M1 MacBook Pro - Ventura Process CPU Usage

[Skyler505]

Hello,

Curious if anyone is noticing the below behavior after updating to Ventura. I have an 13 inch M1 MacBook Pro/8GB/256GB that previously had Monterey 12.6 installed.

After installation I observed processes "cmfsyncagent" and "sharingd" using approximately 90% and 20% CPU, respectively. I noticed that both of these seem to come and go for 15-20 minutes at a time - whether plugged in or on battery. I thought at first that it was related to the new installation indexing, etc - but the behavior continued over several hours yesterday and today - while plugged in and also on battery. I also did a brand new erase and install (not from backup) this morning just to rule out potentially problematic apps, but the activity related to these processes is occurring again.

Can anyone with the time in the community, and with a similar config, please run Activity Monitor for a bit and see if you notice the same behavior? I am trying to figure out what may be causing it, because it is impacting battery (shows as 85% total free in Activity Monitor compared to usual upper 90%'s).

Both my iPhone and Apple Watch are all up to date, just in case that makes any difference (but Ventura was doing this behavior before they were).

Thank you!

 

[Skyler505]

Update: I did another erase/install but the issue continues. Also turned off my phone/watch, changed locations and used different wifi networks - and those actions didn't make a difference. It also seems to continue to happen even if I disconnect from the internet. Usually happens for about 15 minutes or so - then things return to normal - before an unknown "trigger" brings both of these processes back to their CPU utilization behavior.

Just keeping this updated in the event some one else encounters the same and is working to troubleshoot.

 

[tiago1095]

Hey just FYI I'm having the exact same issue with a 2019 intel macbook pro after upgrading to Ventura.
Been trying several fixes, No luck so far.

 

[robd003]

Do you see any entries for these processes in Console.app ?

 

[tiago1095]

I get this:

Spoiler: Click to view

Date/Time: 2022-10-30 10:58:55.555 +0000
End time: 2022-10-30 11:00:28.516 +0000
OS Version: macOS 13.0 (Build 22A380)
Architecture: x86_64h
Report Version: 40
Incident Identifier: 064FAEBF-1253-41DF-9607-978B90A2252E

Data Source: Microstackshots
Shared Cache: 3E6C1144-E4B6-381C-92D1-0A3396DD3BB0 slid base address 0x7ff80b752000, slide 0xb752000

Command: CMFSyncAgent
Path: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommunicationsFilter.framework/CMFSyncAgent
Codesigning ID: com.apple.cmfsyncagent
Resource Coalition ID: 713
Architecture: x86_64
Parent: UNKNOWN [1]
PID: 3267

Event: cpu usage
Action taken: none
CPU: 90 seconds cpu time over 93 seconds (97% cpu average), exceeding limit of 50% cpu over 180 seconds
CPU limit: 90s
Limit duration: 180s
CPU used: 90s
CPU duration: 93s
Duration: 92.96s
Duration Sampled: 92.57s
Steps: 133

Hardware model: MacBookPro15,1
Active cpus: 12
HW page size: 4096
VM page size: 4096

Fan speed: 2850 rpm
Advisory levels: Battery -> 3, User -> 2, ThermalPressure -> 1, Combined -> 2
Free disk space: 61.12 GB/233.47 GB, low space threshold 3072 MB
Vnodes Available: 85.76% (225687/263168, 169520 allocated)

Preferred User Language: en-PT
Country Code: PT
Keyboards: ABC, Portuguese
OS Cryptex File Extents: 1340

 

[Skyler505]

Thanks for the responses. I am not adept at console.app, but show a similar error for CMFSyncAgent. I have been trying to watch the various logs while this issue is happening, but there is a such a significant amount of data updating that I don't know exactly which details are relevant.

For what it is worth, the issue continues to happen. Did another reset today and set it up without iCloud and noticed the issue DID NOT happen. So it has something to do with iCloud and the associated services, though I realize that doesn't really help narrow it down. I just set up again and logged back in to iCloud again and the issue has returned.

Attached is what I see now.

 

[tiago1095]

I turned off "Find my Mac" and it has fixed the issue.
Not a permanent solution as I'd prefer this option would be available but it always us to narrow down the issue.

 

[Skyler505]

Just tried that and it worked. Thank you!

Like you said, it is not ideal, but at least a temporary way to resolve the problem until a future bug fix is implemented.

EDIT: Looks like it came back, even with Find My Mac off. It does appear to kill the processes CMFSyncAgent and Sharingd at first, but they came back. I re-enabled it just to see if toggling it "fixed" anything but I'm back at the same issue. I guess the saga continues...

 

[deang001]

I'm having this issue as well.

3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 2017 21"iMac.

