High CPU usage keeps draining battery (Macos Sonoma, 10.91.4)

[Feitz 262]

One of the last updates seems to have reintroduced high CPU usage even in idle. 

Normally my Macbook sits at 2-3% when idle, with V10 open in the background I am now constantly between 15% and 25%, even with no new content added.

Anyone else experiencing this? 

[kkarney 146]

It's still painfully slow for me, but not seeing that on Monterey 12.7.3

 

[Dave Green 260]

I am not seeing that.

Have you tried the usual troubleshooting:

• Quit Evernote, start it again
• Reboot your computer
• Logout of Evernote on the desktop client, quit Evernote, reboot, re-login

Leaving off others that are more work.

[PinkElephant 8,738]

If your car fills the street with black smoke and creaching noise, you assume without thinking something must be broken. And you fix it, or get it fixed.

Why is it so difficult to understand that excessively high CPU usage point to a defect. Luckily the solution has been described a zillion times already, so you just need to follow it.

So get that AppCleaner wrench and sort it out.

[kkarney 146]

8 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Why is it so difficult to understand that excessively high CPU usage point to a defect.

Why is it so difficult for you to not be snarky when answering a question?

[mackid1993 1,221]

I think it's just @PinkElephant's sense of humor. It's hard to read tone when it's written in text. 

[Feitz 262]

4 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

I think it's just @PinkElephant's sense of humor. 

With this I actually disagree. It's simply bad manners.

 

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

So get that AppCleaner wrench and sort it out.

That would be for the fourth or fifth time since I installed V10 on this notebook mid March. With 80GB of data this will again take - as you often pointed out in a different context - several days or even more until everything is settled again. 

I am quite sure this problem was not present a couple of iterations of V10 back. 

If I really have to wipe my data at least twice a month then something cannot be right with the product.

I may repeat myself but this NEVER EVER happened with Legacy, along with no issues at all for the last four years with 7.14 (mac). So I doubt my setup has gone out of whack.  

Fun detail, I just used my iPad Pro (which lasts a really long time on battery) with V10 (fully synced, no new content) and simply displayed a cooking recipe while preparing baby back ribs for tomorrow:

The battery drained from 99% to 39% (19 min screen on, 1 hr 1m off) with only the recipy having been displayed and the iPad not touched otherwise!!!

I can't wipe the iPad since it has no local data (apart from metadata). Since allegedly the code base is the same for all platforms I suspect the reason for this drain is the same also and not related to a local issue.

[mackid1993 1,221]

3 minutes ago, Feitz said:

Since allegedly the code base is the same for all platforms I suspect the reason for this drain is the same also and not related to a local issue.

Mobile actually uses React Native. It's a seperate codebase.

Have you attempted to just kill the process and start it back up again to see if the usage settles down? It's possible one of the chromium subprocesses just got stuck and killing Evernote and restarting it will calm your usage down.

I wouldn't go the Appcleaner route, that seems unnecessary. Did you attempt to reboot your Mac as well? I've seen processes go nuts before and a simple reboot clears it up. If this is persistent across reboots that would be more concerning.

[mackid1993 1,221]

7 minutes ago, Feitz said:

With this I actually disagree. It's simply bad manners.

Eh, sometimes I'm on the fence. I can't tell if he's just joking around or being an a**. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he has a unique sense of humor.

[Feitz 262]

Just now, mackid1993 said:

just assume he has a unique sense of humor.

ok, let's settle on a unique(ly) bad mannered sense of humor 🙂

[mackid1993 1,221]

Just now, Feitz said:

ok, let's settle on a unique(ly) bad mannered sense of humor 🙂

Fair enough. Perhaps he should adjust the way he addresses other users to prevent these kinds of situations.

[Feitz 262]

3 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Mobile actually uses React Native. It's a seperate codebase.

I wasn't aware of this at all. Wasn't a unified codebase the number one selling point of V10??? 

I regularly restart and since there are several processes of V10 renderer I don't suspect a run-off process.
When I close V10 things calm down to 2-3% CPU usage instantly.

7 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

If this is persistent across reboots that would be more concerning

Not only across reboots, but across platforms...

[PinkElephant 8,738]

Hey Jim, make it an XXL 🍿

[mackid1993 1,221]

1 minute ago, Feitz said:

I wasn't aware of this at all. Wasn't a unified codebase the number one selling point of V10??? 

Yes, Electron on Desktop and React Native on mobile.

What kind of Mac do you have. Is it older? Apple Silicon or Intel?

[mackid1993 1,221]

Just now, PinkElephant said:

Hey Jim, make it an XXL 🍿

Please, either try to help or don't comment. The sarcasm and abrasiveness is not appreciated by anyone on this forum.

[Feitz 262]

4 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

What kind of Mac do you have. Is it older? Apple Silicon or Intel?

