Sick of audio-related bloatware

[CyberGene]

So, I have a 3-month old MacBook Air M2 which is a great computer. What am I talking... It's the greatest computer I've ever owned and it's so blazing fast for audio, I can run countless instances of U-He Diva in Logic Pro X and it would just play them without a hitch in divine quality.

 

But it started showing some weird behavior, macOS system icons were missing, it started showing constant repeating notifications of background services, not being as snappy as it was, etc. I went through various Apple support articles but nothing helped. So, I was on the phone with the Apple Support yesterday for more than an hour, sharing my screen and they scratched their heads. After all, I agreed to uninstall temporarily all the bloatware and background services that came with various audio software:

 

- Arturia Software Center and background service

- Native Instruments whatever-center-daemon, etc.

- Steinberg whatever-bloatware-stuff

- Two different e-licenser bloatcr*p, PACE and whatnot

- Plugin alliance downloader

- Avid center-background-sh1t

- .... (can't remember everything)

 

And voila, the problems disappeared, macOS icons in the system settings are now visible and restored.

 

They recommend running like that for a few days to see if the problem reappears and if not, then start installing them back again one at a day and see which one is the offender and then contact corresponding developer.

 

But I'm just fed up with that crap. I'm sick of having to install one ton of pig-cr*p to be able to use a simple plugin and I think I'm vowing to leave only those plugins that can be installed in a simple way, without relying on separate downloaders, e-licensers and background processes that turn one of the finest computers into a mess. I think I'm just using Logic Pro X and all its great embedded plugins + U-He Diva and Re-Pro, two Waldorf plugins, Garritan CFX, Valhalla Supermassive.

[DeltaJockey]

I hear ya!

 

I've noticed a similar amount of self righteous background processes for each unique plugin ecosystem. It would be nice for some collaboration and standardization to be agreed on, as we all have more than one vendor's products installed. (Can't see that happening soon though.)

I've now limited myself to a couple of vendors that do this. I now refuse to install plugins that want to add yet another management system, and have a couple of Macs with any other unique stuff. Separation across machines won't work for everyone. I use Logic Pro, and refuse to go anywhere near Cubase, iLok, etc. and don't trust them on my "primary" system.

I still have a lot of respect for software which use standalone installers, with built in activation. It works for me.

 

Don't get me started 😕

[CyberGene]

Let’s turn this rant thread into something useful and collect information about plugins that come with a simple installer that only copies the plug-in to the corresponding directory without relying on software managers, downloaders, background processes, licensers, etc. 

 

I’ll start with those I own:

 

U-He Diva

U-He Re-Pro 1/5

Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V

Waldorf Streichfett Plugin

Valhalla Supermassive

The following two can be downloaded separately from Plugin Alliance although they also offer an optional PA download manager:

BX Oberhausen

Knif Audio Knifonium (the zip of this one is broken and they acknowledged it, so I had to install and use the download manager)

 

What other companies/plugins you use that have simple standalone installers without cr*p?

 

[marczellm]

It should be also possible to disable the auto-starting of those bloatwares. I know how it is done but only on Windows. Then when you want to use the plugin, you have to think ahead a bit to start the bespoke updater manually, wait the update out while you have a coffee and then do the work. Recently the open source notation app MuseScore also joined the club with a new Muse Hub background app

[DeltaJockey]

Just some of the freestanding plugins I own:

 

Pianoteq

Synapse Dune, etc

Tone 2 synth collections

Uhe Zebra

 

Thankfully Ominisphere is still standalone!

 

 

 

I know you can download the individual plugins for NI Komplete etc. on the website, so avoiding using Native Access, but you'd have to use a third party, or at least browser download manager, as some of them are prohibitively large and subject to occasional fail.

 

I actually am more averse to plugins which require their own plugin container to function than the download managers themselves. At least with the download managers you can disable the daemons once you've got the plugins, only to enable them again to check for updates, I suppose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tusker]

6 hours ago, CyberGene said:

And voila, the problems disappeared, macOS icons in the system settings are now visible and restored.

 

They recommend running like that for a few days to see if the problem reappears and if not, then start installing them back again one at a day and see which one is the offender and then contact corresponding developer.

