OneDrive causes extended fileproviderd CPU activity, hurts battery life

Anonymous
2021-11-16T19:19:22+00:00

UPDATE possible solution: Try OneDrive's bundled reset script https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/reset-onedrive-34701e00-bf7b-42db-b960-84905399050c 

Wasn't sure where to post this since there's no OneDrive topic.

I’m using OneDrive insider preview 21.225.1031.0005 on macOS 12.0.1, M1 MacBook Pro. Even when I am not interacting with any files in the OneDrive folder, OneDrive regularly has several seconds of 200+% CPU usage. Immediately after, fileproviderd has long periods of 90% CPU use. This is lousy for battery life. I found at least one mention on Twitter of the same thing. The OneDrive CPU activity is likely not new, but I presume fileproviderd is new with the new OS.

I have 15,000 files synced with 12,000 set to “always keep on this device”. (My account has one very large folder that is excluded from syncing.) I watched a couple times and saw that OneDrive app activity triggered about 2 minutes of fileproviderd activity. Since the OneDrive app often has activity even when I’m not doing anything, this means fileproviderd runs *a lot*.

When this happens, Console shows hundreds of lines like these (in big groups of similar lines; these samples did not come next to each other): 

default 09:31:09.436927-0800 fileproviderd ✍️  FP snapshot mutation: update<s:16420 p:16357 n:"a{59}m.jpg" doc sz:9456 m:rwx%<0> ct:1569351878.0 mt:1569351879.0 v:sver:{blob142} cver:{blob139} nsattr:<cap:rwdpf-e- ul:uploaded deco:<com.microsoft.OneDrive.FileProviderBadges.Pinned.Shared> userInfo:<21 keys>>> diffs:structure why:item changed

info 09:31:09.443150-0800 fileproviderd ✍️  reconciliation update:     <fs:✅  docID(6521) content:watch sver:fileID(46661205)/b{38}m.jpg cver:46662408@2:sz:165242> <-> <fp:✅  16288 content:watch sver:{blob142} cver:{blob139}> doc sched:utility#1637083869.443043 rank:1637083696518411264

info 09:31:09.615397-0800 fileproviderd ┏333ca  �� trigger: <private>

info 09:31:10.044795-0800 fileproviderd item changed <FPItem 0x1209be840:16603 f:"b{82}m.jpg" p:16582 sz:131 KB cap:rwet bt:1569351583 mt:1569351584 mode:rwx-- uti:public.jpeg ul:uploaded dl:fault>, rules: []

They all seem to refer to nonsense file name strings like a{59}m.jpg and b{82}m.jpg. Those names do not exist in my OneDrive.

I would most like to know if this is a Microsoft problem or whether I should open an Apple bug report.

Microsoft 365 Insider | Install, activate, and update | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-07T16:34:16+00:00

    I've looked at your original post and can't decipher where this script is, could you post it again?

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-06-07T14:08:23+00:00

    Did you try the reset script that's linked at the top of the original post? I'm the original poster. I do not think I have had the problem in a long time, maybe since running that script.

    Like some commenters, I would say it's reasonable to suspect Apple bugs as the ultimate cause. Hard to say though.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-06-07T02:33:12+00:00

    Two years later, the Microsoft OneDrive team still hasn't solved the problem. OneDrive for Mac is still a piece of ****, disgusting users with this problem every day. Is this how Microsoft treats its users?

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-11T06:26:29+00:00

    Somehow the issue went away for me in the last weeks.

    I had:
    OneDrive 22.141.0703.0002 for Apple Silicon

    macOS 12.5

    I now have:
    OneDrive 22.195.0918.0001

    macOS 12.6

    same computer (macbook pro m1)

    fileproviderd is now using 27,1MB and stable, it's not comparable to the GB of memory it was previously consuming (and there was a leak, it wouldn't stop gobbling up memory, I had to kill it every couple of days)

    fileproviderd is also using 0.2% CPU, which is way lower than the constant 20% I had in the past, and this without having to kill it.

    Unfortunately I did not notice exactly when it went away, hence I can't tell if it was fixed by the macOS update or a OneDrive update.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-10-02T09:32:52+00:00

    I have the same issue. However, the files you mention (e.g., b{82}m.jpg) seem to exist. The content in the brackets count the letters from the second to the second last letter before the dot (no idea who came up with this strange convention). In my OneDrive I found that those files which fail within the FP (in my case 164/64538) have some special attributes (call 'fileproviderctl check' to see a summary). Idk what exactly causes the troubles (maybe special extensions or special characters). There are probably several cases which cause problems (your filenames for instance seem quite long, maybe this is an additional source) but I am not here to do the debugging work for Microsoft and Apple (I actually do not know who to blame but probably Apple)...

    It's simply a shame that two of the largest tech companies care very little for their reputation and leave such issues which seem quite easy to resolve untreated for over a year or more. Blame, blame, blame...

    Btw. v22.196.0918.0001 does nothing for me

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