getting spammed by xpcd in the console?

[raghiid]

Does anyone know what this is and how to stop it?

In the sidebar's System Diagnostic Report in the second screenshot, you can see a SecurityAgent crash as well. Currently on Mavericks 10.9.5.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

What comes after the elipses in the first screenshot? Can you expand it so we can see the full path?

If you haven't knowingly changed anything on your system recently, it sounds to me like a file got corrupted. Do you have a Time Machine backkup?

 

[raghiid]

What comes after the elipses in the first screenshot? Can you expand it so we can see the full path?

If you haven't knowingly changed anything on your system recently, it sounds to me like a file got corrupted. Do you have a Time Machine backkup?

Hi Jonathan!
I actually don't have a Time Machine backup.
I do recall in the past couple of days using Onyx to "clean" the Mac.

EDIT: I followed the instructions here and it seems to have worked. This solution also fixed an old issue where the com.apple.IconServicesAgent process would consumer upwards of 200-300 MBs of memory, this solution has made it go down to 20 MBs.

EDIT 2: The com.apple.IconServicesAgent process returned to consume upwards of 180 MBs (spoke too soon), but the xpcd errors have not returned!

As you can see in this screenshot, it's been 20 minutes since the last xpcd message.

 

[B S Magnet]

Hi Jonathan!
I actually don't have a Time Machine backup.
I do recall in the past couple of days using Onyx to "clean" the Mac.

Just for sake of elimination, could you run a “Repair Permissions” in Disk Utility and see whether that changes anything? My guess is “probably not”, but again, part of a process of elimination.

 

[raghiid]

Just for sake of elimination, could you run a “Repair Permissions” in Disk Utility and see whether that changes anything? My guess is “probably not”, but again, part of a process of elimination.

Before I fixed it using the instructions link above, the permissions repair did not resolve the issue.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I do recall in the past couple of days using Onyx to "clean" the Mac.

That might do it! I do recommend staying away from software like that in the future, they're like the ol' registry cleaners, they do more harm than good.

Think about it, if there was a simple way to speed up your computer, don't you think Apple would have done that themselves? Granted, Apple software sometimes has bugs, but you should be suspicious of software that attempts to fix them without explaining what it's doing!

I followed the instructions here and it seems to have worked.

Great! That's something along the lines of what I suspected the problem to be, although I couldn't have told you how to fix it as that poster did.

This solution also fixed an old issue where the com.apple.IconServicesAgent process would consumer upwards of 200-300 MBs of memory

FYI, that's not an abnormally large amount of memory for IconServicesAgent. Generating those nice icons for all of your files doesn't come for free.

Remember, free memory = wasted memory. Your OS will always try to fill your memory with something, whether it's icons or processes or files, so they can be retrieved quickly if they happen to be needed. You don't need to get worried unless you're seeing high memory pressure overall.

(This isn't to say apps never make bad use of memory or have memory leaks, and it's admittedly hard to tell the difference as a user.)

 

[raghiid]

That might do it! I do recommend staying away from software like that in the future, they're like the ol' registry cleaners, they do more harm than good.

Think about it, if there was a simple way to speed up your computer, don't you think Apple would have done that themselves? Granted, Apple software sometimes has bugs, but you should be suspicious of software that attempts to fix them without explaining what it's doing!


Great! That's something along the lines of what I suspected the problem to be, although I couldn't have told you how to fix it as that poster did.


FYI, that's not an abnormally large amount of memory for IconServicesAgent. Generating those nice icons for all of your files doesn't come for free.

Remember, free memory = wasted memory. Your OS will always try to fill your memory with something, whether it's icons or processes or files, so they can be retrieved quickly if they happen to be needed. You don't need to get worried unless you're seeing high memory pressure overall.

(This isn't to say apps never make bad use of memory or have memory leaks, and it's admittedly hard to tell the difference as a user.)

I've had Onyx since forever, and mainly used it to set the parameters to my liking (i.e. disabling Finder and dock animations etc.)

I'm going to follow your advice and trash it right away, but I really hope the settings I chose don't revert back to the defaults!

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Oh, if you're using it to set defaults that's totally fine. I actually think I forgot which one Onyx was, I was thinking of stuff like CleanMyMac. I'm pretty sure Onyx is mostly just an interface for `defaults write` Terminal commands, which is usually harmless enough.

Do consider setting up Time Machine though. Imagine how nice it would be if we could go back and see what SecurityAgent.xpc/Contents/Info.plist used to look like and figure out when it was changed!

 

[davigarma]

If you want to clean Mavericks do it with non-destructive applications. The old disk doctor cleans your cache and doesn't destroy any records. Exist very good software for Mac but there is also exist very bad software. I have had headaches with very poorly designed software and on top of that it has cost me money. You have to be careful !

 

[raghiid]

If you want to clean Mavericks do it with non-destructive applications. The old disk doctor cleans your cache and doesn't destroy any records. Exist very good software for Mac but there is also exist very bad software. I have had headaches with very poorly designed software and on top of that it has cost me money. You have to be careful !

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out!

 

[B S Magnet]

I’d like to chime in in defence of OnyX.

As @Wowfunhappy noted, OnyX does two things very well: it lets one tweak user interface settings, such as with Finder, Dock, and iTunes, along with other Apple-bundled applications. It also does double-duty as Disk Utility without having to open Disk Utility, letting one run a Verify Disk, repair permissions, as well as rotate logs manually, and rebuild services like the Spotlight index. In a lot of ways, it contains some of the most used features of a utility like Cocktail, but does it all for free and, like Cocktail, has unique versions for each major version of OS X/macOS.

I’ve used OnyX across multiple OSes for several years and I have not run across any OnyX feature which might corrupt a daemon (such as xpcd).

 

[raghiid]

I’d like to chime in in defence of OnyX.

As @Wowfunhappy noted, OnyX does two things very well: it lets one tweak user interface settings, such as with Finder, Dock, and iTunes, along with other Apple-bundled applications. It also does double-duty as Disk Utility without having to open Disk Utility, letting one run a Verify Disk, repair permissions, as well as rotate logs manually, and rebuild services like the Spotlight index. In a lot of ways, it contains some of the most used features of a utility like Cocktail, but does it all for free and, like Cocktail, has unique versions for each major version of OS X/macOS.

I’ve used OnyX across multiple OSes for several years and I have not run across any OnyX feature which might corrupt a daemon (such as xpcd).

That may be so, but the reason I removed it is that I don't actually understand most of the things it's cleaning/rebuilding.

 

[B S Magnet]

That may be so, but the reason I removed it is that I don't actually understand most of the things it's cleaning/rebuilding.

That’s legit.

Keep getting to know your Macs.