 

+1 This sounds like very good advice. I wonder if one or more of these are not M2 compatible? Or perhaps not yet compatible with your brand new OS (Monterey or Ventura?).

 

It may take a few months until everybody gets on board. Most of these developers will have compatibility pages, where you can track their progress and assess your risk, but Sweetwater has a nice summary page. Some of our members posted of their M2/Ventura experiences in this thread. I try to restrict the number of developers I buy from, but who can live without Kontakt?

 

It is frustrating to have a smoking fast computer and have the software fail on you. Hope this works out brother CyberGene!

 

 

[JamPro]

Great topic for keyboard computer users!

 

I have built my own music/studio computers (Windows) for a long time now.  I have come to understand that the software environment is just as important as the chosen components for the smooth faultless operation of a music computer.  So after building a new computer, I pay a lot of attention to installing the OS, and turning off or not installing features I don't want.

 

It seems too many software manufacturers now have a download application one must use to install their software.  So I dutifully install NI Access: the worst problem I have had with such a download application is being told I must install the newest version of the app in order to then do the download I want to do - a pointless delay and inconvenience, IMO.

 

That said, I avoid getting some music software because of the need to futz around with some utility software.  So my advice to the software manufacturers is that these utilities are driving away some of your business. 

 

(I assume the true purpose of these installer/download managers is so the manufacturer can gather info on the user and then sell that info on the great surveillance economy marketplace.)

[Stokely]

I've never noticed any of those types of things running on their own.  For example if I want to update something from Native Instruments, I have to start up their Native Access program.  Perhaps as noted the simplest thing is just to disable them from starting when the computer starts?

The plus side of something like Native Access is that I can have one spot to get updates for any of the products part of Komplete.  It would be a major pain to have to go to separate product pages for all of that.  Anyway it doesn't bother me.

I agree in general that keeping things simpler is good.  After having some plugins break and others needing updates when I change my OS to Monterey, I kind of regretted having so many different plugins from different companies.  I tend to use relatively few.

[Reezekeys]

AFAIK Native Access only has processes running when you start the app. Quit the app, no more Native Access.

 

What I would do when I see this stuff going on is open Activity Monitor. Order the list by "%CPU" to see what's using the processor the most. If you're lucky, a process will be identified by company name.

 

Here's mine right now. "EpocCam" is a webcam app I downloaded & tried maybe once or twice a long time ago. I'll look in "startup items" or "startup daemons" to see if it's there and trash it.

 

 

What you might be seeing is not something using excessive CPU (my guess is that it takes a lot to bog down an M2!), but a software conflict by a dev that hasn't updated for Ventura. I would be going to each of those websites to see if they have a page with compatibility notes regarding the latest MacOS. I'm pretty sure MOTU and Avid have them. You could get some answers there. That's the downside of being on the bleeding edge. I assume M2 MacBook Airs now ship with Ventura and don't allow installing an earlier MacOS.

[CyberGene]

I'm not blaming any particular software here because there were many of them and I had about 6 different background services installed. In the last weekend I needed a notation software and installed Dorico trial which in itself installed a software licenser, a library manager (which in itself downloaded some Halion cr*p which I had explicitly disabled in the Dorico installation), an app downloader and an activation manager. In addition, there was a background service installed. I'm not sure those were easily visible in previous versions of macOS but on Ventura they are now in the System settings (BTW, the actual files are in /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons and you can delete them but when I tried deleting some of them, the plugins wouldn't start, so those are required background services). Then I decided to try Sibelius since I wasn't very impressed with Dorico and it came with corresponding Avid cr*p and multiple auxiliary programs and a background service. I think it's one of these two.

 

BTW, both Dorico and Sibelius seem non-intuitive to me (I'm coming from MuseScore which I used in the past, however it seems in the latest major version it's also coming with a bunch of software/library managers now).

 

Removing all the leftovers from Avid and Steinberg took me around 20 minutes, their cr*p was all over the operating system folders. You can't imagine the sheer number of directories they drop stuff and then don't offer an uninstaller. There was actually an uninstallation script which apparently didn't remove everything.

