opendirectoryd using high CPU on a Mac: what it looks up, and why it spikes
opendirectoryd answers every question about users, groups and sign in. On our Mac it spiked to 27% CPU for a moment, then sat at 0.3%. What makes it busy.
What is opendirectoryd?
opendirectoryd is macOS's directory service. Whenever an app or process asks which user owns a file, who is in a group, or whether a password is right, opendirectoryd answers, from the local accounts database or from a network directory if the Mac is joined to one. It lives at /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd and runs as root.
| Sample on our Mac | CPU | Memory |
|---|---|---|
| First | 27.2% | 7 MB |
| A minute later | 0.3% | 12 MB |
Why is opendirectoryd using so much CPU?
- A burst of lookups: a tool listing many files with their owners, a backup, a big
findorls -lacross a disk. - A network directory: a work Mac joined to Active Directory or LDAP asks a server, and a slow or unreachable server makes every lookup wait and retry.
- Management software checking accounts on a schedule.
Short spikes like ours are normal. On a personal Mac, steady high use usually traces back to one process asking over and over; quit apps one by one and watch.
Can I quit it?
Do not. Sign in, sudo and file permissions all depend on it. It restarts if stopped, but anything waiting on it fails in the meantime.
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 tccd and cant quit a process.
Related: sharingd and fileproviderd.
Common questions
What is opendirectoryd on a Mac?
The macOS directory service. It answers lookups about users, groups and passwords, locally or from a network directory.
Why is opendirectoryd using high CPU?
A burst of account lookups, or a network directory that is slow to answer. Short spikes are normal.
Can I kill opendirectoryd?
It is not safe. Sign in, sudo and permission checks depend on it.