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Evernote Mac 6.0.5: 100% CPU Utilization


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Ever since I updated to Evernote 6 on my Mac, my CPU is constantly at 100% (1 core). I've tried updating to 6.0.5 (App Store), logging out, rebooting and logging back in. That didn't do anything at all.

 

I've submitted a support request, and after 5 days of silence I received the very unhelpful "update to Evernote 6.0.5" response. I let them know that didn't work, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Have any other forum users found a work around? I've seen suggestions around deleting my Evernote database and re-syncing from the servers, but I can't find specific instructions or even whether that will fix my specific issue.

 

Does anyone have any idea what Evernote could be doing with one full core of my CPU? That's a lot of utilization for something that is largely a word processor.

 

Disappointed in Evernote.

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It's not largely a word processor, since it manages and organizes collections of notes. It's possible that it's building search indexes or doing some other processing behind the scene, and depending on the size of your note database, that may take awhile. Unless you're on a laptop, pinning a core may not be a big problem; presumably you have other cores for other processes to use. Rebooting just means that whatever Evernote is trying to do needs to continue (or restart altogether).

 

Agree that it would be good to find out what's going on, though.

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Jeff -

Sure, I may have been a bit dramatic. I disagree that pinning one core is acceptable. I only have two cores on my old Macbook air, so pinning one core isn't acceptable, especially when this is a new "feature" of version 6. It's a constant, multi-day process. I checked at one point and Evernote had over 24 hours of active CPU time. 

 

Tony

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If it's an operation that's critical to running the Evernote software on your machine, it may be acceptable if you want to run that software. And pinning a core may not be preventing other processes from using it, by the way. If it's slowing down other uses of your machine, then that would be a problem; if it's just chewing up CPU cycles that weren't going to be used by other processes anyways, then that's much less of a problem, unless you have power constraints, e.g. needing to run on battery most of the time. 

 

Again, it would be good to know what's going on behind the scenes. Do you have a large note database? Are you able to use Evernote while this is going on? Have you seen other messages in the forums showing this kinds of behavior?

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Jeff -

It's happening on both my Macbook air, which is 4 years old (Core 2 Duo, I believe) and my Mac Book Pro (work laptop). I find Evernote's CPU cycle eating unacceptable as it has diminished my battery capacity, and this is clearly a new bug in 6. I don't want this to devolve into an argument about the merits of Evernote's CPU utilization.

 

I'd rather focus on a solution. I've searched several times and have seen people complain of "slowness" but not the specific issue I'm seeing, which is what prompted me to post. I've seen some vague references to deleting my database and re-downloading, but no specific instructions.

 

Do you have any specific suggestions?

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Ever since I updated to Evernote 6 on my Mac, my CPU is constantly at 100% (1 core). I've tried updating to 6.0.5 (App Store), logging out, rebooting and logging back in. That didn't do anything at all.

 

I've submitted a support request, and after 5 days of silence I received the very unhelpful "update to Evernote 6.0.5" response. I let them know that didn't work, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Does anyone have any idea what Evernote could be doing with one full core of my CPU? 

 

Tony, that high of CPU usage is definitely NOT normal for Evernote.  The only time I can think of that you might see it is when you update to a new EN version that has to reindex the Notes.  But that should be over within a few hours (to a max of a day).

 

I see that you updated to Ver 6.0.5 AppStore, but as you're probably aware EN has had a lot trouble with their AppStore versions recently.  So, if you're still having issues AFTER updating to Ver 6.0.5 AppStore, then you might want to consider switching to the DirectDL version.

 

You could first try installing the DirectDL version on top of the AppStore version.  It will automatically do the conversion.  If that doesn't fix things, then you're down to a clean reinstall of the DirectDL.

 

See

How to Completely Remove and Reinstall EN Mac 

EN Mac 6.0.5 DirectDL Released

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I didn't want to start an argument; just wanted to clarify the situation. Since battery life is an issue for you, then yes, that's a larger problem, as I indicated before.

 

For concrete solutions, you're probably in possession of as much information as I am: you can search the forums, read all of the Mac 6 topics, reports of slowness, etc. (I don't folow those too closely, not being a Mac user). In addition, you can try:

* If you got a ticket number from your support request, you could post it here, and possibly an Evernote staffer will push it up the chain

* If you're a premium user, you could try the Evernote Chat feature.