 

Regarding Native Instruments: I'm lucky that I don't depend on it. I only used Kontakt for my Vintage D library but after I switched to Garritan CFX as my main piano library, I abandoned Vintage D. Well, I installed Kontakt a few weeks ago since I purchased Scarbee. But I'm not currently in any need for Rhodes libraries, for the moment I will only play live with my CP88, so I will postpone installing Kontakt for indefinite time, unless I really have to use Scarbee. And I'm not putting Avid and Steinberg cr*p anymore! I'm such an OCD that I am currently considering re-installing my macOS...

 

I think Arturia is actually OK, although it doesn't run without the background service they install. I removed it and the plugins won't start. But it seems to not be causing problems. That being said, I will try living only with U-He and Waldorf plugins for some time and see how it goes. Only if I find I'm really needing the Arturia Collection V or Pigments, will I install them again.

[KuruPrionz]

I think this is more of an "update" problem than a systemic and permanent disorder. 

I've got Native Access, IK Product Manager, Arturia Software Center, Izotope Product Portal, iLok License Manager and probably something I'm missing, cruising along nicely on my 2014 MacBook Pro running Catalina. 

I've been doing OK with my 2020 M1 Mac Mini as well but I've stopped at Monterey 12.5 and will not go to Ventura until it's been around for a while. 

Ventura is the first iteration of Apple Silicon to abandon Rosetta 2. I would like to abandon Rosetta 2 too, currently that means running Catalina on my laptop. 

 

All the companies mentioned above are well-established and will update their services. At some point, I may have to just freeze the laptop and not change anything, I'm already running Waveform 10 instead of 12.5 on the laptop. 12 has upped their plugins, I probably have everything I need there but I really like Eventide Physion 2 and Split EQ and those have been updated recently - Eventide seems to be able to stay on top of this upgrade cycle. 

 

I suspect things will slow down after Ventura, Apple will have gotten it to 100% Apple Silicon and it takes more time for new chips to be developed than it does for new systems. The advice to test the installer software one at a time is good, also smart to check for updates as none of the companies you mention can afford to fall behind for long. 

 

And, yesterday I tested the Baby Audio freebie plugins (4 of them) that I downloaded recently. Those were simple, quick installs. They have my "spam email" address but no registration, no nothing. They are simple and sound good but they won't cover all your plugin needs. Logic has LOTS of good stuff, it's probably more than enough right there. 

[Reezekeys]

27 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

Ventura is the first iteration of Apple Silicon to abandon Rosetta 2

 

Really? How do you know this?

[KuruPrionz]

3 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

 

Really? How do you know this?

As always, there are workarounds. 

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/718722

[CyberGene]

I have Rosetta 2 apps and they work with Ventura fine, nothing was needed on my side. 

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, CyberGene said:

I have Rosetta 2 apps and they work with Ventura fine, nothing was needed on my side. 

Your OP indicates that something isn't quite as it should be, no?

[Docbop]

Even OSX has a tom crap running in the background constantly.    Wish OSX was like iOS on iPhone where you can turn on Low Power Mode and most of that crap get put to sleep.   Being a SysAdmin building servers for production use you learn to build computers Lean and Mean for stability and performance.  That's one thing I like about the Unix world is most of them the OS installers had an option for Barebones install.   When I worked at the bank who had ties close to Microsoft we had install script that stripped out stuff from a Windows Server install.   Apple should add a "Pro" level install for OSX for making computers for real world work use.   Way too much crap going on in the background stealing CPU cycles, RAM, and other resources.    Work computers need to be barebones. 

 

 

[Reezekeys]

57 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

As always, there are workarounds. 

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/718722

 

That link has absolutely nothing to do with Rosetta 2 running or not running in Ventura.

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, Reezekeys said:

 

That link has absolutely nothing to do with Rosetta 2 running or not running in Ventura.

The page I linked is entirely about installing Rosetta 2 in Ventura. And it runs, apparently, sometimes, depending on whether or not your other software is updated to run in Ventura. 

 

What I said above is that Ventura does not include Rosetta 2. "Ventura is the first iteration of Apple Silicon to abandon Rosetta 2."

I can see that I should have worded it differently but Ventura does not include a place to install Rosetta 2. Monterey does include a place, you don't have to jump through the hoops mentioned in the link. It's not the only obstacle. 

 

The link I posted describes it as being blocked from the previous way of installing it and offers an alternative.

You've gone in a different direction from that and so have I. So what? 😊 At worst it's a minor mis-understanding, on to the next - these forums are full of such things, no?

