DockSyncClient Process Using Excessive CPU in Apple Leopard

October 28, 2007 - 10:37pm

After I upgraded to Leopard I found myself with a constantly running DockSyncClient process, draining my battery and making my fans to spin up.

It turns out that Harmonic, a third party dashboard widget was the culprit. If you run into this problem try removing third party widgets one by one until DockSyncClient calms down. Activity Monitor is a great tool for drilling down into system processes.

Harmonic 2.0.2

Created by Wil Gieseler (not verified) on November 4, 2007 - 3:57pm.

Hi! I'm the developer of Harmonic (although Apple Discussions won't let me change my name from this old handle). I've received several reports on this issue.

We've attempted to fix it with our latest version, Harmonic 2.0.2, which can be downloaded here:
http://www.mindquirk.com/harmonic.htm

Please let us know by email at software@mindquirk.com if you continue to experience the same issues.

w00t!

Created by matt westgate on November 4, 2007 - 11:02pm.

Thanks for the update Wil, and it's good to have Harmonic back in full swing!

I also have docksyncClient

Created by DashMiser (not verified) on March 7, 2008 - 12:35pm.

I also have docksyncClient running from time to time. What other widgets it is associated with; anything that connects to the net??

Same problem..

Created by Florian (not verified) on July 16, 2008 - 5:25am.

I am having the same problem, but it don't have Harmonic installed..

What could it be?

Your best bet is to remove

Created by matt westgate on August 16, 2008 - 9:46pm.

Your best bet is to remove widgets one by one until DockSyncClient stops munching up the CPU resources.

This one is also a problem

Created by Owen Rubin (not verified) on September 25, 2008 - 1:25pm.

I found "Radar in Motion", a weather map widget was causing the problem for me. It said "Cannot find map" and was trashing the network as well as keeping DockSyncClient at 60+% of the CPU. I have removed it and got half my CPU power back.

I suspect it is not the only one, but DockSyncClient disappeared from my processes list when I closed this widget.

Look for any widgets that cannot update, or cannot get their data properly. That seems to be the problem.

Perfect Answer

Created by Greg (not verified) on March 1, 2009 - 9:11am.

I am not a Mac expert (recent PC Vista refuge). However, I was experiencing the same issue. This process "docksync" was spiking every 5-7 seconds to 98% CPU utilization and killing battery life. The CPU Activity monitor looked like a perfect 1/2 Sine wave. I also had the 'Radar In Motion' widget behind the scenes on the Widget screen. It wasn't even in the front, on the desktop. Yet once they were removed from the Widget screen, the CPU went right back to normal (eg. relatively low and constant).

Thank you for the suggestion!!! It worked perfectly.

I had same issue. I turned

Created by desene animate (not verified) on September 17, 2009 - 1:20am.

I had same issue. I turned off a new dashboard i created from Safari - the "Open this page in Dashboard" feature and it appeared to have fixed it.