What does com.apple.IconServicesAgent do.. why taking so much memory?

I was cleaning up my iMac (early 2008 version) and noticed a process called com.apple.IconServicesAgent taking up an inordinate amount of memory (150MB). It was second only to kernel_task that's taking up 463.1 MB/ I stopped the process and I didn't seem to notice anything that was bad. I noticed that a bit later, it reappeared, but only at about 13MB. But, over time, it grew and grew to where again, it was over 150MB. This seems to have happened after going to Mavericks, as I can't remember seeing that before. I'm maxed out at 4GB of memory, and most of THAT is taken up with core kernel_tasks, so I really don't want another 150MB being gobbled by this new process. What is this and what can be done to get it to quit eating memory?

kkathman said:

I was cleaning up my iMac (early 2008 version) and noticed a process called com.apple.IconServicesAgent taking up an inordinate amount of memory (150MB). It was second only to kernel_task that's taking up 463.1 MB/ I stopped the process and I didn't seem to notice anything that was bad. I noticed that a bit later, it reappeared, but only at about 13MB. But, over time, it grew and grew to where again, it was over 150MB. This seems to have happened after going to Mavericks, as I can't remember seeing that before. I'm maxed out at 4GB of memory, and most of THAT is taken up with core kernel_tasks, so I really don't want another 150MB being gobbled by this new process. What is this and what can be done to get it to quit eating memory?

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For your reading pleasure:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5472367?start=30
An issue in Mavericks with com.apple.IconServicesAgent

Make sure you are completely up to date with Mavericks, and perhaps even manually download and apply the 10.9.4 Update Combo to see if that irons it out.

current up to date - same prob

ok so i'm fully updated on all above mentioned and i am also/still having problems with EVERYTHING responding much slower than usual (i'm actually having creepy flashbacks of my dell days).. also noticed aforementioned com.apple..ish suckin hella juice. please advise

Alas it is time to start saving hard earned for a newer model computer. Over six years old now your iMac, and approaching seven. Slow CPU's and limited memory. An early 2.4GHz iMac has a GeekBench score of 3220 compared to say a late 2012 2.9GHz model with a score of 9197.

allbeone said:

ok so i'm fully updated on all above mentioned and i am also/still having problems with EVERYTHING responding much slower than usual (i'm actually having creepy flashbacks of my dell days).. also noticed aforementioned com.apple..ish

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Is this related to IconServices? What are the specs of your Mac?

allbeone said:

suckin hella juice.

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What does "hella juice" mean?

allbeone said:

ok so i'm fully updated on all above mentioned and i am also/still having problems with EVERYTHING responding much slower than usual (i'm actually having creepy flashbacks of my dell days).. also noticed aforementioned com.apple..ish suckin hella juice. please advise

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You need more RAM. 4GB is the bare minimum needed for Mavericks, and really Lion/Mountain Lion. As Harry said, it's time you started looking at a replacement. Even if you bought used, my 2010 iMac runs Mavericks like a champ, although I did swap my HDD for an SSD, which made some difference.

I did just take a look at my Activity Monitor and IconServicesAgent is only using 59.6 MB of memory, which is significantly less than yours is using. You should run the maintenance and cleaning tools in Onyx and see if flushing the cache and rebuilding the appearance of folder contents makes a difference. Also, is your Desktop cluttered with icons? That is a performance killer and may explain the high amount of memory used by IconServicesAgent in your case.