Catalina 10.15.7 Update is causing problems with the accountsd process. The issue only seems to happen if you use iCloud Drive, Mail, Calendar or Internet Accounts.
Something is wrong with the iCloud sync process. Users are saying that after they installed the 10.15.7 update, the accountsd process runs up to 400%+ in Activity Monitor. When the issue starts, it slows the Mac down to a crawl. This causes the Mac to quickly drain the battery, heat up and kick the CPU fans into high gear. Another process that could be acting up is suggestd.
UPDATE 9/29 10:00AM – I’ve added 2 new fixes in the workarounds section below. One kills the cm.apple.iCloudHelper process and recreates the .sqlite database. The other was to remove Find My Mac then re enable it.
This comes after I reported major problems with the macOS Mojave 2020-005 Security Update that came out on the same day. Apple has pulled both the Safari 14.0 and Mojave 2020-005 Security Updates.
mrmacintosh.com/mojave-2020-005-security-update-causing-major-problems-updated/
This article will include will be continually updated with the latest information on this issue.
I have some workarounds and fixes that could help you if you already installed the macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update.
Table of Contents
- 1. macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update Problems
- 2. Affected macOS Build Versions
- 3. What is the accountsd process?
- 4. Affected Mac Hardware
- 5. User Reports
- 6. I’m trying to replicate this issue now.
- 7. Workarounds / Fixes
- 8. If you are seeing this issue, please let Apple know.
- 9. Catalina 10.15.7 Update accountd issue links
- 10. Hat Tip/Credits
1. macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update Problems
What are the reported problems with this update?
The macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update was released on September 24th, 2020.
mrmacintosh.com/whats-new-in-the-macos-catalina-10-15-7-update-19h2/
If you use iCloud – Drive, Mail & Calander and you have installed the 10.15.7 update, you might have problems. Finder will be sluggish and general system speed is slow. If you open up Activity Monitor and then select the CPU tab, you might see accountsd taking up a huge amount of CPU. It might be running at over 400%, you can see what that looks like in the screenshot below.
2. Affected macOS Build Versions
This issue affects the following macOS Build Versions.
- macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update (19H2) – Released on September 24th, 2020
- macOS Catalina 10.15.6 and below, as I noticed a few reports from 10.15.6 around the 25th. For 10.15.6 users, sometimes just updating to 10.15.7 fixes the issue for them.
- No reports so far of this happening on macOS Mojave 10.14 or High Sierra 10.13.
Looks like a variant of this issue goes all the way back to the Catalina 10.15.1 Update. But most reports disappeared until it came back after installing 10.15.7.
3. Affected Mac Hardware
Past problems would only happen with certain hardware models. Not this time, if you installed the Catalina 10.15.7 Update on a compatible Mac you might have problems. As I noted in the Affected macOS Build Versions above, the issue could be affecting 10.15.6 and below users.
4. What is the accountsd process?
From Apple
Help users access and manage their external accounts from within your app, without requiring them to enter login credentials. The Accounts framework provides access to user accounts stored in the Accounts database, which is managed by the system. An account stores the login credentials of a particular service, such as Twitter, and you use those credentials to authenticate with the service. When you integrate the Accounts framework into your app, you don’t need to store account logins yourself. Instead, the user grants your app access to use their account login credentials, bypassing the need to type their username and password. If no account for a particular service exists in the user’s Accounts database, you can let them create and save an account from within your app.
Developer Documentation
developer.apple.com/documentation/accounts#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011024
5. User Reports
The first reports came in on Friday, one day after Apple released the Catalina 10.17.5 Update.
accountsd process is eating 500% cpu and making macbook pro 15,1 useless after Catalina 10.15.7 update. Even if you force this process to quit it comes back at ~500% CPU and make lots os apps to hang.
Apple Discussion Forum User fpmalard2017
More reports started to roll in on the Apple Discussion Forums.
Same here, upgraded to 10.15.7 and CPU usage spikes. Seems that the processes ‘accountds’/ ‘commerce’ are responsible for this and killing the process ‘commerce’ is a only a temp ‘solution’ for minutes and then same problem appears again. Tried also SMC reset without success!!!