It's a MBP mid 2015 i7 retina running Sonoma via OCLP, large. fast OWC NVME.
Perfectly fine for anything I use it for. Was fine for V10 until recently (but I had high CPU issues before with V10 but not lately).

[Feitz 262]

Interesting statement from the other recent CPU thread:

9 hours ago, Pasamelo said:

Today I installed version 10.91.4 and CPU comsumption dissapeared.

[Feitz 262]

15 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Yes, Electron on Desktop and React Native on mobile.

You happen to know how they keep their code in sync? 

[PinkElephant 8,738]

OCLP means Sonoma is not supported for this MBP, although it may be technically able to run the OS version. Apple has a different opinion about it, and that’s why they don’t officially allow the MacOS version to be installed.

Installing via OCLP is like running a beta version of the OS. Anything is possible, including weird behavior of apps.

No further ideas, good luck.

[mackid1993 1,221]

5 minutes ago, Feitz said:

It's a MBP mid 2015 i7 retina running Sonoma via OCLP, large. fast OWC NVME.
Perfectly fine for anything I use it for. Was fine for V10 until recently (but I had high CPU issues before with V10 but not lately).

Unfortunately the iGPU in the 4th gen i7 you have is probably getting hit very hard. It may even be thermal throttling due to dried up thermal paste at that age. I would wager based on my experience that your issues are hardware related. Running Sonoma on unsupported hardware really pushes it hard too, the requirements for Sonoma are really high. I have a 2015 Macbook Air I use for BlueBubbles (iMessage on Android) and it can barely handle Evernote. I have to leave it on Ventura so it's useable as an iMessage server. You are severely CPU bottlenecked here. You have to remember, Legacy was designed for the hardware of the time it was created in which is 2013-2016 or so which is the era of your Macbook Pro. v10 was released in late 2020 and is designed for modern hardware and unfortunately 9 years is an eternity for technology.

The issues you are experiencing are simply because of the age of your hardware. 

[Feitz 262]

13 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

OCLP means Sonoma is not supported for this MBP

That' what OCLP is made for. I've been using it for two years now and never had an issue. Sonoma isn't aware of not running on unsupported hardware.

[mackid1993 1,221]

Just now, Feitz said:

That' what OCLP is made for. I've been using it for two years now and never had an issue. Sonoma isn't aware of not running on unsupported hardware.

OCLP is not supported by Apple. You are running a modern OS on hardware that it isn't designed to run on. Like I said I do this for an iMessage server, but the experience is not great beyond that. Unfortunately to avoid these performance issues you will need a modern device.

[mackid1993 1,221]

6 minutes ago, Feitz said:

You happen to know how they keep their code in sync? 

They have a seperate codebase for desktop and mobile.

[Feitz 262]

9 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

OCLP is not supported by Apple. You are running a modern OS on hardware that it isn't designed to run on. Like I said I do this for an iMessage server, but the experience is not great beyond that. Unfortunately to avoid these performance issues you will need a modern device.

To be frank I really doubt this. In my view this simply is a marketing decision to abandon older hardware. 

Only way to find out is to wait a couple of iterations of V10 and see whether the high CPU usage stays as high as it is today or someday mysteriously goes away.

 

12 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

It may even be thermal throttling due to dried up thermal paste at that age

My MBP only spins up the fans when V10 goes wild or I watch a 4K movie. No throttling so far but I regularly renew thermal paste and clean the fans.

Edit: I only use this MBP for business purposes, nothing fancy or GPU heavy. 

[mackid1993 1,221]

1 minute ago, Feitz said:

To be frank I really doubt this. In my view this simply is a marketing decision to abandon older hardware. 

Only way to find out is to wait a couple of iterations of V10 and see whether the high CPU usage stays as high as it is today or someday mysteriously goes away.

 

My MBP only spins up the fans when V10 goes wild or I watch a 4K movie. No throttling so far but I regularly renew thermal paste and clean the fans.

You are running a 4th gen i7... that most likely the cause of your problem. You are also running it on an operating system that can barely handle 4th gen Intel hardware, I've tried to run Sonoma on a 4th gen i5 and it was horrific to use, so I imagine that with 2 more cores it's just bearable. I tried to run Evernote on that device and had to use the web app because it was so slow. With your faster SSD and extra RAM it should be a little bit faster, but this is highly CPU bound so it's not going to be much better.

If you went out and got an M1 Macbook Air which at least in the US can be found new for $600-$700 you'd have a much better experience despite having less RAM than you likely have now.

[Feitz 262]

1 minute ago, mackid1993 said:

If you went out and got an M1 Macbook Air which at least in the US can be found new for $600-$700 you'd have a much better experience despite having less RAM than you likely have now.

I didn't use it recently but I have a maxed-out M1 mac mini for comparison. I will report back when I have enough time to test this (not this week though).
But thanks four your comments, hardware's definitely something to keep in mind. 

