Originally published at: Apple Releases 24-Jul-2023 Security Updates for All Active Operating Systems - TidBITS
Updates to new and old versions of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and HomePod Software address numerous security vulnerabilities, several of which have been exploited in the wild. Install them soon.
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The sound of everybody waiting for someone else to try this week’s (a) updates …
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No problems here so far on macOS, iOS, and watchOS.
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As noted in other threads after other System software updates, more has been changed than for security. A Photos bug which I reported in August 2022 is fixed, and I suspect there are other improvements in Photos.
The bug which has been fixed affected the location of Face circles added by the user. In a “normal” sized photo, circles could be added and moved around the photo as expected. However, if the window was expanded (pinch-spread) to allow more precise placement, and then the circle dragged to a new location, the circle would jump to a place different from where it was dropped.
This bug happened every time on my MacPro7,1. It did not happen on my MacBookPro18,2. I suspect this reflected the MacPro7,1 running on Intel, the MacBookPro18,2 on Apple Silicon. That is to say, I think this was bug in Intel code, but not in Apple Silicon code. After updating Monterey 12.6.7 to 12.6.8 the bug seems gone when I run Photos on my MacPro.
Another observation may suggest other changes in Photos. Before the update, Photos would run in the background a little from time to time. After the update, Photos ran in the background for more than 17 hours of cpu time. My guess is that Photos had become able to detect tasks that needed doing. I do not have a guess as to what might have been fixed to cause this.
The August 22, 2022, report of this bug was assigned # FB11338859. As of July 27, 2023, no similar reports have been noted, and “Resolution” is “Open”.
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The Photos note caught my attention. Thanks. (This naive user had never heard tell of “tasks that need doing.”)
Being curious, I decided that, before installing Ventura 13.5 on my Intel Mac Pro 2019, I would shut down my active applications, start up Activity Monitor, and then install 13.5.
Lo and behold!
And BEFORE telling Settings I was willing to install 13.5:
The most active task is photoanalysisd.
It is using 106.7 percent of one of my many CPUs.
And so far the CPU time is 2:25:00.1 and constantly increasing, at about a second per second.
I have loaded maybe ten photos from my old 1Phone in the last week. No other use of the Photos app.
What on earth is going on??
(I’ll keep an eye on my PG&E bill.)
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Not surprising. This background task chews up a lot of CPU time, until it finishes, then it stops.
The 106.7% means that all of its threads together are consuming 106.7% of one processor core’s capacity. Since it is obviously impossible for one core to run at more than 100% capacity, this means the task is running on multiple cores, which is also not surprising - any modern operating system will attempt to distribute a task’s threads across multiple cores in order to maximize throughput.
The CPU time is of course going to increase at 1s/s, if the task is using about 100%. And it will keep doing that until it is done.
This daemon process (that’s what the trailing d in protoanalysisd stands for, BTW) is responsible for a lot of Apple’s fancy catagorization and analysis. It is running facial recognition, identifying objects and collecting other data that it can use in order to present to you customized photo albums (events, object, people, pets, etc.)
As for why it’s (obviously) processing your entire library when you only added a small number of new images is probably because Apple updated the Photos app with some new capabilities and it needs to re-run the analysis. Depending on the size of your library, it may take a few hours to a few days to complete. If you shutdown the computer when you’re not using it, then it will obviously take longer to complete.
I’d suggest just letting it run to completion.
When this happens on my Mac mini, the system temperatures rise a bit. I don’t know if will end up thermal-throttling as a result, but when I think of it, I use a tool (Macs Fan Control) to force the fans to top-speed. The fans get a bit noisy, but (I assume) the extra airflow will cool the CPUs more and prevent (or at least reduce) thermal throttling, allowing the background tasks to complete more quickly.
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Thanks, David.
That all fits.
So I looked at /Applications/Photos.app/Contents. The last modified date of all three files and of each of the directories is June 15th. I then used Find Any File to search for any folder or file with modification date on or after June 16th. None found.
I’ll wait a few days and look at the activity again. Meanwhile, I will try to be careful to not let App Store update Photos.
Meanwhile, I’ll take the risk of holding off on macOS 13.5.