Very slow and freezing MacBook Pro

rae315 Said:

”I have a MacBook Pro mid-2012, it's been getting slower and slower over the past year...”

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Based on what you provided, the concern is Multitasking.

• RAM:

The more RAM, the faster! That is because as your Mac is processing, the RAM takes items, places it aside in itself, so your computer(Your Mac) can perform more at once, and more gets done.

• Upgrade When Purchased:

Just know that if you get a new Mac, most certainly upgrade right then and there. Unfortunately, nowadays RAM is soldered in, making it basically impossible to upgrade, among much other hardware pieces. So, upgrading it would be highly pricey.

• No Security & Maintenance Software:

I also recommend that you not use any Security Software. Not only that, but stay way from Computer Management Software. Such software will inform you of duplicate file and recommend rarely used items. So, some of these items may have been needed. Now, all software may have become corrupted.

• What to Get in a New Mac:

So, when you go about getting a new Mac, upgrade to 8GB at least, and get a SSD (Solid State Drive). A SSD has no moving parts and is less prone to failure. Also, go for a Quad Core professor (i9).

In all, this is all about multitasking, which is getting in the way.

just refer to this link: https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/mac-help/mchlp1731/mac

Don't use any cleaner apps on the Mac as they are not needed and they usually just cause more problems than they solve.

You still have a remnant of the Seagate software on your system. Remove the file indicated by EtreCheck in the report in the CleanUp section.

You definitely are running low on memory. I've seen other knowledgeable and respected contributors mention that you really need a minimum of 8GB of RAM for Mojave. Plus you are using a very slow spinning hard drive which is likely wearing out and getting slower. You can run DriveDX and post the DriveDX report here as it will contain information about the drive. Post the report even if DriveDX shows the drive as healthy. There are things in the report which can tell me if your drive is wearing out, but not actually failing yet.

Replacing one of the original 2GB memory modules with an 8GB module would give you 10GB of memory. Also upgrading to an SSD would help a lot. Since you have the 13" model, you should also replace the internal hard drive cable since it is known to have an extremely high failure rate on this particular model especially when using an SSD.

Many users here recommend to use either Crucial or OWC memory since it is guaranteed to be Mac compatible. I would recommend the Crucial MX500 series SSD as we've used them in a lot of our organizations Macs. While many contributors here also recommend the OWC SSDs, I've been noticing some issues with the more recent versions of the OWC SSDs. Definitely stay away from the Crucial BX500 series SSD as it is just a basic economy model which sometimes performs as slow as a hard drive.

FYI, many SSD manufacturers provide only a Windows app for updating the SSD's firmware. Others such as Samsung may provide an OS independent SSD firmware updater, but since it uses DOS it requires being burned onto a CD in order to be used on a Mac. Sandisk may have some OS independent firmware updaters, however, they don't advertise them on their Support site and the links can only be found searching the SanDisk forums (sometimes). Crucial and OWC both provide OS independent SSD firmware updaters which can be "burned" to a USB drive and used on a Mac.

TheLittles wrote:

• What to Get in a New Mac:

So, when you go about getting a new Mac, upgrade to 8GB at least, and get a SSD (Solid State Drive). A SSD has no moving parts and is less prone to failure. Also, go for a Quad Core professor (i9).

A 256GB SSD is probably the bare minimum a person should purchase.

Also worth mentioning: For many Apple products both the RAM and SSD are not upgradeable after purchase, so choose wisely when buying a new Apple computer.

8GB in RAM.

I agree --- choose wisely.