indicator-application-service uses 100% cpu

I have observed the same behavior on my netbook where Ubuntu 10.10 is installed.

I'm seeing it now after upgrading to 10.10 as well.

I concur. Same issue with 10.10, only in my case it's a fresh install of 10.10.
The problematic process is indicator-application-service. After seeing it persist this behavior for about half an hour, I killed it (regular kill) and it restarted automatically but this time it behaves ok.

I had this issue right now too. I attached the process using gdb.

Attaching to process 1775
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/indicator-application/indicator-application-service...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libindicator.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libindicator.so.1
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libpangocairo-1.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libpangocairo-1.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /lib/libm.so.6...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libm.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/libpng12.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libpng12.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libjson-glib-1.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libjson-glib-1.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libdbusmenu-gtk.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libdbusmenu-gtk.so.1
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libdbusmenu-glib.so.1...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libdbusmenu-glib.so.1
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libdbus-glib-1.so.2...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libdbus-glib-1.so.2
Reading symbols from /lib/libdbus-1.so.3...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libdbus-1.so.3
Reading symbols from /lib/libpthread.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Loaded symbols for /lib/libpthread.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
Loaded symbols for /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
Reading symbols from /usr/l...

Unfortunately that's not really enough information to debug it. It sounds like indicator-application-service can't connect to DBus, can you use d-feet to see if it's connected?

I also have this problem with 10.10.

I also have this problem with 10.10

maybe solution is pkill?

I have the same problem on 10.10.

Using d-feet I find:

Bus Name: :1.452
Process: indicator-session-service

Name: :1.452
Unique Name: :1.452
Command Line: /usr/lib/indicator-session/indicator-session-service

Introspection Data:
Objects Paths

Just saw this bug with a fully updated 10.10

[Expired for Application Indicators because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

is that still an issue in 11.10?

[Expired for Application Indicators because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Still an issue in 12.10

In my case (12.10), indicator-application-service uses an entire CPU worth of load only when I go offline. When connecting to the network it quickly comes to senses.

the bug is quite old, whoever is getting the issue should probably open a new ticket with updated infos

If users are still experiencing the same issue with indicator-application-service, why should they open a new ticket? That would just divide the useful information into two different places, wouldn't it?

I observed this behavior while I had an unread message notification in Psi messenger. indicator-application was using 100% cpu (according to "top"), but it immediately stopped doing so as soon as I read the notification.

This happened at least two times; then I decided to debug things.

The top entry looks like this:
  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
  745 kirpicho 20 0 538m 136m 3888 R 99.8 0.4 3603:49 indicator-appli

Here's some strace data while it's consuming 100% CPU:
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}], 2, 0) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN}])
read(3, "\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16) = 8
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f764400c1c0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
futex(0x7f764400bd50, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
futex(0x12af0b0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f764400c1c0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f764400c1c0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f764400c1c0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
futex(0x7f764400bd50, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
futex(0x12af0b0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}], 2, 0) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN}])
read(3, "\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16) = 8
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f76516c1720, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x12af0b0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
futex(0x7f76440024a0, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 2, NULL) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
futex(0x7f76440024a0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}], 2, 0) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN}])
read(3, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16) = 8
write(5, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 8) = 8
futex(0x7f764400c1c0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1

A stack trace from gdb looks like this:
(gdb) bt
#0 0x00007f7651929f20 in g_list_length () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
#1 0x00000000004035e4 in ?? ()
#2 0x000000000040464e in ?? ()
#3 0x00007f7651e960c7 in g_simple_async_result_complete () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#4 0x00007f7651eee56d in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#5 0x00007f7651e960c7 in g_simple_async_result_complete () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#6 0x00007f7651ee494a in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#7 0x00007f7651e960c7 in g_simple_async_result_complete () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#8 0x00007f7651e961c9 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#9 0x00007f765192cd13 in g_main_context_dispatch () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
#10 0x00007f765192d060 in ?? () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
#11 0x00007f765192d45a in g_main_loop_run () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
#12 0x0000000000402e59 in ?? ()
#13 0x00007f765132976d in __libc_start_main (main=0x402de0, argc=1, ubp_a...

Eugene, which version of Ubuntu do you have? I remember I had this bug back circa 2012 (11.10? 12.04?). I don't remember having it on 13.04 anymore.

seeing this currently on 12.04 from multiple (screen locked) user accounts on a multi-user workstation.

killall'd, but hud-service and unity-panel-service are still humming away at 1-2% CPU.

Hi its happening to me in ubuntu 16.10 when usin retroshare software.