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I will consider Chrome a malware from now on..

matrix07

matrix07

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,895
When I first got M1 MBA the battery life is spectacular, and it ran really cool. I never shut down my laptop just close the lid when call it a night. The first couple of nights the battery was down only 2-3% when lid was closed.

Then I installed Chrome..

Gradually my MBA ran hotter. Battery life was obviously shorter, and battery lost at night was unusually high - around 6-8%.
The night before I closed the lid at 48% but woke up to it at 30%. That's almost 20% battery lost over night just sleeping. 😳

Then I read this thread
forums.macrumors.com

chrome + keystone = slow mac?

found an interesting post on reddit about chrome using a program called keystone that apparently hides itself from activity monitor that slows your computer whether or not chrome is in use. link: any of you tech savvy guys/gals can chime in? i am not the OP of that post i am, in no way...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
and this tweet
https://twitter.com/x/status/1337832978253230081

..and yesterday I decided to delete Chrome.

I noticed suddenly for the same tasks that used to consume CPU 16-18% now it's only 10-12%. The CPU graph in Activity Monitor is constantly lower. (and this was when Chrome wasn't opened. This tells me Chrome can affect performance even when not in use)
Last night I close the lid when battery was at 75%. This morning I open it and it is at 73%.
Battery.png


Goodbye Chrome. You won't be missed. 🤬
 
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my 8/512 M1 MBA is noticeably faster after deleting Chrome too. I remember when I first got the M1 I was blown away how fast native apps launched. It reminded me of when I first put the Intel 40GB SSD in my Black MacBook.

Anyway, after I got all my my normal apps loaded onto the MBA, including Chrome, I was no longer impressed. I'm impressed again now that Chrome is gone and I can say with certainty that is has had a negative effect on system performance.
 
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Wow, now that you say it... Battery life has gotten a lot worse this week, I thought I was having a battery issue but your post made me realize that it started the day I installed Chrome.

Even when it's closed, it's draining battery, that's weird.
 
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It's a secret Google plot!

Surprised it's been doing that. I've had Chrome installed on prior Macs but only as a just in case I needed it for something specific since Safari always did most things just fine.

Will avoid installing it.
 
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Hmm... I wonder whether this is related to the WindowServer crashes I've been having. I haven't installed Chrome myself, but who knows whether something else silently installed Keystone. Definitely on my to-do list to go over my system with a fine-toothed comb!

Edit: No sign of Keystone on my system.
 
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matrix07 said:
When I first got M1 MBA the battery life is spectacular, and it ran really cool. I never shut down my laptop just close the lid when call it a night. The first couple of nights the battery was down only 2-3% when lid was closed.

Then I installed Chrome..

Gradually my MBA ran hotter. Battery life was obviously shorter, and battery lost at night was unusually high - around 6-8%.
The night before I closed the lid at 48% but woke up to it at 30%. That's almost 20% battery lost over night just sleeping. 😳

Then I read this thread
forums.macrumors.com

chrome + keystone = slow mac?

found an interesting post on reddit about chrome using a program called keystone that apparently hides itself from activity monitor that slows your computer whether or not chrome is in use. link: any of you tech savvy guys/gals can chime in? i am not the OP of that post i am, in no way...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
and this tweet
https://twitter.com/x/status/1337832978253230081

..and yesterday I decided to delete Chrome.

I noticed suddenly for the same tasks that used to consume CPU 16-18% now it's only 10-12%. The CPU graph in Activity Monitor is constantly lower. (and this was when Chrome wasn't opened. This tells me Chrome can affect performance even when not in use)
Last night I close the lid when battery was at 75%. This morning I open it and it is at 73%.
View attachment 1694187

Goodbye Chrome. You won't be missed. 🤬
Click to expand...
You made a very wise decision. Besides what you found, Google is also terrible on privacy.
 
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matrix07 said:
It's very sneaky of Google to have the update process hiding from Activity Monitor. That alone kills the trust right there.
Who'll know what else is running but not showing in AM.
Click to expand...
That is very true. Google should not be trusted in any way. If you use any other Google products, you would do well to get rid of them.
 
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MBHockey said:
I'm not a Chrome fan but that Keystone stuff sounds like a total conspiracy theory.
Click to expand...

Keystone is connected to the WindowServer service, but what it actually is (rather than what certain Twitter denizens claim) is the auto-update machanism. It is used across all Google apps you may have installed on your machine, including Google Maps. With that being said, I also noticed my battery life absolutely drop, so I completely uninstalled Chrome as well. Since then, my battery life has returned to what I initially experience and expected.
 
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I haven't even bothered with Chrome on my new M1 Mac because I'm well aware of what a dog it is. It absolutely destroys the battery on my work Mac. Sticking with Safari-only on my personal machine.
 
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MBHockey said:
I'm not a Chrome fan but that Keystone stuff sounds like a total conspiracy theory.
Click to expand...
Yesterday I monitored my laptop all day. The same setup (playing video in Safari. Playing DVD on VLC. Chrome didn't run. All same apps opened) consistently consumed 6-8% CPU less every seconds when Chrome uninstalled, and VLC was actually the top running (while before uninstalling it's WindowServer that's always on the top). I don't want to get into conspiracy theory by saying Chrome was sending something from my laptop back to Google all day but clearly something that wasn't supposed to run was running.. all the time.
 
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For a while, on multiple OSs I have found Chrome performance quite disappointing, and I quite strongly dislike (hate?) the UI and the way Chrome works. Firefox is my primary browser and I use Safari (Mac) or Edge (Windows) for media. No streaming sites of interest work on Linux/BSD anyway so only Firefox there.

Don't have an M1 machine yet so this is based on my Intel based Mac experience. My 16" will never ever have Chrome.
 
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If one, like many of us, use all Apple products, there is zero reason to use Chrome. I use it on my corporate Windows device, tho it is a locked down version.

I was a strong proponent of Chromebook's for several years, but grew weary of Googles strategy for dumping services they can’t monetize thru selling user information.
 
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