Apple Discussions Forum User doobieb
I just updated to Catalina last month. Everything was running smooth and fine under 10.15.6. I did the 10.15.7 update yesterday first through the normal way –> system preferences – Software update and then the trouble with the accountsd-process has also begun.
Apple Discussions Forum User Oevie
Additionally, boot time is slower, logging in is slower and when doing so I’m met with a blank desktop which needs 7-8 seconds before icons finally appear. Everything feels sluggish, and applications also take more than twice as long to start up.
MacRumors Forum User Minipudding
After reading multiple reports I felt that it was time me to take a closer look.
6. I’m trying to replicate this issue now.
When issues like this have come up in the past, I might not be able to reproduce them. I have to go purely on user reports, which at times can be tough. I want to make sure the reporting is very accurate.
The test Mac was setup with the exact settings that most of the users have reported.
- 1. Install 10.15.6
- 2. Set Up iCloud Drive, Mail and Cal
- 3. Install 10.15.6 Update > 10.15.7
- 4. Test settings.
I’ve been unable to reproduce this issue. I had the article ready for this weekend but did not have enough solid reports of the issue. Now enough reports have come in to solidify the issue as a problem for users.
7. Workarounds / Fixes
This list of workarounds will start from the very simple to more advanced.
You do NOT have to follow the list until the end, just stop when one of the solutions fixes the issue for you (starting from #1).
1. Reboot! Yes multiple users have mentioned that a simple reboot fixes the issue.
2. Cycle Wifi off then back on. (I said we were starting out simple.. )
3. Sign out of iCloud then reboot.
4. Sign back into iCloud – For some users they are able to sign back in and not have any issues. If you sign back in and are still having issues keep going down the list.
4. Boot into safe mode one time (this automatically runs a disk check) support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac – once in safe mode, reboot your Mac.
5. Are you on 10.15.6 with this issue? Install the 10.15.7 Update.
6. Disable iCloud Drive Options > Internet Accounts > iCloud > Options Button > unselect all options – Restart
6. Disable iCloud options – Internet Accounts > iCloud Uncheck all – Photos, Mail Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Safari, Find My Mac, Notes & Keychain – Reboot – If you get any popup messages asking if you want to keep the items on your Mac. Make sure you select “Keep on This Mac” if you need to save your keychain passwords for example. After this if the problem goes away you can attempt to re enable them.
7. Sign out of all System Preferences > Internet Accounts > added email addresses. This includes any IMAP, POP, Gmail, Yahoo. Office365 o365 or Exchange accounts. Reboot – Then see if the issue comes back. If not then attempt to re add the email accounts.
Below are medium skill level fixes
7. Delete local Mail store & preferences – Disable iCloud Mail Sync – then delete /Users/yourhomefolderhere/Library/mail & /Users/yourhomefolderhere/Library/containers/com.apple.mail – Enable iCloud Mail Sync.
8. Delete Local Items Keychain folder (BACKUP ANY PASSWORDS FIRST) – Users/yourhomefolderhere/Library/Keychains – It will be the blue folder with the UUID looking numbers. Delete this folder and immediately reboot.
9. Reset iCloud settings when you can’t sign out.
If you run this command it will do the following.
- 1. Kill the com.appleiCloudHelper process
- 2. Move your iCloud .sqlite database to a new backup folder
- 3. kill accountsd process
- 4. reboot
Open the terminal.app, then cut and paste the command below.
sudo -v ; killall -9 accountsd com.apple.iCloudHelper ; defaults delete MobileMeAccounts ; mkdir ~/Library/Accounts/Backup; mv ~/Library/Accounts/*.sqlite* ~/Library/Accounts/Backup/ ; killall -9 accountsd com.apple.iCloudHelper ; sudo reboot
Below are more advanced level fixes that hope you don’t have to do.
9. Do you have time machine backups? Restore from your last good backup.
10. Reinstall (Not Erase) macOS Catalina 10.15.7 – This workaround will reinstall macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and you will be able to keep all your files and applications. All you need to do is download the Catalina Full installer from the App Store and reinstall. You can also do this by booting to recovery. Restart your mac and hold down Command R. This will boot you to recovery, just select Install macOS Catalina.
If you need any help with any of the above workarounds let me know in the comments.