I guess if we all agreed on everything and used all the correct words that this forum would pretty much fade away into nothing. It's our differences that make things interesting. 

 

I'm still going to wait a while. I know some of the software I've been using is going to get left behind, that happens. 

[Reezekeys]

The word "abandoning" in your post implied (to me anyway) that Rosetta 2 no longer works at all in MacOS Ventura. And your link was to someone trying to install a second copy of Terminal in Ventura, to run in Rosetta 2. Their problem was "the duplicate option is no longer there for utilities apps." I don't see how that relates to Rosetta 2 being installed or not. Maybe I'm getting something wrong here, if I am I'm open to correction.

 

25 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

What I said above is that Ventura does not include Rosetta 2. "Ventura is the first iteration of Apple Silicon to abandon Rosetta 2."

I can see that I should have worded it differently but Ventura does not include a place to install Rosetta 2. Monterey does include a place, you don't have to jump through the hoops mentioned in the link. It's not the only obstacle. 

 

According to what I read on Apple's website, Rosetta 2 is not installed automatically with any MacOS. I'm not sure what you mean by "a place to install", but Apple says this:

 

You're asked to install Rosetta the first time you open an app that needs Rosetta. Click Install, then enter your user name and password to allow installation to proceed.

If you click Not Now, you will be asked again the next time you open an app that needs Rosetta.

If Rosetta is already installed, you are not asked to install it again.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211861

 

Is this method of installing R2 different on Ventura? I'm genuinely curious. If they did in fact change it, I can see where you might think it's "jumping through hoops" to install R2. Otherwise, it seems pretty straightforward to me.

[Stokely]

While I'm still on a 2016 Intel mac, I have no intention of running Rosetta anything once I do switch.  Any plugin maker (and iirc right now that would include Native instruments) that still doesn't have their stuff updated by then--it's years *now*-- is going to not be installed, and suitable replacements found if needed.

[KuruPrionz]

17 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

The word "abandoning" in your post implied (to me anyway) that Rosetta 2 no longer works at all in MacOS Ventura. And your link was to someone trying to install a second copy of Terminal in Ventura, to run in Rosetta 2. Their problem was "the duplicate option is no longer there for utilities apps." I don't see how that relates to Rosetta 2 being installed or not. Maybe I'm getting something wrong here, if I am I'm open to correction.

 

 

According to what I read on Apple's website, Rosetta 2 is not installed automatically with any MacOS. I'm not sure what you mean by "a place to install", but Apple says this:

 

You're asked to install Rosetta the first time you open an app that needs Rosetta. Click Install, then enter your user name and password to allow installation to proceed.

If you click Not Now, you will be asked again the next time you open an app that needs Rosetta.

If Rosetta is already installed, you are not asked to install it again.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211861

 

Is this method of installing R2 different on Ventura? I'm genuinely curious. If they did in fact change it, I can see where you might think it's "jumping through hoops" to install R2. Otherwise, it seems pretty straightforward to me.

OK you are probably correct, not me. I'm OK with that. 

 

[Reezekeys]

13 minutes ago, Stokely said:

Any plugin maker (and iirc right now that would include Native instruments) that still doesn't have their stuff updated by then--it's years *now*-- is going to not be installed, and suitable replacements found if needed.

 

When the first M1 Macs came out I remember hearing that some Intel apps actually ran faster in Rosetta than on an equivalent-priced WIndows machine!

 

I'm still on my late-2013 Mac, and will probably just roll with whatever is happening when I eventually go to an AS Mac. If some apps still need Rosetta, and run OK in Rosetta, then I'll be fine with that. I suspect by that time I won't have to deal with it though. My current Mac music setup has been pretty much "frozen" for the last few years, I'll probably use this old guy until it stops working.

[johnchop]

NI grinds my gears a bit, assuming we want the NIHardwareAgent installed and running at startup. I don’t have NI hardware.

 

The license watchdog processes for elicenser, pace/iLok, etc are just sort of the cost of doing business for the moment. Sucks that all honest, paying users are automatically enlisted in piracy defense.  

 

As for OP’s specific woes, sounds like a combo of growing pains with the new macOS + bugs + potentially lazy design… who knows?