[mackid1993 1,221]

3 minutes ago, Feitz said:

I didn't use it recently but I have a maxed-out M1 mac mini for comparison. I will report back when I have enough time to test this (not this week though).
But thanks four your comments, hardware's definitely something to keep in mind. 

I just want to reiterate, legacy was designed when your 2015 hardware was brand new. v10 was designed when your 2015 hardware was 5 years old. Also Apple tended to use older processors. Intel Skylake (6th gen) came out in 2015 yet your laptop is running Haswell (4th gen). 5th gen Broadwell wasn't a major release and was mostly skipped, but Skylake was a pretty big jump for the time. Haswell was released in 2013, so you are really running on a 10 year old microarchitecture. It may also be that like you said you have an 80 GB database, perhaps Evernote is doing some indexing in the background that is cooking your old CPU that wouldn't be noticeable on more modern hardware and after a while that will settle down. Just a thought! 😊

 

[Feitz 262]

20 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

Evernote is doing some indexing in the background that is cooking your old CPU that wouldn't be noticeable on more modern hardware and after a while that will settle down. Just a thought! 😊

That could explain the sudden spike after an update, maybe the changed something in the database structure that had to propagate to the clients. That would explain the high battery drain of the iPad as well. It would be a good idea to communicate structural changes so we are warned in advance. 

I'll let the MBP sit open over night and see how things develop. 

I know this machine is old but I am reluctant to shell out 4500 EUR for an equally equipped Apple silicon Macbook Pro. I need the SSD space and the large screen, not so much the performance (not doing any graphics/video editing stuff), just handling legal documents for the time being (lots of them actually). 

[mackid1993 1,221]

3 minutes ago, Feitz said:

I know this machine is old but I am reluctant to shell out 4500 EUR for an equally equipped Apple silicon Macbook Pro. I need the SSD space and the large screen, not so much the performance (not doing any graphics/video editing stuff), just handling legal documents for the time being (lots of them actually). 

Invest in a NAS for your storage. The problem with Apple imo is they charge an unreasonable amount of money for storage and memory upgrades. With a Windows machine the pricing is much more in line with reality. There's really an Apple tax.

[PinkElephant 8,738]

A MacBook Air 15“ will eat a 4th gen Intel CPU for breakfast, lunch and dinner, without breaking a sweat.

It will not be 4.500€. With 24GB of RAM and 1TB we are talking about 2.500€. If you buy refurbished maybe 10% less. Still serious money, but worth every dime.

[mackid1993 1,221]

19 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

A MacBook Air 15“ will eat a 4th gen Intel CPU for breakfast, lunch and dinner, without breaking a sweat.

It will not be 4.500€. With 24GB of RAM and 1TB we are talking about 2.500€. If you buy refurbished maybe 10% less. Still serious money, but worth every dime.

An M1 Macbook Air base model would destroy his 2015 MBP.

[Feitz 262]

So after letting the MBP and V10 run over night things settled down, I'm back at well under 10% cpu usage even with V10 open. 

My take on this is that one of the recent updates was probably involving some sort of change to the database that was causing the high load while it was processed on both the Macbook and the iPad.

Since no new content had been added recently and everything was in sync I didn't have that on the radar, therefore I opened this thread. Thanks, @mackid1993 for your support.

23 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

A MacBook Air 15“ will eat a 4th gen Intel CPU for breakfast, lunch and dinner, without breaking a sweat

Of course I am aware of that, but as long as my Macbook cpu mostly idles along at 3-10% I see no need to ditch it. I am not doing any cpu-hungry stuff with it, no video, no graphics, just document related work.

[PinkElephant 8,738]

Usually there is a notification if there is a database change. It may pop up very briefly, but it will show.

Any time it does, some idle activity is to be expected.

[Feitz 262]

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Usually there is a notification if there is a database change. It may pop up very briefly, but it will show.

Any time it does, some idle activity is to be expected.

I remember these but I didn't notice one lately, hence the surprise. But it certainly makes sense to be watching out in the future. 

But keeping track is difficult with the update frenzy they recently started. I wouldn't mind some control over the process as in every civilised app. You might actually need V10 e.g. in a meeting when it decides to do an update right away...

[mackid1993 1,221]

@Feitz you also have a big database and a slow computer... it's going to take more time. Even something minor is going to take a while with a slow CPU and 80GB database.

[PinkElephant 8,738]

7 hours ago, Feitz said:

…. You might actually need V10 e.g. in a meeting when it decides to do an update right away...

Actually I think this has been solved, at least for open EN sessions. You get a notification top left of the sidebar. You can click it to update right away, or don’t. In this case it will update the next time the app is started.

To avoid this keep the app open while going into the meeting, and you should be safe from a sudden update.