What is Adobe CEF Helper? Why is It Causing High CPU Usage

Adobe provides users with Creative Cloud software to properly manage its numerous apps. It also manages the license authenticating and syncing part of software through Creative Cloud. Within this Adobe Creative cloud, there’s a service called Adobe CEF Helper. 

Adobe CEF(Chromium Embedded Framework) Helper.exe is a utility service that renders various portions of Adobe Creative Cloud. It individually handles tasks to show up each component of the Adobe CC so that one crash won’t hamper the execution of others. This service sometimes uses a higher percentage of CPU than required.

Why is Adobe CEF Helper Causing High CPU Usage?

Adobe applications are pretty hefty CPU users. And added with always running Adobe CC and CEF Helper, your CPU’s sometimes overloaded. There are various background processes that Adobe Creative Cloud executes through its CEF Helper.

Multiple tasks run in the same name as CEF Helper because it renders each part assigned to it separately. These tasks run in the background and consume CPU resources, even if you’re not using any Adobe software.

But not always. Although CEF Helper runs in the background, the actual problem may not be itself. Your computer may have corrupt system files. Or, the downloaded Creative Cloud may be faulty, causing issues for your CPU.

How to Fix Adobe CEF Helper High CPU Usage?

The first and foremost thing you should do is close all the functioning Adobe Applications. Then try to restart your computer. It should end the temporary heavy processes in the system.

Upon startup, if you are still noticing high CPU usage, then move to the fixes listed below:

Disable Auto-Update

Adobe Creative Cloud comes with the capability to auto-update itself. This feature is constantly checking updates for the software and thus is running in the background, which ends up consuming your CPU resources.

To disable this feature, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop.
2. Click on three Horizontal Line located in the top-left corner.
3. Hover over file and Click Preferences.
4. Go to General within the left vertical menu.
5.  Under the Settings section, toggle off the Always keep Creative Cloud up-to-date button.
   

Apps can also be switched on to update from Adobe CC automatically. You can also switch it off to check if it solves the issue. To do so, Go to the Apps option under the Preferences menu. Toggle the button off for Auto-update.

Turn off File Sync

If you’re using Adobe software, you’re probably dealing with numerous multimedia files. Those files can be pre-uploaded to the cloud using Adobe CC, which is again done with the help of Adobe CEF Helper. This service frequently tries to check for any changes in your files and back them up to the cloud. You can stop this service to reduce the load on the CPU.

In order to turn off syncing:

1. Open the Preferences tab as above. 
2. Then, go to the Syncing tab from the left vertical menu.
3.  Click on the icon of Pause syncing. 
   

End the Process and Halt the Startup

Adobe Creative Cloud and CEF Helper both are probably provided with the permissions to run in the background and start automatically as soon as your system boots. So, they start up and use your CPU resources even when they seem to be closed. You can end their process and stop the start-up feature if you don’t want them to run at all.

1. Open TaskManager through the search bar.
2. Within the Processes tab, Right click Adobe Creative Cloud under the Apps.
3. Select End Task.
   
4. Do the same with Adobe CEF Helper.exe.
5. Now, Go to the Startup tab.
6. And Right-click on both Adobe CC and Adobe CEF Helper.
7. Select Disable.
   

All the services won’t simply end most of the time as Adobe has many apps bloated within Windows. So, you may need to run CMD commands to halt such services.

1. Click on search bar.
2. Type cmd and press Enter.
3. Enter the following commands and hit enter after each command:
   • sc stop AGMService
   • sc stop AdobeUpdateService
   • sc stop AdobeARMservice
   • sc stop AGSService
4. Now, use taskkill /t /f /im “CCXProcess.exe” to end the Adobe CC.
5. Then, enter the commands one by one by replacing CCXProcess.exe with the listed tasks:
   • AdobeCollabSync.exe
   • Creative Cloud Helper.exe
   • Adobe CEF Helper.exe
   • CoreSync.exe
   • AcrobatNotificationClient.exe
   • Adobe Desktop Service.exe
   • AdobeIPCBroker.exe
   • CCLibrary.exe
   • AdobeNotificationClient.exe
6. The CCXProcess.exe process may not end on the first go. Thus, you must enter the same command till the cmd shows The process “CCXProcess.exe” not found.
7. You may also need to iterate the commands for other processes if they aren’t ending when simultaneously checked in the TaskManager.

Stop Third-Party Anti-Virus

Anti-virus software detects viruses and malware. They may confuse similar-looking processes with malware and interfere with Adobe CC and CEF Helper. You can turn them off and check if it’s solving the issue. Ending task and setting startup type to manual from Task Manager could work but only for a while. 

Many third-party Anti-viruses won’t stop because they can defend themselves from the changed startup settings. So, they will automatically start in the background as soon you reboot your computer. To stop their function, you need to disable them from their software. Search online for the dedicated steps for your brand of Anti-virus.

But Adobe CC and CEF may sometimes bear viruses that eventually harm your computer. You can detect such an infection using the inbuilt Windows virus and threat protection. 

Run SFC Command

SFC(System File Checker) is a command line of Windows that checks and repairs broken system files. If some processes accidentally corrupt your system files, they can cause problems for your CPU. To fix this, you can run the SFC, which executes Windows resources to detect and replace such files automatically.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Search cmd on the search bar.
2. Right-click on Command Prompt.
3. Choose Run as administrator.
4. Type sfc /scannow and hit Enter.
   

Update Windows

Sometimes the bugs in the Windows system interfering with the Adobe processes can cause this error. You can try to update your Windows to fix it. Usually, Windows notifies you of the updates, but in case you missed them, check by following the steps:

1. Open settings from the search bar.
2. Go to Windows Update on the left vertical menu.
3. Click on the Check Updates button.
   
4. Follow the on-screen instructions if any updates are available.

Uninstall and Reinstall Adobe CC

In case of a broken Creative Cloud app, you need to reinstall it. But to do so, you first need to uninstall the already existing CC from your desktop. Adobe has its own dedicated uninstaller for this job. Download the uninstaller from Adobe’s site and follow the instructions. 

After successfully uninstalling Adobe CC, go to Adobe’s Creative Cloud downloader website and continue with the on-screen steps.