Google Drive CPU usage is high after upgrading to Sequoia

I noticed the same thing on a 13'' M2 MBP running Sequoia. Whenever I connect my external monitor the CPU usage of Google Drive goes up to 40-50%. It drops to almost 0% when I disconnect the drive. This happens consistently and must be at least part of the problem. Maybe Google Drive thinks the monitor is an external disk that it tries to scan?

I have stumbled upon the same issue. The difference is, I'm running macOS Sequoia on a bit ancient Mac Book Air 2020 with Intel Dual-Core i3 processor.

So, I could confirm that this does not affect just Apple Silicon, but Intel-based Macs as well.

The symptoms are the same, as described by other users:

1. When my Mac is on battery only and no external display is connected, the Google Drive App does not consume any visible CPU cycles.
2. Once connected to my external monitor via a PD USB-C hub, immediately the Google Drive App starts consuming a lot of the processor time, without any obvious reason.
3. I've already sent a feedback to Google via the Options menu where I've included diagnostics information as well. Hopefully they'll be able to fix this soon.

For anyone interested. I'm running Intel-based (Dual-Core i3) Mac Book Air with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD. So far the upgrade experience from Sonoma was very pleasant. The two hitches I've discovered:

1. The current issue with Google Drive Desktop App
2. I have issues with my USB Digital Signature - I'll have to address them with the Signature's Provider.

All in all the experience is similarly good as the upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma.

cpharvey65 wrote:

HRT3039 wrote:

I noticed the same thing on a 13'' M2 MBP running Sequoia. Whenever I connect my external monitor the CPU usage of Google Drive goes up to 40-50%. It drops to almost 0% when I disconnect the drive. This happens consistently and must be at least part of the problem. Maybe Google Drive thinks the monitor is an external disk that it tries to scan?

Confirmed here too! As soon as I unplugged my monitors the CPU drop to almost nothing.

Definitely more research needed here!

Further research. My m2 mac is using the built-in HDMI port for one monitor and a USB-C port (converted to HDMI via a dongle) for my second monitor.

I discovered that having the HDMI monitor connected has the cpu use at around 60%, where as having the USB-C monitor connected drops it to 20%. Having both, puts it back to 60% (or thereabouts).

So external monitors are clearly the issue, but HDMI being the worst.

Same. It seems related to the number of external screens currently connected. I disconnected one of my external screens (that uses HDMI) and the cpu usage went down, then connected it back in and it cpu usage went up. Screens connected through USB don't matter for some reason though.

Same here.

MacOS 15.1

Macbook air M2

Using external hdmi with monitor gets gdrive to 40-50%.

Interesting is that GOOGLE MEETS goes crazy too... system seems to get overloaded and then Google Meets get connection delays, making impossible to continue it use.

I turn off google drive and things get better, but still with connection delays.

I tested using the same network with google meets in other two devices, an android phone and a windows laptop, and both works fine.

Using other apps, as Zoom or Teams and all goes well.

Not sure what is happening, but there are some imcompatibilities within MacOS15.1 and google apps.

I replaced Google Drive with Mountain Duck. Solved the problem.

I have a 14" M1 MBP, same issue after upgrading to Sequoi. I often run with an external monitor, and I have noticed that when I do not run with 2 monitors (either closing the lid on the MPB, or unplugging the external monitor), google drive drops to just about zero. It seems odd that use of second monitor can impact the cpu utilization of Drive.

Seems to be the same for me too, anywhere between 49-70% cpu at all times. I uninstalled and re-installed, and it made no difference. I did note however the re-install had all the same account preferences, making me think that the uninstall didn't entirely clear out all preferences, which may be a factor.

HRT3039 wrote:

I noticed the same thing on a 13'' M2 MBP running Sequoia. Whenever I connect my external monitor the CPU usage of Google Drive goes up to 40-50%. It drops to almost 0% when I disconnect the drive. This happens consistently and must be at least part of the problem. Maybe Google Drive thinks the monitor is an external disk that it tries to scan?

Confirmed here too! As soon as I unplugged my monitors the CPU drop to almost nothing.

Definitely more research needed here!

Veerrrry interesting observation regarding external displays!

I have a CalDigit TS4 that has two 4k displays attached to it, one via the DP1.4 port on the dock, and one through USB-C (both are Dell monitors with USB-C input, as well as a standard DP input).

I don't even have to physically disconnect the displays to see a change in CPU usage - simply powering them off makes a difference.

Thankfully, when I'm unplugged from the dock, I have no external displays, so CPU usage goes down and I'm not killing battery life... but it's really annoying having the GDrive app eating CPU needlessly when plugged in. 🤦‍♂️

I thought I was going insane... glad to see others are having this issue:

M1 Pro, GD 99.0, same issue. 40-55% when an external display is connected. 0% when not.

I'm shocked Google let this issue continue for as long as it has.

I provided feedback to the Google Drive team via the settings in the desktop app. I assume that the more feedback they get, the more attention the issue will get, so has everyone done this?

As bizarre as it sounds, I'm seeing the same since the upgrade. Disconnecting my external monitor drops the Google Drive CPU from around 25% to 0. Apple - are you listening?