Explaining cloudd, photolibraryd, & cloudphotod Processes in MacOS

If you’re a Mac user and you’ve ever opened Activity Monitor to explore why your Mac might be feeling slow, it’s likely that you’ve seen a few processes running that could be using a lot of CPU, energy, or memory, in particular cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond. So what the heck are these processes that are running anyway?

If you’re just looking for some quick info; cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond are basically background processes that are part of the MacOS experience for users who rely on iCloud, iCloud Photos, and other cloud-related features on the Mac. These processes will typically become active after installing a new system software update, or sometimes after simply rebooting a Mac, but you can also see them running during iCloud syncing, after enabling iCloud Photos, if a shared iCloud Photo Library is updating, and when performing other syncing activity related to iCloud.

Let’s go ahead and dive into each of these MacOS procesess to better understand what they are, why they might be running, and whether or not you should be concerned about their behavior.

cloudd process in MacOS: What it is and why it’s running

The cloudd process is responsible for iCloud syncing and management, including iCloud Drive, and iCloud features, iCloud-related syncing, and other activity related to iCloud.

You’ll typically see cloudd running at higher CPU usage after a system software update, after a reboot, or if another one of your Macs has made significant changes to any iCloud data or files and those files are then syncing across multiple devices.

There’s nothing to worry about when you see cloudd running, even if it’s taking up a lot of system resources, because it’s temporary, and the cloudd process will throttle itself back down to normal CPU usage after whatever cloud syncing activity has completed. Don’t try to force quit cloudd since it will just interrupt the syncing process and could result in incomplete data transfer.

photolibraryd process in MacOS: What it is, and why it’s running

The photolibraryd process is part of the Photos app, and if you use the Photos app with a notable library of photos and videos, you’re more likely to see this process running. photolibraryd handles background related tasks associated with Photos app and your Photos library, including building an index of your photos and your media library, scanning metadata for search, organization, using facial analysis on people in your photos, running object detection so that you can use keyword searches of your photo library like “car” or “hamster”, and similar activities.

Generally speaking you’ll see photolibraryd activtate after you have installed a MacOS system software update, if you have recently imported a large collection of new photos or videos, if you’re syncing a lot of photos with iCloud Photos from another device, or after the Mac has restarted and it has been a little while.

photolibraryd is a normal process, and while it can use a lot of CPU, memory, and energy while it is running and indexing your photos library, you should just let it finish the job. The larger your photos library, the more resources it will take to scan and index things, bust just let the job complete. If you force quit out of photolibraryd, which you should not do, you might find that indexing and searching in photos does not work as expected, so just let it run.

cloudphotod in macOS: what it is, why it’s running

Like cloudd and photolibraryd, cloudphotod is associated with both iCloud and with your Photo library, but specifically cloudphotod handles iCloud Photo Library syncing and related processing tasks. This includes things like uploading and downloading new photos and videos, and keeping your photos library consistent across your synced Apple devices.

You’ll typically see cloudphotod process running after a system software update, if you’re editing or deleting a lot of photos from your iCloud Photo Library, the first time you’re enabling iCloud Photos on a new Mac, or if a Mac is syncing to iCloud Photos for the first time in a while after the Mac has been offline (or another device was offline that took many photos and is now online).

cloudphotod can use a lot of system resources, including high CPU, energy, and memory, and it can also use a lot of internet bandwidth as photos and videos are synced, managed, downloaded, and uploaded to iCloud. The larger your iCloud Photos library is, the more often you might see cloudphotod running. Just let this process finish its job, because if you terminate the process it will interrupt your iCloud Photos syncing and you might end up with mismatched or inconsistent photo and media syncing across your Mac and other Apple devices.

nsurlsessiond on Mac: what it is and why it’s running

nsurlsessiond is yet another background task that allows the Mac to sync with iCloud, as well as multiple other Apple services, including things like syncing Notes, Mail, Messages, Safari bookmarks and tabs, App Store updates, and more.

nsurlsessiond typically is seen using a lot of CPU when there is a lot of app activity that is communicating with Apple servers and iCloud, like after you’ve restarted a Mac, installed a system software update, or have brought a Mac back online after it has been offline for a considerable time. Just let the process complete so that everything on your Mac is synced as you’d like it to be.

Can I stop cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond from running on Mac?

Technically you can prevent these processes from running by simply not using iCloud at all on the Mac. Disabling all iCloud features will typically prevent these processes from running, though photolibraryd and nsurlsessiond may still appear if you use the Photos app and things like the App Store and Messages.

You can also technically stop the processes from running in MacOS, but you should not do that if you use iCloud in any way.

While you can force quit any of the cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond processes, and you can even unload their associated kext files to prevent them from running, doing so is a bad idea if you use any iCloud features on the Mac at all. Since tons of the most useful features in modern MacOS are dependent on iCloud and its handy featureset, trying to interfere with these processes or their behavior is not a good idea.

What’s the best way to handle cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond processes on the Mac?

If you find that cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond are running and using a lot of system resources, the best thing you can do is nothing. Just let these processes run and finish their jobs.

One of the best ways to manage processes like cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, and nsurlsessiond is to plug in your Mac and leave it turned on and unattended, overnight, perhaps for a night or few. This will give the processes plenty of time to run in the background and complete their tasks, and their resources usage won’t impact your workflow or activity on the Mac.

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Do you have any thoughts or insight on cloudd, cloudphotod, photolibraryd, nsurlsessiond, or any other commonly used iCloud associated processes on the Mac? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.