Continued corespotlightd process CPU overload issues

For those who have been following the entire thread, I have some new data. It doesn't solve anything, but I thought I'd share.

For me the problem was replicable on 3 different machines, with these CPUs: M2 Pro, M3, Intel i7.

A week ago I upgraded my Mac mini to an M4, and on this machine I cannot replicate the problem. I've had 3 large (for me) Pages documents open for the past 2 days, and during that time the corespotlight folder has gotten smaller. It's currently under 2 gigs. At one point while writing intensively for many hours, the folder got as large as 5 gigs. But then I left the machine alone for a few hours (with Pages documents left open) and the folder got smaller.

On my other machines I never recall the folder getting smaller if Pages docs were open.

I should add that I DID use migration assistant to set this machine up, so it seems less likely that the "fix" was avoiding a problematic setting or preference file.

Me, too... Or, at least I am optimistic.

I just updated to MacOS Sequoia 15.4. I did not dump my growing daily cache of Metadata before update, so I will not be able to measure exactly until tomorrow. But, my current Activity Monitor readings are VERY ENCOURAGING!

Also my Apple Contacts seem to be working MUCH better. That application had been overloading, too, but I did not know if it was tied to latest CPU overload. Hoping for best.

Update May 22: Still running 15.4.1. Delayed updating to 15.5.

I've cut back my Pages use considerably, using other options. Editing PDFs, Using Notes or e-mail.

I AM still using Pages, but am mostly limiting use to documents created this Spring.

I've continue to use the above 2 step method. Although I have FORGOTTEN to close Pages recently and come back to find NO increase in Corespotlight folder size overnight. So that's great!

Also, why I am concerned about updating to 15.5 as I've seen others with problems.

Of course, security updates may be MORE important.

APPLE - any responses yet?

I agree, it seems to be a problem associated with Pages. I utilise the program for writing large reports and it is during the report writing that I notice the lag in keystrokes and selecting areas of the page, changing apps etc.

I can confirm that this works for me (MacBook Pro M3 14", Nov. 2023 + Sequoia 15.5)

1) Work on local Pages documents (temporary folder in Downloads for example).

2) Copy from time to time to iCloud folder such as Documents.

After a couple of days the size of ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight folder went down from 50 Gb to 0.7 Gb (!!!)

For me, too, the issue clearly appears to be related to iCloud. I already have an automator process in place that deletes the spotlight metadata folder every single day, but even that does not alleviate the problem altogether. After a few hours with Pages documents open, the system starts to freeze up, and corespotlightd runs at over 100% CPU. Even deleting the metadata folder every day, it quickly grows to over 50GB.

Hearing from your experiences, I took the Pages files that I am working on out of iCloud. So far, after several days of working this way, the problem is non-existent. Corespotlightd does not even appear in Activity Monitor. However, as soon as I open a pages document in iCloud and start to make some edits, within a minute or so corespotlightd appears at the top again.

For reference, I'm working on an M2 Macbook Air.

The procedure for deleting the appropriate metadata can be found here: Continued corespotlightd process CPU over… - Apple Community. If that link doesn’t work, you’re looking for a post that ericmurphysf wrote Jan 28, 2025 9:46 AM in response to Mitch Stone.

This seems to be promising. Corespotlightd now at 0% while reindexing in progress .

1. Disable system integrity protection. Boot into recovery mode and access the terminal. Run csrutil disable
2. rm -rf ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight (the bloated files here contain the crux of the issue)
3. sudo mdutil -a -i off
4. Remove the spotlight index. rm -rf /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight*
5. sudo mdutil -a -i on
6. sudo mdutil -E
7. Follow step 1 but instead, run csrutil enable

AshkaTheMoltenFury wrote:

So in short: give the cleanup of the ~/Library/Caches folder a try. It might help and solve this high CPU usage of corespotlightd. Hope this helps anyone.

tl;dr — cleanup of the ~/Library/Caches folder did not work; trashing the contents of ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight and ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/SpotlightKnowledgeEvents did work.

