Code Helper high CPU usage on MacBook Pro 15

[pitAlex]

• VSCode Version: 1.5.2
• OS Version: OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

I've notice there are several closed posts related to this issue, but it started to act up again. Before 1.5.2 I was using 1.3 since 1.4 had a problem with syntax highlighting and from time to time I used to get high cpu from "electron helper" even tough I have git disabled and only 3 extensions : "Project Manager", "Run on Save" and "HTML CSS Support". I upgrade to 1.5 and now Code Helper is the one that does it. I can happen 2, 3 times per day. It doesn't matter if you have lots of files opened or not, or if you are doing some had work, it just happens randomly. Once I left it minimize more then half an hour and my fans just started up suddenly as a result of the Code Helper going up to 99.9 CPU usage.

I've attached a screenshot showing the usage :

[chrmarti]

Currently all extensions are run in the same process, so you cannot tell which extension is causing problems without inspecting the process.

Could you try running that process in debug mode:

• Install the insiders build with the Electron 1.6.x update: https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders
• Start with code-insiders --debugPluginHost=5858.
• Check Help > Toggle Developer Tools' console for which port it is actually using. (Replace that below if it is not 5858.)

When you notice the extension host process staying at 100%:

• Runnode debug localhost:5858
• In there:
  • Enter pause
  • Wait for the process to pause
  • Enter backtrace
  • Enter cont

Then post all output here.

/cc @roblourens @weinand

[chrmarti]

@garetmckinley Would be great if you could give the above a try.

[aleixsuau]

+1

[dansmith-pki]

I found a workaround for extension host generating high CPU and requiring a window reload. In my case at least, when I save a file I see the "git" process running high CPU usage and then the extension helper using up lots of CPU and eventually dying.

My situation: I have a git repo in my home directory for managing a handful of dot-files but no git repo inside my development subdirectory. The cmd-line git client shows only a few files being actively managed by git and hundreds of untracked files / dirs. I suspect that the VSC git process is trawling this entire repository; whereas the cmd-line git client returns immediately with the status. Walking the filesystem is really slow: shell$ find ~ -type f | wc -l requires more than 30 seconds to complete due to hundreds of thousands of files in the OS X Library directory, ~/Library.

Workaround: Doing a git init in my project directory created an empty git repo that that superseded the repo in ~. I now see the Code Helper process peak slightly the first time I save a file and is fine on subsequent saves.

[jukbot]

me too same problem here

[cwtuan]

Same problem at mac air vs code: 1.12.1

[eliysha]

Same here

VS CODE : 1.12.1

[etoews]

In my case the extension causing the extended CPU spike was Code Spellchecker (ping @Jason-Rev).

I uninstalled the extension, force quit that particular Code Helper process in the Mac's Activity Monitor app, and restarted VS Code. My laptop fan is much happier now.

Of note, I installed Code Spellchecker a couple of weeks ago and didn't have any issues. It wasn't until VS Code updated to v1.12.2 a couple of days ago that the CPU spike started happening.

Versions

VS Code: 1.12.2 Mac: Sierra 10.12.4

I found the extension causing the CPU spike by finding the PID in the Activity Monitor and then ``` $ ps aux | grep 85402 everett 85402 100.0 0.5 3270148 90396 ?? R 7:26AM 145:51.39 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper /Users/everett/.vscode/extensions/streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker-1.1.0/node_modules/vscode-languageclient/lib/utils/electronForkStart /Users/everett/.vscode/extensions/streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker-1.1.0/server/src/server.js --node-ipc ```

[Jason3S]

I have seen and issue with the VS Code update process (Updating VS Code, not the extensions), where the extension does not shut down. When that happens, the orphaned extension can end up using a lot of CPU power.

@everett-toews If you re-install the spell checker, does it still use a lot of CPU?

