What is opendirectoryd on Mac?
By Junaid, maker of Taskglass · Last reviewed
Looks up user accounts, groups and passwords, locally or from a company directory.
opendirectoryd answers questions like 'who is this user?' and 'is this password correct?' for the rest of macOS. It reads the Mac's local account database and, on work Macs, can also talk to directory services such as Active Directory or LDAP. It's essential and normally quiet.
- Category
- macOS system
- Made by
- Apple
- Safe to quit:
- No
Shown in Activity Monitor as opendirectoryd
Why is opendirectoryd using so much CPU or memory?
- Logging in, or many apps checking user or group information
- A company directory server that is slow or unreachable
- Management or security software querying accounts frequently
What to do
- 1Wait a minute after login
- 2On a work Mac, check your connection to the company network or VPN
- 3Restart your Mac
Safe to quit? No.
Don't quit it: logins and permission checks depend on it.
Typical usage
Rough ranges on Apple Silicon Macs. Yours will vary.
- CPU
- Near 0%
- Memory
- 10–60 MB
Related processes
Part of the Taskglass Process Library