Spitfire LABS app on macOS: HUGE CPU usage, fans going crazy...nothing open.

Discussion in 'Lounge' started by Smoove Grooves, Feb 2, 2021.

  1. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    I disagree. You have no idea.
    I did. Please read the first post. And then more info as it happened later on.
    I've said this numerous times throughout the thread now. It's even in the thread title.
    Nope. Nothing to do with Kontakt libraries at all.
    It's to do with an app from Spitfire Audio called LABS.
    Thank you for your concern.

    Sorry but as a mod, I'm really surprised you didn't read any of the relevant info first.
    And now we have two more irrelevant comments cluttering things up ! lol. :)
    I see this as a crime against my poor cpu and hardware (as I already stated).
    I am allowed to say this.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  2. Quantised Noise

    Quantised Noise Producer

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    :deep_facepalm:

    I can tell you exactly what it's doing...

    Remember last year when Zoom got 'caught' running a web server on macs to get around the fact that apple had removed support for URL handlers in the name of security?

    Well, this is the same thing, spitfire use 'spitfireaudio:' url handlers to open LABS to install specific instruments when you click on the instrument in your web browser, always have since the LABS program (re)started. But since apple removed that ability from Safari, and many Mac users use Safari still for some reason, they have a process sit in the background and watch to see if Safari suddenly tries to open a 'spitfireaudio:' url, and then open the LABS program if it happens.

    It's almost certainly doing nothing untoward, but this is apple forcing developers to come up with suspicious looking ways to get around something apple deemed 'insecure' that is perfectly sane when handled normally.

    So blame apple.
     
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  3. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Never done that. As you obviously read, in the first post.
    Not since 2008 myself. Not even on my machine!
    Did you see the cpu usage? Frying my computer? NOTHING was open! Slowing down everything for months? I was offline. I hadn't opened Logic during that session or the LABS app.
    I saw all the services it was using. I know what I believe.
    Everything was fine before I installed the app.
    So I blame SA, not Apple.
    That's how I felt when I monitored all this happening. Thanks for your concern.

    Ciao.
     
  4. phumb-reh

    phumb-reh Guest

    A question, as someone who doesn't use Spitfire's products (as of now), does the same thing happen with legit installs?
     
  5. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Uh, it was a legit install!
    As far as I'm aware, it's only the app called LABS that does the fuckery I explained in the original post.
    Nothing to do with old Kontakt libraries at all.
    But it was checking on them!
     
  6. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Over 2.5K views.
    Great.
    Thank you to the 6 people who clicked either Like or Useful, so that at least maybe some people might see that this thread is relevant when they browse through all the different forums here at AS.

    I know Paul and 'Christian' turned up at the time of the views in this picture below, in that order!, because that's when 'fellow members' started giving me unjustifiable neg ratings!
    666Fire Audio.png
    But seriously, I've also been getting annoying PMs and even threats outside of here now because I have put this out...
    It was MY computer that was frying!
    I will say what I want, and what I experienced with my own eyes.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  7. sylviannyc

    sylviannyc Member

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    For what it's worth... I am running High Sierra (10.13.6) and I have all the LABS libraries installed as well as BBC Discover, Felt Piano, and Intimate Strings. The cheap package :) I have a Little Snitch rule allowing all Spitfire requests. My machine is an aging iMac 2013 model – a 2.9 GHz i5 with a measly 8GB of RAM. I have never had any issues with their app. The only apps that I ever notice raise my Mac's blood pressure are Backblaze (not so much lately) and occasionally The Unarchiver for larger RARs from the sister site.

    Not to take away from your experience, which sounds very alarming and I totally feel for you, but I haven't had any problems.

    Have you tried talking to Spitfire about this?
     
  8. phumb-reh

    phumb-reh Guest

    Thanks for this, but maybe I phrased that question wrong. I mean paid-for Spitfire plugins, not just Labs.
     
  9. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Audiosexual

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    the problem is you cant handle, when ppl have an other opinion and no im not talking about the Kontakt version, i talk about LABS, here sometimes random library breaks - it is common and i asked the support to figure out, what was the cause and they did, the problem was on my side, i needed space and didnt in a proper deinstall it. that was the only time, when the library broke for me. I want to install LABS again on another computer with win 8.1pro, i could try to report back here, but on windows 10pro everything was/is fine for me for a long time.

    I had no problem with any Helper being overall active on win 10 pro. It is only active when i want to get new libraries from their page.

    maybe its really just an apple thing, just like the story with Zoom, getting around the URL handling (i have not verified that, but it seems possible from apples side) Could be similar, Apple does not provide a service, which could be needed for Spitfire to run LABS?!

    And once again it is not the case on windows for the LABS program, therefore has to be an issue on apple only.

    I took care to read everything over the time it was posted here and there was nothing suspecious imo for me.

    An overall high CPU usage doesnt make a program a harmful or malcious program, it could be it is just bad coded to have for example a lot of page faults or whatever.

    Could you verify that it transports data from your computer to their servers, apart from license data and the actual packages? Also license data is a little bit more often verified, but what is deal about this? As long as you can use it offline for a few days, which i did last year, it is okay.