[etoews]

@Jason3S Thanks for getting back to me. I reinstalled Code Spellchecker and it's still using a lot of CPU. I started a tracking issue in https://github.com/Jason-Rev/vscode-spell-checker/issues/94

[IdealBoy709]

➜ ~ ➜ ~ ps aux | grep 4532 macbook 4532 114.1 12.1 4722660 1014916 ?? R 7:02下午 23:50.65 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/bootstrap --type=searchService root 237 0.0 0.1 2453276 9876 ?? Ss 9:09上午 0:00.21 /usr/libexec/thermald macbook 4985 0.0 0.0 2432804 1716 s000 R+ 7:22下午 0:00.00 grep --color=auto --exclude-dir=.bzr --exclude-dir=CVS --exclude-dir=.git --exclude-dir=.hg --exclude-dir=.svn 4532

Sampling process 4532 for 3 seconds with 1 millisecond of run time between samples Sampling completed, processing symbols... Analysis of sampling Code Helper (pid 4532) every 1 millisecond Process: Code Helper [4532] Path: /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper Load Address: 0x10a8c4000 Identifier: Code Helper Version: ??? Code Type: X86-64 Parent Process: Code Helper [4526]

Date/Time: 2017-05-23 19:41:19.378 +0800 Launch Time: 2017-05-23 19:02:46.699 +0800 OS Version: Mac OS X 10.12.5 (16F73) Report Version: 7 Analysis Tool: /usr/bin/sample

[maxbureac]

same here: cwd / txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Squirrel.framework/Versions/A/Squirrel txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/ReactiveCocoa.framework/Versions/A/ReactiveCocoa txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Mantle.framework/Versions/A/Mantle txt /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib txt /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit txt /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMedia.framework/Versions/A/CoreMedia txt /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMIDI.framework/Versions/A/CoreMIDI txt /usr/lib/libsandbox.1.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libdispatch.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libdyld.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/liblaunch.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libmacho.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libquarantine.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_configuration.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_coreservices.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_dnssd.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_info.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_sandbox.dylib txt /usr/lib/dyld txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libnode.dylib txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libffmpeg.dylib txt /System/Library/Frameworks/AVFoundation.framework/Versions/A/AVFoundation txt /System/Library/Frameworks/CFNetwork.framework/Versions/A/CFNetwork txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_m.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_malloc.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_network.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_networkextension.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_platform.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_pthread.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_secinit.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_symptoms.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libsystem_trace.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libxpc.dylib txt /usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib txt /usr/lib/libnetwork.dylib txt /usr/lib/system/libkxld.dylib txt /System/Library/Frameworks/ServiceManagement.framework/Versions/A/ServiceManagement txt /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreDisplay.framework/Versions/A/CoreDisplay txt /System/Library/Frameworks/MediaToolbox.framework/Versions/A/MediaToolbox txt /System/Library/Frameworks/VideoToolbox.framework/Versions/A/VideoToolbox txt /usr/lib/libMatch.1.dylib txt /usr/lib/libexpat.1.dylib txt /usr/share/icu/icudt57l.dat txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/icudtl.dat txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/snapshot_blob.bin txt /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/natives_blob.bin txt /private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64 0 /dev/null 1 /dev/null 2 /dev/null 3 ->0x46b5c6571845ef01 4 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/icudtl.dat 5 ->0x46b5c6571845f609 6 ->0x46b5c657150ec791 7 ->0x46b5c657150ec011 8 count=1, state=0x8 9 ->0x46b5c657150eb7d1 10 ->0x46b5c657150eb711 11 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/icudtl.dat 12 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/snapshot_blob.bin 13 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/natives_blob.bin 14 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/en.lproj/locale.pak 15 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/content_shell.pak 16 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/pdf_viewer_resources.pak 17 ->0x46b5c657150eca91 18 ->0x46b5c657150ec9d1 19 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/snapshot_blob.bin 20 /dev/urandom 21 ->0x46b5c6571845ddd1 22 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/electron.asar 23 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/93EB8CFA-1CD5-4DA1-AA2B-EE71939270CB/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Resources/natives_blob.bin 24 /dev/urandom 25 /dev/null 26 ->0x46b5c6571845df61 27 *:54554 28 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-935f02cfd6e5296f0cdf0d53bee0ed50db425f6f.sock 29 30 ->0x46b5c6571845db79 31 ->0x46b5c65711d72bd9 32 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-50f5a9fa930bd883ba56eb5b853a69e8da82da3b.sock 33 ->0x46b5c6571845de99 34 ->0x46b5c6571d2ea219 35 ->0x46b5c6571845f2e9 36 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-462be0cfa47ca57f310c68ecebca5df3682debad.sock 37 ->0x46b5c6571845e8c1 38 ->0x46b5c6571d2ec929 39 ->0x46b5c6571d2ea2e1 40 ->0x46b5c6571d2ec861 41 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-b817d9a84bbdeba3ef2ee6c3d5a68be35f060e7e.sock 42 ->0x46b5c6571d2eb0f1 43 ->0x46b5c6571d2eac41 44 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-4ebe438d8d1fa3833c57bc1d226faec66226a696.sock 45 ->0x46b5c6571d2eba51 46 ->0x46b5c6571d2eb4d9 47 ->0x46b5c6571d2ebb19 48 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-935f02cfd6e5296f0cdf0d53bee0ed50db425f6f.sock 49 ->0x46b5c6571d2ea3a9 50 51 ->0x46b5c6571d2ea921 52 ->0x46b5c6570e906861 53 ->0x46b5c6571d2ebfc9 54 55 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-50f5a9fa930bd883ba56eb5b853a69e8da82da3b.sock 56 ->0x46b5c6570e906541 57 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-462be0cfa47ca57f310c68ecebca5df3682debad.sock 58 ->0x46b5c6570e905d71 59 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-4ebe438d8d1fa3833c57bc1d226faec66226a696.sock 60 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-b817d9a84bbdeba3ef2ee6c3d5a68be35f060e7e.sock 61 ->0x46b5c6571587e151 62 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-7fc0d207926be6b8aa062b24067db088dca550c5.sock 63 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-ac350306db8abc0ad7b45d9f15e645646e563012.sock 64 ->0x46b5c65711d74669 65 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-7fc0d207926be6b8aa062b24067db088dca550c5.sock 66 ->0x46b5c65711d72e31 67 ->0x46b5c6570d0a1ca1 68 ->0x46b5c65711d74281 69 ->0x46b5c6570d0a2c41 70 ->0x46b5c65711d753b1 71 /var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/vscode-ac350306db8abc0ad7b45d9f15e645646e563012.sock 72 ->0x46b5c6570d0a4159 73 ->0x46b5c65706bb2281 74 ->0x46b5c6570d0a2ab1 76 ->0x46b5c6570d0a4799

