What is biomed on a Mac?
biomed writes the Biome streams: macOS's on device record of activity for suggestions and Screen Time. It used 1 MB on our Mac; the Biome folder held 357 MB.
What is biomed?
biomed manages Biome: event streams that record app use, media playback, notifications and similar activity on the device, read by features such as Siri Suggestions and Screen Time. It lives in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BiomeStreams.framework and runs as its own user, _biome. Ours used 1 MB and no CPU.
Where does it store its data?
In ~/Library/Biome, 357 MB and 770 files on our Mac. What the folder holds and whether to clear it is in the Biome folder.
How do I limit it?
Turn off the features that read from it: Siri Suggestions and Screen Time. The streams then record less and the folder grows more slowly.
See it live
Free Mac's System tab ranks every process by processor use and energy impact, once a second, and marks the ones macOS will not let you quit as protected. See also knowledge-agent.
Related: spindump and ControlCenter high CPU.
Common questions
What is biomed on a Mac?
The macOS process that writes Biome, the on device activity streams used by suggestions and Screen Time.
How big is the Biome folder?
357 MB on our Mac.
How do I reduce what biomed records?
Turn off Siri Suggestions and Screen Time in System Settings.