Evernote Helper CPU Usage (10.2.4 build 1949)

[Dave Dix 13]

Is anyone else out there experiencing extremely high CPU usage from the Evernote Helper process?

My laptop fan is constantly spinning up and when I looked at system activity I see the "% CPU" sitting at 99% and peaking at 150%

I exited Evernote and then restarted it and the problem goes away for a period then comes back.

Is it possible to quit the Evernote Helper without quitting Evernote?

[PinkElephant 1,613]

No experience with this. A word about CPU usage: 100% means 1 core of the CPU is at full load. This is why it can go beyond 100%. If you have a 6-core, it can go up to 600%, for example.

100% for the helper is much too much - you could probably shoot a man to the moon with that much computing power.

Maybe try an un- / reinstall ?

[Albertoramos 0]

I'm experiencing the same, since I installed the new version recently. I might try that uninstall/reinstall to see if it improves.

Version is 10.2.4.

[stocky2605 290]

kill the process using the activity monitor - does it help?

[ESalmon98 1]

I am also having this issue.  When the application is minimized, the CPU will go back down.  But if the application is up, even if it's behind other windows, it will start spinning up the CPU.

Evernote version info:

v 10.2.4 build 458360 public
Editor: v111.0.14414
Service: v1.21.2
© 2019 - 2020 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved

[Vstk 29]

I experience the same thing, both on MacOS and Windows.  It makes my computers hot and noisy.

[Peter Olins 37]

I, too, got "laptop burn" with earlier version. Evernote Helper (Renderer) process routinely used 100% CPU.

The problem persisted after updating to V 10.3.6.

(Legacy version still has has overall superior performance and features.) 

[mac OS 10.15.7, EN 10.3.6]

Edited November 11, 2020 by Peter Olins
change of performance

[DTLow 5,099]

On 11/5/2020 at 1:17 AM, Dave Dix said:

Is anyone else out there experiencing extremely high CPU usage from the Evernote Helper process?

CPU is ok
Memory is a problem   

[PinkElephant 1,613]

Depends on how much you have ... especially when viewed with Apples budget pricing in mind 🤣

[danio72 74]

On 11/5/2020 at 9:17 AM, Dave Dix said:

Is anyone else out there experiencing extremely high CPU usage from the Evernote Helper process?

My laptop fan is constantly spinning up and when I looked at system activity I see the "% CPU" sitting at 99% and peaking at 150%

I exited Evernote and then restarted it and the problem goes away for a period then comes back.

Is it possible to quit the Evernote Helper without quitting Evernote?

Yes; very often.  It's reported in Beta and continues through the release versions.  It seems to affect macOS only and not Windows from my experience.  It also seems to begin when the Helper uses up to 100%, as soon as that happens it never seems to 'quiet' down again.  If you minimise the CPU use drops away but maximise the window and it's back instantly.  If you close the app and relaunch, it's relatively quiet until the next time 100% CPU is hit, then, you are back to square one.

Evernote is currently, by a country mile, the most CPU hungry app on my device, even my Windows 10 VM only takes 30% and that in itself has several open apps running

I am absolutely convinced this is the reason why many people are saying performance I slow, especially if their hardware is low spec

[Lance11235813 0]

I just upgraded to new version 10.3.7, the issue still persisted. The Evernote Helper process taking huge amount of CPU resource periodically.

Note, I'm using MacOS Catalina with version 10.15.7 and 6-Core.   

This is really make my laptop super hot and noisy !!! 

Does anyone ever reported to Evernote team? They really should take look at this issue seriously. 

[Peter Olins 37]

On 11/5/2020 at 2:17 AM, Dave Dix said:

Is anyone else out there experiencing extremely high CPU usage from the Evernote Helper process?

EN helper (EN v10.3.6) was furiously reading and writing to disk (many GB), and using 100% of a CPU, slowing down other mac processes.

