Problems with callservicesd and soagent

I had the same issue with soagent and callerservicesd eating up all CPU.

The problem is related to a contact syncing issue with iCloud.

Resolution:

Open the console and filter for messages from "MCContactsManager". In the details of the message, you can find a reference to the contact causing the issue. Export this contact to a VCF file. Delete the contact and check that there are no more messages from "MCContactsManager".

Watch out for soagent and callerservicesd to relax (should use much less CPU now).

Now you can import the saved VCF into contacts again and everything should be back to normal.

Thanks!

One more thing...

I noticed that the processes started to use up more CPU resources than they should again later. Most people just kill them. They will recover and behave nicely again (for some time).

If there is a process behaving like that, you can also auto-kill and restart them. The easiest way to achieve that is to use LaunchControl: https://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/

LaunchControl can be used to "nice" daemons or to kill them after a period of time (e.g. every 30 min or so).

Add "ExitTimeOut" to the process in question.

There could be another reason for the issue - if there is no MCContactsManager message in the console, look for "AddressBookSync[]: The shared address book could not be loaded. Exiting."

In this case, disable iCloud contact sync and re-enable it.

Hey Guys,

I just found out what the issue was caused by in my case.

It was a strange story, because I noticed that cannot sync all my contacts with my Parrot MKi9200 in my car.

Then I checked on my iPhone, how many contacts do I have at all. I don't know what the limit of the Parrot is, but I'm sure I was way behind it. There were more than 24000 contacts in my iCloud account. On my MBP Messages and FaceTime was starting also slow, they were bouncing 10-12 times before start, while normally they do it like 1-2-3 times.

This was the result of dragging and dropping contacts from Outlook-»Contacts to Finder (exporting my Office 365 contacts) and then importing them into iCloud.

So what I did was that I removed all my contacts from iCloud. I exported my O365 contacts from within the Contacts app on the MBP. Then I imported them into Contacts, while I disabled the contact sync with the O365 account.

Now all is quiet, because soagent and callservicesd do not throttling the CPU at all. They consume 0 CPU time, while Messages and FaceTime are running.

With O365 contacts sync enabled these two start much slower, but they still bounce 6-7 times, which is acceptable.

I have not been able to check, if my Parrot is ok, but tomorrow I'll let you know.

One thing is for sure: if someone had more than a few thousand contacts, that will throttle the CPU with several services, like the ones mentioned. Apple needs to fix that. I don't know, where the other thing is rooted, but it looks like O365 accounts can only be relatively slowly accessed by the Contacts, Messages, FaceTime apps on the Mac. This results in relatively slow startup of these.

I hope this helps!

István

Newbie question:  To what "console" are you referring?  How do I open that to scan for the MCContactsManager message?

You find it in the Utilities section of your Applications. Its Apples app for displaying error messages.

Soagent was taking up 99% of my CPU, so I tried following some of the suggestions on this thread:

• I have searched for MCContactsManager and "AddressBookSync[]: The shared address book could not be loaded. Exiting." in the console and didn't find them. I also unlinked Contacts from iCloud.
• I also followed the directions above to remove com.apple.soagent.plist and restarted the computer.

Every time I try to open Messages, it won't actually even open anymore -- it just says "not responding" and takes up 99% of the CPU.  Soagent doesn't seem to be taking up much CPU anymore.

What else can I try?  The Genius bar doesn't have appointments available for 3 more days!

Any more ideas? I use Messages all the time, so hate to be without it!

I posted a response below on the thread, but wanted to make sure you saw it, since you seem really knowledgeable!

Also, I was wondering if I should somehow update the Messages app, but I don't know how to do that.

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Soagent was taking up 99% of my CPU, so I tried following some of the suggestions on this thread:

• I have searched for MCContactsManager and "AddressBookSync[]: The shared address book could not be loaded. Exiting." in the console and didn't find them. I also unlinked Contacts from iCloud.
• I also followed the directions above to remove com.apple.soagent.plist and restarted the computer.

Every time I try to open Messages, it won't actually even open anymore -- it just says "not responding" and takes up 99% of the CPU.  Soagent doesn't seem to be taking up much CPU anymore.

What else can I try?  The Genius bar doesn't have appointments available for 3 more days!

Any more ideas? I use Messages all the time, so hate to be without it!

Hi,

Open the Contacts App.

Go to the Preferences > Accounts.

Make sure it is only using one Account to sync with.

If it is using iCloud, Google, Yahoo  and more it will delay the opening of Messages as Messages links to the Contacts app and lists all the contacts.

It is best to use only one account.

9:53 pm      Wednesday; July 8, 2015