distnoted delivers distributed notifications, the messages apps and macOS send each other when something changes (not the banners you see); several copies, one for your account and others for system accounts, are normal. High CPU from it almost always means one app is flooding it with messages, so quit apps one at a time until it settles.
Last reviewed · 1 source
One Mac, macOS 26.5 (25F71) on Apple silicon, read with ps and codesign on October 29, 2026
| Path | /usr/sbin/distnoted |
|---|---|
| Runs as | your user account and macOS system accounts |
| Signed by | Apple (Software Signing), identifier com.apple.distnoted |
| Note | Several copies, one per account (for example _appleevents). |
distnoted is the macOS daemon that delivers distributed notifications between processes. When one application needs to notify other applications about a state change — such as preferences being updated, a file being saved, or a system event occurring — distnoted routes that notification to all registered listeners across process boundaries.
High CPU usage when an application sends excessive notifications
Notification delivery delays causing apps to appear out of sync
Memory growth from accumulated undelivered notifications
Slow system performance when thousands of notifications queue up
Open Activity Monitor and check if distnoted CPU correlates with a specific app's activity. The most common cause of high distnoted usage is a single application sending an excessive number of distributed notifications, often due to a bug in that app.
Quit the application that appears to be triggering excessive notifications. If distnoted's CPU usage drops immediately, that app is the culprit. Check for an update to that app that may fix the notification spam.
Run 'killall distnoted' in Terminal. launchd will restart it automatically. This clears any backlog of queued notifications and resets the daemon's state. Applications will reconnect to distnoted automatically.
distnoted using minimal CPU during normal operation is expected — it's just routing messages between processes. Be concerned if it sustains high CPU usage, which almost always means a specific application is flooding the notification system. Identify and restart that application.
cfprefsd manages the macOS preferences system. It handles reading and writing all .plist preference files for both syste...
launchd is the first process that runs when macOS boots (PID 1) and serves as the system's init and service management f...
notifyd is the macOS daemon that provides the low-level notify(3) notification mechanism used for lightweight inter-proc...
distnoted is the distributed notification daemon that enables inter-process communication on macOS. It routes notifications between applications — not the user-facing Notification Center alerts, but system-level messages that applications use to coordinate with each other. For example, when you change a preference, distnoted notifies other processes of the change.
distnoted uses CPU when routing notifications between processes. High CPU typically means one application is sending excessive notifications, often due to a bug. The fix is to identify which application's activity correlates with distnoted usage and restart or update that application.
Yes. distnoted is a standard Apple system process for inter-process notification delivery. It has been part of macOS since the early Darwin versions and is essential for applications to communicate state changes to each other. It is code-signed by Apple and protected by System Integrity Protection.
CoreLock's scan of running apps, network, permissions, startup items, AI agents and Downloads is free, with no account.
Apple silicon build 2.0.7 · Intel Mac?
For your Mac, not this phone ·
Count which apps can record your screen, use your mic or camera, or read your files, and get a free 0–100 estimate in your browser.
Estimate your Security ScoreFree · Calculated in your browser