That's good it's not happening on the new account. I deleted the plist for about the 3rd time, emptied my trash, shut down, left it off for about 2 hours, and so far on reboot I'm also not having the issue any more. Tomorrow running all day will tell if it's fixed or just resolved for the time being.
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Why is "dock" taking up 90% of my CPU?!
- Thread starter ki2594
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That's good it's not happening on the new account. I deleted the plist for about the 3rd time, emptied my trash, shut down, left it off for about 2 hours, and so far on reboot I'm also not having the issue any more. Tomorrow running all day will tell if it's fixed or just resolved for the time being.
My Solution
Hey Everyone,
TL;DR: Genius went through preference files and found the corrupt one -- works fine now
Background: I had a mid-2011 MBP with lion, and transferred to my mid-2012 11" mba. I soon discovered that the "dock" process was using up >85% of my cpu, and causing all sorts of related problems (fan speeds, temp, battery life).
Solution:
Went to the genius bar and this is what he did:
Replaced the mba (since I bought it yesterday), and transferred all my data to the new computer. Result: same problem
Created a new user on the mba. Result: problem solved
So he renamed my existing library folder ("\Users\*username*\Library\) to
"library old". Then, from the new user's account (he logged in as "root" user) and copied/pasted the clean "library" folder into into my original user's library (replacing the existing one).*
*here he did some terminal stuff to show hidden folders b/c the user's library is hidden
Then he copied, folder by folder (then file by file when we isolated the problem to be in the preferences folder), my files from "library old" into "library," after each folder, logging out (cmd+shift+q), relogging into my user account, and running activity manager to see if the "dock" application was still acting up.
After ~1.5hours, we identified "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.desktop.plist.lockfile" as the corrupt files and deleted them.
Result: problem solved.
Hope this helps!
Hey Everyone,
TL;DR: Genius went through preference files and found the corrupt one -- works fine now
Background: I had a mid-2011 MBP with lion, and transferred to my mid-2012 11" mba. I soon discovered that the "dock" process was using up >85% of my cpu, and causing all sorts of related problems (fan speeds, temp, battery life).
Solution:
Went to the genius bar and this is what he did:
Replaced the mba (since I bought it yesterday), and transferred all my data to the new computer. Result: same problem
Created a new user on the mba. Result: problem solved
So he renamed my existing library folder ("\Users\*username*\Library\) to
"library old". Then, from the new user's account (he logged in as "root" user) and copied/pasted the clean "library" folder into into my original user's library (replacing the existing one).*
*here he did some terminal stuff to show hidden folders b/c the user's library is hidden
Then he copied, folder by folder (then file by file when we isolated the problem to be in the preferences folder), my files from "library old" into "library," after each folder, logging out (cmd+shift+q), relogging into my user account, and running activity manager to see if the "dock" application was still acting up.
After ~1.5hours, we identified "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.desktop.plist.lockfile" as the corrupt files and deleted them.
Result: problem solved.
Hope this helps!
woo great! glad to hear it worked out for both of us! hopefully that solves the issue for anyone else as well.
p.s now that i've finally had real time to use this thing, oh my goodness does it scream. fantastic machine. and thank god for SSD drives!
Just wanted to say thanks to this thread I too have solved the problem.
Migrated from SL to my new MBA i7/8g/512 and had the exact same problem. Ran this:
# open Terminal
cd ~/Library/Preferences/
rm com.apple.desktop.plist
killall Dock
in terminal and the problem is solved
So does this mean that I don't have to hunt for and delete the file mentioned above:
After ~1.5hours, we identified "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.desktop.plist.lockfile" as the corrupt files and deleted them.
Result: problem solved.
?
Simple solution
Don't know if this will solve the problem for everyone and don't know if this is a permanent fix for me, but on a different thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1387245/) someone mentioned changing the Desktop image from a custom one (if you have one) to a built-in OSX stock desktop image, and then logging out and back in. It worked for me and now no out of control Dock process.
Don't know if this will solve the problem for everyone and don't know if this is a permanent fix for me, but on a different thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1387245/) someone mentioned changing the Desktop image from a custom one (if you have one) to a built-in OSX stock desktop image, and then logging out and back in. It worked for me and now no out of control Dock process.
Last edited:
Just adding a +1 on the following:
# open Terminal
cd ~/Library/Preferences/
rm com.apple.desktop.plist
killall Dock
I had the exact same problem on my shiny new MBA and the above command fixed the Dock CPU usage problem instantly. It also reset all my custom desktop pictures to the default Andromeda galaxy pic. Now I'll try and add some custom shots and see if the problem repeats itself.
# open Terminal
cd ~/Library/Preferences/
rm com.apple.desktop.plist
killall Dock
I had the exact same problem on my shiny new MBA and the above command fixed the Dock CPU usage problem instantly. It also reset all my custom desktop pictures to the default Andromeda galaxy pic. Now I'll try and add some custom shots and see if the problem repeats itself.
In case anyone else has this problem, this also worked for me. I was using some custom wallpaper on my new MBA, and the Dock started running at over 90% (and the fans at about 5000 RPM). Going back to a stock image resolved this for me.
Follow up...
Just a follow up on the desktop picture thing: I've since added custom photos to the 8 different desktop spaces I'm using, and the CPU spike hasn't happened. Not sure what's up with that, but happy to have a speedy new MBA!
Cheers,
John
Just a follow up on the desktop picture thing: I've since added custom photos to the 8 different desktop spaces I'm using, and the CPU spike hasn't happened. Not sure what's up with that, but happy to have a speedy new MBA!
Cheers,
John
Actually the process "dock" is the Dashboard. Disable Dashboard in System Preferences / Mission Control and the CPU will return to normal.
It was resolved? I was the same problem and here there was not the solution. Anyway, Im sorry about try to help anyone...
No worries. Helping people is what this forum is about. It seemed like the OP found a solution a few posts up. Ddidn't mean to come across rude I apologize. Stick around and enjoy the community here.