MacbookPro mid 2015 mds_stores or configd CPU high load

[Romahaaa]

Hi,

Here is the case: recently I serviced my MBP (mid 2015 15" Retina) for battery replacement & general cleanup. After that I the problem appeared - each time when I turn on/wake up MBP on batter (power cabble detached) mds_stores process takes 200-350% of CPU according to Activity Monitor data. Even internet browsing lags in such cases.
If `mds_stores` is not high, then I see `configd` process with ~150% of CPU load. This happens ONLY if MBP is detached from power cable.

I googled and checked all the thread I could find recarding mds_stores and configs issues. The common recommendation was to stop the spotlight or re-index it. I did it, but nothing helped.

That's really annoying, can't use the mac on battery at all.
Few days after service completed (when I already found these issues) I updated OSx to the latest Monterey, but this also didn't help.

Would be very appreciated to any advice...

Thanks guys

 

[Bigwaff]

Google > "macos how to turn off Spotlight"

🔎 macos how to turn off spotlight - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[Romahaaa]

I did it 2 days ago (from recovery mode disabled csrutil, unloaded daemon, disabled spotlight indexing) but today indexing re-enabled by itself again.

Same day I disabled indexing I also re-enabled csrutil (as I understood it's a protection service which should be enabled by a security reasons).

So now macbook again lags, both mds_stores and configd processes thakes full CPU load.

Why this happens at all? For 7 years using this macbook I never had this issue and it appeared from nowhere.

UPDATE
Most likely Spotlight came back after I called it once (opt+com+space). This time I removed shortkeys, installed Raycast as an sportlight alternative and seems everything is ok now even after re-enabling CSR

 

[VladOliinyk]

@Romahaaa I got the exact same issue! MacBook pro 15" Mid 2015 with external video card.

After battery replacement configd started to literally freeze my laptop when working with Facebook Ads manager.

Does the solution you tried prove itself?

 

[Romahaaa]

After battery replacement configd started to literally freeze my laptop when working with Facebook Ads manager.

I noticed huge freezes using Brave browser, it just was not responsive.

Does the solution you tried prove itself?

Yes, after the steps I described spotlight indexing didn't return back. Probably, last time that happened because of default Spotlight shorkeys usage.
Raycast is really good alternative to Spotlight, works perfect.

But it's still a big question for me - why that happened at all. I assume, these processes were running and took some big part of CPU before (I remember that fans worked hard even after mac restart) but that wasn't that hard. Not likely it's because of battery quality...

 

[VladOliinyk]

Not likely it's because of battery quality...

I tried 2 diff repair shops, who tested 3-5 batteries each. Nothing helped...

Which OS X you would recommend for battery life - stay with Catalina or Update to Monterey?

I will try your solution and will let you know if it will works for me.

 

[VladOliinyk]

@Romahaaa Ended up it's not helped me.

By search on google I foudn out that it could be somehow related to DNC servers working not as they should be.


Here is what I have for my dns report:

resolver #1
  nameserver[0] : 8.8.8.8
  nameserver[1] : 8.8.8.8
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)


resolver #2
  domain   : local
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300000


resolver #3
  domain   : 254.169.in-addr.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300200


resolver #4
  domain   : 8.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300400


resolver #5
  domain   : 9.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300600


resolver #6
  domain   : a.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300800


resolver #7
  domain   : b.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 301000


DNS configuration (for scoped queries)


resolver #1
  nameserver[0] : 8.8.8.8
  nameserver[1] : 8.8.8.8
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)

Resolvers #2 - #7 are not reachable. I don't use any VPNs, no other DNS related software. Also same issues when connecting to other wifi or to my iPhone.

Maybe you have any ideas why it could be so?

 

[Romahaaa]

Can't tell you anything else, sorry.

Make sure that `mdutil -i off /` command returned you a proper result in terminal.
Just in case there are the steps:

1. • Reboot your Mac. Click the Apple menu and choose Restart.
   • Get into Recovery Mode. On your Mac’s restart, hold down Command+R to enter Recovery Mode.
   • Run Terminal. In the Utilities menu on the top-left, choose Terminal.
   • Disable SIP. In Terminal, enter the following command:
     
     csrutil disable
     
     It will disable SIP.
   • Restart your Mac.
2. • Disable Indexing – sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
3. sudo mdutil -a -i off
4. remove spotlight shotkeys

 

[Honza1]

And did you try the "simple" solutions? These generic suggestions often solve issues faster than trying to nail the specific file/plist/detail which went wrong/became corrupted in your system.
Disk Utility and check the disk, may be there is disk error which system is trying to read through and cannot?
Did you create a new account and tested, if it happens there? If not, it is something in your account which is causing issues and it needs to be fixed. Or you can abandon the old account, copy/move data to new account, reinstall apps and be done with it. Unless installation of some app causes it again, and then you have culprit.
Did you try to reinstall macOS "in place" over the existing system? Same version. Should be non-destructive, but make sure you have backup(s) anyway.
While at it, did you reset PRAM?
Finally, if it is still issue, you could wipe the disk and reinstall system. Of course after you make appropriate backup(s)!!! Create test account and check if all works... If it works then restore from the backup. If it now fails, it is something in your account which is causing this.

