What Is Notifyd on Mac? Do You Need It?

The battery life on my MBP is not great.  It will drop about 75% over a two hour span with only a web browser and Mail open.  If I look in the Activity Monitor I can see the process “notifyd” running and taking 10% of my CPU. - Apple Community

Do you know what notifyd is on your Mac? You might notice that it uses a high percentage of CPU in Activity Monitor, yet you may not know what it does. At this point, you might be wondering, 'Do I need it?' Keep reading, and this article will give you the answer!

What is notifyd on Mac?

On the Mac, notifyd manages and distributes notifications between the system and applications, ensuring that processes receive and respond promptly.  When an event occurs, notifyd broadcasts the notification to subscribed processes, enabling them to react without delay.

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How do you fix high CPU usage by notifyd on your Mac?

Normally, notifyd runs in the background, taking up minimal CPU resources. However, if you discover that notifyd is consuming a high amount of CPU, it may be caused by a bug in an application or issues with system services like WindowServer. Keep reading to know how to fix high CPU usage by notifyd on Mac.

Restart the notifyd Process (Fastest Method)

You can manually restart the notifyd process via Terminal, which usually resolves the issue immediately. Open Terminal (Command + Space, search for Terminal), enter the following command, and press Enter. After running the command, monitor the CPU usage to see if it returns to normal.

sudo launchctl stop /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.notifyd.plist 
sudo launchctl start /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.notifyd.plist

If the problem persists, try restarting the Mac, as sometimes temporary system problems can be resolved by restarting.

Check and Close Problematic Applications

Some applications may send lots of notifications to notifyd, causing high CPU usage. You can check and close related applications in Activity Monitor.

Go to the CPU tab and look for notifyd, then observe which applications are consuming a lot of CPU. If you find any suspicious applications (such as recently installed software), try closing or uninstalling them: Select the application > Click the X button in the top left corner > Choose Force Quit. 

Update macOS and Applications

notifyd is a system process in macOS, and keeping your macOS version up to date can help fix potential bugs. So go to System Settings > General > Software Update. If an update is available, click Update Now and complete the installation. Then, open the App Store and update all installed applications.

Can you remove notifyd on Mac?

We do not recommend removing notifyd. It is a core system process in macOS responsible for managing notifications between the system and applications. Forcibly deleting it could lead to system instability, notification failures, or other problems. If you notice it takes up high CPU usage, try restarting the process or updating the macOS mentioned above.

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