Update Automatic Snapshots
Automatic Update Snapshots was introduced as a feature in macOS High Sierra. You can read about them below. This was one of the best features that Apple has ever added to macOS. Sadly this will not help you in this situation as they only work for 10.13 and 10.14 Security Updates. Apple disabled this option in 10.15 Catalina Combo Updates.
mrmacintosh.com/10-15-3-combo-security-updates-are-not-creating-backup-snapshots/
Links
Download Catalina Full Installer – mrmacintosh.com/how-to-download-macos-catalina-mojave-or-high-sierra-full-installers/
8. If you are seeing this issue, please let Apple know.
The only way to let Apple know that this is a big issue is to file a FeedBack Report. AppleCare Call or an Apple Enterprise Support Ticket.
This will help Apple Prioritize the issue and get it resolved ASAP!
9. macOS Catalina 10.15.7 & 10.15.6 accountsd process issue links
This is a list of all the reports of issues with the Catalina 10.15.7 update accountsd process.
MacRumors.com
- forums.macrumors.com/threads/accountsd-mail-process-and-cpu-usage.2212236/page-3
- forums.macrumors.com/threads/10-15-7-macbook-pro-13-random-freezing-and-fans-spinning-with-safari.2257148/
Apple Discussion Forums
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251846520
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251845554
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251857147
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251847235
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251858702
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250776299?page=26
Reddit.com
- reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/j05c3h/reports_show_that_macos_10157_clogs_up_the_cpu_by/
- reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/j0ukfs/accountsd_is_hogging_cpu_energy_memory_i_need_help/
- reddit.com/r/macbook/comments/j0603e/accountsd_process_killing_my_mac/
Tech Blogs
Accountsd and secd high CPU usage on Catalina –waal70blog.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/accountsd-and-secd-high-cpu-usage-on-catalina/
Accountsd using 400% CPU on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2) –gist.github.com/l3nz/9fe151c0d398055b000d59b644f13c65
Hacker News – news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24619716
Twitter.com
catalina 10.15.7 update accountsd
10.15.7 made my MacBook Air frustfratingly slow.
Macbook is Mid 2013 but it has worked very nicely always as also with MacOs 10.15.6.
But 10.15.7 just stopped it. It’s now so slooowwww. Everything is slow all the time and it stops totally time to time to wait something for few seconds.
Unfortunately there is no single process to fix, that would take the processor time. Many processes take 20-50%, none 100%.
Hi why hasn’t apple pulled this? or has it been re released? I keep getting notices to install this daily and I really don’t want to, as I spend hrs fixing my son’s iMac. before I found your page.
Mr. Macintosh,
Thank you very much for providing all this incredible information.
I am at Mojave, and am very concerned to move to the next OS platform and even update Mojave with 2020-005 and supplemental update which contains 14.0.1 safari.
I thought about Catalina as an option going to a safer new OS, which has been around for a year and now, doing research on 10.15.7 watched in the entirety the problems that people are having with this last 10.15.7 release.
Your presentations are helpful but give more reasons to stay where one is these days, with the old adage, “if it ain’t broke …” and its not the way it should be
Your thoughts on whether Apple will release a re-release of 10.15.7 are helpful like the re-release of the mojave 2020-005 with the ”supplemental” update, which hides the Safari 14.
Moving forward with Apple releases are becoming more challenging, with a ”fingers crossed” attitude when one should have confidence.
You are providing information which is helpful and i’m at the 18G6020, just prior to the Mojave updates and now fear going to 10.15.7 and BIG SUR is around the corner, with who knows what issues that will bring …
Thank you Mr. Macintosh for your information and help!
According to this Italian online Mac user group, installing the 10.15.7 combo (on top of a troublesome 10.15.7 system) seems to fix the issue
https://groups.google.com/g/spidermac/c/pZiy5o1BnKw
Unfortunately the new combo update didnt fix my problems. 10.15.7 totally screwed up my apps and network connections. Nothing works.
Has there only been one version of 10.15.7? Or did a newer version get posted?
Only one version so far.
hello, a relatively new mac user here (1 year).
unfortunately, I kept having periodic problems with lag and sluggishness of my MBP 2019 15” (i got MOjave for the first time and now I am in Catalina).
I thought by upgrading to Catalina, it will solve the periodic problems that I had in Mojave, but the 10.15.7 already showing problems. I tried to almost everything in your suggestions (excluding the last one since i am not advanced enough).
