How To Use Activity Monitor

Troubleshooting with Activeness Monitor

Activeness Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk drive > Applications > Utilities binder, is especially suited to troubleshooting operation problems, such as the Spinning Beach Brawl of Death (SBBOD) and full general organisation sluggishness.

For example, Activity Monitor can be used to determine if your Mac has sufficient resources — CPU, RAM, and costless space on your startup deejay — for your daily workload. If your Mac regularly performs poorly or your work is often interrupted by the SBBOD, your figurer may be lacking in one or more than of these necessary resources. This is especially true if your work primarily involves notoriously resource-intensive applications, such as multimedia editing, financial modeling, or scientific calculating.

To acquire all that Activity Monitor can do, read its Aid: in Activity Monitor, cull Help > Activity Monitor Help.

This FAQ discusses using Action Monitor to troubleshoot operation bug. It includes the post-obit topics:

Activity Monitor nuts.
Checking CPU usage.
Checking RAM usage.
- Free vs. available RAM.
Checking free infinite on the startup disk.
Checking disk activity.
Checking network action.
Finding and terminating errant processes.
Sampling a procedure.

Action Monitor basics

To open Action Monitor, double-click its icon in the Macintosh Hard disk drive > Applications > Utilities binder.

The top section of the Activity Monitor window is dominated by the process list. This list shows both open applications and background — aka system — processes. Technically, the operating organisation regards both user applications and system processes simply as processes.

You lot tin can adjust the size of the procedure list by dragging the sizing handle in the lower-correct corner of the Activity Monitor window. You can choose the columns of data shown in the procedure list in the View > Columns carte. You can sort the process listing past clicking column headings until they appear in the desired order; the current sort column is highlighted and contains an arrowhead denoting the society. You can choose the frequency at which data in the Activity Monitor window is updated in the View > Update Frequency carte du jour.

The bottom section of the Activeness Monitor window contains tabs for displaying different panes of information. The tabs are labeled CPU, Organization Retentivity, Disk Activity, Disk Usage, and Network. Clicking a tab displays a pane of data virtually that attribute of your Mac. Each pane shows associated existent-time statistics and one or more related graphs. Choices in the View > Dock Icon carte du jour tin can set the Dock icon for Activity Monitor to display i of the graphs for easier monitoring of a specific parameter, such as CPU usage or Organisation Retention. Details volition be provided later in this FAQ.

Advanced users may note that Activity Monitor is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to many of the statistics provided by the Terminal command top.

Checking CPU usage

The Central Processing Unit (CPU), aka processor, is the part of your Mac that executes instructions, such every bit running the operating organisation and applications. It is the engine of your Mac. Unfortunately, if the CPU does not have the horsepower required for your type of work, your Mac will perform poorly and yous may be often interrupted past the SBBOD.

To see if your CPU is up to the chore:

1.	Open Activity Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk drive > Applications > Utilities binder.
2.	Click the CPU tab. The CPU pane appears in the lower section of Activity Monitor.

3.	Watch the CPU usage graphs as you perform your work. If the graphs are persistently total or nigh full, as seen in the screen shot above, then one of the following weather condition exists: An errant process is monopolizing the CPU. Encounter "Finding and terminating errant processes" afterward in this FAQ. Your daily workload requires a more powerful CPU.

The left side of the CPU pane shows the percentage of CPU used by different process categories. The two well-nigh important are % User — processes running in logged-in accounts — and % System for system-related processes. To see a definition for a category, hover the mouse pointer over the label, e.thou. % User, and a assist tag volition appear.

The right side of the CPU pane displays one or more dynamic graphs — fourth dimension series — showing CPU usage over time, color-coded by process category. At that place is one graph for each processor core, indicating the CPU usage in that given core.

In improver to the CPU pane, Action Monitor offers two additional methods of watching CPU usage: in the Dock icon for Activity Monitor itself or in a persistent or floating window.

To show CPU usage in:

Then :

The Dock icon for Activity Monitor

Do one of the following:

In Activity Monitor, choose View > Dock Icon > Show CPU Usage.
Set the Dock icon for Activity Monitor in the Dock:

	1.	Control-click the Dock icon for Action Monitor icon.
	ii.	Choose Dock Icon.
	iii.	Choose Show CPU Usage.

The Dock icon for Activity Monitor becomes a set of real-time bar graphs of CPU usage, with one bar for each processor core.

A persistent or floating window

Do 1 of the following:

In Activity Monitor, choose Window, then cull either:
- CPU Usage for a persistent, floating CPU usage window.
- Floating CPU Window > desired orientation
In the Dock:

	1.	Command-click the Activity Monitor icon.
	2.	Choose Monitors, then choose either: Show CPU Usage to display CPU usage in a persistent window. Floating CPU Window, then choose the desired orientation (Horizontal, Vertical, or None).

