Macbook Air Performance Issues (with Etrecheck Reports)

A Troubleshooting Procedure that may Fix Problems with macOS El Capitan or Later

You should try each, one at a time, then test to see if the problem is fixed before going on to the next.

    Be sure to backup your files before proceeding if possible.

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. Repair permissions on the Home folder: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder.
9. 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.
10. Reinstall OS X by booting from the Recovery HD using the Command and R keys. When the Utility Menu appears select Install OS X then click on the Continue button.
11. Erase and Install OS X Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:

     1. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on the Continue button.

     2. When Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry) from the Device list.

     3. Click on the Erase button in Disk Utility's toolbar. A panel will drop down.

     4. Set the Format type to APFS (for SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

     5. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.

     6. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.

     7. Select Install OS X and click on the Continue button.

Time Machine will restore all of that with no trouble. Just make sure to test the machine first, because I really think there is a hardware failure.

There is a possibility that there is some problem at the file system level. I suppose you could also try Disk First Aid in Disk Utility, but I wouldn't expect much from that.

But you can restore just the operating system and confirm or deny that there is a problem. If there is, then that is a serious problem that, if nothing else, will be easier to debug without all the other stuff on the machine. If there is no problem, then you may be able to use Migration Assistant to restore all of the old profiles. The only potential problem I see is that if there is a software cause for this problem, restoring from Time Machine will likely restore the problem.

So, if restoring only the operating system does fix the problem, and you restore the problem with Migration Assistant, you will probably have to re-erase the system again, reinstall the OS, and then manually rebuild the system without Time Machine. You may be able to just restore user accounts, without any software. Then manually restore the software.

But before doing any of that work, see if the machine has the same problem in a factory-fresh configuration.

Could it just be my 2015 MacBooks air (2.2 ghz), 8gb of RAM just isn't enough for Catalina?

No, but don't take my word for it. See for yourself with Activity Monitor.

Could it be FileVault 2 creating issues?

No. Reports would be widespread and there are none.

After formatting + reinstalling yielded initial good results, I restored using Time Machine. As you predicted, it lead again to poor performance reports.

It seems to me that procedure would have excluded possible hardware trouble, and suggests software as the cause of poor performance.

So, I reformatted my SSD again again. This time, I created a second account as an admin. I only added a very few browser extensions and basic software.

The software may be basic, or even necessary for your workflow, but try not adding them or any browser extensions. I'd keep trying to correlate the poor performance to something you can control—user-installed software. "Bumpr" "PiPifier" "Wipr" and "Wayback Machine".

Software/hardware problems - Software is causing performance problems.

I'd tend to believe that, until proven otherwise.

Personally I doubt any of the App Store products you installed would directly result in poor overall performance, but why wonder? When in doubt take it out.

Backup all your files, erase the SSD, reinstall macOS, and restore your files. Do not install any third-party software. Use GeekBench to benchmark its performance. This is your benchmark for performance. Gradually, install one third-party software at a time and repeat the GeekBench tests. This will help you learn what added software most impacts performance. Eliminate all third-party software you really can live without so as to keep the computer at its best level of performance.

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.

I think reinstalling the operating system is really the only practical option. You can't just re-run the installer. You will have to make to to erase the hard drive. Go down to the bare metal. Then restore the operating system. But don't restore anything else. Run another EtreCheck report with just the operating system installed.

The unusual thing about your report is the file system performance test. It should normally take 30 seconds. The test times out after two minutes. Even when your test didn't time out, it got awfully close to that two minute mark.

Normally, if a hard drive is failing, you will have low read and write speeds too. If your read and write speeds are fine, which they are, and the file system test is very slow, the most likely cause is some low-level software interference. You have a number of different software files that could be causing that. The easiest way to get rid of them is to wipe and reinstall. However, you also had that poor file system test when booted in safe mode. Normally safe mode isn't useful for EtreCheck. It is there to disable software that would otherwise be running in the background. But you still shouldn't see that unusual performance pattern in safe mode.

And finally, you have that "fan control" software installed. Whenever I see that software, it is a full stop. Why did you install it? This software only services one purpose in the world - to hide a hardware problem. So, when I see it, it usually means you had a problem at some point in the past and you installed this software to either turn off the fans or turn the fans on. Either way, the operating system should control those fans. If they are out of control, that is a hardware problem that you may not be able to fix.

No. I think you have some kind of hardware problem. Those Safari extension apps couldn't explain it.

The problem is your file system performance test. What EtreCheck does here is just create a whole bunch of directories and tiny files. Then it deletes them. If you were to look at what your computer is doing, at a system level, it would look very similar. macOS just spends all day creating directories and tiny files and then deleting them. If that process is slow, then your computer is going to feel slow because practically every operation takes just a little bit longer than it should.

An EtreCheck file system performance test normally runs in about 30 seconds. This test tends to run at about the same speed on SSDs or mechanical hard drives. The test times out after two minutes. If it gets to that point, the drive should be considered non-functional. Sometimes, low-level kernel extensions, especially antivirus apps or file sync apps, can inject themselves into these operations and slow down the file system test dramatically. But you don't have any of that software.

In your EtreCheck report two days ago, you were encrypting your hard drive. That could explain your low file system test in that report. That was actually one of your best file system tests results and it was 75 seconds - twice as slow as it should be. Now, then encryption is complete and you have only a couple of small apps, and you are back to 104 seconds. I think this machine is just not working properly. It should run Catalina with no problem. FileVault should not case this kind of problem.