[Guide] Solve Yosemite's memory leaks and CPU usage.

[sanctified Veteran]

This is a guide I wrote today at Apple Community forums in order to help the increasing number of users who are suffering this. I will leave it here hoping this helps whoever is experiencing the same problems.

 

Original thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/26929324#26929324

 

___________________________________________

 

I post this hoping to help those users who, like me, are experiencing high CPU usage and massive memory leaking with OS X core services and apps, leading to slow performance and battery drain.

 

I've tried everything mentioned, but found the right combination of steps to follow. I've tried this with seven different Apple computers, including mine, and has worked well so far. I applied this method yesterday to give these process a 24 hour window to fail again, so far everything good.

 

First step: disconnect any external or secondary monitors, if any is present. The video memory allocation leak can also happen if you have a system with an integrated card, like Intel, with no external monitors attached.

 

Second step: Shut down your machine and enter Safe Mode (press shift once you turn on your computer again, more info below). Once you're there, fix your disk permissions.

 

Guide of how to access Safe Mode: OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

 

Third step: From Safe Mode turn off your machine again and reset your System Management Controller (SMC). There are different methods, depending on machine, to do this. To know what method applies to yours read the following guide.

 

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

 

Fourth step: Once your machine completes a full boot after resetting the SMC turn it off again and reset your PRAM (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, BUT THE PREVIOUS ONES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THIS ONE TO WORK). The PRAM stores small bits of data that indicate our Apple computer how to interact with the devices connected to it, including monitors and video cards. It also affects software.

 

To reset it you should hold the OPTION, COMMAND, P and R keys in your keyboard immediately after turning on your machine again.You'll hear the start up chime, continue pressing the keys until the machine boots and the chime starts A SECOND TIME, then release. IF YOUR YOSEMITE INSTALLATION LOCKS UP AT A BLACK SCREEN AFTER THIS, DONT PANIC! It's normal, just turn off your computer and let it boot again.

 

More info about PRAM: OS X Mavericks: Reset your computer?s PRAM

 

Voila, enjoy your system.

[Shadrack]

Hmm... I have noticed my mid-2009 MBPs fan spinning a lot lately, and while doing basic web browsing in Safari the battery was reporting only 2 hours left on a full charge (I typically get 4-5 if all i'm doing is browsing the web with previous versions). I wonder if my computer is affected.  I'll probably run through the steps anyway. Not familiar with SMC exactly, but resetting the PRAM isn't that big of a deal.

[sanctified Veteran]

Hmm... I have noticed my mid-2009 MBPs fan spinning a lot lately, and while doing basic web browsing in Safari the battery was reporting only 2 hours left on a full charge (I typically get 4-5 if all i'm doing is browsing the web with previous versions). I wonder if my computer is affected.  I'll probably run through the steps anyway. Not familiar with SMC exactly, but resetting the PRAM isn't that big of a deal.

 

Wont damage your computer if you try, that's for sure.

 

Before trying anything, can you take a screen capture of your activity monitor showing both the cpu and the memory usage and post it here for reference please?

[Shadrack]

Sure. no problem. I'll do that when I get home.

Wont damage your computer if you try, that's for sure.

 

Before trying anything, can you take a screen capture of your activity monitor showing both the cpu and the memory usage and post it here for reference please?

 

yeah, after reading the page and understanding what it is a bit more I don't have as much FUD.

[sanctified Veteran]

Sure. no problem. I'll do that when I get home.

 

yeah, after reading the page and understanding what it is a bit more I don't have as much FUD.

 

How did it go?

[sundayx Veteran]

I never thought this was a common problem... I hope Apple addresses these performance issues in an upcoming update soon.

[Aergan]

I've seen that the app cache grows to around 10GB, leaving me with around 3-4GB free but I thought this was normal? Can you provide a screenshot of it "broken" for comparison please?

[The Guvnor]

Yosemite runs much faster and responsively on my Late 2013 iMac 27'

 

I think the key here was to do a clean install from a USB

[Shadrack]

I ran through the process. I only got a before screenshot of my CPU usage, and forgot to get it from my memory. Whoops. I'm still having weird issues. I think I need to reinstall.

 

Here is the before.

 

 

Here is the after.

[Ruti]

Got a new mac at work with Yosemite on, never used osx before and i had to stop and meditate a few times because it would just froze down in a spinning and colorful fan of hell while doing some random work on adobe software. Didnt know it was a documented problem just started to think osx sucks and that i should install windows on it.

 

Will try this fix, i hope it works for the sake of my mental health.

[Ruti]

What about these apps
https://fiplab.com/apps/memory-clean-for-mac
https://nektony.com/memory-cleaner-x
and so on..
have u tried some of them? Did they helped?

Thanks!, it worked!

[mrr714]

Thanks for the instructions. Had an issue with powerd using 100% of one core. Would kill it and and after a couple of days it would be back to 100%. Crossing my fingers but after 4 days your procedure seems to have fixed it. El capitain

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

closing thread. Please dont resurrect old threads.