SpotifyHelper.exe CPU usage on Windows

[wildest]

I opened a ticket with Spotify support a couple of weeks back to troubleshoot the fact that the SpotifyHelper.exe processes seemed to be using constant CPU of around 8% to 10% no matter what I was doing in Spotify, even if I wasn't playing music.

I provided what I thought were pretty good details to replicate the issue and then my ticket got closed without any resolution. Awesome, thanks for that.

As such, I thought I'd come here to try get some visibility for this .

To replicate;

Open spotify on Windows, open a playlist and play songs. The SpotifyHelper.exe processes all sit stable at 0% CPU. There's the odd spike but definitely nothing constant.

Click an artist name in the playlist to take you to the artist page or search for an artist and open the artist page (i.e. Pearl Jam). As soon as the artist page is open, one of the SpotifyHelpers will start consuming CPU at a constant rate. On my quad core this is between 3 and 5%, on my dual core it's between 8 and 10%.

What's this process doing? It's not playback - if you end the process playback continues fine, the artist page will refresh and the process goes back to it's constant rate. If I go back to the playlist, it usually still sits at the constant rate but I've noticed sometimes it will go back to 0.

Pause playback at it will keep using CPU.

Granted, we are not talking about a lot of usage here on my quad core. But on my dual core 10% is not insignificant, especially when I can have Spotify open all day.

To me it looks like Spotify is constantly doing something to render the Artist page - Please optimize this!

[CPUser]

I can confirm this behaviour. Sometimes I even have two processes climing up to 20-25% CPU-Usage each.

It is especially alarming, that Spotify is doing this while being minimized to the tray. GPU-Usage is up too, even though nothing is drawn.

Killing the SpotifyHelper-processes shows that the process rendering the tracklist is responsible. Just a guess, but CPU usage is normal (low), when there are no video-ads playing... Stopping these while Spotify is minimized could be a first step - no one can see them then anyway....

Thanks!

[Aorom]

Yeah, unfortunately Chromium sucks and I really miss the old fast Spotify. I can't use the radio without waiting about 10 seconds.

[dfahlgren]

I see the same problem on Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit) with version 0.9.11.27.g2b1a638c. Now, when not listening, SpotifyHelper uses 30% cpu on my i5 M430 laptop. If I strace the process it does the following:

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2O`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116) = 116

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 629883000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] write(13, "\0", 1

[pid 1476] <... epoll_wait resumed> {{EPOLLIN, {u32=12, u64=12}}}, 32, 4294967295) = 1

[pid 1475] <... write resumed> ) = 1

[pid 1476] read(12, "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2P`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 646473000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] <... write resumed> ) = 116

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] write(13, "\0", 1

[pid 1476] <... epoll_wait resumed> {{EPOLLIN, {u32=12, u64=12}}}, 32, 4294967295) = 1

[pid 1475] <... write resumed> ) = 1

[pid 1476] read(12,

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 662739000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] <... read resumed> "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2Q`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116) = 116

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] write(13, "\0", 1

[pid 1476] <... epoll_wait resumed> {{EPOLLIN, {u32=12, u64=12}}}, 32, 4294967295) = 1

[pid 1475] <... write resumed> ) = 1

[pid 1476] read(12, "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 679061000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2R`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116) = 116

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] write(13, "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1476] <... epoll_wait resumed> {{EPOLLIN, {u32=12, u64=12}}}, 32, 4294967295) = 1

[pid 1476] read(12,

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 695415000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] <... read resumed> "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2S`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116) = 116

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] write(13, "\0", 1

[pid 1476] <... epoll_wait resumed> {{EPOLLIN, {u32=12, u64=12}}}, 32, 4294967295) = 1

[pid 1475] <... write resumed> ) = 1

[pid 1476] read(12, "\0", 1) = 1

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 711783000}, ffffffff

[pid 1476] write(9, "`\0\0\0\1\0\0\0A\6\1\0\2T`4\0\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 116) = 116

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3, {}, 32, 0) = 0

[pid 1476] epoll_wait(3,

[pid 1475] <... futex resumed> ) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 728028000}, ffffffff) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 744478000}, ffffffff) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514e4, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET_PRIVATE|FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME, 1, {1409727963, 760832000}, ffffffff) = -1 ETIMEDOUT (Connection timed out)

[pid 1475] futex(0x7fff3d9514b8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0

over and over again.

[habnix]

But we are talking about a huge problem on a portable device, in my case a Surface Pro 3, as with contant 20% CPU usage the battery runs out hours earlier and there is always some fan noise...

This is a massive problem and needs to be fixed asap... Until then I am uninstalling Spotify or at least taking it out of Autostart...

[putdeksel]

For me the same thing is happening. Didn't usually notice it as I have a quite powerful desktop PC, but on my 6 year old laptop it takes my CPU to 50% - which for my dual-core is quite a problem. The main culprit for me is the 'browse' view, which gives the following CPU loads:

The problem is actually big enough that I needed to switch tabs in Spotify just to be able to select this image in the uploader window. Problem persists when I switch windows or minimize Spotify. A fix would be MUCH appreciated.

UPDATE: Artist pages don't give me this kind of behaviour. I've noticed that you can hide the offending announcement on the 'browse' tab (for me it was some christmas ad). At first this does nothing to reduce the CPU load, but after switching to another tab and then back to 'browse' the CPU load was gone. Not sure if the announcement remains hidden indefinitely however - it might pop up again once there is a new ad or I restart Spotify.

[CaptainFadi]

Same problem for Mac: 

[CaptainFadi]

Problem seems to be solved 🙂 

[Tomcat]

I still have this issue on Windows, and it's definitely related to video ads playing while app is minimized.

I've seen video ads for the first time today, and SpotifyHelper uses anything from 5 - 20% CPU.

When I switch to another page in the application that does not play videos, the CPU usage goes back to <1%.