The selected window type opens, usually in a lower corner of the display.

Notation that the persistent or floating CPU usage windows may not appear if the Dock icon for Activity Monitor has been fix to Show CPU Usage.

If your CPU is not up to the task, you must either upgrade to a new Mac or effort to conserve CPU resources by running fewer applications concurrently.

Checking RAM usage

Applications and processing on your Mac require physical random-admission retentiveness (RAM). The more applications you open or the larger the files those applications work upon, the more RAM is consumed.

To employ the available RAM efficiently, Mac Bone X employs Virtual Memory (VM). This includes dynamic paging: maximizing available RAM by moving data from RAM to swap files on the startup disk and dorsum. The less RAM you take, the more than CPU cycles and free space on your startup disk are devoted to paging and swap files, respectively.

To determine if your Mac has sufficient RAM:

i.	Open Activity Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk > Applications > Utilities folder.
2.	Click the System Retentivity tab. The System Retentiveness pane appears in the lower section of Activity Monitor.

three.	Watch the pie nautical chart. By default, Free RAM is shown in green; the larger this section of the pie, the better. If the Free department is reduced to a sliver during your twenty-four hour period, 1 of the post-obit weather exists: Your Mac has insufficient RAM for your workload. One or more of the applications yous are using has a retentivity leak, a bug that merely the developer can fix. If you suspect a memory leak, notify the developer and refer them to the "Finding Memory Leaks" chapter of the Apple Developer Connection document Memory Usage Performance Guidelines. Avant-garde users who accept installed Xcode tin endeavour to a find retentivity leaks in a specific application using the `MallocDebug` operation tool.

The left side of the System Memory pane shows memory use in different categories. To encounter the definition of a category , hover the mouse arrow over the label, e.m. Free, and a aid tag will appear. The categories are too defined in the AppleCare Knowledge Base certificate "Mac Bone X: Reading system retention usage in Activeness Monitor."

Of these categories, Free and Folio Outs are the about important. If Free is depression and Page Outs is consistently high during your piece of work day, more RAM will help.

The right side of the Arrangement Memory pane shows a pie chart of RAM usage. As noted earlier, more than light-green — Free RAM — is better. If the green section is a sliver, more than RAM is recommended.

As with CPU usage, yous can ease RAM monitoring past setting the System Memory pie chart equally the Dock icon for Activity Monitor. To do this, perform ane of the post-obit tasks:

In Activeness Monitor, cull View > Dock Icon > Show Retention Usage.
In the Dock:

Control-click the Activity Monitor icon.
Choose Dock Icon.
Choose Evidence Retentivity Usage.

To remove all doubts about the adequacy of the RAM installed in your Mac, y'all tin can employ Final to check an important RAM statistic that is omitted from the System Memory pane: page-ins and page-outs per second. This will farther dominion out tiresome performance due to thrashing, a condition where Gratuitous RAM is so low that paging monopolizes CPU activity. Run across our "Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space" FAQ for details.

If Complimentary RAM is low, thrashing volition also show up as persistently high values in the Deejay Activity pane of Activeness Monitor. See "Checking deejay activity" later in this FAQ.

If your Mac needs more RAM, add as much RAM every bit your budget volition allow, upwardly to the limit your Mac volition accept. You lot can never have too much RAM.

Free vs. bachelor RAM

Some may ask whether a shortage of Free RAM indicates the demand for more RAM; they may fence that available RAM is a better measure of RAM sufficiency.

Available RAM is the sum of the Free and Inactive retentiveness shown in the Arrangement Memory pane. Free RAM is just that: RAM that is not being used. Inactive memory lives in a twilight zone between Free and Active retentiveness. Whether retentivity is Active or Inactive depends on how recently it was accessed, where recently is divers past undisclosed parameters of the VM organization itself.

For example, memory allocated to the current — frontmost — awarding that you are using is included in Active retention. Memory allocated to applications that you have opened, but non accessed recently, may exist included in Inactive memory. If you lot switch to an awarding whose memory is Inactive, that retentivity becomes Active. If Gratis memory drops below a certain threshold — once again undisclosed — the VM paging system frees Inactive memory via a page-out, copying some of the contents of Inactive memory to disk by writing them to a bandy file, and then switching that Inactive memory to Gratuitous retention. If you lot switch to an application whose allocated memory has been paged-out to a swap file, Active retentiveness must be allocated for a page-in, where the contents of that application'south retention on the bandy file are copied back to RAM. Depending on the amount of Free memory, a page-in may kickoff require more page-outs from Inactive memory to swap files.

