How to fix cloudd high CPU usage on Mac

What the cloudd high CPU problem looks like in practice

Every modern copy of macOS is packed with background services that quietly keep things in sync, indexed, and generally humming along. Most of the time you never notice them. Then, out of the blue, one of these helpers decides to go into overkill mode and your fans start sounding like a hair dryer.

That’s exactly what happens when a process named cloudd starts monopolizing your Mac’s CPU. You open Activity Monitor to find it pinned to the top with double-digit or even triple-digit CPU usage, sometimes accompanied by other cloud-themed neighbors like bird or fileproviderd. The system feels sluggish, apps stutter, and the battery drains faster than usual on a MacBook.

If this is your current reality, the good news is that cloudd itself isn’t malicious or rogue in the traditional sense. It’s doing an important job for iCloud, but something in the background has thrown a spanner in the works. In this guide, we’ll break down what cloudd actually is, why it might be spinning out of control, and a set of realistic steps you can go through to get your Mac back to normal without nuking your entire iCloud life.

What is cloudd on Mac?

Before you start killing processes at random, it’s worth understanding what cloudd is supposed to do when it behaves.

cloudd is a CloudKit daemon. In plain terms, it’s a system process that handles the nitty-gritty of syncing data between your Mac and iCloud. Whenever macOS itself or a third-party app uses Apple’s CloudKit framework to store or retrieve data from iCloud, cloudd is one of the workers actually moving bits back and forth behind the scenes.

This can cover a lot of things, including:

• iCloud Drive file syncing (Documents, Desktop, custom folders)
• App data for programs that use iCloud for preferences or databases
• Certain Photos, Notes, or other first-party app sync tasks
• Background maintenance of CloudKit databases and metadata

In a healthy scenario, cloudd wakes up, handles a burst of network and disk activity while syncing, briefly uses some CPU, and then goes back to a near-idle state. You might see short spikes if you’ve just added a lot of files to iCloud Drive, imported a large photo library, or signed in to a new Mac.

The problem starts when cloudd never settles down. Instead of short bursts, it keeps hammering the CPU for minutes or hours on end, sometimes with no obvious visible syncing happening. That’s the behavior we’re focusing on here.

Here’s why cloudd can use too much CPU

From a broader perspective, cloudd going wild is usually a symptom rather than the root cause. Something in your iCloud environment is confusing it, and the daemon ends up stuck in a loop.

The typical triggers include:

• First-time or large-scale syncing: The first big sync after enabling iCloud Drive or signing into a new Mac can be intense. If you have tens of gigabytes in Documents, Desktop, or app data, cloudd may pound CPU and disk for a good while. This can be normal as long as it eventually cools down.
• Problematic or corrupted items in iCloud Drive: A single damaged file, a deeply nested folder with odd characters, or an app’s database that doesn’t play nicely with CloudKit can cause cloudd to repeatedly retry operations that never succeed.
• Apps stuck in infinite sync attempts: Some apps integrate with iCloud in less-than-perfect ways. If one of them continuously pushes failing updates or requests, cloudd becomes the visible “culprit” while the real offender is higher up the chain.
• Account or data inconsistencies in iCloud: Conflicts between local and server-side data, old leftovers from previous macOS versions, or partially migrated containers can all nudge CloudKit into a state where it keeps spinning its wheels.
• Keychain and authentication glitches: In some cases, you’ll see repeated prompts like “Cloudd wants to use the login keychain” or “Cloudd wants to use the local items keychain”. That’s usually a sign that the daemon is stuck trying to authenticate with credentials that macOS isn’t happy with.
• Safari / bookmarks / iCloud integration bugs: Safari’s iCloud syncing (think bookmarks or Reading List) can misbehave and trigger aggressive cloud activity in the background. When this goes wrong, cloudd may end up making pointless requests in a tight loop.

One slightly annoying aspect here is that the process name doesn’t tell you which iCloud area is at fault. You have to do a bit of detective work and rule things out step by step.

How to fix cloudd high CPU usage on Mac

The following sections walk you through a realistic troubleshooting sequence. You don’t necessarily need to complete every single step, but I recommend going in order: start with quick checks, then move to more targeted measures if the issue persists.

Step 1. Check cloudd in Activity Monitor

The first step is simply to confirm what you’re dealing with and gather a bit of context.

