ashwooi

Q: slow user switching

Few weeks back switching between users became really slow....slow logging out then when logon screen appears another couple of minutes before I can selct user and enter password. Was on Snow Leopard but have upgraded to Mountain Lion and its still the same. On a late 2009 21.5" model with 4GB RAM

iMac, 4Gb

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 9:30 AM

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Q: slow user switching

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Sep 8, 2012 10:11 AM in response to ashwooi
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Sep 8, 2012 10:11 AM in response to ashwooi

    The next time you have the problem, note the exact times when it starts and ends: hour, minute, second.

     

    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

     

    Launch the Console 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 Console in the page that opens.

     

    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.

     

    Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Post any messages timestamped during that interval – the text, please, not a screenshot.

    When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.

    PLEASE DO NOT INDISCRIMINATELY DUMP THOUSANDS OF LINES FROM THE LOG INTO A MESSAGE. If you do that, I will not respond.

     

    Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

  • by steve626,

    steve626 steve626 Sep 8, 2012 10:16 AM in response to ashwooi
    Level 4 (1,551 points)
    Sep 8, 2012 10:16 AM in response to ashwooi

    Two things to look into to see if they help:

     

    (1) In Preferences > Users > Login Options, where you enable fast user switching, try setting View to show Icon instead of User Names. See if that helps.

     

    (2) There is a known Firefox bug where if Firefox is running, when user switching occurs it keeps running and demanding substantial cpu resources on the "hibernating" user(s), thus slowing things down. You could try quitting Firefox before switching to see if that makes a difference, and also make sure you have the latest Firefox. If Firefox is the culprit, it might be something you have to live with. Emptying the Fiefox cache and history might help here.

     

    User switching might also involve writing user memory to disk before switching -- that could be some gigabytes of info. Is your disk close to full? Is it in good shape (try running Disk Utility to verify that the catalog is healthy)?