[solved] Mac: Process “bsdtar” needs a lot of CPU power

How to put the bsdtar process back in its place on the Mac.

Yesterday morning I got my MacBook Pro and was surprised that it was busy ventilating, even though it was only on stand-by all night. A look at the "Activity Monitor" utility immediately showed the culprit: A process called "bsdtar" started itself several times and ran a bit amok. Overall, the process easily occupied more than 300% of the CPU - the Finder was correspondingly lame when it was operated. In any case, using the Mac to work like this was not an option, so a solution had to be found quickly.

The "bsdtar" process was hard on my MacBook Pro and created over 300% CPU load.
The “bsdtar” process was giving my MacBook Pro a hard time, using well over 300% of the CPU.

Update 03.02.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX: The best solution is through the settings

A reader just informed me that he solved the problem by disabling “Start on computer startup” in the Parallels Toolbox preferences and then restarting the Mac. This solves the problem quickly and you don't have to work in the library folder, as I described below. @Georg: Thanks for the hint!

1. Problem-solving option: restart did not help

Whenever I have a Mac problem, I always give the Recommendation from the specialists at IT Crowd a chance: switch it off and on. It feels like it can fix over 90% of computer problems, but unfortunately in this case it had no effect. Immediately after the start, six bsdtar processes started up again, which occupied the MacBook Pro.

2nd option: Googling - the cause is the parallel toolbox

Since the restart didn't get me any further, I asked Google for help and the search query "mac process bsdtar high cpu usage” right at Parallels Desktop forum landed. The recommendation of the users there: uninstall the Parallels Toolbox.

Since you have to remove the LaunchDaemon or the LaunchAgent from Parallels Toolbox in particular, you cannot avoid going to the system's library folder. Important: for me, this file was in the library folder directly in the top directory of the system hard drive and not in the library folder that you can find under your own user folder.

Remove Parallels Toolbox with CleanMyMac

I made it easy for myself and over CleanMyMac X (a highly recommended tool that is also available in Setapp subscription is included) disabled the Parallels Toolbox via the “Optimization > Startup Agents” and “Optimization > Login Items” option. Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot before removing it, so I don't remember exactly what folder this program is in.

The Parallels Toolbox can be conveniently deactivated using the CleanMyMac optimization tool.
The Parallels Toolbox can be conveniently deactivated using the CleanMyMac optimization tool.

Removal of the bsdtar trigger with on-board resources

If you want to work without such little helpers, go to the top level of the hard disk as an admin user (in my case it's called the classic "Macintosh HD"). There you will find the “Library” folder and it is best to look in these three folders to see if you can find something called “Parallels Toolbox” or something similar:

  • LaunchAgents
  • LaunchDaemons
  • startup items

I have two screenshots here that show you which folder you should look in:

The LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders are the first choice when looking for persistent programs that keep booting up.
The LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders are the first choice when looking for persistent programs that keep booting up.

 

The StartupItems are probably not the place where the Parallels Toolbox is, as only the programs are here that are started once when you restart. These can be ended very easily while the bsdtar process was started again and again.
The StartupItems are probably not the place where the Parallels Toolbox is, as only the programs are here that are started once when you restart. These can be ended very easily while the bsdtar process was started again and again.

You then drag the corresponding file to the desktop, for example, so that the Mac no longer "finds" it in the corresponding folder and then restarts the Mac.

For me it has CPU after this action calmed down and the process bsdtar has no longer drawn negative attention to itself.

Small request to you

I hope the short - unfortunately somewhat incomplete - guide will help you find the CPU rascal when bsdtar goes crazy. If you can find out the exact name of the file, please leave me a short comment here. I would like to add it above for the sake of completeness.

 

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9 comments on "[Solved] Mac: Process "bsdtar" requires a lot of CPU power"

  1. Strange, I've never had problems with the Parallels Toolbox (version 16) on my Macbook Pro 15. I think there is an error in the configuration.

    1. I do not think so. Rather, I guess it was a Parallels update that was done automatically. Or it was the 10.15.13 Catalina update. But I haven't reconfigured anything ... but who knows. Maybe I had set something wrong earlier. However, I had never booked the paid version of Parallels Toolbox. So it is a mystery to me why it suddenly twitches.

  2. I had the problem myself.
    However, I was able to fix it by disabling “Start on computer startup” in the toolbox settings.

    1. I've had the problem for a long time.
      I only came across Georg's solution to the problem yesterday. That is, I disabled “(Windows) Start on computer startup” in the Parallels settings.
      Let's see if it's gone now.

  3. I had that problem too.
    Disabling the “Start on computer startup” option in Parallels preferences instead of in the toolbox has the same beneficial effect.

  4. I only briefly used the countdown timer from the II toolbox. However, when closing, several “bsdtar” processes had crept in.

    Manually stopping the bsdtar processes in the activity monitor (“cross” in the top left) was enough for me.

    Since then, the II toolbox has been deactivated in my restart.

  5. Thank you, this post really helped me! This made my iMac 27″ as lame as a 386… Parallels Toolbox's “Start on startup” option and rebooting helped – the fan is off now!

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