High CPU usage on OS X when Spotify is in the background

[zamf]

This happens many times per day, pretty much whenever Spotify is in the background. The spotify_helper process is at 100%, fans go wild, etc.

There are several threds that say that this issue has been solved, but the "fix" did not work for me. Moreover, the "fix" is to disable local files in Preferences, which is more like a workaround than a fix, unless you care about local files in which case it is not a fix at all. Oh, and this assumes that the "fix" actually works, which is not the case.

The other "fix" is to click on Spotify, bring it to foreground and then it will go away ... until it appears again several minutes later. These are not fixes, since the cause is obviously a programming bug.

This has been happening for a few weeks now and it is very annoying, good reason to switch to the competition. Can you please increase the priority in your bug tracker?

Thanks!

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

Hi! @zamf

Let's try a clean reinstall. It fixes most problems. You should follow the guide in the link correctly. Let me know if it fixes the problem.

Hope this helps 🙂

[zamf]

Hi @DWAYNEX18, thanks a lot for the very quick reply. I tried it and I will let you know if it works out.

May I suggest two alternative solutions to reinstalling? First, having the option to clear caches from within the Spotify UI may be very useful. Second, having a Spotify watchdog process or thread that monitors for abnormal CPU usage (or other problems) and takes some remediation action or files a bug report might also work.

Thanks again.

[user-removed]

@zamf, You can post that idea in the idea submmisions section 🙂 It's here -> https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/idb-p/ideas_submissions

But before posting, check out this guidelines first. To know more about ideas in the Spotify Community, click here. 🙂

[zamf]

Thanks a lot, a clean reinstall worked!

I did not realize that you are not working for Spotify, great job!

[user-removed]

I'm glad that I helped 🙂

Feel free to post in the community again if you have more issues. You can also tweet to the Spotify Support team on @SpotifyCares or to us rockstars at @AskRockStars