Activity Monitor View All? Fix & Filter Guide

To see all processes in Activity Monitor on a Mac, click the View menu and select All Processes (or press Command+2). This replaces the default “My Processes� view, which only shows apps running in your user account, with a complete list of every process running on the system, including those owned by root and other users.

Why “All Processes� Matters

Activity Monitor is macOS’s built-in system monitor. By default, it shows only the processes tied to your user account, which is fine for casual checks but hides a lot of what’s happening on your Mac. System daemons, background agents, and processes launched by other users (like the _windowserver process that handles graphics) are invisible until you switch the view. If you’re troubleshooting high CPU usage, unexpected memory pressure, or a fan that won’t stop spinning, the culprit is often a background process that isn’t in “My Processes.�

How to Switch the View

1. Open Activity Monitor (find it in Applications > Utilities, or use Spotlight with Command+Space and type “Activity Monitor�).
2. Look at the top of the window—there’s a row of tabs: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, Network. Click the one you want to inspect (CPU is the most common).
3. Click the View menu in the menu bar.
4. Select All Processes. You can also press Command+2.
5. If you want to revert, choose My Processes (Command+1) or Hierarchies (Command+3), which groups processes by parent-child relationships.

The view you choose is global—it applies to all tabs (CPU, Memory, etc.) and persists until you change it again.

What Each Column Tells You

Once you see all processes, the columns give you a snapshot of system activity:

• Process Name: The executable name, often abbreviated (e.g., kernel_task).
• User: The account that owns the process. You’ll see root for system processes, _windowserver for the graphics system, and your username for your apps.
• % CPU: The percentage of one core the process is using. 100% means one full core; on a 4-core Mac, 400% would mean all cores are maxed.
• Memory: The amount of RAM the process is using, including compressed memory.
• Energy: How much power the process has consumed over time (useful on laptops).

To sort by a column, click its header. Click again to reverse the order. Sorting by % CPU or Memory is the fastest way to find resource hogs.

Common Problems and Fixes

You Can’t See All Processes

If you’ve selected “All Processes� but some processes still don’t appear, check if you’re looking at the CPU tab while the process is actually using the GPU, or if the process is a “background only� item that macOS hides by default. Also, some system processes are protected by macOS and won’t show detailed info—that’s normal. Try the Hierarchies view to see the full tree, which sometimes reveals hidden children.

Activity Monitor Shows “Not Responding�

A process marked “Not Responding� means it isn’t processing events, but it may still be doing work (or stuck). If it’s an app you own, you can select it and click the X button in the toolbar to force quit. For system processes, don’t force quit—restart your Mac instead.

Sorting Seems Broken

If you click a column header and the list doesn’t sort as expected, you might be in My Processes view, which only shows your apps. Switch to All Processes first, then sort.

How to Read the CPU Tab

The CPU tab shows a graph at the bottom (or top, depending on your macOS version) with total CPU usage. The percentage you see is the average across all cores. A process using 100% CPU is using one full core. If you see a process like kernel_task using a lot of CPU, that’s often the system managing thermal throttling—it’s not necessarily a bug. If you see an app you don’t recognize using high CPU, search its name online before force-quitting, as some are legitimate system components.

Alternatives to Activity Monitor

If you need more detail than Activity Monitor provides, consider these built-in tools:

• Terminal commands: top shows a live list of processes; ps aux gives a snapshot with more columns (like CPU time and memory).
• Instruments (in Xcode) for deep profiling.
• System Information (About This Mac > System Report) for hardware-level details.

For a graphical alternative, some third-party apps offer more features, but Activity Monitor is sufficient for most users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Activity Monitor show fewer processes than I expect?

You’re likely in “My Processesâ€� view. Switch to “All Processesâ€� from the View menu. Also, macOS hides some kernel-level processes by design; you can see them with ps aux in Terminal, but they’re not critical for troubleshooting.

Can I force quit a system process from Activity Monitor?

Technically yes, but you shouldn’t. System processes like kernel_task or launchd are essential; force-quitting them can cause a kernel panic or data loss. Only force quit processes that belong to your user account and that you recognize as apps.

What does the “Energy� tab do?

It shows power consumption per app, which is useful on laptops to extend battery life. You can see “App Nap� status and “Preventing Sleep� indicators. This tab doesn’t have an “All Processes� toggle—it always shows all processes that use significant energy.

How do I reset Activity Monitor to its default view?

Choose View > My Processes (Command+1). This is the default view. If you’ve changed column widths, you can reset them via View > Columns—uncheck and recheck the columns you want.

Does Activity Monitor show network usage per process?

Yes, the Network tab shows sent and received bytes per process. However, it only shows processes that have active network connections; it doesn’t show total bandwidth per app over time. For that, you’d need a third-party tool.

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