For ideal operation, your Mac should have enough RAM that paging is unnecessary. When paging becomes excessive due to insufficient Gratuitous retentivity, thrashing tin result.

Therefore, while bachelor RAM is the sum of Free and Inactive retention, the amount of Inactive memory is always in a state of flux. Having a sizable amount of Gratuitous memory at all times is a good proxy for gauging whether or not yous have enough RAM for your daily workload. Readers who are interested in boosted details should review the following Apple Developer documents:

The "Retentivity Management in Mac OS 10" chapter of Memory Usage Operation Guidelines.
The "Memory and Virtual Memory" affiliate of Kernel Programming Guide.

Checking free space on the startup deejay

Free infinite on your startup disk is important if your Mac has less RAM than your work demands. Costless space is required for the swap files used in managing VM and for the scratch or temporary files often employed by multimedia editing applications. A lack of gratuitous infinite, particularly when combined with insufficient RAM, tin can lead to poor operation due to thrashing, also as host of other bug.

To check the free disk space on your startup deejay:

1.	Open Activity Monitor, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
ii.	Click the Deejay Usage tab. The Disk Usage pane appears in the lower section of Action Monitor.

iii.	Choose your startup disk — usually Macintosh HD — in the pop-up menu on the left side of the Disk Usage pane.
4.	Check both the pie chart and the value of the Space gratuitous field. Past default, costless disk space (Space costless) is shown in green; the larger this department of the pie, the better. If this department is reduced to a sliver, or if the value of Infinite free is less than 10 GB, the free space on your startup disk is virtually exhausted.

If the startup disk has insufficient gratis space, attempt to complimentary up infinite by following the advice in our "Freeing space on your Mac OS 10 startup disk" FAQ. As a dominion of pollex, 10 GB is the minimum amount of free disk infinite, but far more is better. Otherwise, y'all will need to upgrade the startup deejay in your Mac to a larger hard disk drive.

If free startup disk infinite is visibly and significantly disappearing during your work twenty-four hour period that cannot be explained by normal activity, such as new files you are creating or downloading, then an errant process may exist writing incessantly to Console logs. See "Checking deejay activity" later in this FAQ for details.

Checking disk action

Problems of thrashing or mysteriously disappearing free space on your startup disk may exist confirmed past checking the Disk Activeness pane in Activity Monitor:

1.	Open Activeness Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk > Applications > Utilities folder.
2.	Click the Disk Activity tab. The Disk Activity pane appears in the lower section of Activity Monitor.

three.	High values in the per-second fields, combined with a very decorated graph, can be indicative of the following problems: Thrashing, if Free RAM is too low in the Arrangement Memory pane. Y'all Mac requires more RAM. An errant process writing incessantly to Console logs if the Space free value for your startup disk in the Deejay Usage pane is inexplicably shrinking both visibly and significantly during the day. Bank check Console for clues, such as large blocks of repeating letters beingness written to either the console log or the organization log.

Checking network activity

From a troubleshooting standpoint, the Network pane of Activity Monitor may at first seem to exist the least useful. Both Network Utility — located in the Macintosh Hd > Applications > Utilities binder — and the Network Diagnostics characteristic of Mac Bone 10 are more than suited to troubleshooting network-related issues.

Nevertheless, the Network pane can be useful in determining if unexpected network activity is occurring. Unexpected network activity can be due to anti-piracy features in applications also every bit unauthorized transmissions from malware or spyware.

To check for unexpected network activity:

one.

Disable network-related applications and features:

1.1.	Quit all open up applications that generate network activity: Web browsers, e-mail clients, chat clients, iTunes, and the similar.
1.2.	Open up Sharing preferences and temporarily disable any enabled options.
1.3.	If enabled, temporarily disable Bluetooth.

two.

Open up Activity Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk drive > Applications > Utilities folder.

Click the Network tab. The Network pane appears in the lower section of Activity Monitor.

iv.

Watch the graph. If you are seeing periods of very high network activeness, then some awarding or background process is using the network. Some activity tin can be ignored:

If you use chose Set appointment and time automatically in the Date & Time tab of Date & Time preferences, you lot may see an occasional blip when your Mac checks the specified network time server to synchronize its clock.
If Software Update performs an automatic bank check for new software while y'all are monitoring network activity, you volition see a spike in transmissions. This spike will exist prolonged if updates are available, particularly if y'all have also selected the option to Download updates automatically in the Scheduled Bank check tab of Software Update preferences.

If you lot find unexpected network activity:

vi.

