If you spend any time at all poking through Activity Monitor, you will notice that there is a process running storedownloadd. That is just the Mac App Store downloading some software for you.
Process storedownloadd runs in the background in macOS, and the process running in the background in computing is called daemon. This storedownloadd daemon handles downloads for the Mac App Store. The name itself makes it obvious that it is running for the Mac App Store. Moreover, this process uses CPU resources only when you’re downloading something, be it an application you’ve chosen to download in the Store or an update for an app you already have.
The process is running from the folder
“/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/”
The resources folder also holds other important processes related to the Mac App Store e.g. installs and commerce.
To check current downloads, Open the Mac App Store, & then check the “Updates” section.
But if you’d like more control over when storedownloadd runs and takes up your system resources you can change that setting.
But remember that System updates protect your Mac from malware and other threats, and occasionally add new features. The same goes for software updates, so it’s important to keep all your apps up to date.
Follow the steps below to take control of the settings,
- Open System Preferences.
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App Store in System Preferences - Click the “App Store” button
- Automatic update settings are shown right at the top of the window.
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Automatic update settings - Uncheck the option if you do not want to download updates in the background, “Download newly available updates in the background”.
The first option in the settings, “Automatically check for updates,” will control either the Mac should regularly check for the new version or not. It is not good to turn this off as it is always important to know about updates when they are available.
The 2nd option, “Download newly available updates in the background,” will control either the system should download updates in the background or not.
Again, none of these two options installs updates automatically: they either look for updates regularly or the system should download those updates whenever available.
The next three options will control either the system should install updates automatically or with user intervention.
- Check “Install App updates” and applications you’ve downloaded using the Mac App Store will install automatically, without you having to do anything. Note that you’ll have to close the program for the update to install, otherwise you will end up seeing a notification about it.
- Check “Install macOS updates”, and decimal point updates (for example, updating from 10.12.3 to 10.12.4) will install automatically. You will be asked before your system restarts. New versions of macOS (ie, updating from 10.12 Sierra to 10.13 Some-Other-California-Landmark) will not install automatically.
- Check “Install system data files and security updates” to ensure that these regular updates make it to your system. These updates rarely require system reboot and help keep your Mac secure, so there’s no reason to disable them.
Just remember to keep the Mac and other apps up-do-date if you want to be safe, even when automatic updates are turned off
The post What is ‘storedownloadd’ and Why is it Running on My Mac? appeared first on Appuals.com.