Turn off image capture extension

[thelearnedfoot]

I am running a mid-2012 MBP with 8GB of RAM and Yosemite. Frequently when I launch Aperture, a program called "IMAGE CAPTURE EXTENSION" automatically launches. This program quickly bloats to using 2-3 GB of RAM, slowing the entire computer to a crawl and crashing Aperture or rendering it unusable.

Can someone please tell me how I can turn this program off? It does not ALWAYS launch, and when it is not present in Activity Monitor, the computer and Aperture run perfectly fine. So I am convinced this program is causing the problem and I would just like to somehow turn it off or get it to stop automatically launching.

 

[eseifan]

I have the same problem here on my 2012 iMac. Started with Yosemite. This darn “image capture extension” starts with the session, and starts small, about 5.4 MB. But then it keeps growing and growing and within a couple of days it would be big to the point of eating up all the RAM. Killing it manually from the Monitor doesn’t do any harm, the extension just restarts small again, and grows and grows...

It is driving me nuts. This did not happen before Yosemite and I have no idea how to stop it.

 

[thelearnedfoot]

Sorry I do not have a solution for you, eseifan. I could find no solution and since Apple is killing Aperture anyway, I decided to switch to Lightroom. Lightroom runs faster, is more stable on my machine, and doesn't trigger the RAM hogging Image Capture Extension. Also from the previews I've seen of the new Photos app, it is missing several features I need so I would have to switch to Lightroom anyway. The only thing I dislike is Adobe's subscription model.

Sorry not to have a better answer.

 

[Slydude]

From what I have read Image Capture Extension launches the Image Capture app whenever something launches that is image/photo related (scanners, cameras, etc). It then launches iPhoto or the Image Capture app depending upon settings. I assume that if Aperture is set as the default image capture app it would launch that as well.

The problem of it gobbling memory is not confined to Yosemite. The thread that I saw this description in discussed the problem for users running Snow Leopard.

As a temporary test try creating a new user account and see if things behave properly there. If they do then the problem would seem to be in some file / preference specific to the current user account.

 

[eseifan]

Sorry I do not have a solution for you, eseifan. I could find no solution and since Apple is killing Aperture anyway, I decided to switch to Lightroom. Lightroom runs faster, is more stable on my machine, and doesn't trigger the RAM hogging Image Capture Extension. Also from the previews I've seen of the new Photos app, it is missing several features I need so I would have to switch to Lightroom anyway. The only thing I dislike is Adobe's subscription model.

Sorry not to have a better answer.

I don’t have Aperture installed. Never used it. The Image Capture Extension is launched by something else. I dunno what.

 

[Slydude]

I don’t have Aperture installed. Never used it. The Image Capture Extension is launched by something else. I dunno what.

Don't take the following question as an indication that this is your fault:the answer might give an indication why that process is launching. What tasks are you performing when the process launches and gobbles up memory?

 

[cradom]

Image Capture Extension is started by launchd, it's a system process.
As noted, it's used to open the app of choice when a camera or things of that nature are connected.
I haven't found the .plist file that starts it yet. Don't think you want to disable it. If you do, you're on your own.
You might could try killing it in Activity Monitor and see if it restarts. This might reset it's memory use.

 

[eseifan]

Don't take the following question as an indication that this is your fault:the answer might give an indication why that process is launching. What tasks are you performing when the process launches and gobbles up memory?

It starts with the session at startup. I have been trying to establish a pattern but without success. Some times using Evernote for an extended period of time causes it to bloat, but not always. Some times it gets inflated even when Evernote hasn’t been opened.

 

[eseifan]

Image Capture Extension is started by launchd, it's a system process.
As noted, it's used to open the app of choice when a camera or things of that nature are connected.
I haven't found the .plist file that starts it yet. Don't think you want to disable it. If you do, you're on your own.
You might could try killing it in Activity Monitor and see if it restarts. This might reset it's memory use.

That’s what I do, and it restarts small and grows up again.

 

[bobtomay]

Did only a little bit of testing by connecting a couple iPhones and a SD card from my camera - the RAM usage grows with each item connected, but only by amounts that would indicate it is keeping a log of the file names available to import (vs. a copy of the pics). When the items are disconnected it did not relinquish the additional RAM it was using.

Starting Evernote did nothing - but I only have a couple jpegs in it.
Opening Aperture nor iPhoto did anything to it's size. I do have multiple GBs of pics in both of those.

I have not had a problem with RAM usage since Yosemite (and I am hardware limited to 4 GB on this machine), but I had to use a memory manager with both 10.8 and 10.9 or I was having to restart the machine every other day.

Best I can suggest if you're not able to figure out what app is causing this extension to grow so large and if Yosemite is not releasing the RAM from this particular extension as it should be, you might want to try a memory manager. Just tried the one I was using (FreeMemory Pro) and it did indeed free up the additional memory of this extension, taking it back down to almost it's initial startup amount at 6 MB. The pro version was only 99 cents when I got it - not sure how much now - but it shows you how much is free in the Menu bar where you can just click it and select Free Memory when you see it running low.

If you have not gone into 'Aperture Preferences - Import' and changed the option "When a camera is connected, Open: No Application", I'd make that change also - it will not affect the import options after you open an app.