When I had weird system problems, they were often related to something in the system going "wonky" (to use highly technical term) and reinstallation typically fixed it.

If clean system with fresh account still has this issue, it suggests hardware issue. One of my MBPs became slow with similar processes using high CPU, and it ended up to be SSD failure; this one had soldered SSD which meant new MB from Apple...

Spotlight is actually very important service and number of system services may not work if you disable it. Depending on system you have, even TimeMachine may not work, Mail.app may not work properly, etc.

 

[VladOliinyk]

@Romahaaa So, I shouldn't enable csrutil after I turned off spotlight indexing?

If so - is it ok to use mac with turned off security?

 

[Romahaaa]

Here is some update

In couple of days after answering to @VladOliinyk questions I found that mds started to behave the same. I checked the mdutil status and it was enabled again, somehow, without any actions from my side.
This also means that mds_stores and configd processed spiked CPU performance when MBP was on battery usage.

I tried to follow @Honza1 advices, understanding that it would be a huge quest for me to find the issue if it would be some software related (some of my apps installed, having tons of them required for professinal tasks).

However, I was surprised the issue has gone after:

1. I checked the disk health using Disk Utility. No issues were found as expected.
2. Added new user with adminstration permissions to start performace check there.

After step #2 I realized that new user hadn't such issue. I just couldn't reporoduce it. I logged in back to my main user and.... the issue has gone there as well. Have no idea what happened, I didn't do anything else.

So, @VladOliinyk , maybe make sense to follow @Honza1 advices.

 

[cristi0x1]

Same issue here, both on Monterey and Ventura. First aid didn't find any disk errors. Haven't tried to add a new user yet. SMC and PRAM reset didn't help. MacbookPro Mid 2014 with battery replaced.

LE: @Romahaaa I believe you are right, though it makes absolutely no sense to me. I created a second user account and the issue is gone on the main account. If I delete the second account the configd CPU issue reappears.
I tested several times so I don't think it's a coincidence.

Does anyone have an explanation for this?

 

[Honza1]

Same issue here, both on Monterey and Ventura. First aid didn't find any disk errors. Haven't tried to add a new user yet. SMC and PRAM reset didn't help. MacbookPro Mid 2014 with battery replaced.

LE: @Romahaaa I believe you are right, though it makes absolutely no sense to me. I created a second user account and the issue is gone on the main account. If I delete the second account the configd CPU issue reappears.
I tested several times so I don't think it's a coincidence.

Does anyone have an explanation for this?

Explanation? No. Hunch? Yes.
Something is not setup correctly on your main account and when you setup secondary account, the new one is created correctly and system is happy. Likely some permissions?
I have kind of similar issue on my Mac where I have two admin accounts but only one of them is allowed to log into the system on boot. Second can log into the system after someone else logs in, which is pain since it cannot upgrade the system. When this second admin was created, somehow it did not get permissions to unlock the Filevault and therefore this account cannot log in as first. Even our IT could not figure this out. Took me some time and testing to understand. Something similar may be your problem - your account may not have some obscure privileges/permissions/access set correctly and this may cause some process go wonky.
May be reinstall in place might fix it, even though if this persists over upgrades, this is unlikely. That is effectively reinstall in place already.
My solution would be to migrate data and user specific apps/configuration to new account and delete the old one. Lots of work, but might be worth it.

 

[Romahaaa]

If I delete the second account the configd CPU issue reappears.

Well, I deleted that test account in 2 days after testing and everything is still ok.
I didn't do anything else, only what I described.

Maybe important to note - while on battery I still see the mds_stores process jumps somtimes, but it's not 300% as it was before but up to 50%. Furthermore it happens just for a short period of time, not constantly. Might be MBP reindex some changes made in OSx and apps

 

[cristi0x1]

Lucky you! I spent half a day to move everything onto a new account and now the issue is back. What I noticed is that now it shows up only on lower battery percentages (under 50%). Or maybe it's just completely random. Creating a new account doesn't help it. I'm out of ideas

 

[Romahaaa]

What I would try is to desable all the permissions temporarily and check.
Another note - I use MacPaws "CleanMyMac" utility. I didn't use it for a long time, but purchased it again recently and it found tons of rubbish things. Maybe this somehow affected.

