Identityservicesd high CPU usage on Mac: What it is and how to fix it

Identityservicesd high CPU usage on Mac: What it is and how to fix it
If your Mac’s fans ramp up while you’re barely doing anything and Activity Monitor shows identityservicesd near the top of the CPU chart, it’s easy to assume something’s wrong with the hardware. In reality, the culprit is usually a background Apple service that’s stuck trying to keep your Apple ID world in sync. The good news is that it’s rarely a hardware issue and almost never malware, but you may need to give macOS a gentle nudge to stop the background churn. In this guide, we’ll unpack what identityservicesd does, why it sometimes hogs CPU, and the practical steps you can take to calm it down.

Identityservicesd - Quick profile

What identityservicesd is on Mac, and why it’s always running

Identityservicesd is a background process that belongs to Apple’s Identity Services (IDS) framework. It’s the switchboard that keeps track of which Apple ID is reachable where, and how. When you send an iMessage, pick up a call on your Mac instead of your iPhone, or unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch, identityservicesd is one of the quiet players making that experience possible behind the scenes.
This daemon talks to Apple’s push and IDS servers, keeps registration tokens and certificates up to date, and routes availability lookups for your contacts and your own devices. It also plays nicely with other services such as apsd (Apple Push Service), accountsd, callservicesd, trustd, and imagent so that messages, calls, and continuity features don’t miss a beat. Under normal circumstances it runs light, briefly waking up when something needs syncing or validating, and then going back to sleep.
Things go off the rails when identityservicesd gets stuck in a loop. If it can’t complete registration, fails to validate a token, or keeps bumping into a bad network path, it will keep retrying. That’s when you see Activity Monitor showing sustained CPU usage, occasional RAM creep, and a battery graph that looks more like a ski slope. The silver lining here is that this is almost always a software hiccup in account or network state, not a sign that your Mac is dying.

Why identityservicesd can hog CPU and drain your battery

Let’s zoom in on the usual suspects that make this otherwise helpful daemon overact. Most reports cluster around a few patterns, and they’re surprisingly consistent across Intel and Apple silicon Macs, from Catalina all the way to the latest macOS releases.

1. Apple ID or iMessage/FaceTime account state issues

A very common trigger is a change in your Apple ID environment:

• You’ve recently changed your Apple ID password
• You enabled or disabled Messages in iCloud
• You signed out/in on one device, but not all of them
• You have multiple Apple IDs configured in Messages or Internet Accounts

In these scenarios identityservicesd may keep trying to re-register your Mac with Apple’s servers, only to be rejected because a token is stale, a password is out of sync, or some device still claims an old state. macOS is persistent here; the daemon will retry, and each attempt costs CPU cycles plus a bit of network traffic.

2. Large or corrupted Messages history

If you’ve been using iMessage for years, chances are your history runs into tens of thousands of messages with lots of images, videos, and group chats. When you enable Messages in iCloud or migrate to a new Mac, identityservicesd has to help sync all that content and the associated metadata.
If the database under ~/Library/Messages is bloated or slightly corrupted, the sync can get stuck in a “re-index and retry” loop. You may notice that quitting Messages temporarily reduces CPU load, but identityservicesd still keeps waking up to process the same backlog over and over. That’s when fans spin at idle and your MacBook warms up on the couch for no obvious reason.

3. Network, Wi-Fi, VPN, and proxy quirks

This daemon is chatty by design; it needs to talk to Apple endpoints regularly. When your network sits on shaky ground, identityservicesd simply keeps knocking:

• Intermittent or weak Wi-Fi
• Corporate or school networks with strict firewalls
• Always-on VPNs (especially with aggressive kill switches)
• Manual proxies or content filters that block or mangle Apple push/IDS traffic

From the daemon’s point of view, registration keeps failing mid-flight, so it retries, sometimes several times a minute. You’ll often see network activity spikes in parallel with CPU usage, and the whole thing calms down the moment you connect to a simpler, “clean” network.

4. After macOS upgrades, migrations, or restores

Another pattern is high identityservicesd usage for hours after:

• Upgrading macOS to a major new version
• Migrating from an old Mac via Migration Assistant
• Restoring from a Time Machine or Apple silicon Recovery backup.

In these cases, there’s legitimate heavy lifting going on: rebuilding trust, refreshing certificates, re-indexing messages, reattaching your Mac to Apple ID services under the new OS. Short-term churn is normal right after a big change. The headache is when this “post-update busywork” never really settles and your Mac keeps running hot days after the upgrade.

How to fix identityservicesd high CPU usage on Mac

As usual with background daemons, there’s no single magic button. You’ll want to work through a short checklist, starting with basics and gradually moving to more specific Apple ID and Messages cleanup.

Step 1: Confirm identityservicesd is really the culprit

• Open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
• Under the CPU tab, click the % CPU column header to sort by usage.
• Look for identityservicesd near the top, and note:
• Its CPU percentage (is it stuck above ~20–30% for minutes at a time?)
• Whether Messages, FaceTime, apsd, or accountsd also show up high.

If CPU spikes only happen briefly and then drop, you might just be catching normal sync activity. If the process stays high for 10–15 minutes or more while you’re not doing anything, it’s time to move on to the fixes.

Step 2: Quick restart of the daemon (safe “kick”)

You can safely force the daemon to restart; macOS will relaunch it automatically.

• In Activity Monitor, select identityservicesd.
• Click the ⓧ (Stop) button in the toolbar and choose Force Quit.
• Watch Activity Monitor for a minute or two; the process should reappear with a fresh PID and, ideally, a much lower CPU footprint.