I found that by turning the wifi OFF, the computer suddenly working properly like there is no lag and sluggish. However, if I turned ON the wifi, the computer suddenly slows down and become unresponsive for seconds (lagging).
I have searched for this problem on the internet and there are no reports that are the same as my problem. I have solved the accountsd problem before this wifi ON/OFF problem arose (days before).
is there any suggestion from you? do I really have to clean reinstall my Mac? Thanks!
Hello
A macbook pro 15″ 2019 user here. Updated to 10.15.7 few days ago and nothing happened except accountsd which I already managed.
However today i discovered somethinf. Even though accountsd is back to normal, everything feel sluggish / laggy. I followed your “turn off the wifi” step and incredible thing happened: everything is back to normal!
However, if I turned on the wifi again, everything started to be laggy and sluggish again.
I tested the problem by turning on the wifi and opening safari, which takes minutes. When I turn off the wifi and open safari, it’s immediately ready.
Do you have a suggestion what might be happening? Thank you very much
Booting into Safe Mode and then reboot worked for me! ?
Hi, same issue on MACBOOK 2020 – I5. AccountsD hitting over 500% (according to activity monitor), with available CPU – Idle in the 5% range. Don’t get hung up on numbers, it is a quad core, with over-clocking. Net, Mac was useless with this running. I tried everything – up to and including a full re-install of the OS using recovery options (cmd+R at reboot). Even that did not work.
Then, went into Accounts under preferences.
– Deleted my Exchange, and GMAIL accounts
– rebooted
– still had the same issue.
-signed out, and in to ICLOUD, and signed out of all other devices on iCloud.
– still had same issue.
Then went back to Accounts under preferences.
– VERY SURPRISING – there was another ICLOUD account, which stated it was there for Gaming. the parameters under the user, etc, were a bunch of jumbled characters – with some HTTP pointers. Feeling was I had been hacked.
– deleted this entry.
– re-booted
Voila – everything is now perfect.
then went and changed all passwords to anything sensitive. Not sure if I was hacked, but not taking any chances.
Look at your Accounts and delete everything except the standard ICLOUD and reboot.
You can add the other legitimate accounts back one at a time – and give the system time to re-build local copies of emails, calendars, contacts, etc.
7 + 8 fixed it for me. None of the previous ones worked. Thanks!
I fixed it through one of your solutions, but now I can’t login to my apple ID anymore. Unknown error. Also my calendars are unavailable which makes work very hard.
Turning the WiFi off and back on again worked for me. Thank you for the tip.
Resolved (for now) after a 2nd reboot. But had this issue twice now. (iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
I had this problem with accountsd process. Mac OS version is 10.15.7 I solved this problem with Disk Utility application. Click First Aid button on all internal HD consistently.
Problem solved just by turning off and then back on wifi. Thank you very much Mr. Macintosh!
Hello
Thx it was solved with solution number 3
very nice
Hello and many thanks for your life-saver blog!
Today I have tried running “SUS Inspector” and the 10.15.7 update does not seem to be available anymore…
None of the fixes solved the issue for me. It’s also impossible to turn off iCloud Keychain syncing (it always just ticks itself back), so it seems it’s related.
thx, restarting worked.
15 years of windows user training (this should grant me a certification) and all i needed to do was a restart
Will Apple re release this update too?
Tough to say Bryan, as the update is still live. The other thing is the issue was happening to some users who are on 10.15.6! We will just have to wait and see.
Ok, turning wifi off an then on worked for me. Didn’t expect that.
I know Alvaro, I almost didn’t post it because it seemed so simple! But when researching the issue I found this fixed this issue for multiple people!
Thanks for the comprehensive guide, Mr Macintosh. Unfortunately, nothing worked for me – as well as the accountsd CPU problem, I had endless spinning beach balls in Finder (which I had to relaunch, only to get “application not responding” a minute or two after) as well as apps not starting when I double-clicked them. And then came the kernel panics and crashes. For me, it was a case of 10.15.4 all over again – I had endless problem with that update. Then, I reverted back to 10.15.3 via a Time Machine back-up, losing only a few, non-backed-up files in the process. This time I was prepared, with a bootable 10.15.6 recovery disc on a flash drive. So it took less than hour to overwrite the troublesome 10.15.7 with its – for me – rock-stable predecessor, with no loss of files. The takeaway lesson for me is that if you have a version of the OS that works on your Mac, always make a standby Recovery disk of it so you can quickly reinstall it if Apple releases another “road apple” update. BTW I have never had the problems with previous OSes and their updates as I have had with Catalina. And my experience with Macs stretches way back to the pre-return of Steve Jobs days, to the bad old PPC 603 days.
