UserEventAgent on Mac: Definition and Solutions to Stop its High CPU

A Mac is a workstation that has kinds of applications, programs, extensions, or hardware running in the background. Some of these items work in the device root layer to ensure the running status of your machine, while some others operate when you send certain commands to the OS. Let's see an example first:

Please HELP: I'm on MacBook Air (Early 2017) with macOS Monterey. Though I haven't been using any "heavy" applications, in the past few hours my fans have been rotating like crazy, the computer - overheated, and when I check the Activity Monitor I find that UserEventAgent (User: root) has been using between 80-95% of my CPU. I tried resetting my SMC - no good. I read posts about similar issues in the past - most of them were solved after a software update (none is available for me). Important note: the problem persists only when logged in with my user; when logging in using 'guest'/other user - all is fine. What to do? How can I solve it? Thanks in advance! -- Apple Discussions

Generally, every single part works separately without interfering with others, while trouble happens sometimes when a program called UserEventAgent causes high CPU or RAM usage, excluding the rest of the software or process from working.

Take it easy, please. This post is gonna explore what this UserEventAgent is and how to stop its high usage on CPU and RAM. Let's get started then!

UserEventAgent: What is it?

To put it short, the UserEventAgent is a daemon that runs in the background to monitor sorts of system items at the user level. It loads the system-provided plugins to deal with the high-level system events that cannot be monitored directly by launchd.

The UserEventAgent concentrates on the user account and runs at the user level most often. You can even access its path in Finder:

Open Finder > click the Go menu on the top menu bar of the Mac desktop > select Go to Folder > enter this file path and hit Run. Then you're in the UserEventAgent path.

System/Library/UserEventPlugins

The UserEventAgent is such a little thing that barely attracts your attention until it causes high CPU or RAM usage, making your Mac overheated. Once this case happens, you should get it fixed immediately, or it affects the performance of your machine!

If this post answers your question of "What UserEventAgent is on Mac", please share it with more people!

How to fix UserEventAgent causes high CPU on Mac?

Once you step into the UserEventPlugins folder, you can find different plugins that are related to certain apps or logins. From the names of these plugins, you can figure out what app or program they are subordinate to with ease. 

With so many plugin files, it's quite tough to determine the final culprit results in the high CPU usage. However, you can still end the UserEventAgent hogging CPU or RAM case with the solutions given in this post.

Solution 1: Force quit UserEventAgent and Restart Mac

The basic and simple way to rule out the UserEventAgent from hogging the CPU and RAM is to kill it in Activity Monitor, and then reboot your machine for the next working routine.

Step 1: Launch Activity Monitor through Spotlight Search shortcuts: Command + Space.

Step 2: Locate the UserEventAgent process from the list. You can also navigate it by typing its name in the search box on the top right corner of Activity Monitor.

Step 3: Select the UserEventAgent daemon and click the "x" button to stop it from running.

When the process is shut down from the background, restart your Mac to get every part of the machine ready for the following work. Wait and see if the daemon still runs out of CPU, if does, try the methods below.

Solution 2: Boot into macOS Safe Mode

macOS Safe Mode is a diagnostic feature on Mac that isolates all possible culprits and leaves the crucial part running the device. When a strange process eats up almost the CPU, you can boot into macOS Safe Mode to eliminate it directly.

The steps to recall this feature vary based on different Mac models, try the one that fits your Mac:

Boot an Intel-based Mac in Safe Mode:

Start a Mac with an Apple Silicon chip in Safe Mode:

If the process stops swallowing the CPU in macOS Safe Mode, then it is caused by a slight OS error or bug and gets fixed by this included feature. If not, move to the next solution.

Solution 3: Uninstall the problematic app from Mac

If the issue only happens to one certain user account yet disappears when logging into the guest user account, it probably indicates a conflict or incompatibility between the third-party software and the OS.

Facing this case, you're recommended to remove the troublesome app from your machine. If you want a complete uninstall, give iBoysoft MagicMenu a try, which not only uninstalls the app but also gathers all associated files for removal.

You can also uninstall the app by dragging it to Mac Trash in Finder > Applications, yet this way requires you to remove its related files scattered in the following different folders or paths one by one:

Conclusion

It's always an awful experience to have a process running out of CPU and getting the machine overheated. Luckily, this situation can be resolved with effective solutions. 

This post guides you on how to deal with the UserEventAgent process hogging a high percentage of CPU issues with workable solutions. If you run into the same issue, try the methods mentioned here.