 

[VladOliinyk]

So, I tried so far:
1) checking with disk utility -no errors
2) Trying to format disk and reinstall the clean OS - not helped
3) turning off spotlight - not helped

Now will try the solution with 2nd admin user and will keep you posted guys on how it goes.

I also can confirm that have the same situation as @cristi0x1 - sometimes it's happening, and sometimes it's not. BUT if it's happening it's always somewhere at <75% or <50% battery.

Sometimes it goes away after closing all of the active apps and just wait for couple of minutes.

AND, it's always goes away if you plug in the charging cable for a few seconds.

 

[VladOliinyk]

Update:

The creation of 2nd user haven't changed anything. Still see this configd issue when on battery.

@Romahaaa @cristi0x1 @Honza1 , have any updates on this?

 

[Bigwaff]

The configd process monitors changes to network configuration and notifies applications and other processes of these changes through events. High CPU typically indicates two or more processes are making changes to the current network config and essentially competing with each other. Disable any VPN or VPN-like (e.g. iCloud Private Relay, Ad blocking browser extensions, etc) software and see if the issue resolves. Another strategy is to configure your network interface with static IP and static DNS server addresses instead of using DHCP.

 

[VladOliinyk]

@Bigwaff interesting, will you be able to help to identify which app causing this if I will provide the error log from the console?

 

[rvdveen]

Following this thread with interest! I'll share my experience of the same or similar issue, hope that helps to piece together a diagnosis. I have a Macbook Pro 2013 and 2015, both with replacement batteries, also with often very high cpu usage from configd when using them on battery. It can make the system almost unusable, even causing things like the Activity Monitor to hang. On wall power there is no issue at all.

In my case, it's also the powerd process that is using much cpu, although less so than configd. I can temporarily fix the problem by killing both processes in Activity Monitor, but the problem randomly (?) appears again.

Not sure if my issue is related to networking, as it appears on different WiFi networks and even when connected to an iPhone hotspot.

The specs of the two machines:

• MacBook Pro 15" Late 2013 on Big Sur, battery swapped 2021-11
• MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2015 on Monterey, battery swapped 2022-10

So they are on different OS versions, used on different networks, and still the same issue occurs on both. They have quite a different set of apps installed (although they share some, like Affinity apps, older MS Office, Lightroom 6 and VirtualBox). The only connection I see is that they both have a replacement iFixit battery. The issues definitely were not there before the battery swap, but I can't say that I'm 100% sure that it started directly after.

Wondering if it's an OS update or a certain app that does not work nicely with this generation of MBPs, or specifically ones with replacement batteries.

 

[Romahaaa]

Some update here

A week ago the issue appeared again. This time I tried to wipe out the spotlight database and run complete re-indexing.
Here what I did:

sudo -i
mdutil -i off /
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V200
mdutil -i on /
mdutil -E /

After that I saw the idnexing process opening spotlight, but it was running too fast - like in 20 mins completed. Furthermore, users installed applications were not indexed, just some basic things, like OSx applications.

This gave me the idea that spotlight database was just updated.
This line `sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100` had to remove it, but seems it didn't.
So, after that I run

sudo -i
mdutil -i off /

to disable spotlight
After I found the `.Spotlight-V100` folder and manually removed it. If I am not wrong it was in root System folder, but you can google it to be sure.
then I turned on Spotlight and run full re-indexing.

mdutil -i on /
mdutil -E /

This time process took ~3h with not much of CPU load. Everything was indexed well (apps, folders, etc.)

Well, I hope I am done with that. Couple of days running in different modes and don't see the issue still

 

[cristi0x1]

I just did what @Romahaaa suggested and will keep you guys posted.

So far nothing else that I've tried worked for long, it was just temporary and then the issue resurfaced. What worries me is that @VladOliinyk did a format and clean install and the issue still appeared so I don't have high hopes with deleting the Spotlight index folder.

For me the .Spotlight-V100 location was in /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100

LE: As suspected this didn't fix the issue, configd is making my system unusable again.

LE2: Since I strongly believe that the issue is caused by the 3rd party battery, I'm experimenting with hiding the battery icon from the menu bar. Maybe we get lucky and the issue is triggered when the OS updates the battery status.

LE3: Nope, that didn't work

 

[Bigwaff]

I know this sounds like throwing spaghetti at the wall, but try disabling IPv6 in the network adapter advanced configuration.

 

[cristi0x1]

I know this sounds like throwing spaghetti at the wall, but try disabling IPv6 in the network adapter advanced configuration.

Unfortunately this didn't work...