overheating of MacBook Pro with macOS Tahoe 26

My 10 month old MacBook Pro has been running so hot since OS26 install that it slows to a snails pace. The issue is that Spotlight Search is consuming all for my CPU. I've considered a reinstall and I looked for ways to disable Spotlight Search as I have never once used it. I could not find a way to disable it but I did find a way to neuter it. In Settings I turned off all of it's search ability, it's ability to search through every aspect of my computer. It was using over 200% of my CPU. Now it uses less than 1%. My Mac runs fast and completes every task with precision and speed, and best of all, my Mac runs very cool. After installing Tahoe my Mac was running hot even in sleep mode. Not so now! Problem solved! Apple needs to allow users to turn off Spotlight Search. It should be the user's choice, not something that is forced on us!

If the processors are getting hot, something is driving them. This does not seem to be a commonly reported issue, so most likely it's something (system extension, background process) running on your Mac that is causing problems with macOS 26. You can boot in Safe Mode to shut off 3rd party extensions and see if that solves the problem.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

I noticed Visual Code was running like crazy which triggered my CPU fan. I uninstalled it and quit those apps from Activity Monitor. Probably same problem with you some apps are just not running right with the new OS.

Update: I did some investigation and monitored my system. I noticed that WindowServer is constantly using around 20-40% CPU and 35-50% GPU. When the CPU usage goes over 30% and the GPU over 40%, my fans kick in and get really loud until I stop doing anything on the M2 MacBook Pro.

This drives me crazy because it never happened before. Sure, there were workflows that triggered the fans, but those were demanding apps like games or building an app in Xcode. Now I feel like I'm using a PC—it's loud, sluggish, and looks significantly worse than Sequoia.

I have had particular heating issues with intunemdm and teams since the upgrade to 26, killing mdm reduces the temp for around 12 hours until it goes nuts again.

We're getting problems across our whole fleet since the upgrade, the battery overheats and then stops charging.

A big pain......

In my case MAIL native application overheats laptop. it is just insane ! Reported 5 bugs to apple. They should fix it! no solution "like reduce apps" suitable for this bugs. Apple removed archives. MAIL client always attempting to upload something from somewhere, never stops. It should be fixed , no other options. it is BUG

I encountered the same issue and, after hours of research, I discovered that rendering the liquid glass UI is highly demanding on the CPU. I started disabling some of its features, and the first change I made—switching the screen background to a static one—had a significant impact on performance.

We are facing overheating issues with MacBook Air models M1, M2, M3, and M4 after upgrading to macOS Tahoe 26. Before the upgrade, our MacBooks were working fine on version 15.6 with no heating or hanging problems. Since the upgrade, the laptops are getting hot and running slow. If we restart the device, it works normally for a while, but the next day the same issue comes back, and we have to restart again. No third-party software is installed, either before or now. It seems like a bug, but we need a solution urgently as our school has 300 laptops, all on the latest OS (26). This problem has been going on for 5 days now.

I tried that. It won't work. This is what does work: My 10 month old MacBook Pro has been running so hot since OS26 install that it slows to a snails pace. The issue is that Spotlight Search is consuming all for my CPU. I've considered a reinstall and I looked for ways to disable Spotlight Search as I have never once used it. I could not find a way to disable it but I did find a way to neuter it. In Settings I turned off all of it's search ability, it's ability to search through every aspect of my computer. It was using over 200% of my CPU. Now it uses less than 1%. My Mac runs fast and completes every task with precision and speed, and best of all, my Mac runs very cool. After installing Tahoe my Mac was running hot even in sleep mode. Not so now! Problem solved! Apple needs to allow users to turn off Spotlight Search. It should be the user's choice, not something that is forced on us!

I met the same overheating issur after upgrading to Tahoe 26. I found my Macbook pro with M3 pro overheat especially when I watch video through browser in full screen mode. The WindowServer process has a super high CPU usage which is abnormal.

fengchu wrote:

I will try the safe mode.

But even the 'brand new' install without any other apps, it's still overheating.

For these "clean installs," did you migrate over from your old account(s)? I am wondering if something could have come over that doesn't play well with MacOS 24.

If, after a "clean install" (format/erase followed by fresh MacOS -- in other words, the Mac is restored to "new out of the box" state), the fans are still running loudly, I would suspect something in the hardware. It could be something low tech like a blocked vent.

I’ve had the same overheating issue and traced it back to WindowServer. I’m still not sure if it’s coming from Adobe or Affinity (my two main design apps), but the GPU only overheats when I use them. I’m on a Mac Mini M4 24/256. I even formatted and reinstalled everything from scratch, yet the GPU overheating problem still persists. :(

As a follow-up, if you want to get back to Sequoia from Tahoe, the link above will get you to the install file for download. That's only the first of several steps.

Below are instructions to install Sequoia by creating a bootable installer (using the file you downloaded) with a USB flash drive.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support