What is chronod on a Mac? The process behind your widgets
chronod keeps desktop and Notification Center widgets up to date. It showed an energy impact of 0.6 and 5 to 34 MB on our Mac. Why widgets cost battery.
What is chronod?
chronod manages widget timelines: it asks each widget for its next updates, schedules them and hands them over to be drawn. It lives in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ChronoCore.framework and runs as you.
| Reading on our Mac | Value |
|---|---|
| Energy impact | 0.6 |
| Memory | 5 to 34 MB across samples |
| Running for | since login, 30 hours |
Why is chronod using CPU or battery?
- Many widgets, each with its own schedule.
- A widget asking to refresh very often: stocks, weather, system monitors.
- Widgets from iPhone apps shown on the Mac, which update through the phone.
Remove widgets you do not look at: right click a widget on the desktop, Remove Widget. Every one removed is one less schedule for chronod. System monitor widgets that refresh often cost the most; the Free Mac widget refreshes a few times an hour, as macOS allows, and adds no background process of its own.
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 NotificationCenter and what energy impact means.
Related: tccd and duetexpertd.
Common questions
What is chronod on a Mac?
The macOS process that keeps widgets on the desktop and in Notification Center up to date.
Why is chronod using CPU?
Widgets are refreshing, often many at once or one that updates very frequently.
How do I reduce chronod's battery use?
Remove widgets you do not use. Right click a widget and choose Remove Widget.