 

Some devs listen and actually fix this stuff, so if their background processes are causing bigger problems for the Os,  support should take note.

 

Sometimes it’s amazing this stuff works at all.  
 

 

 

 

[Docbop]

55 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

 

When the first M1 Macs came out I remember hearing that some Intel apps actually ran faster in Rosetta than on an equivalent-priced WIndows machine!

 

I'm still on my late-2013 Mac, and will probably just roll with whatever is happening when I eventually go to an AS Mac. If some apps still need Rosetta, and run OK in Rosetta, then I'll be fine with that. I suspect by that time I won't have to deal with it though. My current Mac music setup has been pretty much "frozen" for the last few years, I'll probably use this old guy until it stops working.

 

 

The problem I've heard about is being on M-series chip and audio software ported to M-series, BUT using plugins that use Rosetta with it.   The mix of Rosetta and software ported to M-series is a problem.    The person I'm talking about ended move back to old version of the software that used Rosetta and his plugins that run on Rosetta and everything was working again on M-series.    

 

Probably like this to me are pretty normal when major changes happen.   I was working for a Mac software company when Apple did a major rewrite of MacOS.   This was still on the same chip just a OS rewrite and it took two-three years for all the dust to settle with MacOS and 3rd party Mac software. 

[Reezekeys]

32 minutes ago, Docbop said:

Probably like this to me are pretty normal when major changes happen.   I was working for a Mac software company when Apple did a major rewrite of MacOS.   This was still on the same chip just a OS rewrite and it took two-three years for all the dust to settle with MacOS and 3rd party Mac software. 

 

Right? I'm old enough to remember the switch from MacOS 9 to X. OSX 10.0, iirc, had basically no midi capabilities. It took a few years to get things together. The switch to Intel also took time. I remember fat binaries with both PPC and Intel code too (and they have those today with Intel and ARM code in the same app). I also ran OS9 in the "Classic environment" as well as booted directly, on my Titanium G4 laptop.

 

Actually I think Apple has been pretty good with at least trying to provide transitional solutions so we're not all left high & dry. It might seem like audio app developers have had enough time to port to AS since we're at about the 2-year mark from introduction, but I'm certainly not privy to how that all works. For some apps or plugins, they might be dealing with codebases developed years ago with tools that can't easily translate to ARM, meaning they have to essentially re-write from scratch or just abandon. Programmers who worked on an app can quit or retire too! No saying what's going on, but one thing I do is hang onto my working setup as long as possible and let the dust settle before moving on!

[DeltaJockey]

I just bought a Mac Studio for my main music machine. It of course, has only come with Ventura. I installed all my music software onboard. Not one plug-in, or any of the software I installed has failed to work properly 🙂 My Macbook Pro still has Monterey, and I was a bit reluctant to upgrade to Ventura on it yet, but I have gained confidence now from my new machine. Rosetta does still exist on Ventura, and seems to still work seamlessly.

 

Interestingly I read that older intel based plugins can fail to appear in Logic if you don't run Logic in Rosetta mode, but again I've found that not to be the case.

Maybe I haven't pushed things very far yet, but it seems to be all pretty stable to me. With the amount of processing power I have now, it's hard to imagine going back to anything else. Several weighty Kontakt plugins, and Omnisphere running with 32 audio buffer at 96KHz sample rate, no sweat!

[Al Coda]

14 hours ago, DeltaJockey said:

I know you can download the individual plugins for NI Komplete etc. on the website, so avoiding using Native Access

 

You cannot avoid Native Access !

You need it for activation, not only download, installation and updates !

And Native Access NEEDS MTK-Deamon !

I just had trouble w/ Native Access-2 and Win10 Pro latest updates.

Downgrade to orig. Native Access, removal of latest version of MTK Deamon and re-installation of a previous version helped.

 

 

A.C.

[DeltaJockey]

22 minutes ago, Al Coda said:

 

You cannot avoid Native Access !

You need it for activation, not only download, installation and updates !

And Native Access NEEDS MTK-Deamon !

I just had trouble w/ Native Access-2 and Win10 Pro latest updates.

Downgrade to orig. Native Access, removal of latest version of MTK Deamon and re-installation of a previous version helped.

 

 

A.C.