This often clears a transient glitch. If high usage returns shortly afterwards, it means the underlying account or network issue is still there.

Step 3: Sign out and back into iMessage and FaceTime

Next up, refresh your Apple ID’s connection to messaging services.
For Messages:

• Open Messages.
• Go to Messages > Settings… (Preferences on older macOS) > iMessage.
• Click Sign Out.
• Quit Messages.
• Wait 1–2 minutes, then reopen Messages and sign back in with your Apple ID.

For FaceTime:

• Open FaceTime.
• Go to FaceTime > Settings….
• Click Sign Out, then quit FaceTime.
• Reopen it and sign back in using the same Apple ID you use in Messages.

After re-authenticating, keep Activity Monitor open for a while. If identityservicesd calms down, you were likely dealing with stale tokens or mismatched account state.

Step 4: Check Apple ID status system-wide

Sometimes the root of the problem is that your Mac isn’t fully happy with your Apple ID, even if Messages appears signed in.

• Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS).
• Click your Apple ID at the top of the sidebar.
• Look for any warnings about verification, billing, or security (for example, a request to re-enter your password).
• Resolve any prompts, such as:
• Confirming your password
• Approving the Mac from another device
• Updating two-factor authentication details

While you’re there, make sure the iCloud toggles for Messages, iCloud Drive, and Keychain reflect what you actually want. Conflicting settings across devices can keep identityservicesd juggling registrations behind the scenes.

Step 5: Tidy up Messages in iCloud and reduce the backlog

If you use Messages in iCloud and sit on a massive chat history, trimming the fat can help.

• In Messages > Settings… > iMessage, check whether Messages in iCloud is enabled.

• Click Sync Now and monitor the progress; expect some CPU usage while it catches up.
• In your main message list, delete:
• Very old group chats you no longer need
• Threads with huge attachments (videos, photos, file transfers)

For heavy senders, consider turning off “Keep messages forever” under Messages > Settings… > General and choosing 1 Year or 30 Days to prevent runaway growth in the database going forward.
Optional advanced step (only if you’re comfortable):

• Back up your Mac first (Time Machine, at least).
• Quit Messages.
• In Finder, press Shift–Command–G and go to ~/Library/Messages.
• Archive the whole folder somewhere safe, then remove it from its original location.
• Reopen Messages to let macOS create a fresh database and resync from iCloud.

This can fix stubborn corruption issues but will temporarily require a full re-download of your older chats.

Step 6: Test on a clean network (no VPN, no proxies)

If identityservicesd is fighting the network, simplifying the path can make a night-and-day difference.

• Temporarily disconnect from your VPN or corporate proxy if you use one.
• Connect your Mac to a straightforward network, ideally your home Wi-Fi with a basic router.
• Go to System Settings > Network and verify there are no manual Proxies configured unless you truly need them.
• Reboot your Mac and see if CPU usage is lower on this cleaner setup.

If the issue disappears on the simple network and reappears the moment you reconnect to a locked-down one, you’ve found the culprit. In that case, you may need to loop in your network admin or adjust VPN/proxy rules to better accommodate Apple push and IDS traffic.

Step 7: Check Mac’s date & time and Apple’s system status

Apple’s identity services are sensitive to time drift and server-side outages.

• Go to System Settings > General > Date & Time.
• Make sure Set time and date automatically is enabled and points to Apple’s time server.
• If your region is wrong, fix it and restart the Mac.

It’s also worth checking Apple’s System Status page in a web browser to verify there are no ongoing outages affecting iMessage, FaceTime, or Apple ID. If there is a known issue on Apple’s side, all you can really do is wait it out and avoid over-tweaking your setup.

Step 8: Create a fresh user account as a sanity check

To rule out per-user configuration weirdness, you can test identityservicesd from a clean account:

• Open System Settings > Users & Groups.
• Create a new Administrator user.
• Log out of your current account and log into the new one.
• Sign into Messages and FaceTime with your Apple ID, then observe Activity Monitor.

If the daemon behaves normally under the new profile, the problem is likely buried in your original user’s Library (caches, preferences, or Messages database). That doesn’t mean you must migrate accounts immediately, but it helps you decide whether to focus on cleanup versus deeper system-level troubleshooting.

Post-fix and prevention tips

Once identityservicesd has stopped hogging CPU, you’ll want to keep things from spiraling again. Here are a few habits that help:

• Avoid endless message hoarding. Archiving is fine, but consider limiting retention or periodically pruning huge media-heavy threads. Your Mac and iCloud storage will both thank you.
• Keep macOS and your apps up to date. Many odd sync bugs are quietly fixed in minor macOS releases, so don’t postpone those updates forever.
• Be gentle with network complexity. If you rely on VPNs or proxies, test Apple services without them after big changes. Add exclusions if your VPN is known to break push notifications.
• Make account changes thoughtfully. When you change your Apple ID password or enable Messages in iCloud on a new device, give your fleet of devices time to settle instead of rapidly toggling settings back and forth.
• Watch Activity Monitor occasionally. You don’t have to obsess over it, but a quick glance when your Mac runs hot can catch identityservicesd (or any other daemon) going off script before it drives you crazy.

FAQ

FAQ

1. Is identityservicesd a virus or malware?

2. Is it safe to kill identityservicesd in Activity Monitor?

3. Can I permanently disable identityservicesd?

4. Why does identityservicesd spike after macOS updates or getting a new Mac?