parsec-fbf agent prevents Idle Sleep (automatic) on macOS Catalina 10.15.2

[holyfield]

Description

 

Idle Sleep issue detected on both, genuine Mac's and Hack's, where have installed latest macOS Catalina 10.15.2.

 

Currently known about the issue:

• Issue noticed by various users after upgrading to macOS 10.15.2
• Both genuine Mac's and Hack's are affected.
• Comps which are running on battery power are not affected as agent is disabled at battery power.
• macOS 10.15.2 replaces previous version of parsec-fbf agent.
• macOS 10.15.2 kernel uses new version of XNU 6153.61.1. macOS 10.15.1 kernel uses XNU 6153.41.3.
• Bot the macOS 10.15.2 and macOS 10.15.0 use the same com.apple.parsec-fbf.plist launch agent definition file.
• Not sure are all comps with 10.15.2 affected or only with specific system configuration
• Issue is not reported on any older macOS versions this far.
• Only Idle Sleep is affected, Software Sleep works fine.
• Agent can be killed via Activity Monitor, but it revives immediately again and still prevents the Idle Sleep
• Agent does not stop display to go into sleep, which makes hard to notice the issue on genuine Macs.
• Disabling parsec-fbf agent solves the issue

 

CoreParsec.framework is part of Siri

 

pares-fbf is part of CoreParsec.framework which is installed on /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreParsec.framework.

 

Info from /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreParsec.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/Info.plist:

• Bundle identifier: com.apple.siri.parsec.CoreParsec
• Privacy - Location Usage Description: Spotlight, Messages, Lookup & Safari Suggestions use your location to provide more accurate local results.

 

Quote

NAME
parsec-fbf -- Support daemon for Siri Search analytics

DESCRIPTION
parsec-fbf is responsible for periodic flush and upload of Siri Search analytics data. There are no configuration options for parsec-fbf. Users should not run parsec-fbf manually.

 

Content of com.apple.parsec-fbf.plist which defines the agent:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnablePressuredExit</key>
    <true/>
    <key>EnableTransactions</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.apple.parsec-fbf</string>
    <key>LaunchEvents</key>
    <dict>
        <key>com.apple.xpc.activity</key>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.parsec-fbf.flush</key>
            <dict>
                <key>AllowBattery</key>
                <false/>
                <key>Interval</key>
                <real>3600</real>
                <key>Priority</key>
                <string>Maintenance</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>MachServices</key>
    <dict>
        <key>com.apple.parsec-fbf</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
    <key>POSIXSpawnType</key>
    <string>Adaptive</string>
    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Background</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreParsec.framework/parsec-fbf</string>
</dict>
</plist>

 

Comparison of parsec-fbf on different Catalina versions:

 

• MD5 (10.15.0/parsec-fbf) = e20c200814c4ce5fcd3ae5af7394e1d1
• MD5 (10.15.1/parsec-fbf) = f3fe4e16be71798fd7d3b23be089082e
• MD5 (10.15.2/parsec-fbf) = a97bb8b8227c063289a6e0d43582b10f

 

parsec-fbf agent binary file's are different in each macOS Catalina version. But seems that the biggest change is made in Catalina macOS 10.15.2.

 

Binary comparison:

 

• 10.15.0/parsec-fbf = 1 742 192 bytes
• 10.15.1/parsec-fbf = 1 736 640 bytes
• 10.15.2/parsec-fbf = 1 802 832 bytes

 

Left file: 10.15.0/parsec-fbf
Right file: 10.15.1/parsec-fbf
1561745 same byte(s)
58019 left orphan byte(s)
52467 right orphan byte(s)
122428 difference byte(s)

Left file: 10.15.1/parsec-fbf
Right file: 10.15.2/parsec-fbf
1450705 same byte(s)
129662 left orphan byte(s)
195854 right orphan byte(s)
156273 difference byte(s)

Left file: ./10.15.0/parsec-fbf
Right file: ./10.15.2/parsec-fbf
1443572 same byte(s)
150586 left orphan byte(s)
211226 right orphan byte(s)
148034 difference byte(s)

 

According to knowledge that issue with parsec-fbf agent is not reported before Catalina 10.15.2 and each Catalina versions has his own versions of parsec-fbc agent, then we can conclude that issue is specific to the Catalina 10.15.2 only, until reported otherwise. So no need to concern if you have macOS 10.15.1 or older. Anyway, if you upgrade to 10.15.2 and get sleep issues, you have to check your system for issue described in this post. On some cases this might look like Buletooth issue but actually it's not, because when yo disable parsec-fbf agent, sleep works immediately again.

 

How to check?

 

pmset -g assertions

 

If computer has Idle Sleep issue and com.apple.parsec-fbf.flush is listed in assertions, then this might be the reason of why Idle Sleep fails.

 

An example:

pid 321(UserEventAgent): [0x00000145000b82a0] 03:09:42 BackgroundTask named: "com.apple.parsec-fbf.flush" 

 

How to check sleep log?

pmset -g log|grep -e " Sleep  " -e " Wake  "

 

Reason

 

It's unknown what exactly causes this issue. Somehow parsec-fbf agent goes into state where it prevents comp to go into Idle Sleep. Probably the latest version of parsec-fbf agent introduced in macOS 10.15.2 has some kind of bug which resets idle timer. As macOS kernel uses new version of XNU (6153.61.1), this might be somehow related to both, parsec-fbf agent and kernel.

 

Current solution:

 

Please note that just disabling Siri doesn't help, as parsec-fbf agent is responsible for sending Spotlight, Messages, Lookup & Safari searches data too, not only Siri searches.

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.parsec-fbf.plist

 

As this agent sends and flushes analytical data (Spotlight, Messages, Lookup & Safari searches) sent to Apple, no any harm happens to you, if you disable this agent, Apple just cannot spoof after you anymore. 

 

parsec-fbf agent reads and writes files in users Cache folder: ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.parsecd. If you want flush these, you can do it manually.

 

Flushing spoofing cache manually:

cd ~/Library/Caches
rm -R com.apple.parsecd

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by holyfield

[sohojmanush]

Seems like doesn't work on macOS Catalina 10.15.6

Update: Seems like parsec is related to SIP status now. Enabling SIP prevents sleep, disabling SIP resolves the issue.

Edited September 8, 2020 by sohojmanush