Folder/File Sizes Before "Fix"

• /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 at zero bytes
• ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight at 66.66 GB
• ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/SpotlightKnowledgeEvents at 9.59 GB
• ~/Library/Caches at 1.9 GB

I do not believe “Optimize Storage” is turned on

Disk Writing:

• kernel_task had written 7.32 TB
• mds_stores had written 954.75 GB
• launchd had written 535.32 GB (https://www.technewstoday.com/mds-stores-on-mac-high-cpu-usage/ recommends disabling Spotlight—which is throwing the baby out with the bathwater in my opinion)
• backupd had written 82.42 GB
• corespotlightd had written 51.61 GB

"Fix" Attempts

Feb 11 6:18 PM — trashed ~/Library/Caches

• corespotlightd remained around ≥100 % CPU for 10 minutes
• No indication this did anything to improve my situation

Feb 11 6:28 PM — trashed the contents of ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight and ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/SpotlightKnowledgeEvents which immediately resulted in:

• corespotlightd down to <25%
• Disk writing no longer happening constantly
• Every indication this has "fixed" my problems.

This was the 2nd time I've had to "fix" my sluggish, cursor freezing, beach-ball generating 2024 M4 Mac Mini running Sequoia 15.3. I put "fix" in quotes because this is only a temporary solution. The last time I had to implement this "fix" was 3 February, so it seems to last about a week for me. I was no longer keeping Pages documents open unless actively using them ; I think I'll go back to leaving my planner Pages document open like I used to and see how much it cuts down the time before my next "fix".

PS AshkaTheMoltenFury is an hilarious handle.

Two quick updates from me:

1. To everyone who has joined this thread late: the workaround (there is no solution) to this problem is NOT to make spotlight reindex, to turn off indexing, to turn off (or on) AI stuff, or to try to force the corespotlightd not to run. None of those things will work. The workaround is to delete the corespotlight folder in ~/Library/Metadata. When that folder is on the small side, the corespotlightd process does not cause problems.
2. I can now report back on my own experiment: I've got a script that runs every 2 or so days and automatically deletes the corespotlight folder. I've now been running for more than a week and (knock on wood) everything is fine. I never notice any issues deleting the folder, and by deleting it every couple of days it usually stays under 2 gigs in size (though I've seen it as high as 5 gigs). In my experience, the problems don't start until the folder gets north of 25 Gbs.

And . . . after working in Numbers, Keynote, Safari, Notes, Mail and Messages … I dared to open a Pages document (that is excluded from Spotlight as I noted in my last post)  . . . and  . . .  I’m back to SBBoD with corespotlight at 168%. 

I’ve closed Pages, but the corespotlight spike-crisis has persisted for 15 mins with the kernal_task process also spiking just to provide extra spike-spice. 

So, my situation is, in order do Word Processing on my new M4 MacBook Air, I must:

• export my Pages files to Microsoft Word, while battling with the SBBoD (and Command Tabbing between apps freezing the screen for several seconds each time);
• Reinstall MacOS Sequoia (again) to kill this corespotlight spiky-crisis;
• Work in Microsoft Word until I feel confident Pages is safe. (Assuming Apple choose to fix the issue. And it is, after all, an issue with an Apple - not a third-party - App!)

BTW (again): I have just remembered that the Pages team also reached out to me in 2019 when I had a document that caused many issues related to the AppleSpell process. (My Pages diary document includes pasted material from emails [from Mail] and rich texts [from Messages]. AppleSpell did not play nicely with this activity. Again, as in 2013, Apple reached out to me and I installed a profile, etc. … and  the issue was solved. 

I’ve had a few comments about other apps: in my experience, it is only Pages that causes the corespotlightd spike crisis. And It’s persistent and repeatable: 

• My Mac runs normally running all my other apps.

• I open a Pages document (even one isolated from Spotlight and that has been duplicated in the Finder) and corespotlightd spikes immediately.

• I quit Pages, and an after a time (seemingly dependent upon how long the Pages document was open), and corespotlightd calmes down . . . however, there is also a possibility (that's happened once since updating to 15.5) that quitting pages will not result in  corespotlightd calming down . . . and then the only way to calm down corespotlightd is to reinstall the OS.