Just upgraded to Ventura yesterday and the CMFSyncAgent process just keeps appearing (%CPU 96%) and the fans are super loud.

Tried turning off "Find My Mac" and didn't make any difference.

I think I might just wipe the iMac and start again.

 

[Skyler505]

Thanks for confirming you are also having the issue.

I feel pretty confident in stating it is iCloud-related, as it doesn't occur when I am not signed in. But it isn't clear on my system what iCloud related process(es) is/are activating the CMFSyncAgent and SharingD processes and causing them to run for 10-20 minutes at time, pause, then act up again. It impacts battery life to have these constantly running in the background, so eager to find a fix - and of course hopefully an update from Apple to address in the near future.

 

[deang001]

It's highly annoying and I doubt Apple will ever get it fixed so I reckon I'm just going to wipe it and go back to Monterey which was working perfectly fine. I just want to get on with my work and not have worry about this nonsense and the fans spinning nonstop. Monterey might be the end of the line in as far as upgrading the OS goes for this iMac but I'll keep checking on this thread and see if there's eventually a fix. Best of luck 👍

 

[ZeDctr]

TL;DR
Deactivating the account stored in macOS for synchronization of contacts solved the problem for me (in my case, a Google account). After deleting some problematic entries in the web interface of google contacts, everything is running without problems so far, even after reactivating the account in macOS.

....
Like the original poster, I had the same problem on both my MacBook Pro 16 inch 2019 and a newly purchased MacBook Air M1 (both running Ventura). Every few minutes, the sharingd and cmfsyncagent processes would run with high CPU load (cmfsyncagent > 90%). After a few minutes, they would terminate on their own, only to restart a few minutes later.
A search in the console yielded countless entries for the two processes during the active phase. At the beginning of each activity cycle, sharingd said something about "3840 contacts". This led me to remove my Google account from the system (including mail and contacts). And voilà - the cycle was broken! Re-activating the Google account reintroduced the behavior described above.
I then deleted the account again and went through the contacts on the google contacts web interface. There I deleted potential problematic entries (in my case, 2 completely empty contacts as well as several anti-spam numbers that the Tellows-iOS-app had added - each with hundreds of numbers per contact).
After reactivating the Google account in macOS again, everything is running without problems so far. Presumably, the system has repeatedly choked on the synchronization of faulty contacts.

 

[Skyler505]

Very interesting. Any ideas what I might want to try in my case, since I did not add my Google account at all? I have been running the bare minimum new Ventura OS, which includes only my iCloud-associated email address (an Apple ".Mac" domain only) and email/contacts tied to it.

Thanks!

 

[ZeDctr]

Very interesting. Any ideas what I might want to try in my case, since I did not add my Google account at all? I have been running the bare minimum new Ventura OS, which includes only my iCloud-associated email address (an Apple ".Mac" domain only) and email/contacts tied to it.

Thanks!

I would go into the settings of the contacts app and temporarily disable all accounts.

 

[Skyler505]

I went through my iCloud contacts and deleted a few entries (some of which were either blank or had many phone numbers associated) - and like you say it seems to have stopped CMFSyncAgent and SharingD. I watched the Activity Monitor for about an hour afterwards and did not see them come back up after doing this. I also just updated to Ventura 13.0.1 and have not seen the issue crop back up over the last hour.

So, I think that account contact editing did the trick. I will update if anything changes.

Thanks so much fo your assistance!

 

[ZeDctr]

Glad to hear it worked out.
And thanks to you for this thread. I found it via a google search for my problem and it pointed me in the right direction (console).

 

[deang001]

Just updated to 13.0.1 and made no difference. In fact, I think it made it worse.

Heavily edited my iCloud contacts and deleted many old contacts. Made no difference whatsoever.

Problem still there and fans are running around 75% of the time the computer is on.

 

[ZeDctr]

Just updated to 13.0.1 and made no difference. In fact, I think it made it worse.

Heavily edited my iCloud contacts and deleted many old contacts. Made no difference whatsoever.

Problem still there and fans are running around 75% of the time the computer is on.

Did you check if disabling all accounts in the contacts app has any effect?.

 

[deang001]

Did you check if disabling all accounts in the contacts app has any effect?.

Actually just did it now and rebooted the computer. Absolutely no effect.

Before that tried changing the setting to "fetch every hour". No effect either.

Updating to 13.0.1 made the issue worse I think.

The fans are now running ~75% of the time.

So your issue is now solved? No more "cmfsyncagent" or fans?

 

[Skyler505]

For me, the issue is resolved. I have not seen the processes re-appear in the last few days (restarted a few times and upgraded to 13.0.1 without recurrence of the issues).