ps aux | grep 4881 maximbureac 4881 99.6 0.4 3262696 29380 ?? R 10:16AM 52:00.41 /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/AF6ABAD4-601E-4106-A984-1E608C9BCFB7/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper /private/var/folders/0r/t0zywvrd7fj8vg_jqbmmsbzc0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/AF6ABAD4-601E-4106-A984-1E608C9BCFB7/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/bootstrap --type=extensionHost maximbureac 7784 0.0 0.0 2443044 1952 s004 S+ 11:44AM 0:00.00 grep 4881

[cevarief]

Suddenly it happens again when opening bootstrap admin theme from https://www.creative-tim.com/product/light-bootstrap-dashboard. Theres not much file in the folder. CPU usage is around 98%. VSCode Version 1.13.1 ~ Sierra 10.12.5

[chrmarti]

@cevarief Could you open a new issue (Help > Report Issues) and include the command line arguments of the process causing the high cpu usage? (This likely a new issue.)

[cevarief]

Hi @chrmarti, Yes sure. Thank you.

[larssn]

Happening to me at random. I have to quit vscode, and terminate the orphaned high cpu usage CodeHelper manually. This is in OSX Sierra.

[hudidit]

I've disabled all installed extensions and this problem is still with me.

Every time I open a .js file in Code, this happens. And when I typed ps aux | grep Code in terminal, I got the first row of results like below: MyUsername 4380 100.0 0.9 3210240 73784 ?? R 3:52下午 1:03.98 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper /usr/local/lib/node_modules/typescript/lib/typingsInstaller.js --globalTypingsCacheLocation /Users/lanhaihy/Library/Caches/typescript --enableTelemetry.

