I'm not very well-versed in troubleshooting operating systems, so am hoping for feedback on how to improve the speed of my Mac. And believe me, anything will be an improvement. Thanks in advance.
iMac 21.5", 10.14
That is an unusual amount of activity for kernel_task. Please read If kernel_task is using a large percentage of your Mac CPU.
Its first paragraph is very cursory and unhelpful on its own, but it suggests using Activity Monitor to potentially identify additional resource-demanding processes. Refer to the screenshot in that document, the one under Use Activity Monitor to check CPU activity. Capture and post a screenshot of your own, or describe what else you see.
A runaway kernel_task can be due to a number of factors, such as:
Each of those possible causes is equally important and requires its own investigation.
If you can find no other explanation for its behavior, an SMC Reset is justified: Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support.
Any one of those Launch Agents and Launch Daemons can contribute to degraded performance, and their effect is cumulative. Adobe and Microsoft for example are not known to be particularly efficient. Get rid of Adobe Acrobat Reader as well as Flash Player. You don't need them. I also recommend that you uninstall "Malwarebytes" which has been known to cause performance degradation. If you don't install malware to begin with, you don't need it, or anything like it.
You are sure to be chastised for using an "old" Mac and its "ancient" spinning hard disk drive. Three years old, well that's just intolerable. Of course nothing works better than a new Mac with fast solid state storage, but be advised that I have used Mojave on Macs similar to yours. They don't start up particularly quickly, but once they're up and running they work perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I recommend you apply judicious skepticism to disparaging your "old" Mac.
It's also possible your Mac's hard disk drive isn't working properly, but diagnosing that possibility requires additional investigation. The fact it began to exhibit poor performance a while ago adds to that concern. Hard disk drives can be replaced, if necessary.
Time Machine:
Time Machine Not Configured!
That's bad. To learn how to use Time Machine please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac. If that Mac's hard disk is really operating in a state of failure, its contents could spontaneously become irretrievably lost. Are you prepared for that possibility?
That is an unusual amount of activity for kernel_task. Please read If kernel_task is using a large percentage of your Mac CPU.
Its first paragraph is very cursory and unhelpful on its own, but it suggests using Activity Monitor to potentially identify additional resource-demanding processes. Refer to the screenshot in that document, the one under Use Activity Monitor to check CPU activity. Capture and post a screenshot of your own, or describe what else you see.
A runaway kernel_task can be due to a number of factors, such as:
Each of those possible causes is equally important and requires its own investigation.
If you can find no other explanation for its behavior, an SMC Reset is justified: Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support.
Any one of those Launch Agents and Launch Daemons can contribute to degraded performance, and their effect is cumulative. Adobe and Microsoft for example are not known to be particularly efficient. Get rid of Adobe Acrobat Reader as well as Flash Player. You don't need them. I also recommend that you uninstall "Malwarebytes" which has been known to cause performance degradation. If you don't install malware to begin with, you don't need it, or anything like it.
You are sure to be chastised for using an "old" Mac and its "ancient" spinning hard disk drive. Three years old, well that's just intolerable. Of course nothing works better than a new Mac with fast solid state storage, but be advised that I have used Mojave on Macs similar to yours. They don't start up particularly quickly, but once they're up and running they work perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I recommend you apply judicious skepticism to disparaging your "old" Mac.
It's also possible your Mac's hard disk drive isn't working properly, but diagnosing that possibility requires additional investigation. The fact it began to exhibit poor performance a while ago adds to that concern. Hard disk drives can be replaced, if necessary.
Time Machine:
Time Machine Not Configured!
That's bad. To learn how to use Time Machine please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac. If that Mac's hard disk is really operating in a state of failure, its contents could spontaneously become irretrievably lost. Are you prepared for that possibility?
Do these meet the description above, for connected devices? And if so, are any likely to be causing an issue?
Sure, any one of them could be contributing factors. Having said that none of them appear to be particularly burdensome in the Activity Monitor screenshot you provided. See if you can "catch it in the act" by capturing that screenshot at at time when your Mac is performing poorly. Also, choose "Active Processes" (not "All Processes") from its View menu because most of the ones in that screenshot aren't doing anything at all.
After resolving the initial problem(s), would installing either an external or internal SSD be a desirable option moving forward?
Yes, absolutely.
However: I had the opportunity to use a Mac similar to yours, and installed Mojave on an external, USB-connected, traditional rotating hard disk drive. A ten year old, slow, USB 2.0 hard disk. Mojave is running just fine on it. That's the reason I am dubious of claims SSDs and newer Macs are an absolute requirement to run macOS. Nice, sure, but not necessary.
Here is its EtreCheck report (an outdated version of it to be sure, but that ought not to be much of a factor):
It takes a few minutes to start from a cold boot but once it's up and running, it works perfectly ok and EtreCheck characterizes its performance as "good".
FYI disk5s1is the boot volume.
Notice the lack of Adobe and Microsoft products though. I don't install things that insist upon modifying macOS. There are an abundance of alternatives that don't.
Thank you for the suggestions, John. I'm working my way through the list. I think the Time Machine issue may be linked to my LaCie external hard drive.
I removed Adobe Reader & Flash Player, along with Malware Bytes.
Regarding Activity Monitor, this is particularly concerning. % CPU is hovering around 95% at idle. I'll see if I can attach a screen shot.
Again, I'm not all that tech savvy, so if you don't mind, I have some questions regarding your reply:
~similar hardware-specific causes including internal hardware additions or modifications, external USB and other connected devices, or the driver software required to use them.~
Do these meet the description above, for connected devices? And if so, are any likely to be causing an issue?
After resolving the initial problem(s), would installing either an external or internal SSD be a desirable option moving forward?
Thanks again for your time & sharing your knowledge.
Thank you again for your assistance. Some of the actions suggested were outside my comfort zone, so I took it in to the Apple Store. I thought I'd share the results with you, so you'd know the outcome. There was a glitch when I installed Mojave, so they repartitioned the hard drive. It's now running without issue. I appreciate your time and the fixes you offered that were within my purview.
Mac is slow; even more so after installing Mojave