1. Open Activity Monitor.
   • Go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, or use Spotlight to search for it.
2. Switch to the CPU tab.
   • Click the % CPU column header to sort by usage.
3. Look for cloudd in the list.
   • If it’s at the top and staying at high values (for example, 80–100% or more on a multi-core machine), you’re seeing the classic issue.
   • Note whether any other iCloud-related processes (like bird, fileproviderd, photoanalysisd, SafariBookmarksSyncAgent) are also busy.
4. Optionally, select cloudd and click the “i” (info) button.
   • This lets you confirm it’s owned by the system and not some random third-party executable masquerading under that name.

At this point you know for sure that cloudd is the visible bottleneck. Now the job is to stop it from running in circles.

Step 2. Restart your Mac and give iCloud a bit of time

I know “have you tried turning it off and on again?” sounds cliché, but with CloudKit-related glitches it’s often a genuinely helpful reset.

1. Save your work and close heavy apps.
2. Click the Apple menu and choose Restart….
3. After reboot, sign in and wait a few minutes.
   • Don’t immediately launch dozens of apps; give macOS a chance to quietly resume background tasks.
4. Open Activity Monitor again and watch cloudd.
   • Short spikes after login are normal.
   • The key question is whether CPU usage gradually drops to negligible levels, or stays pegged for a long time.

If a simple restart clears the symptom, you may have just caught cloudd in the middle of a one-off heavy sync. If it comes roaring back and stays there, move on.

Step 3. Check what iCloud is syncing right now

Since cloudd is all about iCloud, it makes sense to look at what’s actually in transit.

1. Open a Finder window.
2. In the sidebar, click iCloud Drive.
   • If you don’t see it, go to Finder > Settings > Sidebar and make sure iCloud Drive is enabled there.

3. Scan for files or folders with sync indicators.
   • Icons with a cloud and an arrow, a dotted outline, or a progress wheel suggest items that are still uploading or downloading.
   • Large archives, huge folders with thousands of files, or app containers might be the bottleneck.
4. If you spot something suspicious:
   • Temporarily move that item out of iCloud Drive (for example, to a folder on your local Desktop).
   • Wait a few minutes to see if cloudd calms down.
5. Repeat for obvious heavy hitters.
   • Large project folders, virtual machine images, and gigantic media libraries are classic troublemakers.

This simple “unplug the obvious offenders and watch what happens” technique can quickly show whether one problematic item is responsible for most of the CPU abuse.

Step 4. Toggle iCloud Drive and other Apple ID services

If cloudd is stuck in a weird state, disabling and re-enabling parts of your Apple ID configuration can nudge it back into sanity without fully signing out of iCloud on the Mac.

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Click your Apple ID / [Your Name] at the top of the sidebar.
3. Go to iCloud.
4. Under Apps using iCloud, temporarily turn off iCloud Drive.
   • In some macOS versions, you need to click iCloud Drive itself and then toggle Sync this Mac.
5. Confirm any warnings that explain what will be disabled locally.
   • You’re not deleting content from iCloud permanently; you’re just pausing this Mac’s participation.
6. Give the system a minute or two, then check Activity Monitor again.
   • cloudd should settle down because it has nothing to sync.
7. Re-enable iCloud Drive.
   • Turn Sync this Mac back on and let the Mac reconnect.
   • Expect some CPU usage while it reconciles state, but it shouldn’t hang at 100% indefinitely.

You can apply the same approach to other iCloud-backed services strictly tied to your current symptoms. For example, if the issue tends to flare up when you use Photos, toggling iCloud Photos can be a useful experiment.

Step 5. Deal with “cloudd wants to use the login keychain” loops

If you’re seeing repeated prompts about cloudd wanting to use the login or local items keychain, the daemon is probably tripping over a damaged or confused keychain entry.

Here’s a cautious way to address this without bulldozing all your saved passwords:

1. Open Keychain Access.
   • Go to Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.
2. In the sidebar, select login under Keychains and All Items under Category.
3. Use the search field in the upper right and type cloudd or iCloud.
   • You may see tokens, auth items, or certificates related to iCloud services.
4. For obvious stale entries tied to old macOS versions or previous user accounts, consider removing them.
   • Right-click an item and choose Delete “…”.
   • Don’t delete anything if you’re unsure what it is; when in doubt, leave it alone.
5. Close Keychain Access, then restart your Mac.
6. After reboot, sign in and watch for prompts.
   • You may be asked once to allow cloudd access; approving it with your proper password should ideally stop the nagging.

If keychain issues persist, it can be a sign of deeper keychain corruption. At that point, creating a new keychain and migrating essential data is an option, but that’s a separate, more delicate operation and goes beyond this specific guide.