Looks like it's typingsInstaller.js causing the problem. This file has over 7k lines of code. Seems un-debuggable to me. Please help.

-- update1 (workaround) -- A temporary workaround is to delete /usr/local/lib/node_modules/typescript, so there would be no typingsInstaller.js to run. As of now, the only effect that I noticed is that a prompt pops up every time I open a new window. Doesn't affect my developing so far.

-- update2 -- At my guess, adding following configs prevent VSCode from indexing too many directories. They're also needed besides the typingsinstaller.js workaround.

{
    "files.exclude": { /* blabla... */ },
    "files.watcherExclude": { /* blabla... */ }
}

[trivita]

why is this issue closed? i just had this. code helper 100% cpu on each core. and then after code helper shut itself down. the find process went to 100%

latest everything

[Jason3S]

@trivita I suggest opening a new issue. Each one of these Code Helpers can have a different cause.

[Jason3S]

@trivita is it related to this issue? #30874

[AriTheElk]

Since my last response in this thread, I've switched to windows 10 full time (surface pro). I have the exact same extensions installed as on my macbook pro, and there is absolutely no issues with high CPU usage or memory leaks.

Probably not helpful info to most, but this confirms that it's isolated on macOS (even if extensions are to blame).

[fedekau]

I experienced the same problems in (version 1.14.2) with a really big project. By adding the following config and restarting the editor it seems to be resolved:

{
    "files.exclude": {
        "**/.git": true,
        "**/.svn": true,
        "**/.hg": true,
        "**/CVS": true,
        "**/.DS_Store": true,
        "**/tmp": true,
        "**/node_modules": true,
        "**/bower_components": true,
        "**/dist": true
    },
    "files.watcherExclude": {
        "**/.git/objects/**": true,
        "**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
        "**/node_modules/**": true,
        "**/tmp/**": true,
        "**/bower_components/**": true,
        "**/dist/**": true
    }
}

The Code Helper process went from 1.5GB to 150MB RAM

[GuyHarwood]

It's also worth noting that if you tend to keep a vsCode window open in a large 'non project' folder (such as your user home directory), the Code Helper is naturally going to soak up a lot of resource as it tries to parse every sub directory.

Using the above as a starting point, you can create greedy exclusion patterns that prevent the Code Helper from going any further than your root directory.

[raphaelramalho]

@fedekau

I tried all the possible things:

• Uninstall extensions one by one
• Disable git in preferences
• Among others

Some options even slowed down processing, but what really did effect was adding these settings you mentioned.

Thank you all!

[thematthopkins]

In my case this was caused by too many files in the project directory. VS Code starts a number of find processes w/ the form:

find -L . -type f

This has overhead, even for excluded/unwatched directories.

Running the command from the project directory ended yielded a massive number of files in ./tmp that were left over from some terminated node processes. Clearing out ./tmp resolved the issue.

[javenschuetz]

For me, even after closing the program I still have 99.2% cpu usage 10 minutes later (2015 mbp 13 inch, high sierra).

Why is the issue closed?

edit: tried fedekau's settings, seems to be working for now.

[jimblue]

Same problem here, VScode with 0 file open => 100% CPU usage (never go under 96%)

My laptop cant' cool down and my keyboard is burning!! (MBP retina 15" on High Sierra) Can you please re open this issue...

My VScode settings:

"files.watcherExclude": {
        "**/.git/objects/**": true,
        "**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
        "**/node_modules/**": true,
        "**/vendor/**": true,
        "assets/**": true,
        "backup/**": true,
        "bin/**": true,
        "cache/**": true,
        "images/**": true,
        "logs/**": true,
        "system/**": true,
        "tmp/**": true,
        "webserver-configs/**": true
}

[Jason3S]

@jimblue and @javenschuetz,

Please open a new issue and refer to this one.

[roblourens]

I'm going to lock this issue - anyone with similar issues, please see https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/Performance-Issues and open a new issue.