Late 2015 iMac suddenly unbearably slow??

ec194 wrote:

Okay so I should put everything to my external hard drive and re-install the mac entirely, correct? Will my applications be erased? I have some important video and audio files inside Logic Pro for example. Some patches, presets, plugins that took ages to install. If I drag them from my external hard drive on the fresh imac, will they work? Like if i drag the components to library-audio etc.?

As I wrote I am not comfortable with anything short of a complete erase / reinstall / reconfigure from the ground up. Apple provides those instructions under What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac. That's what I do with any Mac that has ever been affected by any so-called scam "cleaning" product, and it's what I recommend in your case.

For expanded instructions read below.

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Merely uninstalling ill-conceived "cleaning" apps, even when performed in strict accordance with their instructions (which often don't work) is usually an insufficient remedy due to the effects of having used them.

Very briefly stated, the recovery procedure from having used such things is as follows, and in the following order:

1. Back up the Mac using Time Machine or an equivalent backup strategy
2. Remove the scam "cleaning" products according to their instructions, and evaluate
3. Reinstall macOS using macOS Recovery, and evaluate
4. Reinstall all other potentially affected apps, and evaluate
5. Erase the Mac completely, followed by reinstalling macOS, followed by reinstalling essential apps from their original sources, followed by migrating User content from the Time Machine backup.

Since the results of Steps 2-4 are almost always unsatisfactory, I omit them as unnecessarily time-consuming.

An expanded procedure for Step 5 is provided below. Be sure to read everything and understand its implications. Less drastic solutions certainly exist, but this one will probably result in the least amount of your time and need for constant interaction. It is also unequivocally supported by Apple's published documentation, is what a Genius Bar would do if you were to pay them to do it, and it is the exact same procedure I use given a Mac that has been affected by similarly categorized products.

To recover from the effects of having used "CleanMyMac" to modify macOS, the additional software you require and the essential files you need, follow the applicable recovery procedure below:

• If you have a backup that you created prior to using CleanMyMac, now is the time to use it. For Time Machine, boot macOS Recovery, and at the Mac OS X / macOS Utilities screen, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Choose a date preceding the installation of CleanMyMac.
• If you do not have a backup that predates the use of CleanMyMac, create one now. To do that read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac.
  • The recovery procedure will require that you completely erase the Mac using macOS Recovery, and then create a new User Account whose contents will be empty. You will then be able to use Setup Assistant to migrate your essential documents including photos, music, work products and other essential files.
• To erase and install OS X / macOS read How to reinstall macOS.
  • Follow the instructions in that document under use Disk Utility to erase your built-in hard disk.
  • Then, follow the procedure in Move your content to a new Mac.
  • When asked how you want to transfer your information, select Transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
  • Under Select the Information to Transfer, select only your previous User account and do not select "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices.
  • Subsequent to using Setup Assistant, you will need to reinstall the essential software you may require, once again remembering to install software only from their original sources, and omitting all non-essential software.
  • "Non-essential software" is a broad category that includes but is not limited to third party "cleaning", "maintenance", and "anti-virus" products.

1- Immediately uninstall CleanMyMac: in the newer CMM there is a menupoint on the leftside that says "uninstall", select that and then let it uninstall itself !!! A horribly risky app it is. I hope you did not do much with it because it can completely lame your mac. If e.g. you uninstalled not used languages, you have to reinstall OS.

2- do not run Malwarebytes continuously, use it only for scans from time to time, then quit it. It is a good app, the only one to be trusted, but on a mac it should not run continuously.

3- In System/Preferences->Users&Groups->LoginItems, remove everything with the minus sign. There are no apps that should be running from startup to shutdown: you remove them with the minus sign underneath.

4- check if your "big" apps are updated to the last version.

run etrecheck, download from

etrecheck.com.

copy/paste the outcome here.

If you do a (re)install OS from the Recovery Partition, your user data will not be touched.

I propose a full backup of your user data to be sure, then do the OS reinstall.

Non-Apple "cleaning" products are scams that generally require completely erasing and reconfiguring the affected Macs to recover from their effects. By all means run another EtreCheck report and post its contents, but be prepared to do that.

I lost over 10k in the past month because I wasn't able to edit music or finish the edits of commercials I accepted.

It's a shame that people continue to fall for "cleaning" scams, which are just as aggressively marketed for PCs as they are for Macs. The aggregate cost in terms of lost time, lost productivity, and lost revenue is surely astronomical. The frustration they cause is incalculable. Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

System Software:

macOS Mojave 10.14.3 (18D42)

Update macOS. To learn how to do that please read How to update the software on your Mac - Apple Support. Keeping macOS updated is by far the best software defense for malware prevention.

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

That's very bad. To learn how to use Time Machine please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac.

. Your answer to John gives the impression that your answer to me ("done") is not correct:

CMM is to uninstall itself, you do not need to download a third party uninstaller, that is counterproductive, CMM can uninstall itself, strange but true. But as I said you could have destroyed your system with it before, then you need to reinstall OS.

. I presume that you ave another backup than Time Machine. I have TM and a clone backup.

You do not need a backup to reinstall your OS ,but it is wise to have 1 or more backups of your user files.

So instead of updating OS now, I suggest that you reinstall OS through the RecoveryPartition, it will end up with a complete up to date OS.

. Java is only necessary for (very) old apps, normally you don't need it.

https://java.com/en/download/uninstalltool.jsp

"Is this a contribution to the lagging?"

I don't think this is the cause of lagging. With this the mac should run correctly.

maybe a new etrecheck list now could provide more insight, you never know.

John and I are on the same line, harm done.

John's method is very tedious, but surely will get rid of the issues.

My solution is rather quick, but not 100% sure.

It all depends - in my opinion - with what you did with CMM and how long ago.

I found an uninstaller app online but I guess I won't be downloading that to erase CMM. Do you suggest any reliable softwares, or are all of them harmful for the mac?

To uninstall it? As you suspect those things are even more scams. In fact if you are in the habit of using Google to find anything whatsoever to fix a Mac, all you will find are scams. The reason is that they make money... yours. I think you've lost enough of that already.

I really, really recommend erasing the Mac and starting over. It's the only advice I am comfortable providing, and it's what I do with any Mac that has ever been affected by "cleaning" apps. Reinstalling macOS will have no effect on reversing the effects of actually having used them, because it does not affect apps that may have been corrupted by them. Of course you're welcome to try it: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support.

Your Mac has plenty of RAM. Mojave will run perfectly well with half as much.

Stop and consider that Mojave will consume nearly 4GB of your non-upgradeable 8GB RAM at idle. You are attempting to do big RAM activity with darn little left for that achievement. For this alone, your Mac would crawl, but you have other contributing slow-downer stuff running that others have pointed out. I would also recommend that you fully update from 10.14.3 to 10.14.6 and the second 10.14.6 supplemental update.

To avoid losing another estimated 10 grand, you might consider purchasing a new 27 inch iMac with 16 or 32 GB RAM (expandable RAM), and then cost recover the expense through tax returns, and the ability to productively deliver revenue bearing results on schedule.