Hi all
After updating my Macbook Pro 14" M3 Pro to Sequoia 15.4 both coreaudiod & locationd have over 150% CPU in Activity Monitor ? My Macbook Pro I9 Intel does not have this issue.
Anyone else with this ?
Thx
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
On my 15.4 M1 Studio Max system coreaudiod is 0% and locationd is 3.8% currently. So I doubt it's some kind of bug. Possibly a glitch that occurred during your installation. Try restarting in Safe Mode and test.
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
On my 15.4 M1 Studio Max system coreaudiod is 0% and locationd is 3.8% currently. So I doubt it's some kind of bug. Possibly a glitch that occurred during your installation. Try restarting in Safe Mode and test.
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
New update.
I found it!
Using the Terminal commands
sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/com.apple.locationd
and
sudo rm -rf /var/db/locationd
I solved the problem!
sudo killall coreaudiod fixed this issue!
Thanks to ChatGPT!!
I've found the problem. (At least for me)
It's the 'Recording Indicator Utility'. A tool to disable the dreaded orange mic icon and dot in the menubar.
I use Boom 3D to enhance sound. It uses a virtual microphone for its process and therefore I have to stare at that orange thing at all times. Until there's a fix …
You might try turning off Location Services, then turning it back on.
System Settings->Privacy and Security->Location Services->toggle off. Restart and toggle back on. Also take a look at which apps are currently using Location Services. Apps using Locations Services will have little dark arrow next to them. Anything out of order there?
One last trick, kill locationd. In Activity Monitor, select locationd, double click and select Quit. The system will reestablish it on its own.
I managed to get rid of this issue, by moving over all the files in ~/Library/Preferences and copying them back in chunks + reboot.
I'm not quite sure which one(s) caused the problem. After putting back all files, the issue was still gone. So it's quite confusing. Maybe some cached plist-files got fixed.
This seems to also have fixed printing being super slow after 15.4 upgrade.
Anyone a solution?
Several tests results that this issue only appears with my account.
A new created account has no issue at all.
So I think I migrate my account to a new one.
Solution:
-> in Terminal:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.systemstatusd.plist
Excellent, it looks like it was Recording Indicator Utility in my case as well. Thank you for the follow up.
Well, I’ve reached the extent of my expertise in this matter. Perhaps another user with more knowledge of this problem will come along with suggestions.
Have you called Apple Support or opened a trouble ticket? As you likely already know, no one here is an Apple employee or Apple contractor. Apple Support does not monitor these user-to-user volunteer forums.
Hi man and thx for all your suggestions but i already tried all those tricks and still the same.
I even re-installed the OS through Apple Recovery and still the same. Super weird.
When Location service is disabled it still shows 170% CPU in Activity Monitor. So i tried everything i can think of and also your tricks.
Then i tried locating the actual locationd file from inside Activity Monitor and in Finder i double-clicked on the locationd and it opened in Terminal witch is right and showed this.
Last login: Tue Apr 1 03:32:19 on console
/usr/libexec/locationd ; exit;
mbr14-2023@MBPr-2018 ~ % /usr/libexec/locationd ; exit;
2025-04-01 03:39:12.097 locationd[1864:20648] Incorrect NSStringEncoding value 0x8000100 detected. Assuming NSASCIIStringEncoding. Will stop this compatibility mapping behavior in the near future.
2025-04-01 03:39:12.126 locationd[1864:20650] ### authenticateUsingAuthorizationSync error:Error Domain=com.apple.systemadministration Code=-60005 "(null)"
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed
I can see something error related in the text. Incorrect NSStringEncoding and also authenticateUsingAuthorizationSync error.
No idea what that means.
Now my other Mac just started with this. I had to do a complete DFU macOS reinstall on my M3 Pro before it went away. Had to install all over :( 20 hours.
But now out of nothing my Intel Mac just started exactly the same issue.. Super sketchy
Doh!
I must take it back for now. When removing the plists, Activity monitor default to showing only my processes. So I didn't see that locationd and coreaudiod was running.
I will try again with the .plist-files.
Its a strange thing ? I wonder why this happens.
It started on my M3 Pro after updating to 15.4 and i could never stop it. had to do a complete re-install :(
But more strange was my old MacBook Pro 2018 i9 Intel suddenly started after 1-2 days of running 15.4 ???
Super weird, why not right away like my Apple Silicon Mac, it came after around a day and then disappeared again after half a day. Mysterious really.
It reduces the usage of locationd and coreaudiod from extremely high to a normal level (very low). This issue had been unresolved and troublesome for me for many months.
Source:
https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/RecordingIndicatorUtility/issues/24
Why is coreaudiod and locationd using 150% CPU on Sequoia 15.4?