I "solved" this by deleting all the EN caches using App Cleaner. I now have a sedate EN using 10-20% of CPU—and my laptop lap-burn is healing nicely ;~)

 (Caveat: I have no idea if this would be effective or safe for others).

 

(mac OS 10.15.7
macbook: EN 10.3.6
database: 30,000+ notes, with 2700 pdf attachments)

[JK_WA 0]

I had this problem as well on v10.3.7.   The following steps fixed it for me (for now)

• Quit Evernote
• Delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Evernote/Cache/
• Restart Evernote

 

[Ashoke 0]

Hitting the same issue: extremely sluggish performance. high cpu usage in foreground. additionally, AppleSpell is using a ton of CPU as well. Prior to updating, never experienced a performance issue. 

v 10.4.4 build 2096 public
Editor: v112.1.14477
Service: v1.23.6
© 2019 - 2020 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved

[mikkmakk88 0]

I'm having the same issue. Even just having the window open makes makes my computer get crazy hot and loud.

[RichW 11]

Same problem here for Evernote Helper -  127% CPU, 1.51GB of memory (ridiculous).  

I'm on Evernote for Mac 10.5.7 on a 2020 Macbook pro w/ 64GB of memory.

 

[chudneywallace 3]

I had this problem of Evernote Helper (Renderer) using >100% CPU constantly, and it was demolishing my battery.

It seems to have gone away after i did this: (1) Completely removed Evernote using AppCleaner (2) Rebooted (3) Revoked access for my Mac from my Evernote account page (4) Downloaded Evernote from their website, and NOT from the App Store (5) Installed, logged in and left it to download my entire set of notes without interruption (by disabling sleep).  This took a few hours.

Now the process barely uses any CPU.  Hope that works for someone!

 

 

 

 

[ChrisK9EQ 0]

Just a note that I am also having problems with the Evernote Helper consuming a lot of CPU resources. It typically sits at #4 in the list of most energy intensive apps - which is important when running on battery. I'd personally like to just get rid of it. Any idea why they can't make that an option in the preferences?

After the computer being booted 4 days ago, the Evernote Helper has consumed one hour and 41 minutes of CPU time. Argh!

I guess I'll just have to keep Evernote closed unless I really need it. Add Evernote to the list of programs you don't want running when on battery.

[danio72 74]

v10.6.9 seems to have alot of optimisations in this area.  I have had the release installed 1-day now and Helper use is currently 2.5% CPU.  It does increase when there is work to do, as you would expect, but then drops back to minimal.

In addition the RAM use by the application appears optimised.  This, along with additional speed improvements in the interface with navigation and note loading

[PinkElephant 1,613]

About CPU usage: One must remember that in MacOS the value is measured per core. So if you run a 4 core machine, 2.5% is in fact less than 1% of total CPU capacity, on an octacore it is below 0.5%.

Would be a good step  forward if the CPU usage gets back to a normal level again.

[AiRev 0]

It's ridiculous. Came here for high CPU usage (sending app to background worked, thanks!) and found memory footprint problem.

 

The reason for that is electron - new evernote is not just an app, but a chrome browser rendering html+js evernote app inside it's window. Electron is known to be a great resource hog, but very cheap in production. The native app was much better.

Starting to look for alternatives. Electron is no-go for me.

"On MacOS it even contains a userland USB driver for xbox360 controllers. (I know its there because I wrote it. Sorry.)" (c) Joseph Gentle http://josephg.com
 

 

[Randy Geyer 0]

Re-Installed 10.8.5 this morning.  It's midnight now.  With a single window open in the foreground, completely idle, Evernote Helper is hovering between 43 - 60% of a core.  It's consistently at the top of the %CPU list.  If I open 2-3 notes, it'll consume 100% or more CPU.  Between Evernote Helper(s) and Evernote, it's consuming ~2GB of RAM.  Performance is horrendous, especially given there's no Evernote UI activity whatsoever.  Between this and every other update causing notes to render blank, I think I'm done with EN after 15+ years.  I've been a loyal paid user, but this is just unacceptable.  These performance issues have been ongoing for months, some going back to 2019.

