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Macbook Air slow - need help to analyses EtreCheck

Hi,


My Macbook Air is quiet slow. Typically the Finder need ~1s to change folder even when their is no other app running. Sometimes their is more serious lag, but mostly is just a bit slow on various task that seem pretty low CPU or IO intensive.


I can't spot a particular process that eat all my CPU, but kernel_task is always around 10-25%.


I did an Etrecheck, but didn't find something particular. I hop someone can help. Thanks.



MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 11, 2020 12:23 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 11, 2020 1:13 PM

Try the following:


  1. Shutdown the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart the computer.
  2. Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
  3. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
  4. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
  5. Reset your Startup Disk and Sound preferences, if needed, after resetting the PRAM.
  6. Test in safe mode to see if the problem persists, then restart normally.  Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac and Playing Safe - what does Safe mode do?
  7. Repair the disk by booting from the Recovery HD. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears. Choose Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.  Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
  8. Create a New User Account Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and enter your Admin password when prompted. On the left under Current User click on the Add [+] button under Login Options. Setup a new Admin user account. Upon completion log out of your current account then log into the new account. If your problems cease, then consider switching to the new account and transferring your files to it - Transferring files from one User Account to another.



Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 11, 2020 1:13 PM in response to gagarine

Try the following:


  1. Shutdown the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart the computer.
  2. Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
  3. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
  4. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
  5. Reset your Startup Disk and Sound preferences, if needed, after resetting the PRAM.
  6. Test in safe mode to see if the problem persists, then restart normally.  Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac and Playing Safe - what does Safe mode do?
  7. Repair the disk by booting from the Recovery HD. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears. Choose Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.  Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
  8. Create a New User Account Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and enter your Admin password when prompted. On the left under Current User click on the Add [+] button under Login Options. Setup a new Admin user account. Upon completion log out of your current account then log into the new account. If your problems cease, then consider switching to the new account and transferring your files to it - Transferring files from one User Account to another.



Feb 11, 2020 1:13 PM in response to Kappy

Ways to Help Make a Slow Mac Faster


  1. 17 Reasons Why Your Mac Runs Slower Than it Should
  2. Slow Mac Performance? This Article Solves It!
  3. Fix slow start-ups in OS X | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews
  4. How to fix slow shutdown and startup times. | MacTip.net
  5. 6 Easy Tips to Speed Up OS X Yosemite on Your Mac
  6. OS X El Capitan- If your Mac runs slowly
  7. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Performance
  8. Tips to Fix Issues that affect Mac Performance
  9. Avoid using any third-party cleanup software. Usually, this software does more bad than good. You don't need it. All computers become slower over time even under normal use. Experienced users erase the hard drive and do a clean install from scratch from time to time; or whenever installing a major OS upgrade. Doing so means you must maintain regular and multiple backups.
  10. If you have enabled iCloud Disk and are storing your Documents and Data in iCloud, then consider turning that off and signing out of iCloud. It can slow down the computer considerably. Please see the following from the user, fotomac: "The solution was to SIGN OUT of iCloud and my problem STOPPED! NO MORE SPINNING BEACHBALL! My computer's speed increased to what it should be and all my Apps now work!"
  11. Add more RAM or cut back on the number of concurrently running applications and utilities. Remove unnecessary anti-malware software and any software that promises to clean your Mac. Check for runaway processes: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity. Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on dealing with The Spinning Beach Ball of Death.
  12. The Ultimate Fix: Backup everything, erase the drive, reinstall OS X, and restore your data from the backup. Reinstall third-party software from original media/scratch.


Feb 11, 2020 1:15 PM in response to gagarine

The most obvious contributing factor to that Mac's poor performance is Spotlight. It's busy indexing its startup disk.


The system has been extensively modified with components I'm mostly not familiar with, such as "AgentAntidote" "Clockify", "Clipy" etc but there really are too many to enumerate. Any number of those modifications may be responsible for the fact Spotlight is working overtime. Presumably you know the reason you decided to modify your Mac in such a manner, but if you are not please write back for recommendations.

Feb 11, 2020 3:16 PM in response to John Galt

Yeah, it feel like disk IO saturated.

I have this computer from ~3 years now. I'm using it extensively for development. I should certainly do a fresh install but as I need quiet a few customization I didn't feel like taking the time to do it. But if their is nothing obvious, I guess it's my only choice.

I believe one small things is hocking in a process like spotlight, or file access and add latency (but without using CPU, otherwise I would have spot it easily).

Feb 11, 2020 5:08 PM in response to gagarine

Besides a large number of system modifications, as already noted, drive space is getting a bit low.


If you can get an external SSD and install a clean system on it, you may find that performance may be much better. Test this way before committing to a clean install on your internal drive, and then you may repurpose that external for additional storage or backup.

Macbook Air slow - need help to analyses EtreCheck

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