Rebooting into safe mode solved the issue for me.
Thanks for a good step-by-step guide, you saved me a lot of time!
Rebooting into safe mode and sign on with apple ID again solved the issue for me.
iMac i9 brand new (one week old), same problem yesterday after problems with Apple TV authentication.
For me worked this, that I found on Internet:
cd ~/Library/Account/
mv Account4.sqlite Account4.sqlite.bak
# re-name back to normal
mv Account4.sqlite.bak Account4.sqlite
It is not stable, sometimes I have to repeat.
Going to claim with Apple
I spoke with Apple Support about this issue today.
The solution that they gave and that worked for my computer was
1. Turn off the mail account in Settings>Internet Accounts as described in my previous email.
2. Reset the NVRAM:Shut the computer down from the Apple Menu
When turning it back on hold Command+Option+P+R, and while holding briefly press the power button (on the back of the iMac). The white apple should appear, then disappear, and come back after a while.
Log in
3. Turn the mail account back on.
Thanks for this extensive description. My problem started indeed after the 10.15.7 upgrade, and log-out of iCloud, reboot, log-in indeed fixed the issue on my iMac Pro 2015
Glad you are back up and running Frank!
Updated earlier this month to Catalina 10.15.6 on Macbook Pro. Had no issues, but the last couple of days CPU just went through the roof, battery ran dead in less than an hour.
For me, the 6th solution worked.
Thank you so much for this!
(Not sure if I want to risk the .7-update though…)
Thanks, i also had this issue after updating to 10.15.7. Fixed it by signing out of my iCloud-account, booting to safe mode, then signing in again to my iCloud-account.
But then the next problem arose, iCloud Drive refused to sync/download my files. Managed to fix the sync problem by doing this in the Terminal:
> killall bird
> cd ~/Library/Application\ Support
> rm -rf CloudDocs
*Reboot*
You can then follow the sync progress with this command:
> brctr log -w
It took a few hours, spamming the same error(?) message, but then the files started to sync.
Thank you so much for this article. The solution for my 2015 MacBook Pro with 10.15.7 was to sign out of iCloud account, restart and sign in again.
Matthew
Also here since 10.15.7. Very unhappy about it… tried several things (logout/in from icloud, remove imap email accounts, install 10.15.7 combo update,…). Nothing… :-(( so i contacted apple yesterday using the official support app to track this once more to apple, wanted to get official tip and since i didn’t have more time to try all multiple other ways. Support proposed multiple steps. The second solved it for me: reset nvram/pram settings. After this next restart. All was ok, since then running for several hours, multiple restarts. All ok here now with 10.15.7. I’m writing because it may help others, this solved it for me. Maybe the update put wrong settings in the nvram, thats what support guessed. Today i got a message from macos after login that a specific extension (for creating system images/backup) will not be supported in future versions, i also have a usb-c video adapter for 2nd monitor. So this might be the reason during update.
memory issue with kernel_task and WindowServer
Not even the terminal command to zap the sqlite database fixed this for me. In fact, after doing that, attempts to log into iCloud again results in spinning indefinitely and accountsd between 100-600 % CPU. I just can’t get rid of this issue.
After updating my Macbook pro mid 2012 to 10.15.17 is quite impossible to use the Macbook. My impression is that also with the previous version of Catalina there was a slight performances slow down. I also noticed that with 10.15.7 the RAM is always in a critical condition.
I have the same problem after updating my Macbook pro mid 2012 to 10.15.7. Now is quite impossible to use the Macbook. My impression is that also with the previous version of Catalina there was a slight performances slow down. I also noticed that with 10.15.7 the RAM is always in a critical condition.
10.15.7 no longer visible in my System Preferences – Software Update as of 1 October 2020. It was there before, tempting me to download, and now it’s not available.