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I have the exact same problem. 100% CPU and up to 160%

Evernote is now hanging on me several times a day.

Running 6.0.5 direct download 

Mac Mini Server 2Ghz, 2011, 4 cores.

 

NOT acceptable, especially as a premium customer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another update for anyone that is following along. Evernote support confirmed this is a bug. They didn't provide an ETA for a fix, but I have replied and requested one. I would encourage anyone else experiencing a similar issue to file a support issue in an effort to raise the visibility of how prevalent this issue is amongst the user base.

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I have a similar issue.

 

MacBook Pro. 2,7 GHz Intel Core i7. 4GB Memory. Running Yosemite 10.10 and EN 6.0.5. from the AppStore. Premium User.

 

Since I updated to this version, working on Evernote is hardly possible. It runs very slow (especially sync, display the notes etc.). 

 

CPU-% is up to 100 %. CPU-Time 1:21.40:17. Memory 14.29 GB. Base on the Activity Monitor.

 

Please fix things. This way EN is no use!

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I tried turning off the automatic sync, and it didn't change things for me. I did hear back from support, and the dev team believes they've found a fix for this specific issue. But no ETA beyond "in the next version" -- so I guess at this point it's a waiting game. I'd encourage everyone who has a similar issue to still file support requests.

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Filing extra support requests if they don't contain any actual new information is probably not going to help. It creates churn in bug ticket land, because duplicates need to be culled, and takes up CS (and other peoples') time, leaving less time for dealing with actual new issues. They're aware of the issues (they would be separate for the Windows and Mac cases), and they're evidently working on it.

 

In general they don't provide ETAs, but they do push out fairly frequent betas, so if you're not a beta user, you should still keep your eye out for recent beta releases for your platform -- they are usually posted as topics pinned to the Evernote forum. If you don't see a specific mention of a fix for this in the release notes, then ask there; you'll usually get a yes or no answer from one of the Evernote folks then.

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Filing extra support requests if they don't contain any actual new information is probably not going to help. 

 

I disagree.  Like @Tony H, I also encourage everyone who experiences a bug to report it via a support ticket, which I believe will be very helpful in getting the bug fixed in a timely manner.

 

The more people that report a bug will help Evernote better understand just how widespread the bug is.

Usually, EN will request that the user send it their Activity Log, which should help identify the bug.

 

Click here to submit a BUG report via an EN Support Ticket. In the Support Form, select "Report a bug, crash, or data lost", and start the Ticket Title with "BUG:  " to make it clear.  Reporting a bug should be available to all users, including Free Account owners.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evernote recently released version 6.0.6 which they told me would fix the issue. It hasn't fixed it for me. Has anyone upgraded to 6.0.6 and seen the CPU utilization go back to normal? Did you do anything besides the standard upgrade?

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I suggest that those of you that are still experiencing this issue file another BUG report for Ver 6.06,
IF you have done the following:

  1. Used Ver 6.0.6 for several days after the update
  2. Restarted your Mac several times
  3. Make sure you have a good Internet connection
    1. Use SpeedTest.net to check
    2. IF your speed is << 3 Mbps, then that could be an issue
    3. IMO, this is a design issue, but the recent Evernote versions (Mac & Win) don't seem to handle slow Internet speeds very well, resulting  in failed sync that keep retrying
  4. Check EN Activity Log to see if there are any problems noted there, like large or corrupt Notes that won't sync.

If you have a Premium account, use the EN Support Chat to get quick attention, and hopefully quick fix.

Good luck to all.

 

See Submit a BUG report via an EN Support Ticket. In the Support Form, select "Report a bug, crash, or data lost", and start the Ticket Title with "BUG:  " to make it clear.  Reporting a bug should be available to all users, including Free Account owners.

 

See Evernote Chat Support., available business days 7am-7pm US CST. 

(Chat option appears AFTER you click “Continue” on initial “Evernote Support” page.)

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Hey guys, I had the same problem on one of my older Macs, a 2011 MBA.

It has been running CPU% > 100% (without any usage) for 3 days now, and just came back down to near zero.

 

What was it doing?  Reindexing/Rebuilding the Tag List used for the Tag Filters.

I have > 2,000 Tags, and the Tag Filter would NOT work after the update.

But it's working now.  I had to leave Evernote running without any usage all day, as well as many hours in the 2 prior days.