Step 6. Reset Safari’s iCloud sync (if bookmarks are involved)

One slightly counterintuitive source of cloudd madness is Safari’s iCloud syncing — especially bookmarks or Reading List. If you notice spikes when Safari is open or after changing bookmarks, it’s worth isolating this angle.

1. Open Safari and make a backup of your bookmarks.
   • Go to File > Export > Bookmarks… and save them somewhere safe.

2. On your Mac, go to System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud.
3. Look for Safari in the list of apps using iCloud and turn it off.
   • Confirm you want to stop syncing Safari data for this Mac.

4. Wait a few minutes and keep Activity Monitor open.
   • If cloudd’s CPU usage drops almost immediately and stays low, you’ve likely found a culprit.
5. Optional: Clear and rebuild Safari data.
   • In Safari, go to Settings > Advanced and enable “Show Develop menu in menu bar”.
   • Use Develop > Empty Caches.
   • Optionally clear history and website data if you’re comfortable doing so.

6. Re-enable Safari in the iCloud settings later if you want syncing back.
   • If the problem returns instantly, leaving Safari iCloud sync off for a while might be the lesser evil.

This workaround is admittedly a bit of a blunt instrument, but it’s proven helpful where certain bookmark collections or corrupted sync states kept feeding cloudd a steady diet of bad data.

Step 7. Test with a fresh user account

When you’ve exhausted the obvious knobs and switches in your main profile, it helps to see whether the issue is baked into that specific account or affects the system more generally.

1. Open System Settings and go to Users & Groups.
2. Click the “+” button to create a new user.
   • Choose Standard for the account type.
   • Give it a simple name and password.
3. Log out of your current account and log into the new one.
4. Optionally sign into iCloud in this fresh account, but keep it minimal.
   • Don’t immediately enable iCloud Drive for massive amounts of data.
   • Maybe just turn on the basics like keychain or Find My to start with.
5. Open Activity Monitor and observe cloudd.
   • If it behaves perfectly here while going haywire in your main account, the root cause is most likely some combination of sync data and preferences tied to your original profile.

This doesn’t fix the issue outright, but it gives you a strong hint. If the new account is clean, you can gradually migrate and rebuild what you need there, or selectively reset problematic pieces (like iCloud Drive contents for the old account) instead of reinstalling macOS.

How to prevent cloudd from becoming a chronic CPU hog

Once you’ve tamed cloudd, it’s worth adopting a few habits to keep it from becoming a regular nuisance.

• Avoid dumping huge, rarely used archives into iCloud Drive: Encrypted disk images, virtual machines, or multi-gigabyte zip files tend to be sync-hostile. Keep those on local storage or in a different cloud that you don’t expect macOS to micromanage in real time.
• Keep your macOS and Apple apps up to date: Many CloudKit and iCloud bugs get quietly fixed in point releases. Letting updates pile up increases the odds you’re stuck with a known bug that’s already been addressed.
• Periodically audit which apps are using iCloud: In System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud, take a look at the apps using your account. If there’s an obscure tool you barely use that insists on syncing something, consider disabling its access.
• Watch for patterns: If cloudd tends to spike every time you use a specific app or perform a certain action (like importing photos from a camera), that pattern is valuable. It helps you narrow down where to look next instead of blaming macOS as a whole.
• Keep some free space on your startup disk: iCloud syncing needs elbow room. If your system drive is constantly almost full, anything that leans on temporary files and caches, including cloudd, is more likely to misbehave.

None of these measures eliminate the possibility of odd CloudKit bugs entirely, but they reduce the chances you’ll run into the worst-case scenarios.

Let’s wrap it up

cloudd, despite its slightly ominous name, isn’t a virus or spy tool. It’s a core part of how macOS keeps your iCloud-backed data in sync. The trouble begins when it falls into a loop caused by bad input: corrupted items, confused sync states, or misbehaving companion processes.

The key is to treat cloudd’s high CPU usage as a symptom and work backwards from there. Checking what’s syncing, temporarily disabling specific services, resetting problematic components like Safari iCloud integration, and testing with a fresh user account usually reveal where the real conflict lies.

All things considered, you don’t have to choose between a usable Mac and the convenience of iCloud. With a bit of methodical troubleshooting and some healthy skepticism about what you throw into iCloud Drive, you can keep cloudd as the quiet helper it was meant to be rather than the process that slows your Mac down to a crawl.

FAQ

1. Is cloudd a virus or malware?

2, Is it safe to force quit cloudd in Activity Monitor?

3. How long is “normal” for cloudd to use high CPU?

4. Will disabling iCloud completely fix cloudd issues?