High CPU utilization in macOS 27.2 Public Beta

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

Device information:

  • Type of Mac: MacBook Pro M1 14" 2021
  • macOS version: macOS 27.2 Public Beta
  • BetterTouchTool version: 6.855 (alpha)

It's possible this bug was here earlier, but I only just noticed it after installing macOS 27.2 Public Beta. CPU utilization for BTT was staying around 80% on an ~2022 version, so I updated by license and installed the newest general release--utilization went to 99% and stayed there! I saw another thread suggesting installing the alpha release, so I tried that and utilization went to 95%. When I tried to quit BTT it re-launched itself, with CPU back to 95%. I tried quitting again, got a message that it was in a relaunch loop and I should try safe mode. Tried it--still 95%. Clicked Disable BTT For All Apps in BTT menu bar icon--still 95%. Not sure what's going on or how to fix it!

2

do you maybe have the legacy Dropbox/iCloud sync enabled? That has caused similar issues in the past if the cloud data has been corrupted.

3

I have exactly the same behaviour. No sync enabled.

4

If you encounter the issue again please run this terminal command:

sample BetterTouchTool > ~/Desktop/btt.txt

Afterwards post the btt.txt sample here or send it to andreas@folivora.ai, it will tell me what is causing the high cpu usage. Often beta issues resolve on their own with the next beta release though.

5

So far this has been pretty consistent, although it's down to about 90% utilization most of the time now. Here's a sample from the alpha version installed today.

btt 6.870.txt (5.3 MB)

6

ah looks like a beta bug in the macOS color picker (that BTT initializes for various reasons). I'll report it to Apple and see whether I can find a small workaround

7

Wow, that was fast! Thanks!

8

Claude (Opus 5.5) found a workaround that's working for me (macOS 27.2 beta 26B5091g, BTT 6.842 Setapp).

Following Andreas's color picker diagnosis: my samples showed the hidden Colors panel's toolbar stuck in an endless layout loop. The panel defaults to 266 px wide, which is too narrow for its toolbar buttons. Making it wider stopped the loop, and BTT went from ~90% CPU to under 1%.

  1. Quit BTT. If it relaunches itself, quit BTTRelaunch first (pkill -x BTTRelaunch), then BTT.
  2. In Terminal, set the saved panel width to 420. Use com.hegenberg.bettertouchtool-setapp instead for the Setapp version:
D=com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool
defaults write $D "NSWindow Frame NSColorPanel" "$(defaults read $D 'NSWindow Frame NSColorPanel' | awk '{$3=420; print}')"
  1. Relaunch BTT.

Deleting the saved panel settings doesn't help, because macOS just recreates the panel at 266 px. If you later open a color picker in BTT and drag it narrower, the problem may come back.

I haven't tested the Terminal command on the regular (non-Setapp) version, and it assumes the panel's saved size already exists there, which should be true if BTT has ever opened it.

9

great finding, I'll add some code to make the panel wider automatically.

Maybe Apple changed some UI elements sizing and the old system color picker doesn't handle it well.

10

Oh wow, this fixed my problem immediately--what a relief! Thanks!