 

For more info, see https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/81051-evernote-for-mac-606-released/?p=343822

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  • 1 month later...

Tony H,

 

I'm on EverNote version 6.0.6 from App Store and still having the same issues you describe. Also other problems such as slow typing and a scroll drift when typing or moving around in my notes. Started about the time you posted this topic.

 

If I have more time to collect all the nitty gritty details, I'll submit a bug report as you suggested to be another squeaky wheel. if I do submit a report, I'll also put in my love note below.

 

EverNote, in case you're reading this want tech details:

On OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), Mid 2011 MacBook Air, 1.7 GHz i5, memory 4 GB.

 

I know this is not an internet speed or system problem  -  I'm on a fast 15 Mbps cable connection and not maxing out resources on my MBA so there is plenty of free memory. Even typing in the most resource intensive situations is not as slow as typing in this app sometimes is.  E.g. Resource intense situation -  hammering out code in IDEs in a VMware Ubuntu Desktop with OS X apps Chrome with tons of tabs, Excel and Word on the host open.

 

EverNote used to be great and I believe it can still be!

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Too early to for me to call this problem resolved, but 1 and 1/2 hours into boot, EverNote is behaving better - no unreasonable CPU spikes, slow editing of notes or "scroll drift" so far. I'll try follow up with a post after a week of continuous use.

 

Here's what I did:

 

As lykoz suggested, I followed the guide in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6623697which is a special recipe for reseting SMC and PRAM. I've never heard of booting into Safe Mode before resetting SMC but oh well, why not try.

 

If you have an EFI boot password like me, then you have to:

  1. Boot to safe mode using the nvram command or turn off the EFI password. Google for the command. Apple support lays out the command to use.
  2. To reset PRAM, you must to turn off the EFI password, reset PRAM, then turn EFI password back on. Google for more info.

 

I'm not sure if it is related, but I have external monitor with Thunderbolt-to-DVI cable. I connect/disconnect to the monitor often. When disconnecting or reconnecting to the external monitor, this seems stress OS X as it figures out how to adjust all the open apps in the new desktop layout. Maybe resetting SMC or PRAM might have helped the mix of video graphics hardware, trackpad and keyboard.

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  • 2 weeks later...

106 days and counting, this is still impacting me. I've tried all of the suggestions above, but to no avail. I've canceled my premium subscription (5 years), and I'm intending to find a replacement. 

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This is finally solved for m, by the Evernote support and Engineering teams. The issue is with a single bad note that Evernote cannot generate a card preview for.

 

1) Upgrade to Evernote 6.0.9 Beta

2) Enable preview note logging. Note, this will cause note titles to show up in your Evernote activity log.

In a terminal, run: defaults write com.evernote.Evernote ENNotePreviewDebuggingEnabled -bool YES

3) Quit evernote, and re-open it and force a sync

4) Go to the Evernote activity log, and look for a "Start Preview" that doesn't have a corresponding "Finish Preview" line. It's easier to spot if you are in "side list view" as there should just be the broken note generating a preview

5) Export any notes that never finish generating a preview

6) Delete broken notes, and make sure to permanently erase them from your trash

7) Quit Evernote and re-open it.

 

CPU usage should be back to a normal level (i.e. not 100%)

 

You can then re-import the broken note(s) and they'll no longer cause this high CPU utilization bug

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@Tony H:

 

Thanks for sharing your solution.   I'm sure it will be of help to a lot of users.

 

Do you know if you have to update to EN Mac 6.0.9 BETA?

Would it work with a earlier production GA release, like 6.0.8 or 6.0.7?

 

I'm not fond of updating to a BETA version.

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6.0.9 beta is required. That's when the additional logging was added.

 

I can appreciate your concern, but frankly even the "stable" releases have quite a few bugs. 

 

This also isn't "my" solution. It's straight from the EN support team. I just thought it'd be helpful to share.

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This is finally solved for m, by the Evernote support and Engineering teams. The issue is with a single bad note that Evernote cannot generate a card preview for.

 

1) Upgrade to Evernote 6.0.9 Beta

2) Enable preview note logging. Note, this will cause note titles to show up in your Evernote activity log.

