Mac mini 2014 Screensaver Stuttering, "mediaanalysisd" Process

[ab225]

My 2.6GHz 8GB SSD Mac mini 2014 is laggy and jerky using default Apple screensavers like "Flurry" or "Drift". It's connected to a standard 60Hz 1080p monitor so not doing anything too taxing, but it looks like it's only getting about 15 frames a second on the screensavers. I've already googled around and seen people have similar problems with no permanent solution. I was hoping it would be fixed after upgrading to Big Sur, from Catalina, but it's the same.

Activity monitor shows the process "mediaanalysisd" is active when the screensaver is running (only about 10-20% CPU). There's no other activity and the fans aren't going. It looks like the process is related to maintenance on the photos library, but it never seems to stop.

Has anyone had a similar issue? I'm thinking of deleting the mediaanalysisd from the system but it also sounds like this is only temporary.

 

[smithrh]

I just fixed this problem the other day.

Sadly, I can't find the link that shows the solution, but it involves moving some iLife extensions to a directory so they couldn't be accessed.

Other people have successfully stopped the daemon (the "d" at the end of the name indicates it's a daemon, or helper process).

Since I moved the extensions, no issues with CPU usage, and no ill effects noted either.

Supposedly the cause will be some sort of video file that Apple can't parse (looking for what, I do not knw), and it tries to parse it repeatedly, which is why it never goes away.

 

[ab225]

If you know how to search for the link I'd be interested.

For now I've just had to trash my Photo library to fix it (it's a secondary computer so I don't technically need it installed).

It's just annoying I can't run a screensaver and have a photo library installed at the same time on a modern computer.