Finder high energy and hot chassis after macOS 26

Question

Level 1

12 points

Finder high energy and hot chassis after macOS 26

Finder has been using a lot of energy recently, and I believe it was after I updated to MacOS 26. The chassis gets hot and the battery life isn't as good as it used to be.

In activity monitor, the "12hr power" tab for finder is unusually high, and even got up to 580% today. I haven't done any large file transfers or had more than a couple Finder windows open at any time. I am using iCloud Drive, Google Drive and OneDrive through finder, but haven't transferred any large files there either. Thus, I'd assume those apps wouldn't affect Finder's power statistics, as they are separate programs.

Any ideas what's going on? Is it connected to MacOS 26? Anything I could do to improve energy performance?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 26.1

Posted on Dec 4, 2025 12:14 PM

Reply

Answer 1

etresoft

Level 9

56,212 points

Dec 4, 2025 12:43 PM in response to havenlaven

havenlaven wrote:

I am using iCloud Drive, Google Drive and OneDrive through finder

Bingo.

Thus, I'd assume those apps wouldn't affect Finder's power statistics, as they are separate programs.

None of them are separate programs. iCloud Drive is part of the operating system. Google Drive and OneDrive are low-level Finder extensions.

First review exactly which folders are managed by which apps. This is just like Ghostbusters. You must never cross the streams!

Hopefully the solution is something simple, like having multiple cloud syncs trying to access the same folder or file.

Also, you might want to review any other extensions you might have installed. These things are very popular and people don't know which random apps are running 24x7 in the background.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 4, 2025 12:18 PM in response to havenlaven

It is possible there are processes running in the background that are using significant resources. Check Activity Monitor, CPU tab (sort by % CPU) and Memory tab (sort by Memory) to see what's running hard.

Activity Monitor User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 3

havenlaven Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 4, 2025 12:59 PM in response to etresoft

Thank you so much! Honestly makes sense if it's onedrive/google drive. They have been problematic before, just never disguised as Finder :P

Onwards to busting...

Reply