In a terminal, run: defaults write com.evernote.Evernote ENNotePreviewDebuggingEnabled -bool YES

3) Quit evernote, and re-open it and force a sync

4) Go to the Evernote activity log, and look for a "Start Preview" that doesn't have a corresponding "Finish Preview" line. It's easier to spot if you are in "side list view" as there should just be the broken note generating a preview

5) Export any notes that never finish generating a preview

6) Delete broken notes, and make sure to permanently erase them from your trash

7) Quit Evernote and re-open it.

 

CPU usage should be back to a normal level (i.e. not 100%)

 

You can then re-import the broken note(s) and they'll no longer cause this high CPU utilization bug

 

 

I tried to follow the process but do not understand "force sync" on step 3  nor step 4.

Perhaps the Evernote team could explain in greater details the critical steps?

I still get 100-150% on restart of the app for a while

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Thank you. These are the easy parts for me.

 

However

Forcing a sync does not do much (lasts a second or two)

Looking into the activity log and searching for the string "Start Preview" only lists the last few notes I made modifications to. Dos not show me the broken notes if any.

 

On the plus side, the 100% CPU usage does not last longer than a few minutes now.

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Looks like Tony H solved his problem. That is fantastic! Tony H definitely has a good grasp on debugging. I will keep his solution of fixing syncing and broken notes in my back pocket if EverNote starts hogging again.

 

After 3 and 1/2 weeks from my post on Mar 15, EN is working better for me. This is after a SMC and PRAM reset. EN seems to be less hoggy. Unfortunately, editing notes with large lists (bullets or numbered) were still laggy.

 

Last week Evernote updated to Version 6.0.8 (451398 App Store), and the update seems good. I've yet to test editing large lists since the update but I'm hoping that is smoother.

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  • 1 month later...

I had a similar issue where Evernote ended up using majority of the memory, and Mac paused most of the open programs due to lack of memory. Everytime I forced quit and restarted Evernote, it will start eating up memory with v high CPU and go into "Not Responding" mode. 

 

After following this thread and a couple of other threads, I decided to upgrade Evernote first and then try the SMC PRAM reset. 

 

I was not able to view the last version of Evernote I had, but  I am pretty sure it was 6.0.5 or 6.0.6. 

 

I first upgraded without uninstalling evernote. Upgrade version which can be downloaded is 6.0.11 from Evernote website. This did not help at all, and evernote showed all the same issues as before. 

 

I then uninstalled Evernote (using AppCleaner app), re-downloaded 6.0.11 and installed it again. This time as soon as I opened Evernote it asked me to update to latest version ( 6.0.12 (451637 Direct)). I updated to this version, signed in again. It took a few minutes to sync all my notes, but there is no more memory or CPU high usage. 

 

I did turn off the Context feature when it was doing the first sync. I have turned it back again, and everything still looks good. 

 

Hope this is useful to other who might have the same issues. 

 

System:

OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch Mid 2014 

16 GB Ram. 

Intel Core i7 2.8 Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

 

 

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@shreejay:

 
 
Thanks for your report on this issue.  I just want to highlight for any readers quickly scanning this thread/page that Ver 6.0.12 fixed your issue with excessive memory and CPU usage.
 

I hope it is also a fix for all other users.

 

I then uninstalled Evernote (using AppCleaner app), re-downloaded 6.0.11 and installed it again. This time as soon as I opened Evernote it asked me to update to latest version ( 6.0.12 (451637 Direct)). I updated to this version, signed in again. It took a few minutes to sync all my notes, but there is no more memory or CPU high usage.

 

Hope this is useful to other who might have the same issues. 

 

System:

OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch Mid 2014 

16 GB Ram. 

Intel Core i7 2.8 Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

I have the same issue on my machine and Evernote has become an unusable piece of software for me. I have just recently uninstalled and reinstalled the software and it is still operating poorly utilizing 100% cpu and unable to render a simple note containing text. 

 

Please fix these issues. I am happy to provide any technical information necessary for Evernote folks to debug.

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  • Ex Employees

@blackberryocto What Evernote version are you running where you are still experiencing this issue? Did you download the app from the MAS, or from our site? Can you also provide some additional information about your Mac?

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you are experiencing an issue with high CPU usage, we'd like to have you submit a support ticket (see the link in my signature). Please make sure to include an activity log and include a link to this forum post. 

 

After submitting your ticket, please post your ticket number here so we can expedite your case.

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