Fixing mediaanalysisd Storage and CPU Use
If you have discovered your Mac disk space has reduced since installing or updating to MacOS Sequoia, the inordinately large com.apple.mediaanalysisd cache file issue could be to blame. A variety of Mac users have reported the directory being filled with 15GB+ of data, with some users noting 50 GB, 80 GB, even 140GB of cache files, filling users entire disk drives with the cache bundle files.
Let’s review what the directory is, and how to recover your disk storage space.
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With one user on Apple discussions reporting up to 140 GB of medianalysisd cache files on their Mac, and another on Rumors Forums reporting 80GB of caches, there are also multiple other mentions of this on everywhere from stackexcahgne, reddit, MacRumors Forums, and the official Apple support forums. How widespread the issue is is not clear, and if any particular feature or combination of settings triggers the huge medianalysisd cache folder, or if it’s just a bug, is currently unknown.
Via Full Report Below:
On my machine, com.apple.mediaanalysisd is using no less than 143GB. For a 27 GB photo library.
mediaanalysisd has regularly been sitting on ~100% CPU for over a week now. My laptop is hot to the touch, and I have no idea why. Rebooting didn’t help. Suggestions?
I think I be had the same problem the last 2 weeks. Can’t figure out why!
See also: Apple’s forums.
Previously:
- Opting Out of Visual Look Up and iCloud Photos
- Measuring the Data iOS and Android Send to Apple and Google
- Network Connections From mediaanalysisd
- Monterey’s Visual Look Up
1 Comment RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
I upgraded my Mac to Tahoe 26.1. No problem initially, but I am in the process of replacing an old NAS drive. I recently attached the new drive to my home network, and all h—- broke loose. The system is unusable. mediaanalysisd is sucking up all CPU time. It takes 5+ minutes to switch from my account to my wife’s account. Apps bounce in the dock for minutes before opening (if they ever do). The only solution is to have Photos open in both my wife’s and my logins since this prevents mediaanalysisd from running.
The fact that this problem got 1000% worse when I added the second network drive suggests that this app is scanning all drives connected. For what purpose? Mining my private files to enhance their Artificial Non-Intelligence software? Without my permission? I switched to MAC because of all the BS in Windows. I am a very unhappy customer.