Chris, as of 12:45 I can still see it in Software Update Server.
I have tried different options including installing macOS Catalina 10.15.7 combo update but I couldn’t get a successful result. Using the terminal (7.9) was the only successful solution for me.
Thank you!
Thank you for publicizing this issue, 2018 MBA, 10.15.7 here, problems started after a reboot, accountsd taking all the cpu available, after trying the safe boot and disabling network connections routes to no avail (accountsd would stop taking resources after cutting connections, but would take them back as soon as re-enabling them and opening Safari), logging out of iCloud and back in solved it for the time being (I have not rebooted again as I have a project to deliver today).
In my case, I didnt need to completely log out of iCloud, when the prompt for iCloud Photos asked if I wanted to download all the images to my computer, cancel or delete them, I hit cancel, thus aborting the log out. This was enough to bring accountsd back to its senses for this session at least, I wont be rebooting 10.15.7 again unless Im forced to as I use this computer for work. Way to go Apple, cant believe this didnt show up in testing at Cupertino.
Hi. The same trouble, but I didn’t sign out from iCloud – only disabled to use iCloud Drive. It helps. The system asked: delete from Mac all files, which keeps at iCloud or store it copies locally? I deleted all from my Mac and reboot. Solved.
This is silly.
I have disabled “find my Mac”, rebooted then problem gone. Afterwards I have re-enabled it, rebooted again to be sure and problem came back.
I have temporary solved this without any reboot but by disabling WiFi and using wired network with a dongle.
I am having weird WiFi problems on this new MacBook Pro 16 inch since the beginning and I had hoped this update will fix WiFi not bring something new.
I think will upgrade to Big Sur beta.
Ending with “this is silly”.
It also helps to put the system into sleep for a couple of minutes.
Thanks so much for this! I had the same issue after installing the update of 10.15.7, my macbook pro became incredibly slow, safari, calendar, spotlight, mail… completely crashed and also had the accountd was more than 400%! rebooting didn’t work out.
Signing out of Icloud, rebooting, and signing back in solved it for me.
Thank you for this.
For me was helping to disable iCloud sync. as described at the point 6.
Then reboot and log in to my 2nd user (uses the same Apple account). Execute Software Update and install iLife updates (Pages, Keynote and Numbers update).
Reboot again and and log in to the 1st account. After observed, the problem with accountsd solved, I reenabled ALL of the previously disabled iCloud services.
Till now, nothing went wrong. COOL!
Probably iClound backend changed and this causes the problem “indepentendly” from OS version (10.15.6 or 10.15.7) as Chris was also mentioned.
I want to testify that I am under OS 10.15.6 (build 19G2021) and that I am also subject to this bug since 2020/09/28.
This tends to show that it is not necessarily precisely the 10.15.7 update that is guilty.
Otherwise I have nothing to add to help. Thank you for your work.
Following to pt. 7.4 solved my problems with Catalina 10.15.7 and accountsd stealing CPU and RAM.
Thant You!
10.15.7 is the worst macOS update for years: hugely power consuming, therefore MacBook non stop venting, blocking Safari and Mail, disabling Spotlight. Thank you for your workarounds. Workarounds is a word i know as Windows user! I want to work not to workaround. Shame on Apple for this update!
This appeared after rebooting a 10.15.6 Mac. I was able to get back to normal with disabling network connections, rebooting for good measure and then reestablishing the network connections.
I had this happen when I was still running 10.15.6.
Updated to 10.15.7 to see if it fixes it, but it didn’t.
Signing out of iCloud, rebooting and signing back in resolved it for me.
I know of at least one other user who also had it happen on 10.15.6.
Maybe there was a backend change in iCloud that caused this?
I’ve had similar problem since installing 10.15.6. With 10.15.6 the offending process was mds_store. I found NOT agreeing to enable iCloud when installing the OS prevents the problem for both 10.15.6 and 10.15.7.
I had exactly the same experience – problem with accountsd was on macbook pro 2019 on 10.15.6
Upgrade to 10.15.7 did not solve problem but sign out of iCloud, reboot, sign in to iCloud fixed the problem which was extremely annoying
Thank you all for this solution!
Thanks Jon, glad you got it fixed!
Same here, thank you so much mrmac – peace