight search prompt disappears after 1-2 seconds, indicating an ongoing reindex-process.

And the CPU meter shows strange, regular spikes even when idle:

The notebook is about a month old and running 24x7, so the initial indexing should be completed by now.

Any ideas ?

 

[usagora]

Have you tried simply rebooting the MBP? You could also try running OnyX default maintenance tasks.

 

[bogdanw]

The notebook is about a month old and running 24x7, so the initial indexing should be completed by now.
Any ideas ?

Shut it down once in a while
It’s a consumer product, not a server.
You could try to Rebuild the Spotlight index https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

 

[Woyzeck]

Rebooting solves the problem temporarily, but after an hour or so it's in the same state of dispair again.

 

[usagora]

Rebooting solves the problem temporarily, but after an hour or so it's in the same state of dispair again.

Try running the OnyX maintenance tasks then.

 

[Woyzeck]

So that Onyx magic solved the issue. My MBP is now fast again - thx guys for your help !

 

[MacRumor Pro]

Hi,

since a few days my M1 MBP shows several symptoms of performance reduction. In general the UI is laggy, the mouse cursor shows intermittent stops, scrolling in Safari stops for about half a second and continues afterwards.
Furthermore the Spotlight search prompt disappears after 1-2 seconds, indicating an ongoing reindex-process.

I really appreciate you sharing this. I have noticed that doing something as simple as adjusting the volume on my M1 Mac Mini makes my CPU usage spike even if I have no open apps. I don't recall how long this has been going on, but rebooting only fixes the problem temporarily, and no MacOS updates fix it. I'll give Onyx a try. I have never used a 3rd party app to fix a problem with MacOS. What feature in Onyx did you use to fix this problem?

What's weird is I have a M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and it doesn't have this problem even if it has over 2 weeks of uptime.

 

[MacRumor Pro]

Here's my CPU usage just from adjusting the volume. This is nuts. Even my ancient 2011 iMac never did this.

 

[MacRumor Pro]

Try running the OnyX maintenance tasks then.

I should have kept reading. I just did this. I will need to keep my Mac running for at least 2 days before I declare victory. I'll report back in a few days to let everyone know if Onyx solved my problem too. 🤞

 

[Woyzeck]

So, two days later those CPU spikes are back again. That POS notebook feels like a Windows computer from the 90s. Apple, do something.

Is there a way to find out which process is causing those CPU spikes ?

 

[Woyzeck]

Pure madness - this is how my MBP uses its cores while in idle for an hour:

 

[bogdanw]

Is there a way to find out which process is causing those CPU spikes ?

Sort processes by CPU usage in Activity Monitor https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/view-information-about-processes-actmntr1001/mac

 

[MacRumor Pro]

So, two days later those CPU spikes are back again.

I had a feeling this solution was too good to be true. This is obviously a problem that Apple needs to fix. Damn. What I don't understand is why it's inconsistent. Why is it happening on my Mac Mini but not my MacBook Pro? Let's hope Apple fixes this ASAP.

 

[MacRumor Pro]

That POS notebook feels like a Windows computer from the 90s. Apple, do something.

I was thinking about doing a clean install of MacOS, after backing everything up, to see if that fixes the problem. Have you considered that?

 

[MacRumor Pro]

By the way, I can confirm that less than 24 hours later my CPU spike problem has returned on my Mac Mini. Onyx didn't fix this problem.

 

[Woyzeck]

The thing with macos' system monitor is that I can sort by CPU consumption, but the value for that is just aggregated, so not much of a help when it comes to identifying the cause of a spike.

 

[Woyzeck]

In my case I'm pretty sure that the CPU issue is related to Spotlight. It's laggy whenever the spotlight text field disappears after a few seconds.

 

[bogdanw]

Have you tried to Rebuild the Spotlight index? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

 

[Fishrrman]

You could turn OFF Spotlight, using this command:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

Another possible command to disable Spotlight:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

This may re-enable it:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
(not sure if the above command works, I ALWAYS disable spotlight on EVERY Mac, and have NEVER turned it back on)

 

[bogdanw]

Another possible command to disable Spotlight: sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Works only if SIP is disabled.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Works only if SIP is disabled."

I've immediately DISABLED SIP on every Mac/OS I've installed, since SIP was introduced.

No problems at all.

 

[Woyzeck]

Ok, just a quick update. The situation has improved after I downloaded all my iCloud content to the local drive. Dunno why, but my theory is that macos tries to index remote files and that process doesn't run as smooth as it should.