What is runningboardd on a Mac?
runningboardd decides which processes may keep running and which get suspended or limited. It showed an energy impact of 1.4 on our Mac. Why it shows up.
What is runningboardd?
runningboardd tracks every app and extension: whether it is in front, in the background, allowed to keep working or due to be suspended, and what resources it may use. It lives at /usr/libexec/runningboardd and runs as root. On our Mac it showed an energy impact and CPU of 1.4, with 10 MB.
Why is runningboardd using CPU?
It works hardest when apps start, stop or switch between foreground and background often: many apps launching, extensions starting, widgets updating. A small, steady load is it doing its job across hundreds of processes; our Mac had 537 running.
Persistent high load usually points to one app crashing and restarting in a loop. Activity Monitor sorted by PID shows a process whose ID keeps climbing; that one is the cause. See also spindump.
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 how many processes run on a Mac.
Related: NotificationCenter high CPU and distnoted.
Common questions
What is runningboardd on a Mac?
A macOS process that manages which apps and extensions may run, and suspends or limits the rest.
Why is runningboardd using CPU?
Apps and extensions starting and stopping often, or one app crashing and restarting in a loop.
Can I quit runningboardd?
No. It runs as root and macOS needs it to manage every app.