What is intelligentroutingd process and how can I fix it on my Mac?

macos tips
1

I bought a new MacBook Air last week. When I open the Activity Monitor, I see a process called “intelligentroutingd” that takes up 99.5% of CPU usage. The same “intelligentroutingd” process eats up most of my RAM usage even though I maxed out my RAM (24GB) while buying my MBA.
Some previous posts have mentioned “intelligentroutingd” has something to do with XCode. But on my machine, I do not have XCode installed at all. My questions are:

What is intelligentroutingd process and why is it taking so many resources?

How do I permanently get rid of the “intelligentroutingd” process? Force Quitting is only a temporary fix.

Any advice is welcomed here!

2

It’s quite normal that a Mac has some strange programs running in the background, hopping a vast number space, which makes your Mac overheat, fan spin, battery drain, etc. These strange programs even appear with no source and no clue, making users completely confused. I have learned from some posts that the “intelligentroutingd” process is related to the app Xcode, while since you have mentioned you haven’t installed this app at all, I guess something is going wrong on your machine. You can try the following methods to get this weird error fixed:

:one: Force quit this program in Activity Monitor

For sure, I have noticed that you tried Activity Monitor yet it didn’t work out, but I have learned that multiple force quitting helps here in terminating this “intelligentroutingd” process. If you find force quit fails to kill this process permanently, try to repeat this action, and wait and check if this program comes back.

:two: Clean junk on your Mac machine

With too many files, folders, caches, junk, and preferences accumulated on your Mac machine, your Mac certainly goes wrong in the form of a strange process or program. In such a case, you’re recommended to clean junk on your machine. Compared to the simple clean feature provided by Mac, you’d better off using a professional Mac junk cleaner – iBoysoft DiskGeeker for Mac.

The Clean Junk feature of iBoysoft DiskGeeker is designed to scan the system drive usually labeled as Macintosh HD, Macintosh HD - Data, macOS, or macOS - Data for redundant data. It can find information and files no longer needed in the system cache, user logs, application cache, downloads, etc.

Files and folders will be listed with file names, modified dates, and sizes so users can select which files should be cleaned to free up the space of the system drive, improve Mac performance, and reduce the system crash risk.

Step 1: Select a volume from the startup disk usually labeled as macOS - Data, macOS, Macintosh HD, or Macintosh HD - Data.

Step 2: Click “Clean Junk” from the toolbar.

Step 3: Select a folder from the left panel and select the files/folders you want to delete.

Step 4: Click “Clean” and then click “Ok”. You will fail to clean certain files if you don’t have permission to do so.

With all junk removed from your Mac, restart your Mac and see if this “intelligentroutingd” process pops up again.

3

I have heard that the intelligentroutingd process also has something to do with the Xcode app, but I haven’t found any useful fixes. From my experience, there are some general solutions used to deal with these loads of strange programs on Mac. If you’re interested in them, you can have a try:

:one: Completely uninstall Xcode from your Mac

:large_orange_diamond: This way only works fine for the users who install Xcode, if you haven’t installed this app, skip this method directly.

Open Finder > Applications > Xcode > Right-click it to select Move to Trash, then Xcode will be moved to Mac Trash. After this, you ought to move its associated files including caches, preferences, junk, packages, plist files, etc. from your Mac, which are stored in different directories or folders in Finder, requiring you to find them one by one whose names contain “Xcode” character.

If you tire of this uninstall mission, give iBoysoft MagicMenu a chance which lists all associated files of the app that you want to uninstall so that you can remove all unwanted files from your Mac along with the uninstall. This helps a lot in addressing the strange “intelligentroutingd” process, you can check if it comes out after Xcode is removed from your computer.

:two: Boot your Mac into macOS Safe Mode

macOS Safe Mode is included in Mac startup options to help you troubleshoot most OS-related problems. It can be considered as a diagnostic mode of the Mac operating system.

Here is how to boot your Mac in macOS Safe Mode:

Boot an Intel-based Mac in Safe Mode:

Step 1: Shut down your Mac computer and wait for 10 seconds.

Step 2: Press the power button to restart your Mac and simultaneously hold down the Shift key.

Step 3: Release the Shift key when seeing the login window.

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

Step 1: Shut down your Mac computer and wait for 10 seconds.

Step 2: Press down the power button until the startup options and the Options gear icon appear on the screen.

Step 3: Choose your startup disk.

Step 4: Hold down the Shift key and click Continue in Safe Mode. Then, release the Shift key.

:three: Update macOS or reinstall macOS

Some users have mentioned that this process happens due to the OS you’re running, which might be the beta version or a deficit. Facing this, the macOS update or macOS reinstall is recommended here. Remember to back up your machine before the macOS modification in case data loss happens due to any accident.