Apple Intelligence photo scanning appears to be the root cause of unexpected performance issues on macOS 26.5, with users reporting beachballs and sluggish systems. A process called mediaanalysisd is consuming 50-150% of CPU resources, according to Activity Monitor reports from affected users. This background task analyzes photos, suggesting Apple’s AI is scanning libraries without user consent. High battery usage compounds the problem, leaving many Mac owners frustrated.

The issue seems tied to macOS 26.5, released recently, which introduced Apple Intelligence features. Mediaanalysisd’s aggressive resource use aligns with reports of kernel_task and corespotlightd also spiking. While Apple hasn’t officially acknowledged the problem, users have found that leaving their Macs plugged in overnight allows mediaanalysisd to complete its scans, resolving the slowdown. This points to a software optimization gap rather than hardware failure.

For power users, this highlights a trade-off between AI-driven features and system efficiency. The lack of control over when or how Apple Intelligence scans photos is concerning, especially for those with large libraries. Until Apple addresses mediaanalysisd’s behavior, affected users must work around the issue, potentially sacrificing sleep or productivity to force updates. The broader implication? AI integrations may come at a cost to performance if not carefully tuned.