▷ What is kernel_task and why does it work on my Mac?

A »kernel» is the kernel of any operating system, which is between the CPU, the memory, other hardware and software applications installed on the system. When the MAC is turned on, the first thing that starts is the kernel, and everything a system does flows through the kernel at some point. The kernel controls all the daemons / launch services, memory management, networks, etc. The kernel starts and kills the necessary tasks, and then clears the memory after those tasks have been closed. And all that background activity shows up in Activity Monitor, which is the Apple equivalent of “Windows Task Manager”, under a banner, what is kernel_task. The “kernel_task” consists of sending data through reading networks / writing or other tasks from other applications or system software.

Mac Book

If you are doing something that requires a lot of processing power, how to convert 4k videos, you might wonder why it takes so long and look at Activity Monitor. To open Activity Monitor, press Cmd + Space, then write “activity” and it should appear. Activity Monitor can also be found in Applications> Utilities.

Activity monitor

Click on the% CPU column heading to organize the running processes according to their processor usage rate. Anything that uses a lot of processing power will appear on top and things will move as the computer performs various tasks in the background.

High CPU usage is usually only a problem when you don't expect it. It is reasonable to expect the machine to consume resources if it is running a game, watching a video in the browser or editing a video. If a single Safari tab or Mac process is using more than its fair share, that usually means something went wrong.

You can kill any of these processes by clicking on them and then clicking “X” in the upper left corner of the screen. Unfortunately, can't be done for kernel_task because kernel_task is the operating system kernel.

kernel_task CPU usage in Activity Monitor

It is not so much about a single process, but from a series of processes under the same label. macOS does all kinds of things in the background, how to send and receive data over the network, write and read data and index new folders or disks for Spotlight search.

This process will often consume much of the RAM available in the Memory tab, but that's much less worrisome. RAM usage increases and decreases as needed. High CPU usage can stop the entire system and, sometimes, even cause a complete system crash. It is understandable that you feel frustrated, but it turns out your OS does it on purpose to prevent your CPU from overheating. Kernel_task also helps manage CPU temperature by making the CPU less available for CPU intensive processes. It is not itself the cause of these conditions. When the CPU temperature drops, kernel_task also automatically reduces CPU usage.

If the Mac is not slow, then there is no need to worry about this process occupying the CPU because that is normal. Kernel_task puts unused memory to work for things like file caching and a modern operating system. sometimes uses some CPU power.

So kernel_task is not using that CPU power, it's just preventing the CPU intensive process from using it to keep the temperature under control. Everything should return to normal when you are out of the danger zone.

But the point of concern is when kernel_task is constantly using most of the system resources, & amp; amp; Mac is slow because there could be a problem. The kernel can only be restarted by restarting the Mac and, sometimes, rebooting may solve the problem.

Excessive CPU usage by kernel_task

But if the behavior persists, here is a little idea to solve the problem.

How to fix resources consuming kernel_task?

We are going to go over some of the most common methods on how to fix high resource usage and consumption and explain them in an abstract way..

1. Because kernel_task is your operating system and killing processes is the best way to free up resources, a simple restart of your Mac will solve the problem immediately.

2. Consider scanning your Mac for malware, what could be causing the problem.

3. If kernel_task is using a lot of CPU / memory when nothing special is being done, there is another problem on your hands. Normally, this is due to third party kernel extensions called & amp; quot; kexts & amp; quot; on macOS. These modules are hardware drivers and some software drivers, that interact directly with the kernel. A faulty kext causes kernel_task to occupy excess CPU. To prove this, Mac should start in Safe Mode. Turn off your Mac and turn it back on while pressing the Shift key. The option of & amp; quot; Safe boot & amp; quot; will be displayed on the login screen. Safe mode does not enable third-party keys, so if your Mac doesn't have a problem in safe mode, has found your problem. Uninstall any drivers / recently installed third-party software & amp; amp; see if that helps. Safe boot

1. To find more details, use Etrecheck, running dozens of diagnostics, consisting of a list of all kexts & amp; amp; running on the system. Uninstall whatever you think is causing the problem, & amp; amp; see if the problem is solved. Etrecheck

2. An application with the bad habit of consuming a lot of CPU and causing this is Flash. If Flash or browser tabs are CPU intensive along with kernel_task, uninstall or disable Flash completely. As a result, Flash will not use the CPU with its various errors, and kernel_task won't counter it to keep the CPU cool.

3. Remove unnecessary startup items and free up hard drive space.

4. Restart NVRAM on your Mac.

5. Restart the system management controller (SMC). Restart SMC

6. Focus on the outside temperature (environment) that you can artificially cool using air conditioning to eliminate the slowdown that is designed to handle heat. The outside temperature also affects the temperature of the computer.

7. Take a look at MacBook fans, dust them off. What's more, clean the heatsink. Check the thermal paste if it is dry. Increase the fan speed.

8. Use a cooling pad for your laptop.

9. The high temperature of any part of the charging chassis along with the peripherals plugged in may have caused this problem. Moving the charging cable from the left side to the ports on the right side would be enough to cool down the MAC & amp; amp; can solve the problem. In a MagSafe loading machine, try disconnecting peripherals from the left ports until the battery is full.

10. Clear caches by running the following command in the & amp; lt; pre & amp; gt; Terminal & amp; quot; rm -rf ~ / Library / Hidden & amp; quot; & amp; lt; / pre & amp; gt;

11. Clear Safari caches if Safari may have caused the problem)

12. Restart the power block. Especially if you have an inconsistent AC source, especially if the laptop indicates that it is plugged in but not charging because if the power source encounters unreliable AC, stop charging the laptop. To solve it, just unplug the power supply from both ends for a few seconds then plug them back in. That can cause the laptop to start charging again, Y kernel_task stops eating CPU Y the fans stop spinning so much.

Risk solution

There seems to be a strange solution to this problem which includes moving some files, but since it is about system files, we do not recommend moving them unless it is a big problem for you.

1. Go to section “About this Mac” under the Apple logo in the upper left corner and select “More information”. Clicking on "About this Mac"

2. Click on the option “system report”.

3. Write down what the computer says after “Model Identifier”.

4. Navigate to the following.

    master unit>-Library System>Extensions>IOPlataformaPluginFamilia.kext -Contents>Plugins>ACPI_SMC_PlataformaPlugin.kext>Contents>Resources> (The folder that we wrote down in the third step)

5. Restart your computer and you should be done

If nothing helps, sometimes you have to stop wasting time and reinstall macOS from scratch, restart your Mac or consider a trip to the Apple Store.