    So what is the proof you have gathered so far?
    I saw nothing of that i your post as random ranting and accusing of spitfire to have malware app called LABS.
     
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  10. Olymoon

    Olymoon MODERATOR Staff Member

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    This thread is re-open.

    Let's objectively check this, as if it's true it's a very bad move from Spitfire. If it's not, we have to clarify.
    But please, let's investigate on a technical basis.
     
  11. odod

    odod Rock Star

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    i asked Spitfire people .. this is their answer
    "Applications that install things on Mac need to make permissions checks. Our app has since been updated so the helper is only active when needed.

    I hope this helps and do let me know if you have any further queries.

    Best wishes,
    Henry"

    or ... tell me if these 3 million downloads were wrong
    Screen Shot 2021-02-06 at 17.52.29.png
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  12. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    @odod
    And what did he say about the actual issue here?
    The one mentioned in my opening post?
    Anything...?

    I cannot see the pic at the link.
    Please drag it onto your comment so I can read it.

    Thanks for making out as if myself and the other Mac users here in the thread are imagining stupid cpu usage and fan action!
    Nice one! :no:
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2021
  13. odod

    odod Rock Star

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    well i had no intention like that tho, but hey you just made a thread about something that you need to clarify before pointing out your finger to Spitfire, and i did not even mention your post BTW, i just asked the guy about labs manager whether is a harmful or no, i think you should directly ask Spitfire instead of making thread like this .. and also i have no issue BTW, so please do not justify just because some of us had a fan issue while the rests of 3 million people had no issue .. come to think of it, and you are also trying to provoke everyone that i made you feel stupid .. you see? what do you call yourself now? sorry man .. i won't play your game,
     
  14. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Okay. But it seemed you did:
    I already know you pal.
    Very useful I'm sure. The answer is in my opening post...
    No. That's just in your own mind, you see? And there would be no problem with that either way! Stop projecting your subjective thoughts on others.
    It's all about the truth.
    I did. Please read the opening post. I am not the only one either.
    And I have no reason to want to contact SFA about the wear and tear on my computer. I know what I witnessed, it doesn't matter to me if you don't want to believe me.
    Cheers.

    Edit:
    I am just the messenger. No game being played. Sorry if you think that.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  15. YuYuV

    YuYuV Noisemaker

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    I can actually say that I had a similar experience and this thread helped me.

    I was noticing my system running extremely hot and fans going CRAZY as soon as I would power up my mac
    doing little to nothing it would just run extremely hard no matter if I was typing a .Doc or just doing some shopping or even nothing open. It made it hard and for me to even run any DAW because that would just make my computer almost untouchable.

    Things got so bad I even considered getting a new computer all together but running across this thread helped me because I have a fairly new mac with a decent build.

    MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
    2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
    32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
    Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

    After removing it I can say that I didn't notice it at first but it was around that time a few months ago that my mac began to run hard now I haven't had any issues.
     
  16. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    @YuYuV Thanks for your time in replying.
    Sorry to hear you had the same experience as me and the others here that have bothered to chime in.
    Isn't it lovely that everything is running smoothly again?! haha. I'm so happy now.
    There's a comment of mine in here somewhere that states most of the places where I found traces of the app, if you want to double check.
    Did you use an app for macOS that found all the files and uninstalled them? Or did you just do it manually as I did?
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
  17. YuYuV

    YuYuV Noisemaker

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    It runs waayyy better and I can't thank you enough for sharing what you found with the few of us that needed to see that. I did a manual removal in all of the places. The results were immediate and I miss having LABS because the sounds were quality but it wasn't worth the strain it put on my machine.

    I have ran instances of tons of cpu heavy vst and rarely EVER had the fans turn on and never at the rate that it would hit almost instantly after loading my computer up. I never knew the fans could get that loud I tried almost everything and nothing worked until I removed LABS
     
  18. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Agreed. It was just for a soft/mellow piano instrument that I downloaded it. it sounded really nice.
    But not a huge loss when compared to the strain on my computer.
    Interesting that you have faster ram than me and more cores! I thought this would only be affecting the systems that were older.
     
  19. suscriptor

    suscriptor Noisemaker

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    Hi, I solved the issue deleting all the spitfire folders and apps and deleting com.spitfireaudio.LibraryManager in the folder Library/PrivilegedHelperTools and delete the file and solved.
     
  20. phloopy

    phloopy Audiosexual

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    Hi @Smoove Grooves

    Now you have at least two threads about your issues with Spitfire Audio Labs - and that´s perhaps one too many :yes:

    Im not Mac but Win - do you really know what the word "win" means ..... Just a joke :mates:

    SF´s Labs makes some troubles here, but thats just a bug..... and frankly I dont give a shite because I already have them all in Kontakt format. I´ve also bought a few libs with their "player" and it works really nice.

    I have no issues regarding cpu when I open a Lab lib and absolutely no issues regarding if SF spy on me while Im using their stuff.

    My 50 cents - so far :yes:
     
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