I’m running PlexAmp 3.7.1 on MacOS Monterey on a 14" MacBook Pro with a M1 Pro CPU. I’ve noticed that PlexAmp (Intel binary) constantly uses 7-10% CPU time 24/7, even when idle. This doesn’t seem right, not to mention it reduces battery time when I’m not plugged in.
I would of course greatly prefer a native Apple Silicon build of PlexAmp (NOT the iOS version), but that seems to be a very low priority for Plex. 
It’s not a very low priority, we actually did a bunch of work towards it, just haven’t managed to button it up yet.
Gotcha…glad it’s in the works. But in the mean time, why the constant CPU utilization for 3.7.1 on M1s? Idling it is using more CPU than Microsoft Edge with a dozen open tabs.
I have an Intel Mac with Plexamp 3.7.1, and as expected, idling it has basically zero CPU utilization.
I don’t know.
Can I provide any logs or other data to help troubleshoot this problem?
I’m sorry, but I consider it unsupported on Apple Silicon as we have a native version.
(Which we haven’t yet released, but we’re close.)
Interesting. On my Intel system Plexamp eats a few % at idle too.
How is the Intel version of Plexamp unsupported on M1s, when Plex isn’t shipping a macOS Apple silicon native player? M1s have been available for 12 months, and Apple Silicon DTKs were shipping to developers the middle of 2020.
The iOS version of Plexamp is missing features (.e.g keyboard shortcuts, which I use extensively via my Streamdeck), plus it has the ugly macOS window chrome that the native macOS Plexamp does not. So the iOS Plexamp version is a non-starter, which leaves the native macOS client as the only viable solution…Intel binary or not.
BTW, I just installed Plexamp for macOS 3.8, and it still is sucking up considerable CPU when not playing any music.
Update on CPU utilization and 3.8 on macOS Monterey + M1 Pro. Unlike 3.7.1, it looks like after an initial CPU spike after installation, 3.8 has now settled on ~1% utilization. That’s down from a constant 7-10% on 3.7.1.
As long as CPU doesn’t continuously rise above 1% when completely idle, I no longer consider it an open issue. So I’m glad to see that the issue is apparently resolved with the update.
Well there goes my idea for bitcoin mining.
Under Monterey 12.1, M1 Pro, and PlexAmp 3.8.2 for Mac, CPU utilization is back up through the roof. Uploads on the forum seem broken for me, but I was going to post a screenshot from activity monitor. The Process Plexamp Helper (Renderer) is using 12%+ constantly. What’s going on?
Any update here on how to fix the high CPU utilization for PlexAmp? It’s sucking up battery time.
I saw the Apple Silicon version of PlexAmp 3.9.0 was released last night. That’s great! LONG time coming, but glad to see it finally arrive. However, it’s still a CPU hog when IDLE. I see 6-8% constant CPU usage when PlexAmp is doing nothing. I totally understand CPU usage while playing music, but IMHO at idle it should be nearly zero.
The screenshot is taken while PlexAmp is idle…no music playing, no browsing, etc.
If you sort by % CPU you’ll see that there are other idle processes taking up more. The way Apple shows this percentage is single-core usage. That means that a multi-core app will show higher than 100% utilization. What we’re seeing here is a tiny fraction of a percent of the actual CPU’s capacity, and not in a way that impacts battery life. The Apple Silicon version reduces idle usage by about 50% and I’m happy with that.
Additionally, once PlexAmp is in the background it uses less than half a percent.
PlexAmp using the same amount as Chrome as idle is nothing to worry about. And around the same as Safari at idle, mind you (both with 1 tab open). This is really negligible usage.
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