ITunes 11.3 spawns Distnoted daemon which uses all processing power on MacBook Air

Question

Since upgrading to iTunes 11.3 on my work MacBook Air (11 inch, Mid-2013), whenever I run the programme it spawns multiple Distnoted daemons which run up to 250% or more of processing power. I'm assuming this includes multiple threads, given the size of the number.
As a result of this, the computer gets very hot, and therefore I can't actually use iTunes for more than about 15 minutes - quitting iTunes solves the issue, though it normally takes the MacBook a good long time to cool down.
This is, I note, an issue which has occurred before in Windows versions of iTunes, but I couldn't find any Mac-related issues on the discussions forum, so I wonder if it's a bug in 11.3 or the current version of Distnoted? Either way, it's pretty intolerable.

Answer 1

I can't tell much from that. In general, a runaway distnoted process correlates with a failing storage device, but there could be other reasons for it that I don't know about. You might be able to find out more by following the instructions below, but only do so if you feel comfortable with them.
Back up all data.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
sudo touch /var/log/do_dnserver_log; sudo chmod a+rw $_
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting. You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.
If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered. You can then quit Terminal.
After the next episode, open the log do_dnserver_log in Console and post the last couple of dozen lines, if any.
After that, you should delete the log file by dragging it to the Trash in the Finder. You'll be prompted for your administrator password.