What is runningboardd on a Mac?

runningboardd is a macOS process that manages the life of apps and other processes: it decides which ones may run, and how much. It is normal, it is meant to be running all the time, and it uses very little when the Mac is calm. If you found it in a list of processes, the answer is to leave it alone.

The name is not friendly, which is the main reason people look it up. Here is what it does, why you might see it busy, and why ending it is not worth trying.

What runningboardd does

Foreman gives it the plain name “App lifecycle” and the description “Decides which apps and processes may run and how much.” That is a good summary.

Your Mac is always running far more things than you are looking at. Apps you have open, apps in the background, helpers, widgets, menu bar items and system services all want processor time and memory. Somebody has to keep track of who is allowed to run, who is waiting and who should get more. runningboardd is part of the answer. It is one of the pieces of macOS that handles the starting, stopping and prioritising of processes, which is called their lifecycle.

It is a manager rather than a worker. Most of its job is making decisions and keeping records, and those take very little effort. That is why it should be almost invisible.

Why it matters that you leave it alone

Because it sits in the middle of how apps are started and kept running, ending it can upset apps across the whole Mac. macOS starts it again as soon as something needs it, so the only result is disruption. There is nothing to gain by ending it, and it does not free up anything of use. So the advice is the same as for most system processes: it is there for a reason, it is normal, leave it.

If it ever shows high processor use for a long time, it is almost always a symptom. Something else, often a single app starting and stopping helpers over and over, is giving it work to do.

When you might see it busy

You are most likely to notice it for a short while when a lot is happening at once.

• Right after login or a restart, when many apps and services start together.
• When an app is crashing and relaunching in a loop, so the system keeps handling its start and stop.
• When many apps open or close in a rush, for example a script or a work setup that opens a dozen things at once.
• After an update, when macOS settles back into its normal routine.

In each case the load follows the activity. The first thing to check is what else is busy. Sort the list by CPU and see whether one app is working hard or restarting repeatedly. If an app keeps coming back after you quit it, why an app keeps reopening after you quit it on a Mac explains the usual reasons, and ends with how to stop it.

If nothing stands out, restart the Mac. It resets the state and costs a minute.

How this fits with the rest of macOS

runningboardd is one of several processes that look after what runs and when. Two neighbours you might see are the ones Foreman calls “Usage scheduling” (coreduetd, which schedules background work for good battery life) and “Background task scheduler” (dasd, which decides when background tasks may run). They share a theme: the Mac tries to keep background work from getting in the way of what you are doing, and to save power.

None of these needs managing by hand. The one lever you do have is on the apps. If an app you need open is using more than you want when you are not looking at it, that is something you can address directly. How to stop one app from slowing down everything else on your Mac goes through the options.

Seeing it in Foreman

In Foreman, runningboardd is listed as “App lifecycle”, with the real name in grey beside it. You can see its processor and memory figures next to the apps (Foreman shows no disk figures for processes run by root), so you can tell in a moment whether it is quiet (it nearly always is) or reacting to something noisy.

runningboardd runs as root, and the User column says so. That is why Foreman asks for your administrator password before it will end it, and why Efficiency Mode is not offered for it: macOS only lets an administrator slow down processes owned by root or a system account. If you decide to look at what is behind a burst of activity, use the Processes page and sort by CPU, then End Task on a problem app. That asks the app to quit in the normal way and offers a way to save work first. If you want to read more about the page, reading Foreman’s Processes page: sections, helpers and totals explains the layout.

Foreman is $12 once, free for 24 hours, and one license works on up to 3 Macs.

The short version

runningboardd decides which apps and processes may run, and how much. It is normal, and it should be quiet. If it is busy, look at what is starting and stopping around it and deal with that. Do not end it. macOS will start it again, and in the meantime apps may misbehave. Foreman shows it as “App lifecycle” beside the apps that keep it busy.