Part of the SharingD/CMFSyncAgent processes apparently manage Airdrop, and the idea is that "bad" data in the contacts associated with your account may be impacting the Airdrop process in some way (as Airdrop can be tied to contacts. There may be other elements/impacted processes involved beyond Airdrop - this is just conjecture - but it seems to be supported by contacts/phone numbers error data seen in my Console logs. I knew what to look for based on user ZeDctr's feedback earlier in this thread.

As mentioned, I did have some blank, duplicate, or strangely some contacts with many, many associated numbers. After I removed these I noticed the CMFSyncAgent and SharingD processes calmed down and then disappeared from the top of Activity Monitor. It may be worth noting that I removed them from my iPhone first, which then synced with my MacBook Pro M1. I didn't have this problem in Monterrey, so something definitely changed with Ventura that resulted in this issue.

I hope this might give you some more insight and I understand the frustration - it sucks when you have an issue like this that hogs CPU without a super obvious trigger.

EDIT: I got some additional insight that informed this post, here (see post #61): https://eclecticlight.co/2022/11/04/fixes-and-flaws-in-ventura-13-0/

 

[jbjohns1]

I've had this very same issue ever since upgrading to 13 and then 13.0.1. CMFSyncAgent constantly running at 80%-90%. I took the time to carefully go through ALL of my contacts and found 1 entry created by a SPAM app I once used on my iPhone. There were 100s of phone numbers is this one contact. After I removed this contact, I killed the CMFSyncAgent in Activity Monitor and the problem is solved. Currently, CMFSyncAgent is sitting at 0.0 %CPU. hooray!

 

[htzr]

2017 MBP w/function keys // macOS 13.0.1 // 8GB ram --- on a completely fresh install.

I can also confirm, this is tied to iCloud contact syncing. Disabling just iCloud's contacts sync in System Prefs. and rebooting will fix the issue (though... of course, no iCloud contact syncing, not good!)

A month or so ago, all if the contacts in one of my contacts groups duplicated. I removed these duplicates, as well as some large, fabricated contact cards (I had manually edited 10 V-cards and added every possible number in my area code to block before iOS has the feature to block unknown calls) -- so I deleted these as well. These contacts were no issue with my Macs running Mojave, High Sierra, El Cap, and my iPhone X on iOS 15.

From what I can gather:

• Ventura's iCloud contact sync is buggy. If you got any duplicate contacts or strangely formatted/large/empty contact cards, CMFSyncAgent will ramp up the CPU.

• Seems that once CMFSyncAgent has ramped up, even if you fix your contacts or disable iCloud contact sync, you must reboot for CMFSyncAgent to 'calm down'

 

[jbjohns1]

Since I've removed duplicate contacts and 1 contact with 100's of numbers (SPAM contact), I have been running without issues for 3 days now. I, too, had no issues with CMFSyncAgent (with the same contacts) prior to upgrade to Ventura.

I agree, Ventura's iCloud contact sync is buggy.

 

[deannalynne67]

Hello,

Curious if anyone is noticing the below behavior after updating to Ventura. I have an 13 inch M1 MacBook Pro/8GB/256GB that previously had Monterey 12.6 installed.

After installation I observed processes "cmfsyncagent" and "sharingd" using approximately 90% and 20% CPU, respectively. I noticed that both of these seem to come and go for 15-20 minutes at a time - whether plugged in or on battery. I thought at first that it was related to the new installation indexing, etc - but the behavior continued over several hours yesterday and today - while plugged in and also on battery. I also did a brand new erase and install (not from backup) this morning just to rule out potentially problematic apps, but the activity related to these processes is occurring again.

Can anyone with the time in the community, and with a similar config, please run Activity Monitor for a bit and see if you notice the same behavior? I am trying to figure out what may be causing it, because it is impacting battery (shows as 85% total free in Activity Monitor compared to usual upper 90%'s).

Both my iPhone and Apple Watch are all up to date, just in case that makes any difference (but Ventura was doing this behavior before they were).

Thank you!

I've had the same issue! It's been driving me insane for months. It got worse with the 13.1 upgrade after I installed it today. I finally reached out to Apple and may have solved my issue! Go to your contacts (yes your contacts!) on your computer and scroll thru them one by one. You may come across entries with a bunch of numbers - all spam. Right click & delete any 'cards' like that. I guess the cmfsyncagent was trying to sync all those #'s and getting hung. Good idea to delete those cards from time to time as you get more crap calls.

 

[fabianfabian]

This problem is indeed solved by deleting the contact that has too many numbers.
In my case it was a Gojek contact with many numbers created by the Gojek app. I've deleted the contact and also disabled Gojek from accessing my contacts list in iPhone settings. CMFSyncAgent cpu usage immediately went to 0.