Enable network-related applications and features that were disabled in pace one:

six.1.	Open the applications you lot quit in stride i.1.
6.ii.	Enable options in Sharing preferences that were disabled in pace 1.ii.
6.3.	Enable Bluetooth if you lot disabled it in stride ane.3.

Note that the # Ports, Letters Sent, and Letters Received columns — choices in the View > Columns carte du jour — practice not chronicle to network activity: they concern inter-process advice, i.e. communications betwixt processes in the procedure listing.

Finding and terminating errant processes

Errant processes are those that interminably monopolize the CPU. By consuming CPU resource, they deprive other processes of their share, slowing performance and often resulting in frequent, protracted appearances of the SBBOD in all applications. The cooling fans in your Mac will eventually spin up as the CPU heats from the heavy — admitting useless— workload information technology is performing.

Processes can become errant when they are frozen or hung, either due to programming bugs or system-related problems, such as directory corruption. In the process list, the process' name will appear in red text with the phrase Not Responding appended and its % CPU value will exist very loftier, e.g. most or exceeding 100 percent. In an application's Dock menu, the phrase Application Not Responding will appear if the application is frozen or hung.

Processes can also get errant due to unsupported system modifications, such as installing tertiary-party hacks, interface modifications, or menu extras.

Errant processes tin also result from improperly uninstalling third-party applications. For example, if a 3rd-party application installed a Startup or Login Detail and you deleted all of the awarding's other files except that one, that leftover may still be opened when you start up your Mac or log in to your account, becoming an errant process that hogs CPU cycles.

Some processes may occasionally display high % CPU usage protractedly, just this situation is not necessarily a trouble. For example, processes associated with Spotlight® tin can show an extended spike in CPU usage during indexing, a time-consuming activeness. A Spider web browser may testify high CPU usage while rendering or displaying multimedia content. If a process is using considerable CPU, but its name does not appear in red text, it may merely be busy; patience is a virtue.

To make up one's mind if an errant procedure is degrading operation:

1. Open Action Monitor, located in the Macintosh Hard disk > Applications > Utilities folder.

ii. Choose All Processes in the Show pop-upwards menu.

Sort the process listing in descending social club by % CPU: click the % CPU column heading until the listing is sorted in descending order. The processes consuming the nearly CPU volition now be at the tiptop of the list.

Notation: In some versions of Mac OS X, the % CPU column heading is labeled CPU.

4. If a process is Not Responding , first exercise patience: wait a few minutes to encounter if it either returns to normal operation or crashes. Otherwise, stop the procedure in question as follows:

Warning:

But terminate processes you lot recognize and whose User is listed as a user account on your Mac. Other processes, such equally those whose User is root, are system processes. Terminating system processes or those running in user accounts other than your own requires Admin authority. Terminating a organisation process may stop your Mac from functioning, necessitating a hard restart via the power push.

iv.1.

Do 1 of the following:

Optional: accept a sample of the process.
Select the affected process.

4.two.

Do one of the following:

Click Quit Process.
Choose View > Quit Procedure.
Press the Command-Selection-Q keyboard shortcut.

4.three.

In the confirmation sail, click Forcefulness Quit.

The selected process is terminated.

Troubleshooting an errant organization process requires an understanding of its function. To determine the part of an errant organisation process:

Check the Westwind FAQ "Mac Bone X: What Are All Those Processes?"
Search the Apple Developer Connection for the process proper noun. The role of the process should exist explained in one of the resulting documents.

Advanced users tin can as well end an errant process past using its Procedure ID or Process Name in the kill or killall Concluding commands, respectively.

Sampling a process

If an application often becomes unresponsive, freezes, or hangs y'all tin take a sample of information technology while it is in this state. A sample is essentially a snapshot of the code running in the process at the time the sample was taken. The sample tin then be saved and sent to the developer for further assay.

To sample a process in Activeness Monitor:

Select the process to be sampled in the procedure list. To assist in making a selection:

Sort the process list by clicking the advisable column heading (Process Name or % CPU) until the list is sorted in the desired order.
Find a specific application or process by typing its proper noun in the Filter field.

two.

Click Sample Process.

A new window entitled "Sample of process_name" opens and a sample of the process is collected.

iii.

Click Save. A Save dialog appears.

four.

Save the sample file.

Shut (Control-W) the Sample window opened in step 2.

six.

Send the sample file saved in pace four to the developer:

If the application is from:	Then:
A third-party developer	Consult the developer'south Web site for details on obtaining technical support for the awarding.
Apple	Submit a problems report. To submit an Mac OS 10 problems study, you must be either a registered Apple tree Programmer or a paid member of the Mac Developer Program. Becoming a registered Apple Programmer is free as of the time of this writing.