Nylas-mail: Electron Helper High CPU

Created on 26 Apr 2016 · 16Comments · Source: nylas/nylas-mail

When typing new mails or replies the process "Electron Helper" rises to outrageous high CPU, resulting in a big lag. See attached. I've seen it over a 100%.

Doesn't happen in every email, but I can't seem to find a consistent issue.

Nylas 0.4.25-a22631a on OSX 10.11.4
This might be related as the cpu goes higher when typing; https://github.com/nylas/N1/issues/895

screen shot 2016-04-26 at 16 19 27

macos

Source

jorenfrielink

Most helpful comment

It's also a consistent issue on my side. I think is something related to the Sync process as well. When the Sync message is in the UI this process comes the CPU high to ~90%.

krosti on 2 May 2016

👍3

All 16 comments

Are you sure it is N1 causing this? Slack also an Electron application. Could you check the path of Electron Helper and see if it is contained in the N1 app bundle.

mbilker on 29 Apr 2016

I'm not sure if this is the data you need, let me know if I can provide more.

/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron Helper
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Frameworks/Squirrel.framework/Versions/A/Squirrel
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Frameworks/Mantle.framework/Versions/A/Mantle
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/keytar/build/Release/keytar.node
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/p
athwatcher/build/Release/pathwatcher.node
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules
/atom-keymap/node_modules/keyboard-layout/build/Release/keyboard-layout-observer.node
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/sqlite3/lib/binding/electron-v0.36-darwin-x64/node_sqlite3.node
/Applications/Nylas N1.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/spellchecker/build/Release/spellchecker.node

I did end the process once while N1 was open and it forced closed N1. Also,
while i'm typing this reply I can see the Electron helper's CPU go up from 1%
to about 14%.

(btw, I have about five instances of Electron Helper running that all close when N1 is closed. Only one has a high CPU)

jorenfrielink on 29 Apr 2016

Okay so it is N1's Electron Helper. I see something like this on Linux and that is from the worker process that handles fetching data from the Sync Engine so the CPU usage may be that.

mbilker on 29 Apr 2016

It's also a consistent issue on my side. I think is something related to the Sync process as well. When the Sync message is in the UI this process comes the CPU high to ~90%.

krosti on 2 May 2016

👍3

Yikes. It should be lowered in the latest version due to optimizations across the board.

mbilker on 5 May 2016

I've got the same problem on the latest version. I installed Nylas N1 last night, no problems. Connected up three gmail accounts (low volume). Turned on the computer and it started N1, then it pretty much hangs. Processor utlization for Electron Helper (I've seen one and two threads) exceeds 100%. OSX Version 0.4.33-e8f137e (0.4.33-e8f137e).

There were two new mail items that took 10 minutes to download. And even 10 more minutes later it still says "Syncing your mailbox" some something is hung somewhere in the Sync process.

jeffmcneill on 7 May 2016

I'm just evaluating N1. All I reached was the screen to create an N1 account, and my CPU usage was pegged, fan going full blast, and battery draining due to "electron helper". Quiting N1 solved the problem.

daniel-nelson on 20 Jun 2016

👍1

Another user has reported this on ZenDesk: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/4306 ("Random high CPU usage all the time")

bengotow on 6 Jul 2016

Another incidence: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/5441

jackiehluo on 1 Aug 2016

This is the biggest issue preventing me from using Nylas!

Is there an action plan to solve? The whole syncing process seems a bit suspect at the moment.

chriswessels on 4 Aug 2016

Another incidence: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/5713

jackiehluo on 19 Aug 2016

Another incidence: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/5716

jackiehluo on 19 Aug 2016

I'm having this happen as well. Near 100% all the time even if I let it sit and sync fully. It makes the UI extremely unresponsive to actions. For example, archiving an e-mail does not remove the email from the inbox view until many minutes later (if at all).