@AiRev It's not Electron, VSCode and Chrome Helpers (Renderers) consume 0-1% CPU when their UIs are idle (open but no activity).  This is an EN problem with whatever they're doing in their UI code.  Unbelievable!

 

 

[PinkElephant 1,613]

Known issue, fix pending.

Workaround: Close (cmd-q) and reopen the app from time to time.

[ArjenC 97]

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Known issue, fix pending.

Workaround: Close (cmd-q) and reopen the app from time to time.

This issue is because (cannot prove it) it is necessary (for now) to make Evernote perform. You can do some testing and see when memory/cpu is extensively used. 
The workaround works, only for a short time. Do some searching and the numbers go to the roof. 

The workaround is a typical one-shot solution from supportdesk manuals: Did you reset your device? No, please do.. I know this works in 90+% of the time, managed a supportdesk myself, but every time I read this advice I smile... 

[PinkElephant 1,613]

It may be necessary to open these instances to perform tasks for the user.

Not closing them when they did whatever they did (and are no longer needed) for me is a bug.

And a workaround is exactly that, not a solution, and not a replacement for a solution. It may just make the solution less urgent, depending on the quality of the workaround. This one is an easy one, but will still interrupt the users workflow.

[ArjenC 97]

2 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

And a workaround is exactly that, not a solution, and not a replacement for a solution. It may just make the solution less urgent, depending on the quality of the workaround. This one is an easy one, but will still interrupt the users workflow.

100% agree with you, but beware... extensive (and in my opinion useless) usage of the system isn't without costs. Your hardware will produce extra heat, if memory consumption is this high harddisks need to work harder. At the end your hardware will age faster.

Take a look with some resource management tools... the difference is significant.. V10 is resource heavy.. 

Example: Application idle, after  +/-10 minutes of start application... nothing else... V10 has 3x more I/O to SSD disk, why? It doesn't have to do anything... it is not in use.. only running. Has 10x more memory consumption, has 5x more cpu consumption... doing nothing.... 

This is not a bug, this is by design.. 

Numbers get more significant when application is in full use

[PinkElephant 1,613]

The discussion about how many resources a program should use to do its job is pointless. An app nested into a framework will never be as efficient as one programmed natively. I remember when critical programs were coded in assembler, to run it with minimal overhead directly on the CPU, using the CPUs own instruction set. Long gone, although regarding resources this is the most efficient way to run any code. Modern software concepts have other advantages, and making EN platform independent is a value in itself - faster fixes, more features, better release management.

If one can bake an egg on the CPU depends as much on the processor design as on the workload - my Intel Mac is heating up within seconds, whenever it decides to push up processor clock speed. If this was the measure, we would all be running on ARM already.

IMHO the bug is not the resources consumption, it is the blocking of resources after the task was executed.

[ArjenC 97]

I agree with you that is is upon the dev's to decide what is needed (memory, cpu etc) to do the job... IMHO the bug (or by design) takes way too much resources for capturing text/images/files... even in idle, background operations: doing nothing, it consumes more resource than photoshop in full workflow, or even playing games.. Framework vs native code, I don't even want to compare them, the choice was made... fine with me and from management perspective a logical choice.

And just as Evernote has choices so do we.
My observation, based on some basic tools, is that Evernote drains to many resources and this results in other bugs as well. Sync issues, dubblication of notes, missing data while webclipping. It can al be related to a device is critical resource shortage.

As we speak, memory Evernote (was running, not used today): 1.5GB, CPU 8% for doing absolutely nothing. .. and working with PhotoShop 572MB, CPU 0.2 %.
I don't judge but find this strange behaviour...

[Randy Geyer 0]

Other apps that use the same framework do not suffer from these issues.  Check out VSCode.  None of these issues.  It's not the framework.  It's the inefficient use of the framework.