Yes of course. I did used to download the individual plugins once, and I'm pretty sure you can still download the free standing installs, but yes, you still have to use NA to activate.

Anyway, Native Access is one of the few that I do support and have installed. I've not had any trouble with the version 2, except when they had server issues a few weeks ago. The only thing I gripe about with it is that if a download keeps failing, you have to refresh it to get it going again. I wish they could have it auto restart to save having to nurse it through to the end.

 

I think my worst experience with these separate ecosystem has been VSL Synchron. I downloaded some vst's requiring it, and when I installed it, the damn thing spent 20 mins scanning and cataloging ALL my plugins from all vendors. I was pretty annoyed about this! I thought what business does it have with all my other software, and creating it's own config files full of everything.  Am I being unreasonable to feel this way?

[Reezekeys]

2 hours ago, Al Coda said:

You cannot avoid Native Access !

You need it for activation, not only download, installation and updates !

And Native Access NEEDS MTK-Deamon !

 

But Native Access only runs when doing those specific tasks, correct? Once sounds are downloaded and activated, NA doesn't need to run unless you need to again download, install or update. Mine is just sitting on my hard drive. I don't see MTK-daemon running in my Activity Monitor window (I'm on MacOS Mojave 10.14.6).

 

I wonder what this daemon process does that messes things up so much? Aren't these tiny programs using a minuscule percentage of CPU? I have a few NI items I use with Kontakt, no issues with anything (so far!).

[CyberGene]

5 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

But Native Access only runs when doing those specific tasks, correct? Once sounds are downloaded and activated, NA doesn't need to run unless you need to again download, install or update.

Then why is it a background service? If it's only run when you do these particular tasks, it can be a standalone app without a background service.

 

5 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

Mine is just sitting on my hard drive. I don't see MTK-daemon running in my Activity Monitor window (I'm on MacOS Mojave 10.14.6).

A background process might not be shown in the activity monitor. The OS treats background services differently than the regular processes. And you are not looking at the activity monitor 24/7 😀 It can activate itself exactly when you are busy with other apps.

 

5 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

I wonder what this daemon process does that messes things up so much? Aren't these tiny programs using a minuscule percentage of CPU? I have a few NI items I use with Kontakt, no issues with anything (so far!).

Depending on how well (or bad) it's implemented, it can either be very lean or bog down the entire system. It's a computer program that can do conditional things, it's not a permanent process with a permanent/static CPU load that you can take as a reference. And then, when you have many of these background processes, their total CPU usage might not be miniscule. But there are other aspects to background processes besides CPU and memory usage. In my particular case I had system files messed up by background processes. The mere fact an audio-related software can actually overwrite system files (since these background processes are apparently given elevated permissions to do their job, or they wouldn't be able to mess up system files) is even more worrying here. You assume the software is well written and with good intent. But that's just an assumption. As a software engineer myself I can assure you from my many years of practice that there are bugs even with the best software in the world (and that's not the best software in the world, let's face it, is's an auxiliary functionality written by their less talented developers because the top guns are dedicated to the critical audio engine) and also there are often a lot of untold decisions made by companies that are far from being honest, just remember how Zoom used to open a local port without revealing that, for the purpose of being able to automatically initiate meetings from the Calendar app, bypassing the security limitations of Safari/Calendar. Crap like that is endless. I applaud your optimism about people and humanity but I have my reasons to always start with the assumption we have the worst developers creating an unneeded app with the worst intent.

 

Please note, I'm not saying my problem was caused by the NI stuff. I suspect Steinberg or Avid because those two were installed around the weekend when the problems happened. But it just means that any of these (including NI) can become a nuisance.

 

P.S. Also, a background process may lay dormant for hours/days and be programmed to do its job when it detects, for instance, that there is file activity in the audio plugins folder. Just imagine they implemented some anti-piracy features that start re-scanning their plugins and library against tampering. And it's badly written, so it activates not only when their own files are being tampered with but also when any other plugin is doing file read/write activity in the audio components folder (e.g. another plugin is caching some data in the same folder temporarily). And you end up with lowered system performance in the worst possible moment although all have been good otherwise. It's just that these background processes are crap and should be avoided as much as possible. Not seeing that happening of course, since the big companies do what they please but it's certainly not happening when we actively avoid talking about it and accept it as normal. No, it's not.