Mac runs hot and slow with no obvious app open
bird and cloudd are iCloud sync processes. After a large initial sync or a restore, they can chew CPU for hours.
Try this first
- 1Open Activity Monitor and sort by CPU. See 'bird', 'cloudd' or 'CloudKit Helper' at the top? iCloud is syncing.
- 2Check System Settings, Apple ID, iCloud Drive: how much is set to sync? Hundreds of GB on slow WiFi means a long first sync.
- 3Plug the Mac into power and wired network if possible. On battery and WiFi iCloud throttles itself oddly and just lingers.
- 4Try a temporary off-switch: disable iCloud Drive for one app (Desktop and Documents, say) and see if the spike clears. Do not sign out, that triggers a big resync.
When to bring us in
If bird or cloudd still pegs CPU after a week, a corrupted sync record is likely. We have a procedure to safely reset the iCloud cache without data loss.
See also
- My laptop is suddenly slowThree main suspects: a runaway background process, near-full disk, or a Windows update in progress.
- One specific application is slow for everyoneIf an app is slow for one person: local. For everyone at once: server side or vendor side.
- Opening files from the file server takes minutesOften the server itself is fine and the issue is network routing or stalling DNS resolution.
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