Mac Pro Laptop - Hangs Up

Wow that is insane CPU usage from the Safari bookmarks agent, you're right. I've never seen it run away like that before. 2 day uptime here on my main machine and SafariBookmarksSyncAgent has used 7.75 seconds of CPU time in total. And I have plenty of bookmarks and Safari is my primary browser.

 

As a person who was possibly at least partially responsible for you switching to mac I believe this is related to your SSD getting tired I believe I/O is the main reason you see degraded performance in a way you describe it. I know its horribly inconvenient, but I would either back-up, install new SSD (if possible for your model), reinstall and restore or just get a new laptop. I would not even run a heavy HDD/SSD tests on older hardware, it has a very good chance of just killing it.

 

Is it an Intel Mac, or a new M1/2 Mac?

 

Anyway, Apple's OS isn't close to being as stable as it was just a few years ago. Sloppy OS updates, sloppy app updates. I started treating it like my Windows boxes and doing a fresh install every year. Mac is easy because can blast backups to icloud and/or disk and restores have nearly always worked for me.

Have you updated all the apps? Rebooted and shut down?

System utilities and malware scanners for MacOS are not needed and can do more harm than good. Things like virus scanners on Mac OS are almost complete malarkey and outright scamware.

In terms of tracking down the root cause, you posted the start of it. Safaribookmarkagent....kill that process. Why has it SCRAM? Who the **** knows from here.

I have made a robust backup solution for my computers, both Windows and Apple alike, because fixing software things can take a lot longer than nuking from orbit...so nuke from orbit it is and spend 45 minutes putting things back the way they were . Do that if you are confident 100% of your needed files will be restored in the process of Apple's Time Machine doing its thing.

In terms of taking your box to Apple or 3rd party repair shop....nah. If you have your Fchat stuff on there and financial passcodes...laptop is a goner. I'd not let anyone have access to that stuff.

Also it is possible that you have an extension that is a bitcoin miner cloaked as bookmarkagent.

Or whatever. Best route is to backup all your data; make sure all your important data is indeed backed up, then nuke that OS and reinstall fresh. This will most probably fix your issues.

 

What is your older model type and OSX? I'm still working happily away on my mid-2015 MacBook Pro 15-inch running Mojave, which allows me to avoid caving in to Adobe's obnoxious subscription scheme. This model has the (well earned, IMHO) reputation of being the best laptop Apple ever made. If/when that gives up the ghost, I have a brand new example of the identical machine (and OSX) ready to go. For back-ups, I eschew the cloud in favor of a local Airport Extreme (with a spare one of those, as well).

I'd also strongly suggest ditching Safari (increasingly unsupported, it seems to me) for Firefox. I found a way in Firefox to make a 'Favorites'-style page – a great feature long gone from Safari – with up to 32 site icons on my web home page.

Finally, I've had great luck with an independent Apple repair specialist here in Boston. They even offer a rush service for a low fee, which I need as my laptop is my only computer. As far as I know, the Genius Bar doesn't do repairs in-house any more and only ships machines to remote repair centers, which means losing your device for at least 3-4 days and usually longer. I'd look for the best-reviewed indy repair shop in your area.