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TwiceEveryMomen's avatar
2 years ago

EABackgroundAgent.app using significant energy

Since installing the EA app I have a background process called EABackgroundAgent that is constantly using 0.3-0.5% CPU causing it to register as "using significant energy" in the Mac battery status even when the EA app is not open. I've disabled background services, automatic updates, and all notifications in the EA App settings and yet this process is still running and still using CPU. I have also disabled the EA login/background item in System Preferences and that did nothing. The only way to get rid of this stupid process is to switch Activity Monitor to "all process" and find the one as root, and force quit it. The next time I run the EA app it will start back up, and I have to kill it again once I'm done playing my games or my battery life will be noticeably reduced.

If the background services option is turned off, this process should not be running at all let alone actively using CPU in the background. The fact that it runs as root is also extremely concerning from a security standpoint, as other posters have mentioned.

Specs:

16" Macbook Pro 2019, Intel Core i9, 16GB RAM, MacOS Ventura 13.4

16 Replies

  • TigerblueDoodle's avatar
    TigerblueDoodle
    2 years ago

    ... and a screenshot taken about 20 seconds after closing the app, showing that EABackground service is still running / using energy.

    Hope that's the info you wanted. Thank you.

  • EA_Leeuw's avatar
    EA_Leeuw
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 years ago
    @TigerblueDoodles Many thanks! To double-check; did you by any chance see if the background service was still running after a minute or so, or did it eventually disappear? Also, I assume you have disabled all and every background-related service in the app, including the updates for the game and the client and such?
  • Hi @EA_Leeuw , I've just run the check again.
     
    Two minutes after closing the EA app, it did disappear from the Activity Monitor, without me killing the process. 

    I was initially able to get into the app by dismissing the pop about the app ‘wanting to make changes to my computer’ (by pressing cancel), as mentioned in Posts #4 and #9 of this thread.
     
    However, if I then try to open the EA app again, I can't get past the pop up by pressing cancel. If I try to, I get error code EC:106 and the app won’t open.
     
    So, I have two choices when I turn my Mac on: I either have to open the app and close it completely OR, if I don't want to do that, I have to go directly to the Activity Monitor and kill the processes that have come on at start up (which don't otherwise disappear and which cause the fan to kick in after a while).
     
    Yes, everything you mention is disabled in the app.
     

    Hope that's helpful.

  • albersxowns's avatar
    albersxowns
    New Novice
    2 years ago

    Hello again @EA_Leeuw !

    I'm sending a few screenshots this time. First screenshot is when I noticed it was running without me using EA (reminded me to respond here lol). Second is after opening EA app and waiting a minute or two. Third is of the battery after closing the EA app. Fourth is of activity monitor after a few minutes, the background app is gone and is no longer showing on the battery. So if I open and close the EA app, the background app does close down as well. However, it does start running on its own even with all the boxes unchecked as I didn't start the app in the first place. 

    Let me know if you need anything else! Sorry it took awhile to get back to ya! 🙂

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