MacBook Pro Tahoe 26.0.1 high kernel_task CPU consumption.

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro Tahoe 26.0.1 high kernel_task CPU consumption.

I updated my MacBook Pro to Tahoe 26.0.1 and now the kernel_task is consuming more than 1000% CPU. I suspect it is Spotlight. I added and deleted the hard drive to rebuild the indexes. The first time that took hours. It seemed to work to reduce the CPU consumption, but then I let a Microsoft Autoupdate run and the CPU went up again. I re-indexted the hard drive again and it took all day to complete. I have turned off all the Results from Apps in the Spotlight menu, but that doesn't seem to help. I have rebooted a few times. My Mac is almost unusable due to the high CPU consumption. If it is not Spotlight, what is it? Help! Thanks!

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 23, 2025 9:48 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

etresoft

Level 9

56,212 points

Oct 24, 2025 9:43 AM in response to wqtxusa

That's usually an indicator of a hardware fault. The system is throttling the CPU.

One common type of hardware fault is a bad video dongle. You mentioned you were mirroring displays. Disconnect the external display and see if that fixes the problem.

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 23, 2025 10:14 AM in response to wqtxusa

I suspect an incompatible system extension. See if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 3

wqtxusa Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2025 9:20 AM in response to neuroanatomist

The high kernel_task cpu consumption doesn't happen in safe mode. I removed the programs that run at startup. There are still times when the kernel_task cpu consumption is high. A lot of the kernel extensions I have to run because they are security related. I did notice that the system is running hot even at idle. I stopped the DisplayLink software to mirror displays and keyboard/mouse and that stopped a high kernel_task CPU occurrence. When plugging in my USB keyboard and display so that apple mirroring runs the addition display, the GPU temperature gets hot also. I have the laptop on a laptop cooler with fans. This did not happen before the upgrade.

Reply

Answer 4

Cwiki

Level 1

20 points

Nov 28, 2025 1:24 PM in response to wqtxusa

I’ve also started experiencing this issue since moving to Tahoe. Absolutely getting blind sided by something hidden just hammering the MacBook.

As soon as I start seeing the pc lag I kill all my programs (this doesn’t have an effect on the issue).

i do notice the system temperatures spike as the kernel task spikes its usage ~ I’m sure the kernel_task spike is a symptom of something else causing user land to break.

This occurred even after I did a fresh restart and left for three hours.

I have only a few minutes to restart the computer before it completely locks up and eventually crashes.

m4 MacBook Air

Reply

Answer 5

wqtxusa Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2025 9:32 AM in response to wqtxusa

No, for no reason I can tell except using the browser to do this, I see high kerne_task CPU consumption. So something is running that is heating up the CPU.

Reply

Answer 6

wqtxusa Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2025 9:33 AM in response to wqtxusa

I suspect I will have to downgrade Tahoe 26.0.1 to Sequoia 15.7 to get my laptop working again. Sigh.

Reply