A number of people have reported seeing a process called newsd downloading a lot of content and taking up disk space on macOS Big Sur. Here’s how you can stop news from using data.
Thanks to iStats Menus, I noticed on my Mac’s menu that something was downloading constantly at 13 MB/s. When I looked, it was a process called newsd, a process that’s apparently the Apple News app on Mac.
I had turned on the computer after a week so I was expecting some sort of download — for iCloud Photo sync, for example — but I wasn’t familiar with newsd. iCloud photo sync usually is a process called nsurlsessiond and not newsd, so I did what anyone with an internet connection today would, I Googled.
I came across this forum thread on Apple website that was posted fairly recently, on December 22, 2020, and people have been responding to it with their own version of issues. The latest post there is from February 4, 2021, as of this writing and according to that, reinstalling macOS 11.2 and re-enabling iCloud Syncing for News didn’t seem to solve the issue.
So, the only workaround to stop newsd from using up bandwidth is to turn off iCloud syncing completely for Apple News.
I’m not happy with that workaround as I use Apple News on a regular basis, but I’d rather take my bandwidth back. There’s no reason it should keep downloading and using massive amounts of traffic when I’m not actively using the app.
What is newsd
When you see a process called newsd is using a lot of bandwidth, it’s the Apple News app on your Mac that is downloading a lot of content in the background. It’s fine if it does it from time to time, but it shouldn’t do it for so long that you notice it and go look for a solution.
How to stop newsd from downloading
As of now, since no real solution exists yet, the only way to stop newsd from using a lot of bandwidth is to completely turn off iCloud sync for Apple News.
To do this, you can follow these steps:
- Click Launchpad and then open System Preferences or press CMD + Space and type “System Preferences.”
- Click Internet Accounts and then click iCloud on the left sidebar.
- Turn off the checkbox for “News”
That’s it.
Several people have mentioned in various forums that this is what has fixed the issue for them. While it’s not a true solution to whatever the underlying issue is, for the time being, this is what you can do to take back your bandwidth and avoid going over the data cap if you’re on limited bandwidth.
Hopefully, that solves any issues with newsd downloading a lot of data on your Mac.
